http://www.oddee.com/item_97686.aspx
Of all the examples on this list I love the last one about the teacher who stapled an application form to work at McDonalds on all tests that her student's failed. Talk about motivation and inspiring them to shoot for the stars. That is some burned out bitterness right there. It's also hysterically funny.
Whenever I would talk about the value of education to my students I would tell them how much more opportunity they had with a high school diploma than without one. It was something no one could ever take away from them. It was an important life accomplishment and everyone they came across (like employers) would recognize that.
I have worked on native reserves where very few students actually completed their grade 12. I motivated those student by telling them that education was a great EQUALIZER. People would always assume that they knew less than they did because of who they were and where they were from. Those attitudes weren't right but they were undeniably true. The only way to fight that kind of racial stereotyping was the prove them wrong through hard work.
I had students who were slackers of course. To get them to do a little work I would joke that if they didn't have enough schooling they would only be able to get a job at the toothpaste factory screwing the tops on the toothpaste tubes. I took that example from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. It was the menial job that Charlie's dad did. To this day it is the worst job I had ever heard about so it became my go-to example.
My other example of a bad career path was the 'Bubbles Carwash'. That business was one I passed everyday on my way to University and while walking home. On Mondays there would be a whole new crop of fresh-faced dropouts ready to enter the glamorous and lucrative field of car detailing. As the week progressed there were less and less workers. Seeing how much work they had to do for so little pay was a rude slap in the face to these kids who thought this was the easy path as compared to graduating from high school. Very few lasted the whole week and sure enough, come Monday, the whole cycle would repeat itself.
I always wondered if some of those 'Bubbles' employees went back to school to complete their education or got stuck in these low skilled and low paying jobs for life. I always thought that a week at some kind of back breaking job was the perfect cure for lazy teens who didn't feel like an education was important. Shovelling manure for hours would give a person ample time to re-evaluation their life path.
