The Power of Apprenticeship in Modern Parenting

[00:00:00] What if your future was pretty much set in stone? You had no choice, like zero. You knew what you would do for the rest of your life by the time you were six or eight at the latest. You may even already have an idea of who you'll marry, right? 2024 is a far cry from 1924, but as recent as a hundred years ago, this was actually a normal reality.

Now we've changed things a lot in the last hundred years and a lot of areas for the better, for sure. However, 2024 Have we lost something in the wash? I guess my idea is for you fathers that you may want to consider today. So let's get into it.

Here's the million dollar question. How do men like us reach our full potential growing to the men we dream of being while taking care of our responsibilities, working, being good husbands, fathers, and still take care of ourselves? Well, that's the big [00:01:00] question in this podcast, we'll help you answer those questions and more.

My name is Brent and welcome to the fallible man podcast.

Apprenticeship was the standard for education for centuries all across the world. Boys would begin apprenticing next to their fathers as soon as they were physically capable and past that tender need to be nurtured and taken care of by their mother age. We're talking boys as young as 6 years old and certainly by the age of 8.

that will one day take over their father's business and the cycle would continue. That's why we had artisan level craftsmen that you hardly see anymore, because it was a generational business. It was also very common for daughters to learn all about taking care of everything from sewing, cooking, cleaning, uh, making things like quilts.

Making life skills that were taught as well at their mother's footstep. Now it wasn't until 1918, the elementary school was [00:02:00] actually required by all the States in the United States. Further education didn't become mandatory like past elementary age until actually later in history than that, even students still went home back in 1918 after elementary school for the day and apprenticed at their parents roles.

After school and till dark, a lot of times are later. And a lot of times the boys were actually apprenticing. And so are the girls at their parents hip before school as well. Kind of crazy, right? By the way, my name is Brent and welcome to fallible man podcast. You're home for all things, man, a big shout out to fallible nation.

Those are long time listeners and a warm welcome to our first time listeners. Thanks for checking us out. Hope you enjoy the show. I know there's a lot competing for your attention, so I really am from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for checking out the show. Be sure and connect with me at the fallible man on any social media, where I'm especially active on Instagram.

Let me know what you thought of the show and, uh, share us with a friend. If you [00:03:00] really enjoy it, that really means a lot to me. So what can we have possibly lost in the wash of all this change that we've experienced in the last a hundred years? Well, we all know there's a lot that's happened in a hundred years, but specifically to this, what could we have lost?

We obviously have way more opportunities to live the life that we want to. Now we can decide our own fate or destiny for destiny for better or for worse. We're no longer trapped by our parents role in life, right? You aren't sentenced to the life that you had before. And as a parent, I understand that because as a parent, we want our kids to have a better life than we did, right?

We want them to go farther, do more, achieve more. Sometimes that's really not necessary because you live a pretty decent life. But as parents, we aspirationally want our kids to do better than we did in life. From our perspective, there are downsides. We have less generational businesses anymore. Like I said, I made the comment about artists and craftsmen.

Artists and [00:04:00] craftsmen are a disappearing legacy. Because we don't have those generational businesses or that knowledge has been passed on from generation to generation, to generation, to generation. You are capable to make it on your own now, but you can also fail easier, which isn't always a bad thing.

Don't get me wrong guys. I'm not against failure because failure is a learning opportunity, but now it's all on you. You're not necessarily going to get handed over the family business. You may not even have a family business, our family trade that you've been in. Groomed in grooms, the wrong word is has such a negative connotation.

It should that you have been mentored in. That's the right word for the breadth of your life. You got to understand these young people grew up doing this as long from the time they could start doing it. And so their skill level, [00:05:00] I don't like antiques, but I have a hugely deep respect for artisan handcrafted.

Like woodwork and ironworks and things like that. I love looking at them. I don't want them in my house. I don't want a bunch of antiques around the place for the sake of having antiques, but give me an artist and handcrafted piece of wood. I used to live in Southern Missouri where we have a lot of Amish communities and there was this incredible store.

On the edge of one of them that was handcrafted furniture. And then the Amish community there, this is still how things are done. It was generationally passed down from father to son, father to son for generations and the quality of the furniture and the beauty of the furniture there. It's just unparalleled.

So if you're ever in that part [00:06:00] of the year world, go check that out. But you know, I'm not against all the modern changes. I'm not really against that at all. But as a father, I look at what did we lose in this change? Well, we know there's a lot of benefits of apprenticeship as a method of training. You still see that in a lot of the trades and it's still a very effectual way for young people to take up a skill that will take care of their families and contribute to the world and take care of them financially.

It's a very effective way to learn how to do something because college isn't for everybody. And that's fine. However, let me suggest as a father, your job is to apprentice your child, period. Son or daughter is irrelevant. Your job is to apprentice your child into adulthood. So let me suggest a few benefits of this model.

And then we can look at how that goes to your life. How's that? [00:07:00] So here's some benefits of this concept of apprenticing your kid. Number one is to teach your kid a skill. This is nothing that is new, right? Apprenticeships are really old, but this is not something that has gone by the wayside. You can start teaching your children professional skills.

Besides the life skills that you should hopefully be already teaching them. Okay. My father in law taught his children how to budget, how to balance the checkbook, how to reconcile an account and how to track it all impeccably. My wife is so much better with finances than I am because their father taught her this life skill, right?

It's also a skill that my wife then turned into her own business. 25 years later as a bookkeeper, professional skill, you have valuable for professional skills that you can pass on to your children. No matter what you do for a living. It doesn't matter if you're a tradesman or if you're in another industry, I spend time teaching my children, graphic [00:08:00] design skills, help them start their own business and that making merchandise for kids, I will teach them more things like video editing, audio editing, web design, as they move forward.

And as they understand one concept at a time, so that by the time that they're looking at doing real work. They're going to have a skill set. That's actually very profitable for them already outside of what the schools are teaching them. You can equip your children with specific skills to let them have a better starting point.

Now, lifestyle skills should be apprenticed throughout their whole life, cooking, sewing, time management, communication skills, financial IQ. And so many more, please don't, don't drop the ball on that. We're seeing what that looks like these days. So please, please, please. If you have life skills as an adult, be teaching them to your children through their whole life.

Number two is quality time. Apprenticing your kid creates quality time. Now I've been a trainer in almost [00:09:00] every job I've ever had. I have a talent at teaching people skills. Apparently, this is just something I've found true. That's not a brag. That's just where I've been my whole life. One thing I can tell you from decades, and I do mean decades of experience.

You cannot teach people, really teach people things without quality interaction. Sure. I mean, you can fuss and scream and be a jackass. And that's how people who are bad at teaching things do. But if you really want to teach people something. It requires patience, communication, gentleness, listening, and time together, which is quality time.

Number three, kids feel invested in and valued. Because apprenticing requires quality time and training, your kids feel invested in and valued. You get to celebrate the accomplishments they make as the kids level up. And you do it naturally because you're trying to train them to be successful and teach them how to do things.

And so it's really easy to celebrate those moments as something [00:10:00] clicks, as they do something really well, as they master a skill. This positive reinforcement is affirming and validating for that young person. And this is a healthy part of raising kids. And it's a by product of good apprenticing. Number four, kids learn to communicate.

You can be involved in all of the aforementioned pro or let me rephrase that you cannot be sorry, involved in all of the aforementioned process without the young person learning to communicate effectively with people. The child will learn to communicate at an adult level. Because they're communicating with an adult through this whole process.

And that includes learning to ask quality questions, which in itself is a high value skill. By trial and error along the way through the process, the child will learn to ask questions to solicit the necessary information for them to perceive what they're doing, but also learn to talk at an adult level much faster than.

If they're only interacting with kids, number five, hands on learning. [00:11:00] And my last job, I have my training of new employees down to a precise, highly effective process at a very clear, well written process doc that they had to read. Then they followed along. In the process doc step by step as I did the process in front of them.

Then they went step by step through the process doc with their hands on doing the task as I talked them through and set with them one step at a time, very slowly. Then they did it once following the process doc step by step when the only answering questions. As they went through it. Now I repeated that last step as many times as it took, but the speed at which they picked up the new skill was incredible and it all rested on me getting their hands on as fast as possible.

The faster I could put their hands on it and let them do it, the faster they learn the skill. [00:12:00] Hands on learning is still the fastest and most effective way to build a skill and confidence in a skill and our confidence as a person. As our friend, January Donovan likes to say, competence builds confidence.

Well, competence will always be achieved much more quickly and efficiently with our hands on approach. You teach a kid to cook, get them in the kitchen. You want to teach the kid computer skills, get them on the computer. You want to teach them to have mechanical skills, get a wrench in their hand and get them in the car with you or whatever else you're working on.

The faster you can put their hands on it, the faster they'll learn. And so hands on learning is the best way to go. Number six is they learn professionalism. Now, apprenticing is something you're doing as a father regardless of whether you want to or not. That's a fact. The child will watch what you do, not what you will say.

So, apprenticing your child in business work skills, you have the opportunity to help them become [00:13:00] professional in a world sorely lacking professionals. How you conduct yourself every day from the time you become a father shapes the child's life. So why not teach them to be great in a professional environment as well, by the way you interact with them and letting them see you interact with your book job or your business or a skillset.

Now, those are the benefits of apprenticing a kid. It went on for generations and generations and generations. How do you apply this? In life today, right? Cause we send kids to school. Well, you know what? Your kid's not in school all the time. Maybe your kid isn't going to sit at your feet and learn your career path.

That's fine. You can still apprentice them in skills that you have. So teach them your profession, teach them all these things we're talking about. Teach them how to cook, apprentice them in these different skills. It'll improve your relationship with your kid as a father. It will. [00:14:00] Also improve that child's chance moving forward in the future.

How you apply this is entirely up to you today. I'm just trying to share with you this concept because it will make a big difference in your kid's life. Now, as we wrap up today's discussion, let's take a moment and consider the importance of passing down skills and knowledge to our children. Skill sets are disappearing every day.

Apprenticeship has played a vital role throughout history, helping people learn trades and life skills from the parents or their mentors. So here's a challenge for you. Think about the skills and knowledge you have. How can you teach these things to your children in an apprenticeship manner? It could be a job related skill like graphic design or bookkeeping, like my wife and I benefit from, or even basic life skills, cooking, managing your finances, fixing things around the house.

How many dads like to fix things around the house or do it anyway? Whether you like it or not, by taking the time to teach our children, we can help them [00:15:00] become much more capable and confident individuals early on confident kids, getting less trouble, confident kids, get bullied. Less confident kids have less struggles in school.

It's not just about school grades by preparing them for life's challenges. And by helping them build skills, we will make them more confident. So let's bring back the tradition of apprenticeship into our modern world. And let's invest in our children's future by sharing our knowledge and skills with them.

If you found today's discussion helpful, please share it with other parents. That's the greatest thing you can do. As far as your reaction to the show together, we can create a community of empowered parents, raising strong, confident kids. Thanks for tuning in the show until next time. Keep being an awesome dad, be better tomorrow because what you today, and I'll see you on the next one.

This has been the fellow man podcast. You're home to everything, man, husband, and father. Be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss a show [00:16:00] head over to www. thefallibleman. com for more content and get your own fallible man gear.