My family has teaching in the blood. I always make that statement as a joke, but there is something measure of truth to it. Both my mother and my father were teachers, both of my sisters, and both of their husbands, are also teachers. I am married to a teacher, and I of course am a professional of legal ethics. We are a family of academics, and that is something I take no small measure or pride in. I tried not to be aghast when my one and only child, my son Michael, came to me with blue collar aspirations. Michael was not like us, he liked working with his hands, and wanted to go to trade school for HVAC systems repair. I was confounded, because he had an offer for a prestigious 4 year university, but instead he wanted a 6 month night school course in heating and cooling systems. He told me that he wanted to be his own man, and that by becoming a certified HVAC technician he could find any number of very good paying jobs. He would be able to support himself with an HVAC job, get his own place, and maybe start his own family. Although I still didn’t understand why he picked the HVAC industry, I was very proud of him for knowing what he wanted out of life. Isn’t that what we all truly want for our kids, maybe not air conditioning in particular, but the point remains. If a career path in HVAC repair would make him happy, he had my blessing.