Bricklayer, Bricklayer

He will have an exam again. In this exam he will show that he is an expert of his trade. He also must show that he can work with other people well and has some knowledge of pedagogy, because as a master he will be allowed to educate younger bricklayers.

Education in Germany differs very much from education in other countriesonly some 20% of the population have the high school diploma, and most bricklayers do not. So bricklayers take the chance and study engineering after that.

Fante's father, Nick, was an Italian-born bricklayer descended from--at least in Fante's fictions--a long line of Italian artisan bricklayers and stonemasons. Moreover, the author spent a significant portion of his youth apprenticed to his father, experience that lent him the knowledge to write accurately about various details of the trade: from descriptions of the actual work, the physical toll it took on workers, the color and character of those workers, and the pride and satisfaction of a job well done. Because Fante looked up to his father (despite their numerous quarrels and fallings-out) he thus held the trade in very high regard, at times verging on romanticizing the quite difficult work it took. To him, bricklaying (and hod carrying) was something that ennobled poorer classes; it was a respectable manual labor that required a degree of artfulness, and was a manly occupation.

Source: Wikipedia > Bricklayer