Death of the School Shop

[Steveo48]

This isn't intended to be a rant, more of an FYI to those who don't know.

The Industrial Arts or "shop" classes that many of us took in school and might have been our first or only opportunity to work with real woodworking machines and tools has nearly become extinct in the U.S.  It's been replaced in MOST schools (not all of them) with Technology Education, aka passive learning with a computer. OK, thats my definition anyway .

If you care about the old school shop in your community let the school administration know that you think it's a valuable part of the schools curriculum.  I'm VERY lucky that I teach in the woodshop I first saw as an 8 YO in 1968 and have the job I've wanted since then ( I've been letting the kids use my TS 55 to breakdown plywood too ;D).  Our school system has always seen the value of it and kept our programs running, although we have been pruned back some.  The community I live in updated our woodshop with a big computer controled router table when they built the new HS, but eliminated graphic arts, the auto shop and everything else.

When I worked in construction and manufacturing, project managers and supervisors were always shocked when they heard of the closing of these programs.  Although never intended to be vocational in nature, they provided a little career education and a chance to try-out and nuture some basic skills.  Today's Technology Education gives a kid a chance  to sharpen his computer mouse skills.

Money is always a culprit but "W's" No Child Left Behind" has stripped a lot of great learning opportunities for kids from schools.  Thats a different rant and not an appropriate topic for the SC blog.

Steve

 

[dirtydeeds]

its happening in england as well, the causes seem similar

IF a school can afford it.  the woodwork class is now called design and technology, tools are limited to battery drills, hammers and vibrating fretsaws. if not design and technology is done with a mouse

you cant have woodworking tools "due to health and safety". it isnt health and safety, its a defensive legal position taken by most schools

wood is difficult in this environment because lawyers are sharper than the splinters

 

[Corwin]

The school shop is alive and well (hmmm) here where I live in western Washington (that other WA).  Had a night class there the fall of '06 and really thought some Festools were in order.  The shop teacher held a special safety overview on days when a student had earlier been injured -- these were too frequent IMO due not to poor quality tools, but rather the combination of user error AND poor setup and adjustment of these tools.  The shop teacher recently retired...  don't know what the future will bring here.

 

[Jerry Work]

Hi Steve,

You raise a most important point.  Learning how things work and how to make and repair stuff are vital life skills too seldom now a part of an educational system seemingly focused on prep for getting into some kind of a college.  There are two things that I think all of us can do to help turn this situation around.  I have found both to be very effective. 

The first is to seek out a local high school or middle school that still has a wood shop course.  Meet the teacher(s) and offer to donate your scrap wood to the program.  They will be especially appreciative of scrap hardwood.  In my rural area many of the kids had never even seen, much less worked with, semi-exotic woods like Brazilian cherry, bloodwood and silky oak, nor had they much experience with even common domestic hard woods like oak, madrone, walnut, big leaf maple and such.  Shortly after I started a donation program the kids started making pens, intarsia plaques, bowls, plates, toys for the younger kids, fancy boxes and other things one would not normally expect 7, 8 and 9th graders to be able to do.  I encouraged other wood workers in our area to do the same and to donate unused but serviceable tool to the program as well. 

One person came forward and donated a nearly new Powermatic 66 cabinet saw and a drill press.  They knew they could sell them easily, but felt the impact would be much greater and for a longer period if they donated the machines to the school program instead.  They are so right.  Donations can result in tax deductions as well in many cases, so there may be a secondary benefit to the donor, but that is not the point.  The point is to help these programs not only survive, but thrive.

The second thing that I have found beneficial is working with the local community college administration to encourage them to expand their offerings in education surrounding trades, crafts, professions and business development in addition to their more traditional college credit offerings.  Many community colleges are living with out-moted state funding models which encourage the school to expand the academic offerings at the expense of training in these other critical, life-long living wage skills.

One approach I have found works is to offer to serve on a President's advisory board.  I like to offer the point of view that while there are many ways to describe the mission and purpose for community colleges, the core purpose is to help people change their lives, if they want to.  No two people are necessarily in the same place, nor do they feel they need the same things to help themselves change their lives at any given point in time.  Some may feel they need a traditional degree from a four year college or university.  Others may feel they need specialized training to allow them to become employable in a specific trade, craft or profession.  Still others may feel they want to change their lives through entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity and therefore seek help in learning how to do so.  Still others only need a few credit hours to help them change their lives.  The point is, there is no one-size-fits-all and a community college needs to provide several different venues to allow nearly anyone to change his or her own life, if he or she wants to.  Many of these institutions also have a college foundation to help provide the means to overcome many of the financial barriers.  The issue, then, becomes one of programmatic direction, and that is within the administration's responsibility to effect without seeking approval from elsewhere.

I like to point out that there needs to be three different foci for the college programs.  One should be on providing the academic credits for those wishing to change their lives via a two year degree or cost effective transfer credits into a four year university.  Another needs to be on specialized trade, craft and professional training.  The third needs to be on teaching entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity for those wishing to start or expand their own businesses.  While it may take time to overcome the institutional inertia now directed primarily at the first of these three, it is possible for your direct input to make a difference. 

By linking support for middle and high school life skills programs like wood shop with support for the community colleges providing continuation of such training experiences, perhaps we can once again celebrate those who create, make and repair the things we need to lead full and rich lives.

Time now for me to get off my soap box, but I do feel strongly about this stuff.

Jerry

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Jerry,

Thanks for your excellent commentary and specific recommendations for those who wish to help preserve and expand shop programs.  Even if the (high) school has one or more shops, the administration needs to be convinced to allow those students who plan to go to college to also get shop training and time.  I attended high school in rural SW Pennsylvania.  While I was a student, a new high school was built which had multiple shop areas including woodworking, metal working an auto body shop, and another for overhaul of farm equipment.  I was never allowed to see that end of the complex because I had chosen the college prep curriculum.  I had study halls that I did not need but they wouldn't let me go to any "vocational" courses.  How I would have loved to learn about woodworking, welding, sheet metal and metal machining!  My parents even had to fight with the administration so I could take a typing course, because back then, such courses were viewed as only being appropriate for people (young women) who were enrolled in the "commercial" program, i.e training to work as secretaries.  Remember this was back before computers were anything other than large mainframe units by built and supported by IBM and a few other companies.

I also ran into some of the same problem when I was in engineering school.  Because I was a chemical engineering major, the machine shop area of the department of mechanical engineering was off limits to me.  And my class was among the last to obtain any training in making an using engineering drawings.

It seems to me that much of USA gives sports programs preference over all else, and this has increased over the past few decades.  High schools see them as a way (the way?) to attract student, parent and public interest, and thus make donations and vote for taxes for school funding, and a way to help prepare students who have some athletic ability for college. The university community is reinforces interest in sports, viewing their sports programs as sources of income and a prep school for professional athletes.  Many of the publicly funded universities in Ohio are spending big sums of money in efforts to build their sports programs, with the goal of becoming nationally ranked.

Dave R.

 

[Tinker]

When I was in Jr High and all thru HS, i took shop classes.  i learned how to work with wood and metals.  I was never a particularly good student in other areas, much to the chagrin of several of my teachers.  But my shop teacher gave me so much education and trusted me to allow me to eventually oversee a rather large project. 

In my senior year, we have just had a new building constructed for the HS.  The home economics area did not have cabinets, as the shop teacher had argued long and hard that his shop students could build all of the cabinets.  i was subsequently put in charge and three of us did most of the work.  i got to go over the project with the architects and the contractors.  i actually worked out a deal with all of my other teachers that i could skip all of their classes so long as i could keep up with homework and pass all of the tests.  For a guy who had barely managed to keep himself uptodate during his entire school experience going clear back to grade school, that was quite an exhibition of trust on the part of all of my teachers.  I lived up to my part of the bargain and they lived up to theirs along with a great deal of encouragement from all concerned.

Fast forward to the 80's when my own children were in school.  My son had been like me (something about apples falling from trees).  When he was in HS, he was fortunate enough to be "put into" a mechanics class where he got to work on cars and various mechanical equipment.  we live in a community where it is almost sacriledge for a kid not to want to go to college.  My son had (was) growing up on top of scaffolding, riding snow plows and running backhoes and dozers while working for his father.  I never told him he had to run any of the equipment, or climb around on chimneys, but there was no way short of decapitation i was going to keep him (I have many stories about those days) He was not interrested in going to college and he, my wife and I fought with many a councilor about his attending auto shop class instead of extra college courses.  The upshot of it was, when he was 19, he bought his own equipment and started his own biz.  when he was 20, he bought his own house, all without my signature (I always paid him well for work well done.  He got a little help from me, but he handled his own loans and mortgage).  he now has his own excavating and septic installation, has dabbled in home construction and hires a larger crew than his father ever thought of having.

By the time all of his friends were just getting their feet wet, he was alraedy off and running>>> nearly debt free except for the fact he was adding new debt towards better fleet of equipment. (I always taught both of my kids that "The two most important issues in life are knowledge and credit, and I'm not sure that is the correct order.")

We have both run into the same lament.  We cannot find local young people with any kind of knowledge or experience in any of the trades.  The kids just have not learned how to work with their hands. They want top dollar for something somewhat less than top quality. The ones who did not succeed in college are drifting around without a clue of direction.

Jerry, your report is so very true to what should be, but in so many towns, including my own, is not being done. 

Tinker 

 

[dheisner]

I was the first freshman class in a new high school in 1980.  We were soooo fortunate.  We had a drafting room, an electronics shop, an arc welding shop, a gas welding shop, a wood shop, an ag shop, an auto shop, and a paint room.  We HAD NO IDEA how good it was.  It wasn't even an official voc-ed school.  It was just the biggest school in the county and so when they tore down the old one and built a new one, we got quite a place to go to school. 

I moved away in 1988 and went back in '03 for my 20 year class reunion.  One of my classmates had taken over as the ag teacher.  He proceeded to tell me that they had converted almost all of the shops in to classrooms and that there wasn't much offered from a voc-ed standpoint.  In the process of "improving" things, they have eliminated the groundwork that a lot of people needed to get jobs.  Many of my friends from welding class went to work for the a local trailer manufacturer.  Some of them went on to be contractors.  Now what are the new grads going to do..... probably work at Wal-Mart or move away to where there are real jobs.

  My wife loves it because I can fix just about anything (even though I am a computer geek).  I learned some from my dad, but most of it I learned in shop class (4 years of agriculture, 3 years of metalworking, 3 years of woodworking, 3 years of electronics, and 3 years of drafting).

To top it all off, their test scores are in the toilet now.  Kids today also don't seem to have any work ethic.  Too much time spent sitting on their duffs playing video games.  Not in MY house!  OK, I'll stop before this turns into a sermon.... oooopppppssss, too late.

My two cents.

Danny

 

[Tinker]

On weekends, i often had to spend time going to customers to look at plans/jobs/reviews of completed work/etc.  Both of my kids enjoyed going along "for the ride."  We would arrive at a job, say around 9am on a Saturday or Sunday, by which time the father would be already walking around the house with a gin fizz in his hand, the wife cleaning up the breakfast dishes (usually two coffee cups) and the children blissfully watching TV in the other room.  My kids would help me to roll out plans on the kitchen table and immediately start asking intelligent questions about the drawings and project.  how old were my kids?  Things like like the reading of plans started when my daughter was maybe 5 and son 1-1/2 years younger.  I would answer all of their questions in as much detail as possible until they were finished asking questions.  Usually, the customers would be standing there with their jaws hanging and would suggest to my kids that they might enjoy watching TV.  Even tho they had no TV (and there is another pile of stories to be told) at home, they would refuse the invitation and stay right there with the customer and me, soaking in all the info they could gather.

Today, my son has his own excavating biz (noted above). Most of the groundwork for that was gained thru his observing and working with me from the time he could walk on to the day he bought his own equipment.  My daughter is a realtor with the largest broker in her area.  She had gained experience and reputation with a smaller company to gain enough recognition that the owner of her present company came to her to recruit.  She has also been recruited by other builders to work as designer and in sales.  She never went after any of those jobs.  they cae to her.  Her experience started as she looked over house plans spread out over my customers ketchen tables.  (Am i proud and a braggart?  you bet.  And what makes me most proud is that both kids have far more knowledge about their areas of expertise than I have forgotten. They now teach me.)

Altho some people often implied it was not quite sensible to be taking my children to work with me, they got valuable life experiences that they could not get while in HS within a community geared to "college education".  They learned good work habits and ethics that could not be taught in public schools.

A few years ago, my SIL tried to start a program for HS kids who were not necessarilly college material.  She worked with the school system to set up situations with local contractors (me included) where boys and girls could go to work for a few days to learn about various jobs in the real world.  I actually took on two of the boys.  The problem was, because they had not really been exposed to manual labor type trades before, they were more interrested in the fact they could skip school for a day or two than they were about learning anything about a trade.  The school system was not really interrested in allowing any of their charges to get sidetracked from potential college attendence.  The program fizzled out within a month.

Tinker

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks for another great story - and lesson, Tinker.  Whether or not you intended it, I think the lesson(s) are that attitude and enthusiasm and respect count.  You demonstrated all three to your children and your customers, and they reciprocated, to the benefit of all.  Many of today's youth and adults don't.  In fact the HR department of my employer (who sold >$6 billion of aerospace components in 2007) recently rolled out a new training program for its ~24,000 employees, the essence of which was that the rest of us need to back off our expectations for the youngest generation now in the workforce, and that we need to accomodate their (relaxed) expectations and forget the work ethic inculcated into all previous generations in the USA workforce.

Dave R. 

 

[Corwin]

Hey Dave, looking for a new employer?  ???

 

[Tinker]

To take teaching of young kids a step further:
As I have mentioned, my son grew up learning that work could be fun and learned to respect it as such.  The first time i allowed him to run a backhoe without me on it with him, he was 5 yrs old.  that situation turned into another funny story i will probably bore you all with at another time. (lest anybody think i was irresponsible in allowing my son to run equipment at such an early age, there were VERY STRICT safety rules that he was ABSOLUTELY WITH NO SECOND CHANCES OR RECOURSE  that he had to follow.  there were "lines drawn in the sand" that if those lines were crossed, he was taken off the machine IMMEDIATELY and not allowed on again for the rest of the day >>> sometimes longer.  And yes, there were many tears along the way.  My son is not quite so strickt with his own son, altho I have suggested it a few times :-\)

Fast forward:  My grandson has learned how to run a hydraulic excavator, the size that needs wide load signs to move it down any roadway.  He is now 9 yrs old and has been screening topsoil with the huge machine for about two years now.

he has been wresting in a school league for about three years and is always (like his father and grandfather before) the smallest kid on his team.  His coach (head coach for his team) had recently gotten a job working for the city where he lives and wanted my son to teach him how to run a backhoe so he could get a better job opportunity.  David, my son, told him he did not have time to work with him, but if he would come to his (commercial) yard on (that) Saturday, Andrew could teach him.  It ended up with coach being coached by his 8 year old wrestling student.

PS: He got the job advancement and, of course (another lesson) FOR Andrew who still has to work JUST AS HARD, or harder, to keep his place on the wrestling team.
Tinker

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Hey Dave, looking for a new employer?   ???

Nope.  I expect to be my own next employer.

Dave R.

 

[sl_1800]

I graduated from HS in 82, took shop class every year from 7th grade through senior year.  Our little school had welding and woodworking both.  I did learn some basics in shop class but to be honest I learned most from my Dad.  He is a hobby wood worker and a great welder and a great dreamer of things for me to do when I was a kid.  I agree that shop class has it's place in school so the kids do have a chance to work with their hands most important for those don't have Dad's like mine.

 

[Eli]

I think another common thread here is that Dad has to be right on top of them for the close instruction. My oldest started using pruning shears last year when he was two. We had a problem once when he threw them in the air and everyone went running. I took them away for a month. He can again be trusted now. I agree with Tinker there needs to be an absolute boundary for everything. Kids seem to test right up to and over it, so that they know where it is. If you don't enforce, you don't get ultimate compliance. His brother the one year old only knows how to say one thing and that's 'thank you'.

 

[Tinker]

There are those things you can preach and preach to your kids.  they sometimes need to learn the hardway.  I still tried to keep up with trying to foresee any problems before they ocurred.

When they were small, i had a small garden tractor with a small loader bucket on the fronyt.  Both kids loved to ride on it with me.  for my daughter, probably about 4 at time of this happening, it was more of a social event to ride with her daddy.  She would sit on my lap and as soon as we were moving, she would be waving to all and shouting "Hi!' over and over.  she would be so excited.

For my son, a year and a half younger, it was a completely different situation.  As soon as he was on my lap, it was pure, unadulterated concentration.  He would keep his hands on my hands (he was not allowed to touch the steering wheel in case of kickback (those of you who grew up with power steering on everything probably do not know what i am talking about, but "kick back" could break thumbs, wrists, arms, even dislocate shoulders>>> not fun) to figure out what i was doing.  He knew how to shift (again, his hands on mine) and just about every other item of operation almost by the time he learned to talk.  That tractor was his domain.  (one day at about this time, both kids tried to teach the BOSS of the house how to drive tractor without success.  Another funny tale for another time) 

My daughter had been taking her turn riding with me when there was a phone call.  i had to run into the house to answere and as i ran into house, i heard a very loud complaining from my son, who felt his sister should get off of the tractor (it was shut off and keys in my pocket so i knew there could be no moving as the front bucket was jammed into the ground so machine could not move).  i yelled out for him to leave her alone as his turn would come when i returned.

Such logic has no bearing to reallity to a 3 year old boy.  the yelling kept up, but i ignored.  All of a sudden, i heard a loud screeming, a few decibles beyond what was anywhere within the bounds of reason.  i quickly got off the phone to run out side.  My son was running towards the house with his hands out in front of his face.  I sort of guessed what had happened.

As his anger grew, he suddenly had grabbed onto somethig to shake and show his disapproval to his sister.  Of course the item he had decided afforded the greatest leveredge just happened to be the nearly redhot exhaust pipe. 

To this day, he does not recall that incident, but at the same time, he has never even touched a hot exhaust pipe or even a hot muffler.  for some reason, the consequences of such an act are indellibly imprinted forever.

Tinker

 

[Jerry Work]

Hi all,

I want to share with you a very poignant follow on to the post I made a week or so.  At that time I shared the very generous donation of quality stationary power tools to the Southern Oregon Guild (which I formed several years ago) to be placed into the local middle school woodworking program to replace very old and unsafe tools the kids had been forced to use in the past.  That donor recently upped his anti to now nearly $5000 in mostly Powermatic equipment. 

A couple of days later one of our forum members, Corwin, who is from another state emailed to say he was moved and wanted to help support this program as well.  He said he wanted to see the kids also have access to the finest, safest hand power tools in the world - Festools - so they could start out working with the very best instead of trying to make do with the old hand me downs they had been forced to use in the past.  He most generously offered to donate money to the Guild so we could buy Festool products for them.

I did some work and through another benefactor organization found dollar for dollar matching funds to greatly lever our purchasing power to support these very deserving kids.  Others learned of Corwin's generosity and to date the Guild has received $1900 for this project.  With the match that means we can purchase $3800 in Festool products for use by the program.  I am hoping to find the other $600 (the match is for a max of $5000 at retail so we need $2500 in donations) for the tool purchases plus a grand or so to purchase supplies and accessories to make this the first school program in the country (as far as I know) to have a complete Festool system for making fine furniture. 

I am sharing this with you as a way of saying a big THANK YOU to Corwin and the other donors and to show that it is possible to help these dwindling programs not only survive, but hopefully thrive, through individual action.  This post is not an attempt to solicit funds, but if any of you would like to join in this effort the donations to the Souther Oregon Guild for this purpose are fully tax deductible.  I can't wait to take the photos of the first Festool equipped middle school wood working program in the country. 

I posted some pictures of a small chest I call an "avacado" front chest in the member projects section earlier today.  It features interlocking sliding dovetail joinery made possible by Festool guided rail routing and the Festool Domino machine.  I plan to teach these 6th, 7th and 8th graders to make chests like this as soon as they (and their teachers) learn how to safely use the Festool products.  I'll bet there are very few high school programs in the nation that could produce such a piece, yet alone middle schoolers.  Once they do, they can build nearly anything they need for the rest of their lives.  How is that for leverage!

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.  Our forum made it all possible and I am deeply touched by just how many really good people there are in our group.  My thanks to you all.

Jerry

 

[Corwin]

...  Our forum made it all possible and I am deeply touched by just how many really good people there are in our group.  My thanks to you all.

Jerry

This is so true.  I think we all owe Matthew a great big THANKS for this board, for we have all benefited greatly from its wealth of information.  And today a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY is also in order!  

Corwin

 

[Steveo48]

Jerry, where can I send a check?

Steve

 

[Corwin]

Many threads here tend to take their own twist and turns, and I find it appropriate that this Death of the School Shop topic has now turned to the Birth of the Festool portion of the Lorna Byrne Middle School Woodworking Program.  While we as an Internet community may not be able to bring about change at all of our schools, we certainly can attempt to lead by example in supporting this school program.

My part in this effort is rather minimal, having simply offered a donation and an idea.  The idea was that of equipping a portion of the shop with Festools.  While I was happy to have my donation spent towards whatever tools and supplies the school deemed necessary, I was very pleased to receive Jerry's reply that the school chose to pursue the Festool direction.

My rational for wanting to see Festools in our schools came from my experience at my local high school woodworking shop.  I had taken a night class there about six months after starting my home workshop based around Festools.  Without elaborating on the details, I'll just say I came away from that experience feeling that our kids would have a little safer working environment with a few Festool products.

I look forward to seeing how this program takes shape.  With the support of Jerry's Southern Oregon Guild, I would think this program has every chance to succeed.  So, I invite anyone with the desire and the means to do so to join us in this effort.

Thank you,
Corwin

 

[Jerry Work]

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for your offer to help.  Checks can be made out to the Southern Oregon Guild.  The Guild is an Oregon not-for-profit corporation which was granted 501(c)3 status by the IRS so all donations are fully tax deductible to the donor.  You will receive a donation receipt from the Guild so be sure to include your return mailing address.  Donations received for this purpose are placed into a special fund that can only be used to purchase Festool equipment, accessories and supplies to support the school woodworking program.

Southern Oregon Guild
PO Box 3195
Kerby, OR 97531

Jerry

Jerry, where can I send a check?

Steve