Death of the School Shop

[Jerry Work]

Hi all,

I want to also thank forum member Tom Crawford from the nearby town of Selma, OR, who brought in a brand new CT Midi for use in the school woodworking program.  Others have contributed other tools and money so today I will be placing an order for nearly $4500 (retail) in Festools to make this one of the first fully equipped Festool school woodworking programs in the country.  Added to their new Powermatic stationary power tools, these kids will start off using the very best instead of the hand-me-downs that were there before.  I can't wait to see what their creative minds will come up with now that they are no longer tool limited!

Jerry

 

[TomCrawford]

Here is a link to a local newspaper article regarding Jerry's activities at the Lorna Byrne Middle School.http://www.illinois-valley-news.com/archive/2008/03/05/lbms_woodworkers.html

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Hi all,

I want to also thank forum member Tom Crawford from the nearby town of Selma, OR, who brought in a brand new CT Midi for use in the school woodworking program.  Others have contributed other tools and money so today I will be placing an order for nearly $4500 (retail) in Festools to make this one of the first fully equipped Festool school woodworking programs in the country.  Added to their new Powermatic stationary power tools, these kids will start off using the very best instead of the hand-me-downs that were there before.  I can't wait to see what their creative minds will come up with now that they are no longer tool limited!

Jerry

I want to be a kid again, and be able to learn in that shop!!  Wow!  What a great idea that school woodworking program is.

Dave R.

 

[graphex]

That was a great article on a great project. Great work Jerry and Festool and all the rest!

I've been thinking about my wood and metal shop classes I had in middle school, and they were really great experiences. All of the students worked hard in those classes, regardless of their backgrounds, because the teachers really cared about them, and built excellent environments like Lorna Byrne's for the students to work in. If I had a quarter of the tools available to me now that I had access to in those shops...

I'm sure I'll be disappointed by what my kids have access to when they're in school. Shop classes, art, music... so much is actively being forgotten in our school system. It is good to see people actively building one program permanently.