It sadens me to know now that the local high school I went to here in Erie, PA is closing the doors to its woodshop program. It feels as if a lot of towns are leaving their first love of woodworking for other (less important) fields. 🙂 I just hope that the kids and grandkids of the once students will have the opportunity I had in learning the best trade known to man…I mean…Christ picked it, it must be good.
Maybe I will start a little woodworking academy in the area to make up for these schools closing its doors…anyone want to go in on it with me?
PH
Edited 11/21/2008 2:18 pm ET by crosschecking4500
Replies
That is because we know need to have a college degree to flip burgers at McD's Not sure why that came about but it is the way of it now, so the schools are cutting out anything that does not fit in with that idea. My school dropped the wood working years ago, along with drafting and anything else that did not lead to getting into college. And they did that almost 20 years ago.
Doug M
Making things isn't necessary for a generation destined to become WalMart shoppers, where they will be expected to consume foreign-made goods.
Sucks though. I know personally a lot of people who really want good crafted furniture, as I am sure many of you know..., which can't be bought anywhere but US. Definitely not Walmart for sure.
"Sucks though. I know personally a lot of people who really want good crafted furniture, as I am sure many of you know..., which can't be bought anywhere but US. Definitely not Walmart for sure. "I have to respectfully disagree there. There is much fine work and woodworking coming from all regions of the world. Japan and Sweden come to mind immediately. And if I think about it a little more their is excellent work coming from our neighbors to the north and south as well.
Could fear of legal action if a kid gets hurt be contributing to this?
My plumber and electrician friends do as well or maybe better than the rest of my collage educated group. They have a lot less stress! Most importantly they enjoy their work.Were all between 54 and 60 years old. Ron
sixteen years ago i got a call from a friend asking did i want to teach high school woodshop. got a credential, and here i am. im in class as i write this. every piece of equipment, each tool and every desk in my room is in need of repair, replacement or sharpening. i probably spend about 300 dollars each year of my own money to keep things going. this week i got an email from some district muckey-muck informing me that, until further notice, there is a freeze on all ima (instructional material allotment) spending. currently, my class is the only hands-on instruction offered at this school. NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, hasn't helped any either. fortunately woodshop is VERY popular. of course keeping an eye on 30 plus kids, all using sharp things at the same time, is a bit of a challenge also. at one time this school offered plastics, metal, electronics, computer repair and auto repair classes. i don't mean to open a can of mean little, angry worms but when "they" want a war, there's always plenty of everything.
sad huh?
eef
It is sad, especially for guys like us who are so passionate about the craft. I hope you get funding, but the way things are going now, I think you'd agree, it doesn't look good.
funny thing happened today. a nice lady from the district office, in charge of certain federal funds, came by today to inform me that there's monies available for field trips. so it looks like ill get take my first field trip in 13 years. there's an exhibit of greene brothers furniture at the huntington library in pasadena- sounds pretty good!
eef
The Jr. High my kids went has a wood shop program, although it is called something else. Every spring they build sheds that look like much like the ones the big box stores sell. The last time I looked the kids did a better job building them. They sell the sheds for a profit at the end or the year and use the money to pay for the shop program. They never have trouble selling them and if you preorder one you can even specify the size you want. It has been a while since my son was in Jr. High but at that time most of them pre sold. I still see a couple of them sitting out in the parking lot toward the end of the school year so I assume they are still building them.
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May be an idea on how to fund you program and still teach them something useful.
Edited 11/21/2008 5:26 pm ET by Y1RET
hey Y,
the student store at my school takes 50% off the top. this is somewhat discouraging. up until two years ago, i charged each kid 5 bucks for 20 weeks of instruction, so-to-speak. a couple lawyers at the local jr. high got ahold of that and rendered shop fee taking illegal. fun huh?
eef
instead of just complaining, why don't you have fundraisers for materials like the scouts do? it might also help teach a little bit of entreprenurial skills that the kids won't be getting in any of the other classes either.
I think without junior high and high school wood shop I wouldn't be earning a living at it today.
Industrial arts classes were very popular and necessary at that time in the area where I grew up. That was 25 years ago, do we need skilled crafts/trades people less today?
I think we are going to get to a point where it will be increasingly difficult to find skilled people who can perform these jobs properly.
Sad.
-Paul
This is a sad subject indeed. I've been teaching a traditional program for a long time (Metals, Drafting, Photography) and the pressures to eliminate all of it seem to be increasing. There is a lot to lose. Here's a link to tour my metals shop - at least there is one left.
http://www.bmcsd.org/vtour/metalshop.mov
Very sad indeed I know there are several reasons for the closures of programs through out the country. When I was in shop classes in high school there was some stigma if you took shop classes beyond the 8th grade, like you were a misfit.
I think what most administrators fail to see or understand is how shop classes are a great vehicle for intelligence building in students. And in the rush to bolster test scores and focus on college preparatory curriculums they are stripping their programs of a potentially vital pedagogy that would actually serve their students well in college.
I run the shop and teach shop techniques at the college level in an architecture program at the university level and without a doubt the students that produce work at the higher end of the spectrum come equipped with with a set of skills that allow them to function independently in the shop. Those that come with little to no skill in the shop spend the rest of their college careers trying to garner skills that will allow them to compete with the more skilled students.
CC4500,
I though of starting a school here (Vermont) too. I know there's a market here for middle schoolers. Not sure about high school. I found insurance to be a bid issue. You may too.
The legislative trend in the past few years (i.e., No Child Left Behind) has placed an emphasis on subjects that have nothing to do with practical skills. Few vocational schools currently teach woodworking.
Way back when I was in junior high and high school, "shop classes" were a regular part of the curriculum. My high school wood shop was pretty well equipped! But, as we have shifted to more and more academic achievement testing and fewer dollars are received at the local school level to fund anything not specifically mandated, the shop classes have dwindled and are in danger of becoming extinct.
It is sad that my grandchildren do not have the opportunity in school to go through stacks of boards, run them through an industrial size planer and then go through all of the steps to make something that they can be proud of. If our young people are to know the joys of woodworking, it is up to us.
I started a discussion on this back in April. Sounds like another one bites the dust.... You might be interested in reading the input from several others around the country as well.
http://forums.taunton.com/fw-knots/messages?msg=41260.1
AZMO a firm believer in hands on education.
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I'm showing my age here, but cancelling industrial arts program is not new. I went to a local Cathlic high school in Central Mo and they had cancelled all industrial arts classes except Mechanical Drawing by the time I started in 1964. They used the term "College Preparatory" to describe the direction they were taking the school. A large portion of the kids I went to school with did not go on to college (Vietnam, motherhood etc) and I'm sure that 2 years of Latin prepared me perfectly for college... in the 11th century. We need more more hands on industrial arts classes or we will not have any trained tradespersons in the future. People would like to buy quality furniture today, but are unwilling to pay for it as long as most of the the junk sold is cheap and has lots of "eyewash" for our disposable society. Here in OK however, the VoTech system is pretty good and has a good selection of training courses at night etc., but they are not free. I think that the lawsuit happy lawyers and insurance companies are also a big part of why schools are cancelling these programs. There is a whole lot of liability there. My greatest amount of respect and admiration goes out to you guys out there teaching woodworking classes in jr high and high school. I would be a nervous wreck with all those "kid digits" near sharp objects and spinning cutters. A big THANK YOU to all of you.
"and I'm sure that 2 years of Latin prepared me perfectly for college... in the 11th century."Too true, and very funny at the same time. I also teach woodworking, but most of my students are over 50.Bill
With all of the sad stories here I thought I'd give you a good one. The Local school here has just upgraded the three tablesaws to Sawstops. They remodeled the building and put in an Industrial spray booth and Dust collector. I was lucky enough to buy on of the old Unisaws they where selling. The class is very popular and is going strong. The school regularly competes in the regoinal and state compititions and usually does quite well for being a small school.
I'd encourage you to look into a 4-H woodworking program. All of my girls went through this and while they've not pursued it as an avocation, none of them are afraid to jump in and do work.
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