Motivated by something I read online, I just visited my old high school's web page and couldn't locate any remnants of wood shop, metal shop, or auto shop. Have these sorts of classes mostly been removed (across the board) from high school programs now?
Bill
Probably disappeared from most schools, though you might still find such classes at "career centers*" -- essentially high schools geared to technical subjects -- though many are skewing to robotics, networking, and other computer-related subjects.
*There are nine in central Indiana. The best-known is probably Washington Township's J. Everett Light Career Center. Lawrence, Ben Davis, Central Nine are the only others that float to mind at the moment.Struck down by severe cases of profound stupidity, most school districts have closed their trade schools. My school teacher friends (one is an Industrial Arts teacher and the other is a teacher career counselor) have told me that the high schools now consider themselves college prep schools, not schools that teach life skills as well. In that light, there is no need to teach people how to weld, do carpentry, electrical work, A/C work, bake, cook, cater, etc.
After all, the folks that take those classes for any length of time won't be going to college anyway in their eyes. So the mainstream of the teachers and administrators are not concerned with them.
To back that up, one of the most prestigious school districts here in town layed off or moved to other subjects if possible the Industrial Arts teachers. About 35 of them in the high schools.
Now they proudly have no possible blue collar type individuals that work on cars or build cabinets.
But if the get that kid to graduate, he will be ready for college! That is, if his parents can afford it, and if he/she is actually interested and wants to go.
If you don't choose college as your path in high school these days, you are screwed.
Personally, I don't get it. I talked with an administrator (roofing client of mine) for a different district where they serve an average or better income group of families. He said their classes were always full, and the kids had to keep their other grades up to stay in. They literally turn away the kids as they don't have enough classroom/shop space.
Why they are closing these programs, I don't know. Knowing what my A/ C man makes (holy crap!!) and the guy that works on my truck (had some of his certifications before he left high school), I don't see why those aren't viable career paths. They do quite well.
Beats the hell out of me.
Robert
You ain't alone Robert. Even though I ended up behind a computer desk for most of my livelyhood, the most valuable life skills I've retained are from middle and high school mechanical drawing, metal shop, and wood shop classes. I've become a fair cook, but I wish it had been fashionable for guys to take the girly classes as I'm sure I'd be a much better cook - seems to be an important life skill especially looking at the girth of many of the younger generations.
I've been looking at your message and thinking and recollecting for half an hour...it's sad, sad, sad!
It's even worse than that - those who do graduate have no sense of /possibilities/ other than what they might see that already is...
...and if they should dream up a solution to some problem that requires them to build something new, they won't have a clue how to go about doing that, or with what - and once the old-timers are no longer around to mentor, the solutions and products (some of 'em, anyway) will come from some other part of the world.
Methinks it was a foolish, expensive choice.
Around here (Oregon) the shop type classes started migrating to the Community Colleges in the early 1970s. By the 1990s the migration was pretty much complete. There are some exceptions and some experimentation with 'magnet' schools here and there, but the notion of 'Industrial Arts' is gone.
There is no question our educational system is in serious trouble.
The current educational process is a failure IMHO.
Gone are the traditional trade apprentice programs, but not the need for the product that these apprentice programs produced.
High schools have for various reasons, no longer offer programs in home Ec, sewing, wood working, auto shop, etc, but the need for the finished product still exists.
(Wonder if my high school still offers a 4 year agriculture program. Farming has changed, but it still is big business in my old home town)
4 year academic high schools are producing a product that often requires remedial instruction at the collegiate entry level before they can proceed on the business at hand.Not a particularly good mark of excellence for our public high schools.
The kids themselves face a totally different world than most of us faced in our youth.
Kids no longer have time to be kids.
Cell phones, TV & personal computers have replaced parents in far too many homes IMHO.
For the life of me, can't understand why more than maybe 10% of kids need a cell phone.
Basic respect for authority seems to be non existent.
I still remember getting mouthy with my high school foot ball coach, a retired pro football player.
BIG MISTAKE.
During football practice, received an "Attitude adjustment" that made me see a few things differently.
I don't have any meaningful suggestions, but the current administration is giving the problem something other than lip service to the problem.
Time will tell.
Lew
Well said.
nb
Nonsense. Two plus two still equals four and the methods of teaching it have not improved despite decades of tampering.
No doubt the role of "kid" has changed.
The concept of instilling discipline was removed from schools by vocal, yet wimpy parents, decades ago. That is the failure of our schools, today. You can't leave kids with an adult for 8 hrs, yet strip that adult of all adult authority. That's just insane and it makes for insane kids.
Geez..... don't get me started. :|
nb
Doug Winterburn wrote in news:_PQzn.11442$0 snipped-for-privacy@newsfe25.iad:
*trim*Home ec and shop classes are essential, if for nothing else but mental stability. They get kids off their hind ends and gives their brain a chance to relax from the stress of memorization. Trying to stuff facts into a person's head just isn't good for them. They'll either overload and get things messed up or go nuts.
Humans just are not designed to sit and store and retrieve data all day. That's the job of a database. They're designed to be flexible and mobile, in order to deal with a wide variety of problems and issues.
Puckdropper
The Bush administration gave the problem more than lip service and we ended up with "no child left behind", which has apparently resulted in all children being pulled down to the level of the slowest. Wanna know why no shop classes anymore, there you have it--there's no standardized test for it.
If the Feds included "must be able to square a block with a hand plane" in the skills that kids have to demonstrate then you'd see those shops open right back up. But they aren't going to do that because it's not a test that an automatic scoring machine can grade.
If Obama's "doing something" is anything like what he did about "health care" ("you people who don't have insurance because you can't afford it, go out and buy it anyway or we'll fine you, and if you're so poor we can't get a fine out of you then you're screwed") then I expect a disaster.
Look at what he says he wants to do: "Improve K-12 schooling" by some magic process as yet undefined, "Expand access to higher education" when a college degree is already pretty much meaningless, and "make sure our children are prepared for kindergarten".
If I saw that last from a netloon I'd just plonk him--not even worth trying to discuss anything with such a buffoon. But there it is, that's how we're going to fix education--start earlier with the same old ineffective worthless BULLSHIT.
On 22 Apr 2010 08:36:13 GMT, the infamous Puckdropper scrawled the following:
Well stated, Pucky. There's a book about that.
-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin
HISD has a much touted policy of their high schools preparing students for careers as office workers for government and corporate entities.
Politicians prefer unarmed peasants sitting in cubicles.
Where I come from men are born cooks and teach their wives. Home Ec was so the girls could learn how to wash up.
:)
Luckily, they still exist here in Spokane WA. At least wood shop does. I know at least two wood shop teachers that shop at the local Woodcraft.
Still here in Saskatoon, too.
If you leave discipline to the teachers, you've already lost the battle. Discipline begins (or should begin) in the home. Period.
On Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:26:55 -0500, the infamous Swingman scrawled the following:
...and they all end up as mantra repeaters: "Do you want fries..."
Who will vote for them no matter what assinine antics they pull. Like signing unfinished 1,000 and 3,000 page bills without having read them. If I were the Prez, I'd find a way to impeach every last one of them, toss them out on their asses, and revoke their retirement and elitist healthcare packages.
-- ...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. -- John Ruskin
Steve wrote in news:4bd0f958$0$5009 $ snipped-for-privacy@unlimited.newshosting.com:
If you take discipline away from the teachers, you've also lost. Teachers that cannot effectively discipline their classes will get run over.
Puckdropper
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