The sad end of high school woodshop

[Curt Harms]

There has been an increasing perception among educators for at least 20-30 years that "shop" classes of any type are unimportant and not a part of "real education". A good friend is the director of technical education at a large high school and struggles constantly against the bias among teachers and many administrators that both Voc-Ed teachers and their students are somehow of a lower intelligence and social standing than those teaching "real" courses and preparing students for college. In addition to being poppycock, this ignores the fact that we need woodworkers, sheet metal people, machinists, carpenters, auto body workers, and so forth, and that industry alone can't bear all of the burden of training them. Education in any and all forms is preparation for life. We need folks with a wide variety of skills and backgrounds or society won't work. My son is a prime example. He had the intelligence to do pretty much anything he wanted. He chose Voc-Ed schooling which was far more intensive and far reaching than the local MA high school where we lived at the time. Now at almost 45 years old he is 3 courses away from a double major in business and computers at his local community college, and makes almost twice my income in his trade. He recently started his own business on a part-time basis, is doing well, and is complaining that he should have done it 5 years ago.

Sorry for the rant, but not everyone is suited for college, for college at immediate graduation from high school, and not everyone is suited to ride a desk. Good tradespeople deserve respect based on their character, the quality of their work, and the absolute need we have for them.

All good points. Those types of skills are both required and not easily shipped overseas. I think the perception among "those who matter" is that the U.S. will always be pre-eminent in knowledge-based industries and everyone should prep for that. I'm not so sure. Plus some people simply aren't cut out for the corporate life.

[Patrick Harper]

My brother just started teaching shop down in FL. I hope it lasts. He loves it.

[Kevin Womer]

The true bottom line here is ... money. (We don't need to get into the political side of things and torpedo this thread relative to reasons) Non "core" curriculum has very pointedly taken a major hit over the last decade because of school funding not keeping up with costs. "We" are all to "blame" when we complain about school taxes and don't also insist that our states fund education to the level required to pay for the facilities, teaching talent and other factors such as insurance. As with any budget, school districts have had to make difficult and disheartening decisions around the arts and practical skills training within the public school environment simply because there is little or no money to fund them. We should all have some empathy for that given we all also have to "live within our means" and make difficult choices around what our own budgets can support.So if you are concerned with things like the arts and technical arts like woodworking disappearing from schools...help them find the money to support it.That said, I'm truly thankful that I live in a geography that does have the ability to fund these things and are available in my school district and surrounding school districts.

Well said. Money continues to be cut from the state level to the school districts in my state. Districts are forced to raise revenue through levies to keep up with unfunded state and federal mandates. Citizens are tired of taxes, understandably so. The school districts suffer when levies fail and have to cut even more. Fortunately, my son's high school still offers shop and he enjoys it, but the district I teach for cut it years ago. It was cut due to funding, but was a popular enough class in both the middle and high school. I have been telling my wife for years that the trades will become so in demand if they continue to cut them that paying for them will be more expensive than a trip to the doc.

[Joel Goodman]

Ten years ago at my son's high school, they told me that woodshop was abandoned as they needed the money to buy computers. So sad - they had all the tools and machines, just no money for the teacher....

[Michael Dye]

I taught both of my boys the woodworking hobby when they were very young. Safety was always the priority. My oldest, now 18 and a college freshman, is better than I have ever been or will ever be. His woodturning has become a huge moneymaker for him and his displays at the state fair and local woodworking shows have garnered him well deserved fame. But the best part was the $5000 scholarship awarded to him by the local woodworking guild. His high school woodshop teacher made the presentation, noting the example set, by my son, for all of his classmates during his 3 years in high school. I couldn't have been any more proud.

[Stew Hagerty]

It is a proven fact that kids who are exposed to and study the arts are, in general, far more successful in life than those who do not.

That includes music, performing arts, visual arts, and "industrial" arts. The theory is that it unlocks the creativity capacity of the mind in a way that learning just math, science, language, history, etc do not do.

It is a person's creativity that leads them to a more successful career, a happier and more stable married life, and yes, to even be a better parent themselves when the time comes.

[Roger Feeley]

I shake my head at the tight budgets that constrict our kids options. That said, my grandson will not want for shop experience. We have one daughter and they asked us to build on their property (think pool house). The structure will include a 1300 sq/ft basement shop. The wife was a music teacher/principal. I taught shop for 8 years before I found software development. In a year or two, I will fully retire to devote my time to updating the 160 year old main house and making stuff for the grandkid(s?).

The local school system (Falls Church, VA) doesn't seem to offer much of anything shop related but I haven't fully investigated. I looked at the high school and they don't have anything. They do have some sort of maker space that includes a really scary table top table saw. Nothing like my SawStop ICS.

All my stuff is in storage. I feel naked. We just got to go down in the basement for the first time last weekend. I am totally jazzed about the new space.

[Brian Elfert]

Well said. Money continues to be cut from the state level to the school districts in my state. Districts are forced to raise revenue through levies to keep up with unfunded state and federal mandates. Citizens are tired of taxes, understandably so. The school districts suffer when levies fail and have to cut even more. Fortunately, my son's high school still offers shop and he enjoys it, but the district I teach for cut it years ago. It was cut due to funding, but was a popular enough class in both the middle and high school. I have been telling my wife for years that the trades will become so in demand if they continue to cut them that paying for them will be more expensive than a trip to the doc.

Locally, the voters seem to have no problem voting for $100+ million in school renovations, but I bet if they asked for $100,000 a year to keep the wood shop open it will go down to massive defeat.

[Keith Outten]

I doubt that its always about the money. Many school administrators just don't believe that vocational skills are valuable. I've heard the statement too many times that "All students should go to college" which reinforces the idea that there isn't any value in teaching woodworking or metalworking classes anymore. It also seems to be a shortage of qualified shop teachers these days, often the ones who teach lack the skills and expertise so shop classes become nothing more than book study with little use of any machines or production of any projects.

Not the least of today's problems that have an impact on the end of vocational classes is the cost of insurance and the fact that school administrators and school boards are terrified that a student will get hurt. The lack of knowledge by administrators concerning woodworking machines and techniques is probably responsible for the fear of offering shop classes more so than the costs, particularly if a school already has an existing facility.

The easy way is to just sell all of the machines and buy more computers. We are graduating plenty of students who can use a computer but a very small fraction who can turn a computer design into something tangible.

Here in my area we have a huge number of college graduates bar tending and working as waitresses, not that there is anything wrong with these jobs but you don't need a college degree or a mountain of student loan debt to be a bar tender. It seems to me that training students for jobs that aren't available isn't in their best interest.