< Shop Class as Soul Craft >

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http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib...awford2009.pdf▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ ¢яαfтѕмєи █ ▇ ▆ ▅ ▄ ▂ ▁"Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Reply:By the time I was 13 years old I had already built a bathroom in my dads house.....including threading the black pipe and soldering the copper,tiling it, hanging the door etc.I had also finished some concrete, laid brick. All this I learned in "industrial arts" class.Jr High.My dad was an office guy-book worm.Also rebuilt an old go-cart engine and pounded innumerable nails redoing barns, building decks etc. That's about the time my neighbor put a torch in my hand. I was getting pretty tall and had to stretch my cart frame. Made a set of plugs for the tubing on the South Bend at school and cut, welded and stretched it at the neighbors. He was a WWI machinist.Old school.Kids today are chimps.It's my generations fault. The kids we raised are idiots(no discipline-no time for them-no church-no athletics) and now they're creating idiots of their own.... but even dumber than they are.Bubble gumTooth pixDuct tapeBlack glueGBMF hammerScrew gun --bad battery (see above)
Reply:Burpee, I do agree. Our failure was to want more for our children when we should have wanted enough for them. Teaching the three "R's", penmanship, respecting others, the Pledge of Allegiance, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, please and thank you, yes and no mam and sir, hard work and perserverence. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reply:As a "shop teacher", I concur.  I teach Engineering Tech., classes and Automotive Tech.  I left Engineering in Aerospace, went back to college and got a teaching degree.   Kids, by in large, are not "hands-on" tech savy.  BUT, they are savy in many ways that we were not growing up in the 70s.some of my kids, mostly the "farm" kids are pretty good in the shop.  the kids of the "college class", not so much.The problem is the educational system that values a 4 year college education rather than any vocational choices.Kids are directed to take "another math or science" rather than a technology (hands-on elective) because it looks better on the application.
Reply:Kids now days think that the purpose of their parents is to serve them.  Buy them what they want, take them where they want to go, pay for dance classes, etc.  They expect their parents to rearrange their schedules to meet the kid's needs.  We know of family where the parents have no life other than serving the needs of their kids. My dad had the opposite perspective.  If you wanted to go somewhere, you either walked, or rode your bike to get there.  If you wanted to buy something you had to get a job to earn money.  Deliver papers, mow lawns, paint houses or whatever.  If you didn't work, then there was no gas money for the motorcycle.  No money to go to the movies.  No money means no fun.  I don't remember my dad ever handing me money, ever.  We don't teach our kids to get ready for life anymore.  Kids grow up being sheltered from reality and don't know how to make the transition from child to adult.Lincoln Precision TIG 185.Flex-Loc 150 torch.Super-Flex hose.Lincoln MIG 180.Victor Oxy/Act torch set.DeWalt Bandsaw with SWAG stand
Reply:ManoKaiThe expanded book is a good read for the reoccurring question of pursuing college or craft.It poses perspectives beyond mere college debt load, and the ability to earn a living.At it heart is the ethos of one's value and productivity.It is equally valuable to the pleb, and as an invigorationto those already committed to craft. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shop...=9781594202230Opus
Reply:@ OF - concur.  Ethos.  Create, deliver, and add value.  Dagny Taggart.  Hank Rearden.  John Galt."Discovery is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought" - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Reply:I was very academic in high school and took all the college prep classes. Problem was I never went to college. I had taken several customer service and sales jobs early on but never had any sense of purpose. If I don't have a tangible product I can look at and take pride in I don't get any satisfaction from my work. In hind sight I wish I would've taken the shop classes, it may have prepared me better for my life. I don't remember that being an option though, I wanted to take a couple shop classes but my counselor pushed me towards other electives.