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Originally Posted by Alaska Jim
I have always been thank for all the "shop" classes I was able to take in high school. it helped me make a pretty good living and enabled me to retire. I don't know when they stopped having these classes. I became aware of it some time in the late 80's. The shop classes enabled me to compete in the 1968 Plymouth trouble shooting contest in Bell Calif. I was in my senior year in high school. I think the educational system is doing a great dis-service to the youth of today by not offering shop classes, and not just automotive classes. I took wood shop , auto shop, and also some leather and lapendary ( sp ? ) classes. not every body wants to be a Dr. or Lawyer, etc.
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I agree with you (I'm in education), but the more I look around, the more it seems to be a regional thing. Take NJ or the Northeast, they are doing away with some shops classes, but are adding CNC operating and 3D printing in others.
I watched a show on the new European fighter jet
Typhoon. It seems like it is one of the most advanced fighters in the world right now. The materials they are using are extremely high tech. Carbon fiber, fly by wire controls, uber sophisticated electronics and weapons systems. They may not need to be a welder, but sure as heck do these workers need to know high skill sets in order to work on these planes.
Talk to your local body shops and ask them if it's the same job it was 20-30 years ago. I'd be surprised if any one of them answered "yes".
The reason I point this out is time marches on. The skill of welding two steel objects may not be as needed today, but there are other aspects of skilled labor that are.
For example, the auto techs that are making the big bucks and not getting themselves too dirty are the trouble shooters. These are the guys that come in with their laptop to figure out a problem with one of the car's operating systems. They make more an hour than someone who wrenches, but there are few of these types of folks in the field. Thusly, high demand and higher wages.
It would be irresponsible to not expose a student to this aspect of automotive repair. Right, wrong or different, computer controls are a part of our lives and will be from now on.
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is a big push right now. In my elementary school, kids learn the design process, how to build a prototype, and then how to test it. If it fails, back to the drawing board.
Now down south in N. Carolina, I was surprised to see how many skill-related classes they offer in their high schools. Everything from machine shop to agriculture-related classes.
I am one of the biggest supporters of shop classes in school. If you hear of this going on in your town, please do your part and go to a board of ed. meeting and fight for it. You'd be surprised how many people don't do this, but yet go nuts after it's be disbanded.
In closing, if anyone of you have young children or grandkids, buy them Legos, Lincoln Logs, etc. Encourage them to build things. It is the skill of taking a vision and turning into a product is what is going to be in demand in our future job market.