Comments on: What happened to high-school shop classes?

By: lori

lori — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 01:49:06 +0000

If high schools still had shop classes, maybe the drop out rate wouldn’t be so bad. Not all kids are college material.This “new” curriculum and push for college is burning kids out and turning them off to academics and the kids who would have gone into a trade are lost and often do not ever find their niche because they were told that their only option was college. Without the exposure to the trades, they have little to no knowledge of the potential to work in them. Sad.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:27:18 +0000

At the high school I went to, shop still exists–and gets a decent percentage of the budget.
There’s a fully equipped metal shop, and a pretty decent sized wood shop.
The teacher who does both the wood and the metal classes is very skilled, and a real nice guy.
They are also beginning to set up a composites lab in the metal shop, for working with new composite technology.
The school was built with a third shop, but it ended up getting used for storage of art supplies, tables, chairs, and paper. I was told it was originally intended to be an electrical / electronic lab. Failure.
A little ways down the hall from the Tech Hallway (where the shops are) is a drafting room, complete with drafting tables, computers with the latest version of AutoCAD, and all the tools needed to do technical drafting. There’s even a CNC machine.

I know a lot of people who go to other high schools, and they are very disappointed that their schools do not have classes like this readily available to them. These are real trades, and jobs you can get without having to go to college. This “everyone must go to college” mentality is getting out of hand.

By: Judi

Judi — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 14:25:36 +0000

I am writing a novel for high school students. The main character is a young woman who excels on shop class. Then the realization struck me that most high schools don’t offer shop anymore. What a pity!

By: Bruce duprez | Premiervirtual

Bruce duprez | Premiervirtual — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:46:02 +0000

[…] What happened to high-school shop classes? | Daily Journal of …Nov 3, 2009 … Thank you Bruce Duprez (Miller Place High School Shop Teacher) for the skills that you taught to me and the confidence that you instilled. […]

By: Louis Alvarez

Louis Alvarez — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 02:39:47 +0000

Most of the comments include mention of the satisfaction derived from their experience in shop training. There is almost no mention of the sense of confidence in your ability that shop training provides. As time goes by, it becomes more and more difficult for young people to have a sense of accomplishment in an age where the champion is idolized and everyone aspires to be one, but can’t. Years ago my boys accomplished this by enjoying motorcycle trail riding, and finding that they were good at it. In today’s world there are fewer and fewer opportunities for an individual to achieve a sense of accomplishment. Anything that might provide this, such as shop training, should not be overlooked. It makes no more sense to send a graduate out into the world without shop-related skills than it does to send one on to college without the study skills required to succeed.

By: Brian Lauther

Brian Lauther — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:47:47 +0000

I am very dissapointed to see that shop classes have been removed from many schools in my area as well as around the country. My children will not experience the hands on learning and gratification that I received when I was in high school. Shop classes might have been the only reason that I even showed up for school.
I learned things in shop class that I use in everyday life. Owning my own home has put the skills that I learned when I was in HS to the test…saving me thousands of dollars. Simple automotive troubleshooting has gotten me out of a jam when there was no roadside service available (Yes this can happen even during the age of cell phones). What I am trying to say is that not every child has a parent that can teach them carpentry, electrical, plumbing or automotive skills. Many children comming out of the school system are not as well rounded as they should be.
Thank you Bruce Duprez (Miller Place High School Shop Teacher) for the skills that you taught to me and the confidence that you instilled.

By: John Nesemann

John Nesemann — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:41:02 +0000

Welcome to the fallout from national testing mania! The leadership levels in education and politics are predominantly composed of …college grads (of the non-vocational variety!).
Mix that with hysteria from blindly accepting the questionable ‘data’ on international test scores and you have …Lemmings.

Schools are graded on test scores…putting scarce resources toward anything NOT on the test has moved schools toward bottom line/core course outcomes (art and music still resonate with the leadership noted above so art and music have survived (barely).

Hopefully enough cliff jumpers will get to the edge, stop and see what has happened and we will steer back toward a wiser perspective.
(how did this happen: look back at a few decades at A Nation at Risk posing as fact; the Asian Tiger myth etc.)