Woodworking Class

[pigman]

Tom,
My oldest daughter is one of those " professional" students. ;) She just finished with her third degree. Her last one was BS in engineering. I think she didn't want her little brother to get ahead of her. She has a good job now, but is already talking about going back to school. :
People asked me how I could afford to have three kids in college at the same time, since I was a poor dumb farmer. I told them it didn't matter how many if they pay their own way. Their mother raised them right. 8)
I married a lot better than my wife. ;)
Bob--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Haytrader]

 :
I'd call you Bob the smart man.

;)

[Ernie]

I took industrial arts called manual training back then, over 50 years ago in Toronto in primary school up to year 8, no Junior Highs back then.  I loved it.  Got to High School and wasn't allowed, too bright for that stuff :D :D :D :D :D.  Once I qualified as a teacher, I took the courses required to train as an industrial Arts teacher, did that for one year and off to the College of Education, again in Toronto to get my ticket as a specialist teacher of tech subjects to "slow learners"  A lot of bright kids who were never challenged in primary school and became "discipline problems" as well as the genuin slow learners.  My largest class was 9 students in a specialist school opffering a two year terminal course giving saleable skills to these kids. They all got jobs, worked well and were good employees.  So much for being slow.  Everyone has strengths and weaknesses but generally the education system  measures its success by the number of university grads  it turns out.

I taught our three sons at home for many years until their hormones got out of hand and they went off to High school starting in the third year.  Fifth form in NZ, grade 11 in Canada.  The eldest, Alf now works with me on the farm and with the mill, having spent a few years as a pruner and another two as a forestry supervisor on the East coast.

I have met all too many people who cant even change a washer on a tap and who, if the supermarkets all closed down would starve to death.  Our daughter graduated as a nurse at 19 but still knows enough to have replaced the clutch in her car on her own.

Oh for an education system that turns out well rounded capable people.

Sorry for the rant but sometimes things just get up this old man's nose.

Ernie

[woodsteach]

I got started in Middle School (6th grade) and never had a year with out having a woods class since. 

I liked woodworking so much I became an Industrial Arts Instructor 8) and have been for the past 10 years. 

As an instructor, what some of you have said is very true, the problems come from the bean counters with their spread sheets.  Lets see 10-15 students / teacher vrs the english teacher with 20 /teacher and guess who gets the axe  ;)

Yep, I just got RIF'ed Reduced In Force they removed the Industrial Arts postiton from our high school.  Oh well, I just might buy a mill and make my own wood. 

Well there went my lunch bell, back to the students.

[Cedarman]

Some of the best education begins at home at an early age. Kids beg to help. I always found something for them to do. When they can walk they can fetch tools, hold a nail. Plus all the time telling them they're good help and explaining what you are doing and why.  When my youngest was about 3 he was hammering nails into the dirt.  What's a pound of nails cost? Then just let him nail boards. Tough to find a board around a sawmill :D :D :D. Then the boards could disappear into the wood stove.  We burned pallets too, so we had nails anyway in the ashes. He went on to build tree houses, even a double decker, then on to tinkering, and in high school he is the technical director for the AV department. Is great in the woods, around the mill.  And other people are always calling him to help out.  He is never short on money either.   He can outwork and outthink anyone at the mill, and uses the loaders with more finesse than most construction workers.  He won't be in academics, but he says there is a diesel school in Illinois where he plans to go.

Point them to the world, give them a good work ethic and watch out.

[Tom_Averwater]

Ernie, I've met a lot of people like the ones  you are talking about .  :D 8)

[asy]

I believe that if the trend of "you've got to be a doctor to be someone" continues, in the next 20 years, doctor's will be making what plumbers make now, and plumbers will be the highest paid trade in the country!  Try finding a cheap plumber!!   :D

Hmmm,

A topic Andrew and I often discuss...

Even as recently as when I went to school ;)  We had woodworking. Granted I had to fight for it and threaten the school with an equal oportunity claim...  Coz all they were offerring was cooking and typing..  Oh joy...

They USED to have Tech Colleges, where, if you weren't particularly humanities-orientated, you could go and learn wood working, metal working, mechanics, and a little tech drawing, in addition to math, and some science subjects. English was 'real english' with emphasis on the ability to read and basic grammar and writing skills, no shakespeare to be found.

Now, they are all High Schools, I have only seen one in ages which still has a metalwork shop. They expect the kids to finish year 12, THEN choose a career, and they are all told that Uni is the way to go.

The question used to be: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Now it's: What are you going to study at Uni?

I'm still not quite sure why we push the more manually skilled children to go through years 11 and 12, failing and dragging their feet through, only to feel useless, when they could be excelling at a career, whether that's plumbing or carpentry, or working in a sawmill.

Now, I'm not saying these kids are dumb, far from it, but they are differrently abled. (I'd love to watch some Doctors or Lawyers trying to weild a chisel...)

About 10 years ago, the government here amalgamated the Tech Colleges with the Uni's and called them Universities of Technology. Talk about semantics...  It was seen as 'inferior' to be at a Tech college.

I remember a few years ago when the media were showing "Uni Rates" showing how disgraceful it was that 'only' 80% of our kids were going into uni.

Then a few weeks ago, our Prime Minister came out and said that there were not enough kids entering trades and that there'd have to be something done where kids were encouraged to enter trades...   WELL D'UH!!!

Unless something's done, and SOON, They'll be talking about a whole differrent Trade Deficit in years to come.

<end rant>

asy :D