Quoting James Thompson <jdthompsonca@s...>:

> Several people have told their story of shop class, or the lack of 
> it.  I'd like to tell you a story that is sort of related.
>
> little rant. In this country we assume that everyone is college 
> bound.  That is so way wrong! There is a huge number of people who
> know from  day one that they are never going to set foot in a 
> college. We do not  have any public education in vocational
subjects.
> That was all ceded  to the unions. They are expected to provide
all
> the skilled people  this country needs.

In your field it was ceded, I'm not sure it's universal.

Reading all the shop commentary, in my day (graduated HS in 1968)
shop was for non-college prep boys, college prep boys didn't have space 
in the schedule for more than possibly a year of drafting,
and girls were no more thought of as shop students than Martians.
My 8 years younger youngest sister at the height of the modern feminist 
revival needed my mother writing very snippy letters to the board of 
education to be permitted to take shop instead of home ec in junior 
high when she had been cooking dinner for years and had been taught 
sewing by a retired ladies tailor.  I still have a cookie cutter she 
made me.

In New York state several years ago it was decreed that everyone should 
graduate with a "Regents" (near as I can figure college prep)
diploma, so they have been playing games with the passing grades on
the exams to make it so.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I work for a small optics company in
a region of small optics companies and they are having so much trouble 
finding competent help that the local optics consortium
has partnered with the state for a fabricating apprenticeship.
We sent 7 which dropped to 4 within a year, probably due to 
difficulties with _basic_ algebra, and 3 of the remaining are really 
struggling with the ray optics class, as near as I can figure
part algebra and part "word problems" which give you a real problem
with extraneous information and you have to figure out what you need
before you can plug in a formula. (Basic analytical thinking seems a 
bit shaky..)

Bottom line: encourage everyone you can, especially the young, in your
hands on hobbies of any sort, and encourage any interests.  Like I 
point out to some folks, if you have the interest and the skill, it's 
pretty hard to offshore auto repair or plumbing, and if you don't
need a stylish job, it can be very profitable.

Esther
with a plumber replacing all the pipes in a new-to-her old house who 
hosted a workparty that including stripping 2/3 of the kitchen walls to 
the lath or studs and starting hanging drywall last Saturday..

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