Death of the Shop Class?
Questions: “When was the last time you saw school administrators ADDING shop class as an elective in high school OR heard a H.S. student telling about their newest project in shop and how they were having problems, OR bragging about their recent shop class accomplishment? Granted there are some “pockets” in this country (and others) that are holding firm and true to the continuing education of our young people in the fine art of working with their hands. An honorable skill and yet, a seemingly dying one if some of our education systems have their way. However, teachers/craftsmen like Kevin Baas at Kennedy HS (and i’m sure there are others stateside) are fighting the flow of putting every child behind a computer or having them hold a “white collar” job . Anyway to get around to the reason for this post. Our friends over at KnucklebusterInc had an interesting re-post on an article by Matthew Crawford titled “SHOP CLASS AS SOULCRAFT; Why do we devalue manual work when it’s so satisfying?” This article appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Sunday, September 24, 2006. It was worth reading then and even more relevant now!
