On Sun, 5 Mar 2006 23:46:27 +0000 (UTC), Frank Erskine
wrote:

Even practical skills such as wood and metal work are rarely taught in
schools, except perhaps at a very basic level.

? Both my children went to a state Comprehensive school (one is still
there in the 6th form and one now at Uni) and both had compulsary
Resistant Materials (wookwork/metalwork to you and me) Textiles
(needlework) and Food Tech (cookery) for the first three years of high
school and were encouraged (almost forced...) to take one of them to
GCSE level.

Both kids (one girl, one boy) can handle power tools (including a
lathe), use a sewing machine and cook a meal.

What more are schools expected to do?

Certainly when I was at (an all girls) school we never got the
opportunity to do any form of woodwork/metalwork or technical drawing
and my husband (who went to an all boys school) never had the
opportunity to do any form of needlework.

Schools have actually improved in this "basic skills" area over the
past thirty years!

--

Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.