Errol Groff wrote:
I am preparing a research assignment for my students on this subject.
Looking for suggestions as to names which might be used as search
terms or links to sites that would be appropriate.

and...

I am instructing in a vo-tech system that is run, largely, by academic
types and there are things that we are told to do and ways in which to
do them. This sort of assignment is one of those things.


Just for the heck of it...

Scan around in these newsgroups for a few minutes, and look at the
number of responses, and number of different contributors, that make up
an average thread. Now compare that with the number of responses, and
contributors, that THIS thread has generated in just over two days.

Then do some Google searching, and see if you can find a thread or
two about the origin of letter size drills, or about some of the
machine-tool builders that have gone bankrupt or closed their doors
during the last few years. How much interest did those threads draw,
and from how many different people, and over how many weeks and months?

Then think a minute about what the answers to those questions might
mean, and about how interesting history is to people who already work in
this profession. And, if history is interesting to us, then maybe, just
maybe, it'll be more interesting to your students than you might have
estimated.

If the classes you teach are like most that I'm familiar with, then
it's possible that the members of just a couple small newsgroups have
generated more bytes of typing, and more real thoughts and ideas, and
more honest, sincere debate on this topic, than all of your students put
together will produce from ANY topic in an entire year - even though the
newsgroupies don't have to be here, don't get graded for either
attendance or contribution, and do this only for fun and personal enjoyment.

And if history IS that interesting, then isn't it just possible that
it offers you a way not only to inform and train your students, but also
to draw them into their work and studies, to capture their attention
rather than just hoping for it, to help them WANT to excell in class,
and beyond, for reasons that are entirely their own, and that might make
everything else you teach them just a bit more compelling, and
important, and worth learning?

I get the impression from one of your earlier posts that your heart
isn't really in this, and that you're doing it because you've been told
to. Your students will sense that, of course; and they'll probably
follow your lead.

Lead thoughtfully and carefully, please. There are careers at
stake, and lifetimes that will be spent in factories and machine shops,
and food and homes and security and stability for families that don't
even exist yet. And maybe a great deal more.

KG
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