Today we had a small job to do for a local suburban school district.
The job was to build a desk around three sides of a 14' x14' room. Not
too difficult but since it was 9 degrees this morning and we had no
place at the site to work, the school board let us use the former
industrial arts building (a couple of blocks away) to set up our
equipment.
The building brought back 35 year old memories of shop class. This
was a big old building, I'm guessing 60' x200' with the old dust
collection system hanging in pieces everywhere. About half the lights
were on which gave it an eerie haunted feeling. There was a narrow
balcony with old wood racks now filled with cob webs over about a
third of the length of the place. Most of the floor space was covered
with assorted school crap like folding chairs stage risers and about
anything else that would go in the place. Not many machines left, a
huge drill press, and old metal lathe, an 18" Rockwell planer, and an
old green Powermatic table saw with no fence system or motor. A 25'
finishing bench was still there with the skeletons of exhaust ports
hanging from the tall ceiling every 4' or so. You could just imagine
a line of kids standing there sanding on the same shop project.

The sad part about it was that although this was once one hell of a
shop, there is no longer an industrial arts curriculum at the school
district. As with many school districts, I guess costs, insurance
and policies that lean more toward college prep, have rendered the
building (as well as the classes it once housed) obsolete.
While I never thought my three fingered shop teacher ever taught me
much that applied to the real world, I always enjoyed the classes and
it just seems to me to be something else that kids today will miss out
on.
Another sign of the times.......


Mike O.