"Jim Thompson" /Snicker wrote
in message ...
Yep, Back when I was in junior high school (middle school for you
young bucks)... 1952-1955, males were required to take "shop":
drafting (*), wood working, and sheet metal. Females had to take home
economics ;-)

My high school was divided into three sections: college preparatory,
technical (you name it... electrician training, aircraft maintenance,
machine shop, welding, drafting...), and distributive education
(secretaries, store clerks, etc.)

All now prohibited under political correctness.

I don't think even you'd support your own daughters having been forced to take
home ec. and missing out on the shop classes, would you? Gender
discrimination here is ridiculous.

I am OK with, e.g., GPA requirements for certain classes though, just as
there's usually some (really low!) GPA requirements for sports.

Of course, very few of the classes you mention above are even available
anymore. Liability killed many of them, and the "everyone must go to college
and become a 'professional' and not work at something as 'menial' as welding"
mentality of the '80s onward killed most of the rest.

(*) I couldn't fit any high school shop into my college prep schedule,
so I took drafting in the summer of 1955. Entered the Southern WV
Craftsmen's Fair... and won ALL categories in drafting ;-)

You should scan in and post your old drawings if you have'em!

---Joel