"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...

-snip-

When I was in school, these were every boy's favorite, and almost
the
only useful education we got.

I would say litigation.

-snip-

Something to be aware of in this subject is what happened to
industrial arts teaching as far back as the late 1800s. The initial
push for shop classes was NOT to teach kids the skills they'd need
for jobs in industry. It was to "build an appreciation" for
"industriousness," and to provide "cultural industrial education" as
part of a broad curriculum. In other words, it
-snip-

There is little support in most communities to fund industrial arts
education, except in the vo-tech specialty schools. There is
*tremendous* pressure for kids to score higher on national math and
English tests. And that's why we're where we are today.

--
Ed Huntress


likewise, they could also be exposing kids, boys in particular, to
fine arts (painting, sculpture, music, etc.). i'd imagine that also
used to be part of a classical education. now there's too much
pressure to *not* teach kids about the arts. i think that's a damn
shame.
oh, and i took all the shop classes (except printing) and won the
"industrial arts award" when i graduated high school.

b.w.