Doc wrote:
David Billington wrote in
:



I consider myself fortunate to have grown up in the US in the 1970s to
early 1980s as I had the opportunity to do many elective subjects such
as metal shop, wood shop, electronics, machining etc as well as
academic subjects. I live back in the home country of the UK now by
choice and having spoken to many people such opportunities weren't as
common in the UK to get such expeience. IIRC I started at around the
age of 12 in metal shop and electronics at Bennet Junior High School
in Manchester Connecticut and was also fortunate to do metal smithing
at Manchester High School under the late Jonathan Hewey RIP, and they
also had a proper machine shop set-up for those that may have wanted
to go into industry run by experienced instructors.


Unfortunately all of the equipment is now gone and has been replaced by
computer labs and either simulated experiences or tabletop machines. The
justification for the removal of full size machinery and equipment was
twofold, cost and effectiveness. It costs much more to run a metalworking
class using "real" machines and the associated materials than to use
tabletop equipment and machining wax or plastic. The same concepts are
held true for other traditional technology education programs (used to be
called industrial arts)where the emphasis is on simulated experiences or
the use of smaller models based on technology examples. The assumption is
that the "esential" concepts" being taught will be as effective using the
smaller, more conceptually based, equipment. It also reflects the
continued turning away from "vocationally oriented" instruction to a
"general concepts" approach.

In the case of Manchester High and Bennett Middle School, both have been
renovated and the shop space converted. Most of the incentive to do this
was based on personnel at the state level who would not fund new
equipment if it was not part of a "pre-engineering" curriculum which
emphasized critical thinking and theoretical design skills and de-
emphasized manipulative and applied skills. This approach reflects the
general national trends in technology instruction.


My local technical college, where I spent a few years, has done similar.
All the machine shops and most, if not all, of the engineering related
workshops have gone now and been replaced by media studies centre, arts,
and various service industry training workshops. I suspect this largely
reflects the requirements of the local area, Bath UK, and the demise of
the manufacturing industry in the area over the last 30 years. No point
in training machinists if there are few jobs for them. I would imagine
training facilities exist in Bristol where the likes of British
Aerospace etc are based.

Any idea if the metalsmithing class is still running at Machester High?.
That has to be one of my favourite classes I did. I actually did it at
evening class there before entering high school.

I find it very interesting that (in my opinion) the system that appears
to be closer to getting it right is the UK with an emphasis on Design and
Technology that relies heavily on paralleling commerical trends and
processes. The intent of this curriculum is to make students generally
ready for the world of work and to help them understand the processes and
attitudes that they should expect to find in situations they encounter
after leaving school.

I think here that this depends on the view of what the purpose of school
is. I took the opportunity to do things I enjoyed such as metalwork,
metalsmithing etc to broaden my horizons, not just to train up for a
life working. I suppose though that such courses are not considered
essential and with financial constraint will be the first to go unless
they can really be justified.

So David, I think that you should consider going back to secondary
school, just so that we can compare the two. It would be very interesting
for the rest of us to see if you do better this time around.

I'm not going back to school, at least not that sort. In the end I did a
mechanical engineering degree then went on to get a job writing software
for the last 20 years.

Support from the rest of the group?