David Billington wrote in
:



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.
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.

My understanding is that all the traditional shops at Manchester High
were dismantled and replaced with technology education programs and
materials. This typically means fewer of the traditional hands-on project
work and more emphasis on things like mass production projects and
conceptual learning using models and reduced scale examples. I left
Manchester in 1994, although I remain in touch with friends in the area,
and worked in the area for 2000-2001, as a professor of Technology
Education at Central Conn. State Univ. (hence the reason for a strong
interest in this topic) and I do not remember anything hands on being
offered in the adult education programs in Manchester. Even the Vo-Tech,
Cheney Tech, was not offering anything other than the formal programs
typical of the Vo-Tech offerings in Connecticut at that time. Of course
times in Connecticut were not particularly good at that time and many of
the long time manufacturing companies were on the way out.

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.

What, not willing to suffer the joy of attending high school over again?
It would be a great intellectual exercise and would provide geat
entertain... um.. educational guidance for the rest of the group. Think
of repeating the fun you had from ages 13-17 over again. What an
opportunity!

What kind of software are you writing? I worked for a CADD software
company (CADKEY) for five years prior to going into the university
environment. Interestingly, it was located in Manchester for most of that
time.