here in Raleigh, NC we have a similar set up in the NC state University.
I didn't take the intro class but watched it during breaks in the
turning class. it is almost always filled and and a large mix of ages.

At NC state you can actualy buy pass to use the woodshop when classes
are not going on, so that you don't have to take up space in a class all
the time.

BRuce

Buttonhole McGee wrote:

I'm not talking about *the* first class, but rather *my* first class, held
last night at a middle school wood shop here in Silicon Valley. I'm not
even a year into woodworking as a hobby, so I've got much to learn.

I hadn't been past this particular school before, so it was a thrill just
pulling into the parking lot and seeing the massive cyclone protruding
from the building. It's possible that there are many woodshops left in Bay
Area schools, but I doubt it. Vocational training around here has more of
a data-entry feeling, and electives of any type get whacked whenever
someone's wielding a cost-cutting froe.

Inside the shop, which is apparently no longer used by children, were some
cool tools, including a 16" Oliver table saw, with 2 5-hp motors and a big
crank to switch between the crosscut and the rip blades. I'm pretty
excited about using the 12" jointer, a green battleship oddly situated
near the edge of a massive Powermatic battle group.

Most of the 3-hour session was taken up by a shop tour, where we witnessed
a quick once-over on most of the shop equipment, with the exception of the
lathe (next week), and a few items that were sort of waved at: the chop
saw, the shaper, and the router table. Two hours standing around on the
concrete floors took a toll, though I feel fine today. All the same, I'm
making a mental note to wear better shoes next week.

A friend had a hard time getting into a woodworking class in Sunnyvale,
which was nearly fully occupied by the same batch of people who had been
enrolled each session for years, and who stored their in-progress work and
raw materials in that shop. There were only a handful of returnees to this
class, though there was wood piled in cliques along most of the open wall
space, evidence of projects-in-progress.

While this isn't much to report, it's the sort of thing I would have liked
to have stumbled upon when searching the Web for this type of class in the
area. Unless y'all tell me to shut my cake hole, I'll follow up as the
class progresses. Well, I'll probably do that no matter what the reaction.

Until then, then.

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BRuce