[TheForge] Re: Industrial Arts, Still Alive

Sat Jan 26 22:37:06 2002

Please do not get the impression that IA is dead everywhere.  I am still a 
traditional Metal Shop teacher at a large regional school in NJ.  I have just 
completed my 25th year.  I am lucky that my area is a largely agricultural 
area that is just starting to get the large housing developments that are 
common in NJ.  We still have a metal, wood, auto, graphics and mechanical 
drawing shop.  The mechanical drawing shop still does hand drawings to start, 
but quickly go into AutoCad.  The graphic shop uses computers for all layout 
work, and web site design.  

The school has supported our program and the administration knows that the 
students need an opportunity to work with their hands.  Many students are 
enrolled.  The biggest problem our department faces is the aging and 
retirement of the shop teachers.  The youngest one has 21 years in, the 
oldest has 34 years.   As we retire, the shops will start to close-due to the 
lack of being able to replace us.  Colleges across the country dropped the 
teacher education programs in the early 1990's as shops were being 
eliminated.  So the end result is that even if school want to keep or start a 
program today, there are no young qualified teachers being produced by 
colleges today.

We did change our department name to "Technology Education," but did not 
change our programs.   We have attempted to add new technology where we can.  
My metal shop still does aluminum foundry work, hand forging, welding, sheet 
metal forming, basic lathe and mill machining, and a lot of fabrication.  I 
have attempted to recruit a few of my best students to look into "shop 
teaching" as a career.  The only problem I have is pointing them to a college 
that still has an "Industrial Arts Education" program.  If anyone is aware of 
such a program anywhere in the USA, please let me know.

Joshua Kavett
Proud to be a Shop Teacher

Founder, Fisher & Norris Factory Museum
Hope to open some time in the next 12 months.