[TheForge] Re: Industrial Arts, Still Alive

[Demon Buddha]

Fnanvil@aol.com wrote:

> 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.

Hi Josh,

SUNY Oswego has a good program.  The program at CCNY was folded 5 or
more years ago by Harvey Kaye, the rat bastard for whom I worked my
first year teaching.  He was one of these pro-technology ed types
who was watering at the mouth to see IA in NYC destroyed.  
He did a good job.  

Several years after I left teaching, my friend Javier who was still
teaching went to a seminar on tech ed at CCNY, hosted by Harvey.  I
went with him to see the old stomping ground.  What I bore witness to
would have been amusing were it not for the fact that this is what
the teachers were supposed to pass off to the students of NYC as
"education".  Without going into details that are too painful to
recount ( :) ) suffice it to say that there was nothing remotely
related to what many of us grew up knowing as "shop".  It was a 
supremely dumbed down, idiotized program.  Simply horrible.

I recall programs in states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, but
some of those were the states at the forefront of the "futuring"
of practical arts, so who knows what destruction they may have 
wreaked over the past 20 years.  I hate to sound so negative about
this, but I've not seen that much to be hopeful about.