[TheForge] Industrial arts (long and boring response)

[lama]

...and the "ART" class could paint pictures of bridges, that is
of course if there was an "ART" class.
dave m.
----- Original Message -----
From: Demon Buddha <osan@netlabs.net>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 10:40 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Industrial arts (long and boring response)


>
>
> northwoods wrote:
>
> > > Anyhow, IA has been gutted nationwide
> >
> > Not in my school district it hasn't. Same with many other districts in
my
> > area.  Shannel may not be familiar with the term because he is from
> > Australia if I'm not mistaken.
>
> Yes, there are some hold outs, but they face extinction.
> IA programs are capital intensive to establish and require
> good finances to maintain.  That is reality.  Few municipalities
> want to foot the bills for programs that are perceived as
> obsolete.
>
> Josh Kavett wrote that IA is alive and well in his area.  True
> enough, but just a few towns away in Freehold, NJ, where I went
> to school, the IA department is gone.  Jim Hayden, principal
> of Freehold Twp HS and my friend of 27 years dismantled the last
> shop about three years ago for the sake of gaining "room for
> classes".  I have respected this man since I was 15 but I must
> say that I was very surprised at his position on the topic.
> I was similarly miffed at his opinion that there would be zero
> interest on the part of students at the proposition I made
> that NJBA do an outreach style program to the kids to introduce
> them to blacksmithing.  People, even otherwise very intelligent
> and good ones, are alarmingly ignorant of the value of practical
> arts education.  They appear to be unable to grasp the necessity
> of such programs; the fact that they serve to concretize the basic
> problem solving skills of people in ways that math and science
> classes generally cannot.
>
> What they also fail to realize is that education is not a zero
> sum game.  One program needs not serve as anathema to another.
> Many years ago I envisioned and later formulated a program
> wherein projects would be assigned to the students such that they
> spanned many if not all of the student's classes.  How about a
> class project where students design and then BUILD a bridge?  The
> history teacher could do a week or two of lessons into the history
> of bridges and how they have impacted human events.  The science
> teacher can speak of the physics behind the various static structures.
> The math teacher can address the static calulations, and perhaps
> with an advanced class, the dynamics.  A teacher of literature
> could easily occupy a semester with literary references to bridges
> and students could write about them.  And in shop, the students
> learn how to take all that good theory and put it into practice.
>
> Giving such tasks to fine, young, and OPEN minds could yield results
> unforeseen.  Who can tell what twist of logic erupting from a naive
> and clear head might yield a world altering technological advance?
>
> And this is only one example of what are perhaps countless
> possibilities.
> But it requires work and a new way of interacting, department to
> department.  I've known many fine teachers in my day.  I have also
> known many administrators who abhor change of any sort and will act
> with the fervor of a religious zealot to thwart it.  Shame.
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