[TheForge] Industrial arts (long and boring response)

[Demon Buddha]

Jeff Harding wrote:

>    However... No one here is proposing that schools stop teaching new
> technologies, just stop throwing away the ones still in use.  Why does
> it have to be either or? 

	Excellent point, Jeff.  I too am not suggesting we turn the
	clock back.  Learning about computer technology, for instance,
	is of great value and I would not suggest that children be
	denied it.  But as well I believe that learning the physical
	language of, say, a lathe, is equally valuable.  Learning
	how to take a bit of theory and put it into practice is a
	major life skill that shop classes teach better than any
	other discipline we have.  Something as foolishly simple as
	making a small box from sheet metal.  One has to learn about
	surface development and drawing; how to read a basic print,
	how to take dimensions, layout, use of a notcher or snips,
	use of a brake, a bar folder, soldering...  That's eight
	things right there and more just to make a silly little
	box.  It sounds crazy to most people, but there is so much
	cognitive exercise in such a project that is easily
	missed by those who don't consider the educational value of
	such exercises carefully.

> They certainly haven't stopped raising my
> property taxes, they can afford both.  This school system is building
> "sports facilities", much more important than academics, or practical
> technology.

	That indeed has been the attitude in the past.  This obsession
	with sports is, quite frankly, mystifying.  I have no problem
	with them... heaven knows I'd rather see the kids playing
	baseball than smoking a joint, but one doesn't need to have
	a ninety thousand seat stadium for HS football games ;^)
	One injury is all it takes to obviate a student's sporting
	career.  I saw it happen to several of the football players
	in my HS... my oldest friend being one of them when he blew
	out his knee.  Yet schools would rather spend all manner of
	outrageous money on sports than to give the students something
	that is more valuable and far more likely to last.