"That's a paddlin'!"
Posted on 06/18/2023 6:56:43 AM PDT by CFW
One Minnesota shop class teacher is bringing his real-world business experience to the classroom, helping prepare students for future careers.
"These guys are going to be out there in the real world shortly. They need to know what it's like on the job," industrial tech teacher Rob Van Der Hagen said on "Fox & Friends Weekend" Saturday. "In our shops, it's real world. They're treated as such. Perfection is expected. They've got to do the job. Customer satisfaction. All that stuff."
Van Der Hagen is an industrial tech teacher at BOLD High School in Olivia, Minn. He began his teaching career after the pandemic where he found himself in need of a new profession.
After selling his auto parts stores, Van Der Hagen told FOX9 the idea of teaching crept into his mind around 2021. He joined BOLD High School's Industrial Tech Program last fall.
Two of his students joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" Saturday, outlining how Van Der Hagen's class has helped them.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Most of us "boomers" well-remember the shop classes we took in high school. While teaching the basics of electrical wiring, wood working, or small engine repair, etc. these classes provide knowledge and experience that will be useful in a student's future even if they do not pursue a career in the field. Obtaining knowledge of basic hand-tools, for instance learning how to read a measuring tape, is a valuable lesson in itself.
Now they’ve done it. They know what state he teaches in. “Perfection is expected” is one those “white supremacy” catch-phrases. I hope he can keep his new gig before Minnesota catches up to him!
Seriously, though. This is exactly what students entering the real world need to know. I wish him and his students the very best.
> We need more classes such as this in high schools all across the nation. <
You betcha.
I’ve mentioned this before. It’s not widely known, but George W. Bush destroyed trades education in public schools. His idiotic ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act tested for math and English, but not for the trades. Vocational classes (carpentry, plumbing, hairdressing, etc.) were ignored, as if they had no value at all.
And woe to the district whose schools scored low on the NCLB tests! So as a matter of self-preservation, most school districts eliminated their trades programs. The trades students were then shoved into advanced math and English classes - classes they neither wanted nor needed.
The urban high school where I taught had a superb carpentry program. It was probably the best one in the state. It’s gone now, thanks to George W. Bush.
What, no Tranny, pronouns, Woke, all about me crap? How will these students survive 🤣. Great job the teacher is doing, preparing the students for the real world, how to get ahead and become successful.
It wasn’t George W Bush’s bill it was Ted Kennedy’s!
George W Bush & the GOP were being pounded relentlessly by the press as anti-education. “Bush & the GOP Were Why Johnny\Jilly Can’t Read!” was the constant nightly news\newspaper column screech. State educrat departments & teachers unions of course loved it, so a drumbeat percolated up from the states too. There was an election coming up so this constant claim that the GOP was made up of anti-education Neanderthals, believed by many a soccer mom had to be countered. (Something still believed today by those “moms”!) He and the GOP caved on this NEA authored monstrosity for political reasons.
Did W sign it? Then it’s his bill.
By that reasoning it’s also the GOP’s bill. Primarily it was the public’s bill they demanded, so the polls were saying. The original Ted\NEA bill was much worse. So as in almost all political compromises a big turd gets whittle down to be an “acceptable” little turd. Yes, it’s still a turd.
It’s all one big party.
No. No business expects perfection. That would be stupid.
Just don’t do the same wrong thing twice.
We need more classes such as this in high schools all across the nation.
Indeed when I was in high school we had auto shop wood shop and metal shop learned many things from them.
Rebuilt my first engine in auto shop great teacher showed how and why things should be done.
School now is just a baby setters job.
> Did W sign it? Then it’s his bill. <
Bingo. As Harry Truman noted, that’s where the buck stops.
I taught the Woodworking merit badge when my son was in the scouts. The three projects were, build a sawhorse, a stool and shingle a small roof. A lot of the younger dads were paying more attention than the boys. I think some of them had never picked up a hammer before.
That’s politics!
So, no one else has any responsibility for it?
Maybe you should start the Dad Scouts! :-)
My GPA was fortunate my shop teacher didn’t expect perfection. Effort, learning from mistakes, and solid growth in skill from one project to the next, yes, but not perfection. Those of us who were more on the nerdy, bookish side were often not naturals and he understood that.
"That's a paddlin'!"
> So, no one else has any responsibility for it? <
Oh, yes. There were many folks involved. As you noted, Ted Kennedy was a driving force behind NCLB. But Bush II could have stopped it all on his own. He had the power to do that. No one else did.
I am not against the testing requirements of NCLB. I am very much against how it ignored the trades. A school that scored high on a carpentry exam should be honored just as much as one that scored high on an algebra exam. Most people would agree with that.
Bush II could have insisted on including the trades in NCLB. But he did not.
That’s on him.
https://www.youtube.com/c/WrenchingWithKenny
The thinking skills needed for a good mechanic are amazing.
I have know men like this and they are rare.
All the good education, of problem solving, debate, logic.
A lot of logic used to be taught when teaching grammar.
So what do we do? Take the time to educate/teach/disciple just one person today. Don’t let them get away with poor thinking, our parents and others in our life took time to correct us.
The modern high schools here do not even have metal or wood shops. When I was in high school, we had incredibly well equipped metal shops with programmable lathes and milling machines and gas and arc welding stations and our woodshops had everything under the sun. What happened.
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