Posted on 03/02/2025 10:13:41 AM PST by george76
Hands-on skills are staging a comeback at leading-edge districts, driven by high college costs and demand for more career choices..
In America’s most surprising cutting-edge classes, students pursue hands-on work with wood, metals and machinery, getting a jump on lucrative old-school careers.
School districts around the U.S. are spending tens of millions of dollars to expand and revamp high-school shop classes for the 21st century. They are betting on the future of manual skills overlooked in the digital age, offering vocational-education classes that school officials say give students a broader view of career prospects with or without college.
With higher-education costs soaring and white-collar workers under threat by generative AI, the timing couldn’t be better.
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Interest in the classes is high.
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In Wisconsin, 32,000 high-school students took classes in architecture and construction during the 2022-2023 school year, a 10% increase over the prior year, state data show; 36,000 enrolled in manufacturing courses, a 13% increase over the same period.
“There’s a paradigm shift happening,” said Jake Mihm, an education consultant in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. “They’re high-skill, high-wage jobs that are attractive to people because they’re hands-on, and heads-on.”
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they’re doing the trades instead of college,” the 18-year-old aspiring carpenter said. “They just say it’s a good choice. These are secure jobs.”
As white-collar hiring slows, more younger workers are finding blue-collar careers.
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The wood shop now features laser cutters and computer-assisted routers that enable high-level detail work
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Electricians and plumbers make great money, and some of our higher-end students see that
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Roughly half of college graduates end up in jobs where degrees aren’t needed, according to a 2024 analysis
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
High School CLasses? We started Shop classes in the 7th grade.
Yes. And it seemed like every shop teacher was missing a finger. Is that what they mean by entering the digital age?
EC
See #3.
Shop classes were mandatory way back in the early 1950’s in my school. I learned many skills that served me well over the years. Also, the boys had to do two weeks of home economics and the girls had to do two weeks of shop each school year. We learned how to bake cookies, among other things.
A lot of the problem is parents believe their kid is a genius and a future lawyer or doctor and they frown upon the trades and view it as a lower class uneducated way of making a living
“You kids quit screwing around!”
We had a full machine shop 4 lathes, a couple of Arc welding booths, the works. We even had an auto shop class with 3 lifts it was great.
I remember when all the girls had a “home ec” class and all the boys had “shop”.
Eventually it became optional and coed. Maybe not so bad to include such courses again instead of of just a voc-ed track.
I wasn’t the greatest in shop class in turning out beautifully lathed lamp bases or such—but I learned my way around tools and how they worked. For a young man, this was important. To learn how electricity works, how a small engine works, etc. Because that knowledge is scalable in its usefulness.
Giving young men knowledge in how a kitchen works is also important—and thusly, giving young women confidence in how to use simple power tools is also great knowledge.
Why we left these practical lessons by the wayside I will never know—actually I do know...they were easy to cut from the budget to save money—
Us, too. Wood Shop for one full year in 7th grade and then Metal Shop in 8th grade for one full year.
I’m 73 and I just gave my big 7th grade Wood Shop project to our eldest daughter as a keepsake.
I have a wood plaque carved by my dad when he was about age 13 in 1937, too.
Our local high school just did a major add-on and got rid of the auto shop a few years ago when they broke ground. It was a big shame seeing the auto class and shop disappear.
Shop class 70s, telling the teacher you are making a lamp base, when it is really a bong.
Girls in home ec making cookies and bringing them to their next class and sharing with fellows they liked...
70s were fun..
“The wood shop now features laser cutters and computer-assisted routers that enable high-level detail work...”
That’s now old-school tooling — been around for over 20 years. Learning to program a 3-axis router is good, but the schools should be looking beyond that.
The schools should be offering classes in advanced 3D printing and the programming to drive the 3D printers. The kids would learn about the myriad materials used in 3D printing and how to create rapid prototypes.
The schools also better figure out the interaction of AI and shop classes. Where will AI enhance traditional trades? Where will it threaten traditional trades? These are critical issues for students to have long-term careers that don’t disappear in the next few years.
Wayne Gretzky nailed it: “I skate to where the puck will be, not where it’s been.”
I view shop class as an important part of my high school experience.
While I was employed in the corporate world, I used the skills learned in shop class to save a lot of money remodeling several homes and doing general repairs.
Unlike my fellow corporate workers who had to hire contractors, plumbers, and electricians to do the work.
And because of the saving I made, I retired early and my cohorts worked until they were 65.
It was insurance costs for the classes that got them cut.
My 8th grade shop teacher (as God is my witness) had 9 fingers.
I took shop classes through high school and the one I benefited most was drafting class...That got me interested in engineering and I went on to design engineering and retired from GE as a Design Engineer...
My grandson however, in the eleventh grade today, is in a sophisticated shop class, involving complicated projects and plane and solid geometry. I'm impressed.
“While I was employed in the corporate world, I used the skills learned in shop class to save a lot of money remodeling several homes and doing general repairs.”
Ditto.
I wonder if the elites want kids learning these skills.
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