In the early days of public education, a course of study known as “industrial arts” was common in high schools across the country. These vocational classes included everything from mechanical drawing to automotive repairs, from furniture making to electrical wiring. The classes offered practical skill training primarily to two types of students: The male student who demonstrated a real interest and aptitude in an industrial art, or the male student assessed as a low achiever needing, and hopefully benefiting from, vocational training.
For many years, freshmen students from the general school population were required to take a few semesters in one or more ‘shop’ classes. These students most likely would not transfer to an industrial arts curriculum, but they would have a chance to explore a ‘trade.’
Most of the kids I knew in high school enjoyed the time spent in shop class. And what a novelty when during the ‘60s, girls could take wood shop and boys could take home economics. Equal opportunity at the shop class level had arrived. It was good for us, just as music and art were, but don’t get me started on those maligned enrichment classes.
As public education became more intent on measuring and testing students and as Federal and State guidelines promoted and required more reporting on the academic achievement (think MCAS and PARCC) via ‘data,’ the financial burden of offering classes that were deemed less important could no longer be supported. A quick check on the evolution of achievement testing philosophies brought me to the website http://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/87/Charting_Success.pdf, where I found the following statement: “In recent years, interest has spiked in data-driven decision making in education – that is, using various types of data, particularly quantitative assessment data, to inform a range of decisions in schools and classrooms (Marsh, Pane, & Hamilton, 2006). This is a natural result of technological changes, the advent of test-based accountability systems under No Child Left Behind, and the increased availability of quantitative data due to accountability reforms. The increased emphasis on using data is based on the belief that assessment data and other student performance data can be important levers for improved teaching and learning. Many schools, districts, and states have invested resources in tools designed to provide teachers, principals, and other key stakeholders with ready access to (and analysis of) information regarding student performance throughout the school year…
However, the field has yet to produce reliable evidence regarding the relationship between data use and teacher or school effectiveness at raising student achievement…” Please don’t send me hate mail.
My point is that as public schools have been pushed to operate more like corporations, some educational considerations have gone out the window like industrial arts. It seems to me that in general public education, it’s a numbers game and as long as a certain percentage of students are at or above the line, the administrations of these schools have achieved their goal. I am not faulting the teachers or the administrators. I am saying that with tightening budgets and increasing demands to produce educational results that may pull the U.S.A. out of the academic doldrums, there isn’t room for Industrial Arts. More’s the pity.
Thankfully, vocational education has come out of the shadows. Institutions of ‘trade’ based education are no longer places where students are sent if they fail at ‘regular’ public school. Today, vocational schools provide a high level of technical training in a wide variety of subject matter from commercial food preparation to cosmetology, nursing, machine repair, electrical, plumbing, automotive, to facility management (to name a few) for both boys and girls. And unlike years gone by, kids graduating from vocational technical high schools may also pursue a four-year degree. Perfect!
We are fortunate to have great vocational technical schools within driving distance. But are we dissuading our kids from pursuing a career in the trades? Are we still telling our children not to get their hands dirty unless they absolutely have to? Presently, we can’t offer students in public schools a tiny taste of a ‘trade’ as once was the case. We’ve segregated the themes of learning.
Somewhere along the way as modern societies evolved, we lost the value we placed on people who could ‘do’ things and replaced it with people who could ‘think’ things. We’ve lost sight that the people that ‘do’ things also have to ‘think’ things. So we told our children to use their brains, not their brawns, and become MBA’s. Today MBA’s are a dime a dozen, struggling to find employment while a good carpenter is a rare find.
When I worked in the electrical industry, there was a full-court press on to enroll young people in apprentice programs across the nation. I was fortunate to meet many students studying the electrical trade and was encouraged that they saw a future in becoming master electricians or journeymen, or electrical engineers. These men and women were some of the most focused, intelligent, and driven people I’ve ever met.
During the mid-1990s, the IBEW (unionized) and IEC (non-union independent) tracked electrical apprentice enrollments. They were shocked at the steep decline in numbers. Projections were showing that in as little as ten years, the number of qualified electricians would be less than half of the pre-recession number. That might not mean anything to you unless you need an electrician, and when you do find one he or she is most likely not a spring chicken.
People in the trades that are worth their salt are exceptional for the variety of things they must know. They must be customer service and business oriented, while possessing the patience and understanding of a social worker or sometimes a marriage counselor. They have to be visionaries with a high degree of technical competency and academic training. In other words, they have to have a business suit and work shirt set of skills.
I’m not saying we should encourage our children to take vocational education over general public school curriculums. What I am saying is that it is a crying shame that students in general public education settings no longer get a chance to try areas of study that might one day prove to be their yellow brick road to success.
When all is said and done, I think if teachers could candidly speak their minds they would agree that less testing and more teaching would help not hurt our children. I think teachers might like to see some of the money invested in testing materials being plowed into teaching materials. I think teachers should have a seat at the decision-making table when it comes to allocating available funds. My guess is that if teachers were allowed to make more decisions – instead of government telling school boards “test, test, test” – our students would, in fact, be better educated overall. As taxpayers, we should be screaming “stop the madness!”
By Marilou Newell
This explains the beginning of the present day shortage of skilled tradesmen. Shops were closed and replaced with computers. Industrial Arts knowledge is enhanced by computer science, but I’ve yet to call a computer expert to replace a faucet or install a new heating system. Wake up, America, and bring back Industrial Arts education.
I took woodshop classes from 7th to 12th grade and absolutely loved every day I was in it . In high school I ran out of woodworking classes to take so my instructor let me do independent study and man o ma n the furniture and projects I made . My senior year I had a new instructor that came up with a boatbuilding class that I was reluctantly forced to take . It was the first time I was put into a foreman , boss type roll , because I was one of the few who could read blueprints and follow directions . We built five canoes , floated them in the school pool , and auctioned them off at the end of the school year .I still have many of my school projects and furniture and right out of high school built furniture for customers . I went into custom cabinet making and home remodeling with an English master carpenter and from there decided to learn how to build homes . During my four year apprenticeship to become a journeyman carpenter I repeatedly had to assist other apprentices at the carpenter school in completing their projects which finally led me to believe I had to become my own boss . I’ve been building homes , furniture , remodeling , since 1984 and at 65 still love my profession . Just think , it really all started back in the seventh grade in industrial arts woodshop !
I took industrial arts classes during my years in Junior High School during the 1940s when they were a requirement of the Washington, D.C. Public School System, We were required to take a half semester each during our seventh and eighth grades, In the seventh we took printing and electricity, and in the eight woodwork and sheet metal. In the ninth grade we were given the choice of deciding whether we wanted to pursue one of the industrial arts offerings at a vocational or technical high school, college preparatory or general education path. I elected to make printing my chosen path. Upon completion of my high school studies, I was placed in a print shop as a linotype operator, I was fortunate to become co-owner of two shops, After six years of working in the private industry I was hired by the U.S. Government Printing Office as a linotype operator. Eight years later I was hired by the newly created Washington Technical Institute (without a college degree) to develop their Printing and Publishing curriculum. In the meantime, I acquired my B.S, degree in Teaching Technology, M.A. in Administration and Supervision of Adult Education and Ed.D in Administration of Higher Education. After serving 31 years I retired from the University as the Acting Dean of the College of Professional Studies. Since retirement I have authored three books: Bridgebuilders of Nauck/Green Valley, What an Amazing Journey, and Following the Trail of Trooper Alfred Pride – Buffalo Soldier. My career all started with an industrial arts class in printing. As an aside, I still have my wall shelf I made in my eighth grade on mu kitchen wall.