This isn’t a new thought, as highlighted below, but this does need to be a growing trend. Teaching the youth that not only is it acceptable to work with your hands, it is also very rewarding. The process of creating something, and then being able to hold it in your hand, can have a profound effect on a kid’s desire to learn more…
This story shows a Representative in Colorado who is trying to get funding for vocational classes.
A few years ago, Time Magazine published a piece titled, Why Schools Need to Bring Back Shop Class.
The Technology & Manufacturing Association reports in their News Bulletin how America’s Future is in the high school shop class, and it’s up to marketing geniuses to focus on re-branding it in the minds of American students and parents. Why?
Because the state of American manufacturing has been facing a well-known hurdle–the manufacturing skills gap. Companies nationwide are collaborating with local associations and educational organizations to develop strategic and tactical solutions in areas of the greatest need.
One major challenge the industry faces is attracting students to be the next generation of manufacturers.
RELATED: Why We Desperately Need To Bring Back Vocational Training In Schools
Throughout most of U.S. history, American high school students were routinely taught vocational and job-ready skills along with the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic. Indeed readers of a certain age are likely to have fond memories of huddling over wooden workbenches learning a craft such as woodwork or maybe metal work, or any one of the hands-on projects that characterized the once-ubiquitous shop class.
But in the 1950s, a different philosophy emerged… (Continue to full article)
Written by Jason Blount for Made in America ~ December 16, 2019