Formal Training?

[tjus77]

Learned how to drive on my uncle's IH. We drove it all over and cut small pastures for money from 10-14yo. Implements I learned from watching others firsthand and YouTube.

 

[Williy]

I have the YT235C and the dealer gave me a
manual it is full of safety stuff many many pages
on safety. One funny is I have a sticker by the
diesel fuel tank saying danger explosive
The ground here is almost flat with a little slope
from the back to the front. I do drive with the bucket
high in the air but not much weight in the bucket &
I drive slow when I come up to the pile I want to add
to it. In the military I drove fork lifts wide open in the
warehouse with pallets of canned goods and only had maybe 5 ot 6 inches of clearance on either side but was on concrete we did a lot of things in the military they say you shouldn't do and nobody ever got hurt.

willy

 

[wolc123]

I took a tractor safety and trading class offered by our county 4-H club when I was about 12. They taught the basics, maintenence, etc and really stress safety. No riders other than the operator was a rule that stuck with me.

 

[Gord Baker]

These days they don't even teach kids how to write. If you have a mechanical aptitude and willing relatives and neighbours and are lucky enough to get to work at a real Garage, you pick it up.
I can still clean up a windshield in record time with no streaks! I worked for gas money. The 409 took a lot but Premium was .32¢ per Imperial Gallon.... Pricey stuff!

 

[OzarkChris]

Sure, we had all those "real world" classes. FFA, shop, driving, home economics, sewing, and typing. Some of the shop classes - like the wood lathe - were scary - and probably impossible by today's standards.
And of course everyone who didn't have to go work played some sort of sport after school.
It was a nice time, but very busy.

The school my young friends talk about is much different now. They seem more socially skilled. My old generation suffered socially and still is.
But today's kids have to learn how to do a lot of things on their own. Some do, but end up with large knowledge gaps that they aren't even aware of in things like materials, basic leverage, plumbing, electricity - all stuff that school could have taught them as it did for us.

Unfortunately, today's "city" schools has too much time teaching diversity, white privilege, etc to teach extra-curricular (important) classes. My daughter graduated in the mid 90's and never had the opportunity to take shop, 4-H, home-economics, etc while she was living w/my ex in a larger city because the courses weren't offered. She was; however, forced to take eubonics, cultural awareness, racism & sexism classes. Go figure.

 

[ultrarunner]

Posted earlier about no shop or drivers Ed and yes it was Insurance related.

What we did have was Home Economics for guys called Bachelor Survival which was popular...

Planning meals, budgeting, etc... the most expensive shirt I own is the one I made in High School... buying fabric and pattern and sewing it up... again my most expensive shirt!

I still use things I learned...

 

[88S2PLAY]

I took a year of “Farm Implements and Equipment” in Junior High. I was living in semi rural Oregon, and the state had a ”Farm Implements” license you could get at 14, if you had formal training in how to operate equipments and implements safely. You could work the family farm without it. But, to go run equipment for anyone else you had to have the license. Thus the Junior and Senior High schools had classes. And, the teacher signed off on your training. I took it so I could start driving tractors and counting flats, on the berry farms, instead of picking fruit.

Out of curiosity how many folks have had any kind of formal training on their equipment and attachments?

When I was in sixth grade at age ten, I started learning all the farm skills accredited by 4H. I was allowed to drive on the public roads with farm use plates on the Deere tractors up to ten miles from the farm in NJ. I did dairy farming in Vincent town hand milking a hundred Holstine cows in the herd twice a day with five other people, seven days a week.

 

[OzarkChris]

Question for those driving on the road pre 16... what did you do for insurance?

If I recall correctly, bear with me as that was 50+ years ago , I believe if you had a farm permit, you and the vehicle was either covered by your parents/guardians auto insurance or by the umbrella coverage at the farm.

 

[MoKelly]

Posted earlier about no shop or drivers Ed and yes it was Insurance related.

What we did have was Home Economics for guys called Bachelor Survival which was popular...

Planning meals, budgeting, etc... the most expensive shirt I own is the one I made in High School... buying fabric and pattern and sewing it up... again my most expensive shirt!

I still use things I learned...

When my Mom passed, we were cleaning out some of her stuff.

She had old high school books, reports and grades.

She took a class as a senior called “How to be an ideal housewife”. You can imagine the chapters in the book - cooking, cleaning, making the beds, laundry, dressing, make-up and hair styling.

It was something to see.

She got an A!!!

MoKelly

 

[Mattmotors]

In high school, 76-77, I walked to school with books in one hand, shot gun in the other. I was in Rifle Club. Some kids brought their shot guns on the bus. We would put them in the trunk of the driver ed car. After school we would shuttle over to the local sportmans club to shoot clays. Fast forward to today , The kid next door drew a picture of a rifle and had to go to the Principals office. Do they even have shop anymore?