NEVER LET A SCHOOL SHOP FIX ANYTHING

[Bird]

I'm sure things have changed in the last 25-30 years, but back then my teenage daughter (at the time) did some pretty serious damage to the front end of my Dodge pickup and had it repaired in the high school shop. I don't remember what it cost, but it was a bargain price and they did a good job.

 

[deereman75]

I am not talking about trade school or a prision, I am talking about the local high school, with 3 hours a week in shop. When I say the school shop has a bad reputation, I mean that like people often dont get things like chainsaws or garden equipment back when they take it to the school to get fixed, and sometimes they give things back in worse shape.

Also, I am in high school right now, and most people there have no work ethic, and the shop classes are often full of people who dont care about learning at all, and just dont want to do any other classes.

 

[wrenchturner]

OK, so you are in high school right now. If anybody should know how high school students are it should be you. Maybe you are part of the problem and apparently so bad mouthing the shop teacher knowing how students your age are.

 

[deereman75]

I am not bad mouthing the shop teacher, I know him very well. I am saying not to take things to a school shop because of the students. If it was the teacher doing the work, I would defenatly take it there. But knowing who will be working on it, and how useless most students in shop class are now, I would certanly not. For example in wood shop, people were throwing scraps of wood at the disc sander to see how far they would go flying, now one of those pieces missed the teachers head by 1 inch, and they kept doing it. People are always goofing off in shop class, and there is a good chance someone will hit something important with a hammer.

 

[wrenchturner]

Trust me. If anybody understands how high school students are it would be you and me. I have been teaching high school students auto tech for 17 years. I have seen the best and worst. I have many former students that are now very successful but on the other end one is serving 25 years for first degree manslaughter committed at the age of seventeen. I kept telling him he would get into more trouble than he could get out of and he did.

In spite of poor behavior from a minority of the students, many many successful major repairs have been performed under my supervision. We have rebuilt engines, automatic transmissions, diagnosed difficult electronic concerns and so on. Unfortunately, I now do not take work in from the public anymore for just the reasons you stated. Too many students want to play around knowing nothing serious will happen to them. One of my students from last semester got into a fist fight with the high school coach. What happened to the student? Out of school suspension for a week. Had that happened in the 70's the student would have gotten his *** whipped three times. Once by the coach, once by the principal and at least once when he got home. Then, he would have been expelled.

Politicians keep searching for the fix for public education. They keep searching for answers looking for a panacea to fix all the problems not knowing what the root cause is. I have identified the root cause. It is the PUBLIC.

 

[crbr]

I guess you have not taught school "lately" most of these kids today care about very little. You have to be half policeman and half teacher. Turn your back for 5 min and they are into something. Teaching today is not fun any more because of the cut backs, parents that use the school as a sitter and so many kids don't want to try ... China will beat us, because they go to school 10 hrs a day 6 days a week. Our country is in a sad state because of the current education system, and it gets worse every year.

China and Japan has had this country beat for 30 years. That is the real sadness. That and the fact that this system is not willing to change. Our school system here in my area is pathetic. Not in that is is rock-bottom bad, but pathetic because of all of the room and opportunities for changes to the better. School board? They are a product of the same said (and sad) school system.

Is is the public... indeed... all part of the same schooling.

 

[crazyal]

The worse thing about this is that it's so easy to get most of these students to care. Back in my day I learned because if I wanted a car I had to fix it to get it running and repair it as it broke. These kids would learn if they didn't have everything given to them and if they wanted a car they had to learn and fix one up.

 

[xtn]

Yes, I believe it's a two -part problem... spoiled and lack of real discipline.

 

[Soundguy]

yikes back when i was in high school, our power mechanics class, wood shop ( called construction ) and electronics shop did great work.

I was a 3rd year electronics student more or less in charge of repairs in the lab. I'd say we fixed 90% of the stuff that came in.. with 5% more being unobtainable parts issues, and 3% being plain out 'fried' unrepairable equipment, and an even division of 1% being unable to secure a schematic or diagnostic info needed on a complex system, and a measly 1% of plain old.. ' we got stumped and couldn't fix it '.

power mechanics may have beat electronics.. and construction weren't far behind...

soundguy

Thought I would chime in as I have taught a school shop for 22 years and let me tell you I would not bring anything in for kids to work on . They could tear up a anvil. That being said everyone wants something fixed for nothing and hope the kids or the instructor will fix thier car for free. Now in the kids deffence they think they know everything but know nothing. And have patience for about 5 min and out comes the hammer. Yes i try to watch but you can't watch 20 plus kids all the time and it takes a second to screw up. Here we have everyone that brings in something sign a release and i tell them that chances of the kids fixing it are slim to none. Bottom line is people looking for something for nothing. Its funny though every year we have high school kids going into medical field and never do they ask them to perfrom heart surgery. The kids learn by making mistakes and trust me they don't learn the first time. So my advise is don't take anything in to a high school shop that you care about' want to see agian'. But if you have something that you dont care about that is what makes good shop projects for the kids they do try hard just dont always turn out so good.

 

[wrenchturner]

Back in the day cars were very elementary compared to todays cars. Back then if you shorted a wire you just blew a fuse. Today that wire means a $1000 or more computer and you still have not fixed the original problem. Now, whose going to get the blame for that?