You guys were lucky. My school did not offer any of those classes.

Bad Boys Ripe Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingley. :D (misspelling is intentional)

Wood shop - 7th/8th/9th
Metal shop - 9th/10th sheetmetal, welding, forging, metal lathe, etc.
Print shop - 8th/9th old-fashion printing presses where you set the individual typeset letters and printed newsletters, greeting cards, invitations, etc.
Drafting - 9th/10th/11th/12th which lead to my career as an engineer.

All of them = invaluable.

7th and 8th grade woodworking and then metal shop.

9th grade, went to Catholic high so no shop.

10th I started out with 6 months of machine shop. Then I switched to beauty culture and hairdressing. You know, the shop class all the girls took. I figured it was a brilliant move. Of course my friends destroyed me off the bat. When I pointed out , "Hey you are stuck with a bunch of dudes, I'm spending half the day with hot babes". They were like hmmm.. never thought of that. :D

Needless to say I didnt last long in that class, and moved on to auto shop for the rest of high school, which was a waste, because i know about 80% of it already from working along side my big brother on his hot rods since i was little. I should have went back to machine shop.

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I was a shop teacher, Wood shop and architecture after college for about 6 -7 years. Economy was bad so I took the job due to being secure. Tell ya, I was in hell for the first year only because I didn't know how to deal with teenagers especially walking off from a cabinet business into a school. After a year or two, I got the hang of how to deal with the rough kids from the "Avenues" then it become fun. I left because I couldn't stand the political views and BS from the faculty and not to mention the money was much better running my business.

I did take Machine, more drawing, and even welding classes in a community college after high school when I had the time. I did eventually take auto repair much later but the instructor was a bone head and didn't learn a thing, so I left. He was so much into theory and book learning instead of tearing someone out to show us how to perform the repair. I call him on it and he threw my ass out. Most people felt the same way but they didn't want to buck him. Many were younger, some were immigrants that spoke limited English. That was a class that would help with getting employment.

Had wood shop, metal shop,and sewing
built my mom a abadab shelf, when she died I took the shelf to the motel I was staying at.
The Ester Lee Motel in Lincoln city Oregon room 301 I mounted it to the wall. Next time I am up there I will see if it is still there.

Nothing offered in 6th through 8th grade, but I went to a vocational-technical program high school where you select a program and stay with it. Drafting and design was my choice, but machine shop, woodshop, building trades, automotive tech, electronics, radio broadcasting, nursing were all options for others. 1 hour of drafting per day in 9th and 10th grades, and 3 hours per day in 11th and 12th grades, but I got a job at a local surveying firm as a draftsman, so I got out of school two hours early each day for the last semester. Some of the best training I ever received!

I remember learning how to use tin snips when I made that little metal box.

And had to fold the edges down.

But first --- cutting off the corners.

How about using a hand scroll saw to make that little letter holder.

Our shop teacher in high school was one of the most beloved teachers in the entire building.

He was in fact everyone's surrogate father......

Took metal shop, drafting, and wood shop.

Side story: There was a kid in wood shop named Irving Smith. When we were all making our little projects, he was making a kayak. It had a wood frame and fabric covering - beautiful thing. We never knew how much ahead he was of the rest of us. He was a real adventurer. Used his kayak on local rivers and was into rock climbing. None of us were advanced enough to think about getting involved in things like that. During our junior year, he was climbing in Yosemite and fell to his death (Chimney Spire ???, Don't remember exactly now). I think he would have contributed a lot, if he had lived.

Sixth grade at an NYC school, took home economicss and wood shop. To this day I can make a mean French omelette. I also still have a table lamp that I made. The varnish has darkened a lot so I plan to refinish it at some point.

In 9th grade at a NJ high school, I took a year of drafting. To this day, I'm astounded by what I was capable of drawing by the end of the year. I'm still proud of mastering the ruling pen.

One interaction that deeply affected me in wood shop sticks with me to this day. I walked up to Mr. Eisenberg and asked him if the piece I was working on was good enough. He looked at me over the top of his glasses and asked "is it? What do you think?" I went back and continued working on it.

Our jr. highschool had a woodshop and the classes were called Industrial Arts back in the day. The boys did the I/A and the girls did home economics. I don't believe there choice back then, you just did what your gender assigned you to do.
Highschool presented many more options.
Welding. Did three years.
Electronics. One option year.
Automotives. Two option years.
I actually took typing for two years too. My classmates were generally much more appealing than those in my shop classes!;)
Our school also had a sheet metal shop and a wood shop.
I do not believe that there would be a similarly outfitted public high school left in the city at this point in time.

Yes, but bringing back bad memories. 8th grade wood teacher was a dick.

We made cutting boards out of a hunk of 1x pine. Didn't let us use power tools, although shop was well equipped with drill presses, sanders, lathes, a table saw and bandsaws. He would occasionally come by as we were (hand)sanding and scratch a deep "X" on the cutting board and tell us to sand it off......

I was an electronics nerd, so switched to electronics in HS. Tested alot of tubes those days, and changed quite a few leaking capacitors.... Had amateur and commercial licenses, and went on to Electrical engineering and computers.

Then made a career out of using wood. Go figure.

I thought I was pretty lucky with the shop classes (Electrical, masonry and automotive) I was offered in HS but I am truly impressed by some of the ones you guys have taken.

I actually took a "Shop" class at the University of Houston in the early 70s. It was called Materials and Processes. I learned to weld there. They started out with stick welding and when you got proficient at that, moved on to MIG. Wow, what a difference. Learned to program an early NC mill that used paper tape. Learned to set up and use all kinds of big machines from lathes, mills (both horizontal and vertical), surface grinders and a punch press. Even did a little precision tool and die making. Covered heat treating, first annealing and then tempering and much more.

Electrical class was fun. Sometimes we had to have somebody man the breaker box they were tripping so often.

I did, in 1984/5---7th grade. It was called industrial arts at my school

I remember making a cutting board and a box out of tin...maybe it was a letter holder and I think it hung on the wall? My mom used the cutting board for a while until it warped.

In the 70s before a career change, my dad was a shop teacher in the same junior high but was gone by the time i got there. i remember going to the shop with him on a saturday for whatever reason and playing around with tools which is where i got my first blood blister

Shop class in my high school was from grade 9 to 12. Nothing before that.
It was a basic shop and all the less academic kids were bussed to the next town that had a full shop.
I took all 4 years and they were composed of classroom for the first half of the semester and in the shop for the second half. Drafting, electrical, woodworking and welding. Basic stuff. I still have the pot pipe I made!
I had 100% in drafting and that's what got me into the printing trade for the last 40 years.

I remember being in 6th grade and just before 'graduation' they took us all over to the junior high school to show us around. I could not wait to get into those shop classes. They wouldn't let us take summer school that summer so I had to wait until 7th grade started before I could get into a class. I took summer school every summer after that to get the academic classes out of the way so I'd have a free period for shop class. This went on thru high school. I was pissed when a counselor in high school wouldn't allow me to take a descriptive geometry class during summer. I'd met a guy who'd made a really cool Tiffany style lamp shade and he told me he used his descriptive geometry to make it.
About a month before graduating, Mr. Johnson asked what I was going to major in at college. I told him biology since I'd just aced my bio final. He said I should think about becoming a shop teacher. All I could think about was how the heck did he put up with all the punk kids that ended up in his shop class. I would've tossed most of 'em out pronto.
To this day I really appreciate how much patience he exhibited with those kids and could see he really did enjoy having the few good kids that, every once in a while, would be in his class.

I went to a small Catholic HS.
No shop classes offered.

But my father was a carpenter and cabinet maker. I would work with him nights, weekends and all summers. Best shop class ever, I still use what I learned all the time.

Thanks Dad!

My brother and I learned so much stuff from our dad before we were even out of jr high it wasn't even funny.
At ages 10 and 12 he bought all the tools needed to replumb the house using galvanized pipe. We learned how measure, cut and thread galvanized pipe and were still small enough to crawl under the house so we got the job.
After that we learned how to put a roof on. Asphalt shake shingles + roll roofing on the family room.
He also had us rebuilding the family car engine a few years into high school.