Did you take shop class in jr./high school?

[Baz]

If so, what did you take and how did you like it?

For perspective....

My junior high years were 1965 through 1968.

High school years from 1969 to 1972.

Took printing, wood shop, and metal shop. We also had an automotive class but I got all that already from my Dad, who was a "car nut".

To this day I still have stuff I made from all 3!

I also feel it helped build my confidence in being handy with my hands in building and repairing things....something which has served me well throughout my life.

[Bill Douglas]

1973 to 1976 I took woodworking, tech drawing and engineering.

We were lucky to have a huge workshop full of old and new lathes, a furnace, a milling machine. Some of the old lathes were big long ones that had been used to make heavy artillery guns during WW2.

This stuff alongside the usual maths, science and English. Yep, I liked it all. But mainly I liked things made of steel.


Edit. I was a farm boy and had to fix things. If you got someone in to do it you would go broke. Plus lots of hard work such as digging post holes, building fences, carting hay bales..

[rwest]

Hi Baz,

In Junior High we were required to take wood shop, cooking and sewing- this would have been early 80s.

I think this was a great way to teach kids some life skills.

I sewed a skateboard pillow if memory serves and made a decoupage wooden cut out of the state of MN. They also had us do a few electrical and plumbing repairs.

In HS I took a couple elective wood shop classes, which I don’t think taught me much as far as fine wood working- I remember turning a few bowls and making some banks.

I was a pretty small kid and the age for smoking was 16yrs and the smoking area was down at the end of the shop hallway- I was a bit scared that the “tough” kids would pick on me, but they never did.

We need to bring back the manual skill classes to the schools, not everyone is going to grow up to be an office manager.

Rutager

[KFC911]

Yep ... wood shop in 7th & 8th grade ('73 & '74). Don't know what happened to the gun rack that used to be in my bedroom, but the long Mohagany enclosed shelf thingy is still above my old bed tho'

I also worked in a machine shop for three summers after graduating hs....

[Baz]

Originally Posted by KC911

Yep ... wood shop in 7th & 8th grade ('73 & '74). Don't know what happened to the gun rack that used to be in my bedroom, but the long Mohagany enclosed shelf thingy is still above my old bed tho'

I also worked in a machine shop for three summers after graduating hs....

I still have both my gun rack and my shelves!

And a letter holder that looks like a horse....lol.....

[cantdrv55]

I took wood shop and drafting in high school. I thought I’d become an architect but that didn’t pan out. Loved both classes though.

[Sooner or later]

Yes, 9th grade. Gun rack.

[Scott Douglas]

Let's see, jr high I took every shop class offered. They had a full suite of offerings. Print shop, wood, metal, industrial arts and drafting. I still use the desk caddy I made in wood shop.
In high school I took all the auto shop I could, which was kind of hard to do being a university prep type student too. Took machine shop too, which was quite the experience. My sister had taken it the year before and was top student in the class. I knew the teacher (Mr. Smith) always gave the girls in the class an advantage by starting projects and handing them to the girls to complete. It was tough because there were two of them in my class. I still ended up as the top student and he acknowledged how hard I had had to work to do it. And yes, he remembered my older sister so knew the familial pressure I was under.
On graduation from high school my auto shop teacher (Mr. Johnson) told me he looked up my school records and saw that I was only one class short of completing an Industrial Arts major as well as the Uni prep.
I recently was able to get in touch with Mr. J. and told him how much what he had taught me in his class had helped me throughout my life. His methodology of diagnosing problems for the Plymouth Trouble Shooting contest have stayed with me. I was able to participate in it way back when. I would have been a two time participant but my junior year he chose the senior team even though my partner and I were faster in the practice runs he ran us through. It was always inspiring to walk into his class room and see the trophies his past teams had won on the national level.

[stevej37]

I took all the shop classes through HS 69-71...but the one class that I regret not taking was
building trades class.
It was only available to take in the senior year and the students built a whole house, ground up, and it was sold at the end of the year on bids.

A sell-supporting class that taught a lot of building skills.

Every year produced a new home....they are all in the same general area yet.

[billybek]

I still have the fish bonker that I made in grade 7 or 8.

[A930Rocket]

In junior high school, I took metal shop, wood shop and drafting all three years. In high school (75-76), I took some kind of automotive shop my sophomore and junior years.

I still have several things I made from wood shop and metal shop.

[LWJ]

I took wood shop in HS. Maybe a full year? Not sure.

But the real education was in my dad’s shop at our home. Big metal shop. Still has it. Mill, several lathes, shaper, and several tons of useful crap I will need to dispose of some day soon.

[herr_oberst]

Wasn't offered.

[red-beard]

Didn't get wood working. Did metal shop, print shop/photography, and a very good electronics class in high school. I also ended up in 2 home-ec classes, cooking and sewing. Very useful skills.

[McLovin]

Print shop 2 years. That was a good one for the future! Learned typesetting on huge printing presses and developing film in the darkroom.

Wood shop, ceramics (still have some of my projects), typewriting and “home economics” which was cooking and sewing from what I remember. The only thing I remember cooking was English muffin pizzas.

Also took some kind of auto shop class. This was in the late 70s or early 80s. My written project was on the new technology of fuel injection, why it was superior to carbs and was the future all cars. My teacher disagreed on that last bit, because it was “too hard to work on.”

Haven’t done much typesetting or darkroom work in the last 40 years, but learning to type was helpful, also I still have a sewing machine and do some repairs (car covers and other such manly things).

[Jolly Amaranto]

7th grade I had a semester of wood shop and one of sheet metal shop. 8th grade started out in combustion engine shop. We broke down and rebuilt Briggs & Stratton and Tecomseh mower engines. Next was going to be automobile engines but my family moved from New Hampshire to Guam mid semester before that happened. On Guam I got shoehorned into drafting but caught up real fast and really liked that. Then it was wood shop again for the final half year of 8th grade. But it was more advanced stuff than I did in 7th grade in New Hampshire. Power tools instead of hand tools. 9th grade (was called Industrial Arts instead of Shop on Guam) was electricity, pluming and air conditioning. Well rounded practical education all in all.

[sc_rufctr]

"Did you take shop class in jr./high school?"

I did in High School and it was fantastic.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Wasn't offered.

Well FWIW, Herr Oberst - the skills that you now possess to fabricate, repair, create, and build things sure don't seem to reflect it.

Not to mention how well organized you are with your tools, etc.

A big attaboy from the collective, sir!

[porsche930dude]

Yes i took as many shop classes as i could. year 1998-2003. Mostly to get out of real classes and do something that interested me. It was 7th and 8th grade shop class and home-ec. Made model rockets , clip boards, cd racks and such. Then in high school it was basic electrical, wood working, technical drawing. I made a few benches and i remember my brother made a skateboard. He cut down wood on a big band saw and laminated it all in shape. we didnt have any auto or metal shop available. The wood shop / technical drawing teacher also was a luthier for many years he tried to make it an elective and succeded. One of my friends took the class it was very difficult i dont think he fully finished his guitar but he went on to a violin making school in Salt lake city. Anyway in the last two years of high school we had a program that you could go to vocational school for half the day. My brother went for auto shop and i went for carpentry. It was great. I went on to be a carpenter and my brother a mechanic and he still is. But they had all kinds of classes. Heavy equipment, welding, electrical, auto body, small engine, cad, cosmotology, cullinary, supermarket. It was called Boces and kids from all the area schools could go there even adults but they had to pay for the classes

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Baz

Well FWIW, Herr Oberst - the skills that you now possess to fabricate, repair, create, and build things sure don't seem to reflect it.

Not to mention how well organized you are with your tools, etc.

A big attaboy from the collective, sir!

Thanks, man!