Steven Antonucci
I think it can be summarized in two basic problems:

First, "shop" classes are not promoted towards the honors student. Quite the contrary, it's a place where the lesser students can "go hide out" and not have to think too much. (my opinion) Yet, most successful craft people I know are pretty smart? I think shop is better suited to the creative, intelligent type and poorly suited for "teaching a trade". I think that belongs in the vo-tech, but shop should be available as a creative outlet to the HS masses.

Secondly, my carving club meets in a local HS woodshop. When you walk in, there are lots of tall cases, a canoe, and other large scale projects. Why in the world would any HS shop teacher want to do this? For starters, every tool in the shop needs work. Secondly, the budget for the shop is minimal, and yet the students are using expensive plywood sheets like tissues. Lastly, the skill level is not up to that scale of work and the teacher cannot possibly help 25 people making a highboy in 50 minutes per day.

I think HS woodshop should refocus on craft instead of trade and scale down projects that not only make sense financially, but also work much more quickly for today's attention spans. It would be much more useful to teach patience and quality on an iPod case than a bookcase.

Steve