Trans_Maro wrote: My wife keeps it in her purse...
Trans_Maro wrote: My wife keeps it in her purse...
never had shop class... but I do remember getting bit by a 009 distributer in a VW with a Bosch Blue Coil hooked up to it. Worst part was.. there were no springs to hold the rear decklid up.. so I got it in the hand turning the distributer AND the one holding the decklid off of my head
mad_machine wrote: ...never had shop class...
That's the sad thing here.
Saying nothing about mad machine's experience, "shop" is just not done in high schools anymore. Some of us were raised to know that there was more to life than just what you read in books.. sometimes you just had to have hands-on experience. My father coerced me into taking Latin 101 in 1967, explaining that shop was for the "dumb kids".
I failed Latin miserably.
The next year, I graduated shop with a 98 average.
You do the math. And conjugate properly
Shop is still viewed as "for the dumb kids."
And the kids believe you shouldn't have to read, sketch, add, measure, etc. in a shop class. They ~expect~ it to be dumb. Or at least cater to and perpetuate "dumb."
It's a societal thing. Until we can change society's view of trades, nothing will change.
We all "say" that trades are important, and that all kids should take a shop class.... "but not my kid - my kid's going to university."
Should be simple enough to change society's view.
Have all the tradespeople take a vacation for a month.
If I had a kid, he'd damn sure take shop class. If it's not for him, then off to university he goes. If he likes getting greasy, there's more than enough tech schools out there.
Shawn
As far as respect for tradesmen (or anyone else with "less than" a degree), Tyler Durden says it best: Do not berkley with us.
NYG95GA wrote:mad_machine wrote: ...never had shop class...That's the sad thing here. Saying nothing about mad machine's experience, "shop" is just not done in high schools anymore. Some of us were raised to know that there was more to life than just what you read in books.. sometimes you just had to have hands-on experience. My father coerced me into taking Latin 101 in 1967, explaining that shop was for the "dumb kids". I failed Latin miserably. The next year, I graduated shop with a 98 average. You do the math. And conjugate properly
My school did not even offer it. It was definatly a "college prep" school.. and I had the classes and grades to actually gain college credits in my senior year.. I have a degree in communications.. I much prefer to get my hands dirty
I certainly meant nothing personal in my post, it's just that my schooling was so weird. It was a male-only high school, with mandatory ROTC. We'd eat lunch after biology class, then screw with the coaches/sargeants/teachers, then shoot .22 rifles in an indoor shooting range. We marched. We fought. We blew E36 M3 up. 'Nam was in full swing, and they were grooming us to be cannon fodder. It was a much different time.
Sorry, I just needed to vent...
Oh, hey, I didn't take any of it as personal. I know we all here believe and value in trades and blue-collar stuff, even if some of us are very white-collar. I tend to get quite animated about how I think the world should be run.
When my totalitarian dictatorship comes to power, I assure you the world will be a very different place. Not saying better, just very different.
OOOoo Oooo
I have a list of "First against the wall when the revolution comes" I would like to contribute.
Shawn
NYG95GA wrote: I certainly meant nothing personal in my post, it's just that my schooling was so weird. It was a male-only high school, with mandatory ROTC. We'd eat lunch after biology class, then screw with the coaches/sargeants/teachers, then shoot .22 rifles in an indoor shooting range. We marched. We fought. We blew E36 M3 up. 'Nam was in full swing, and they were grooming us to be cannon fodder. It was a much different time. Sorry, I just needed to vent...
No prob. Although I didn't attend a school like yours, guys like me who were just a lil' behind you in age were scared to death of going to Vietnam. Half of us were busting ass to get grades good enough to get a college deferrment, and the other half were trying to get into ROTC on purpose so they'd be "officers" if they had to go (seems they didn't understand how the "90-day wonders" would be treated by the men in the field when they arrived..).
Yeah, a very different time.
Trans_Maro wrote: My favourite was pointing the timing light at the fan and going "Holy E36 M3, your fan isn't turning" Every semester I could get a fellow student to stick his finger in the fan.
If I'd been taking a drink when I read this, you'd owe me a keyboard, Shawn!
friedgreencorrado wrote: No prob. Although I didn't attend a school like yours, guys like me who were just a lil' behind you in age were scared to death of going to Vietnam. Half of us were busting ass to get grades good enough to get a college deferrment, and the other half were trying to get into ROTC *on purpose* so they'd be "officers" if they had to go (seems they didn't understand how the "90-day wonders" would be treated by the men in the field when they arrived..).
ya, they had no idea that 2nd Lt.'s were used as shields by the more experienced grunts... there was nearly zero respect for 2nd Lt.s ... if you made it as far as Capt. there was a chance you'd come home up right...
NYG95GA wrote: I certainly meant nothing personal in my post, it's just that my schooling was so weird. It was a male-only high school, with mandatory ROTC. We'd eat lunch after biology class, then screw with the coaches /sargeants /teachers,
I had a feeling that's how male only schools usually went.
Wally wrote:NYG95GA wrote: I certainly meant nothing personal in my post, it's just that my schooling was so weird. It was a male-only high school, with mandatory ROTC. We'd eat lunch after biology class, then screw with the coaches /sargeants /teachers,I had a feeling that's how male only schools usually went.
We'd mess with the sargeants (steal the coil wire from their car, throw their cover on the roof, etc.), but nobody ever screwed with the Major. He was a black belted, golden gloved military man in charge of a school full of kids who were young, dumb and full of.. kids armed with Garand M1 rifles (w/o firing pins 
), and he took absolutely NO crap from anyone.
Except for this one big dude from the football team. He got in the Major's face about something one day, and the Major told the guy to meet him in the gym, with his boxing gloves on...... Poor guy never had a chance.. to merely say he took an ass whipping would not do justice to the phrase. The hapless fellow had to sit out a couple of games with a broken jaw, but I heard his GPA went up quite a bit after that. I think he just wanted to get the hell outa there.
If an instructor or administator did that these days, the school would be sued for a gazillion dollars. Back then, nobody even muttered a word about it.
Yeah.. it was a different time.
every now and then you run into an example of how the "old" ways work better than the PC new ways...
SkinnyG wrote: Shop is still viewed as "for the dumb kids." It's a societal thing. Until we can change society's view of trades, nothing will change.
I don't want things to change. I want to continue to make more money than the university educated people. 
NYG95GA wrote: I certainly meant nothing personal in my post, it's just that my schooling was so weird. It was a male-only high school, with mandatory ROTC. We'd eat lunch after biology class, then screw with the coaches/sargeants/teachers, then shoot .22 rifles in an indoor shooting range. We marched. We fought. We blew E36 M3 up. 'Nam was in full swing, and they were grooming us to be cannon fodder. It was a much different time. Sorry, I just needed to vent...
Sounded like fun. I was the odd ball that wanted to go to military school...
wbjones wrote: every now and then you run into an example of how the "old" ways work better than the PC new ways...
I'm a "left-winger", and I approve this message. It seriously tees me off that leftist thinking has gone off on that stupid tangent, instead of focusing on our core values.
I guess the best example I could give to my "rightie" friends is to say some of on the left feel the same way about the PC E36 M3 as some of you "Goldwater conservatives" do about the Religious Right. Unfortunately, there ain't enough of us yet...
zomby woof wrote:SkinnyG wrote: Shop is still viewed as "for the dumb kids." It's a societal thing. Until we can change society's view of trades, nothing will change.I don't want things to change. I want to continue to make more money than the university educated people.
Well said. The best mechanic at my old Corner Worker buddy's indie SAAB shop usually made six figures a year (late 80s-early 90s) with no problem.
My shop story:
In metal shop, we were making toolboxes. I accidentally cut off a little 1/4" tab from the end of my piece, and the shop teacher told me to get the metal stretcher from the wood shop teacher. So I walk down the hall and ask for a metal stretcher. He told me the auto shop teacher borrowed it. So I walk down the hall again and ask for a metal stretcher. He tells me the photo shop teacher had it last. So I walk down the hall again and ask for a metal stretcher. When I saw all the teachers in the hallway laughing, I realized that the joke was on me. Measure twice, cut once!
My highschool didn't offer shop class either, although about 5 years after I graduated they expanded the school and added a really nice facility for building/construction trades. If you wanted to take some kind of shop class, you had to get special permission from your guidance counsellor, parents, principal, etc and then you could go to another highschool that offered shop for half the day and take classes there. That made it very difficult though, because that highschool had 8 classes a day and you took those classes from september to june whereas my school had 4 classes a day that you took from september to january or february to june.
My university did have a metal stretcher though: Random tensile test video
Bob
IOnce, a long time ago, I was a marine mechanic, and was replacing the magneto on a customer's generator. And he would NOT shut up or go away. So, I put the high tension lead in the new magneto and told him to hold on to it. He's holding the mag, and wait, for it, wait for it, TURNS the mag's shaft. I HEARD the spark! "something wrong??" says I as the mag hits the ground, he yelps, runs off, and I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing. I suppose it was nasty to do, but at the time...
neon4891 wrote: Sounded like fun. I was the odd ball that wanted to go to military school...
In reality, though I wrote it to sound grueling, there were lots of positive aspects. There were no girls around, so we were free to be guys.. just a bunch of guys.
We got to play with (impotent) firearms, which was pretty cool, although there is nothing like grabbing an M1 out of the air that has been thrown at you by someone 2 ranks ahead, without moving your head (crack squad).
My favorite part (and one that will be appreciated by this board), was mornings before school in the parking lot. People would swipe their mom's bottle of clorox, or their dad's used motor oil to form a "bleach box" where we would do burnouts before class. FYI, if you have enough guys standing in front of the car, you can even raise a huge plume of tire smoke with a '71 Pinto. Don't ask me how I know.. There was barely such a thing as a Honda Civic at the time.
The administration rarely said anything about it.. well, except when they had to resurface the parking lot. Then they added speed bumps.
The speed bumps were gone by lunchtime...
i changed schools between 9th grade and 10th... I took wood shop in 9th... couldn't take metal untill 10th and auto till 11th... same teacher taught all 3...
looking back yes it was primarily idiots in there... which is why I was a teachers pet in the class... I loved the fact that we built furniture instead of nic-nacs... I built a few extra things because of the extra time I had not being an idiot... prob helped that I built my 1st stool with hand tools when I was 6 or 7... well dad did let me use the power sander... had I not moved the next year i'd have been in both metal and auto shop (could get around the 11th grade rule with teacher permission)... but alas we moved to Panama city, FL... none of the schools had real "shop class"... if you wanted to do that you got bussed off to the tech school with all the other pot heads...
You'll need to log in to post.
