True,
In metal shop, I made a Guitar Stand for my Guild Artist Award Guitar.
There is nothing more mentally relaxing and satisfying than building something or banging a piece of metal into shape.

i remember typing. We had an old nasty bat named "Mrs Sklar", who would punish you with redoing things until perfect, as well as teaching each letter with the term "feel that reach".

Well, I took shop in HS and we had to make a metal piece of furniture. I made a hanging lamp from wrought iron. But we also had Automotive shop, where they would buy a junk car at the beginning of the year, totally rebuild it, including interior and paint, and then auction it at the end of the year, with the money going towards the next years class. There is no doubt in my military mind that the Progressive Education establishment has been working a program of removing anything that leads to independent thought, critical thinking, and rational decision making, over the last 40 years, and shop is one of the main targets. There is a reason a metric butt ton of parents either home school or private school, and that just lest the Progressive Education establishment work that much harder to program the ones that are left.

I see your point but what I have observed is that those that have been exposed to a wide variety of information and experience will likely be more integrated. There is a big difference between specialized compartmentalized knowledge and those more integrated with a driven propensity toward a particular area of knowledge and proficiency. We call the latter: one's essence.

Lets look at an example. Tesla, for instance. Although a lot of things we know today were not known then. My point is not to denigrate Tesla, I'm just showing the difference in being well rounded, not proficient at all things and only being profoundly proficient in one area having no knowledge of other related things.
So, lets look at his passion to send electricity into the air so everyone would be able to power their homes and business anywhere on the planet from one source. Had he been a bit more integrated with knowing that the sun and the cosmos frequently charges our atmosphere and the earth itself electrically, causing changes in brain activity in humans and animals, causing earthquakes from area's of earth that link up electrically with the sun's coronal hole streams; he would not have wasted so much time on that project and might of spent more time on perfecting individual units or at least found a way to "Amp-lify" the existing electricity normally in our atmosphere to be used as power and ways inwhich they could withstand an overcharging event like the Carrington event in 1860 that took our the telegraph lines.
Had he had knowledge of the natural cycles where it can be proven through history that these naturally occurring events correspond to mass chaos and collapses of civilization and food production he definitely would of changed course.
What I am referring to is wisdom from the mind opposed to just brain smart. One whom has wisdom, may make a mistake, but will recognize it and compensate...doing the right thing; where the brain only smart one's are more likely to just double down on the same way of doing things with no conscience.

This is why I say that we all should be at least exposed to as many things as possible with a heavy dose of the basics; and yes, as you state, at some point one would realize one's own propensity, attraction, passion or proficiency toward a particular area.
Kids and many adults are sadly not integrated in thought and knowledge and instead, highly compartmentalized with brain only knowledge and we can observe the many problems that creates.

To me, a "balanced education" is as mythical and devoid of support as the "balanced diet". The idea of a balanced education requires that there be important aspects "missing" or bad if not counterbalanced by their opposite. But I find this untenable. Pardon, if you would, a bit of a rant, but it is somewhat needed to explain that assertion.

A person can not excel at all things. The notion that we all need to be "well rounded" individuals is not one in accordance with what history teaches us. The most significant and life-altering advances were not made by "well rounded" people with "balanced education" - but by people who know what their strengths were and leveraged those. Teams that are the most productive are not teams of "well rounded" people, but of a variety of complementary strengths. Ok, now back to schooling.

If young students find they have an aptitude for something, they should be encouraged and permitted to build on those strengths. If that means more academic work, so be it. If that means one of the various shop classes, home economics, or some other means of production, all the better. Simultaneously they need to be exposed to various aspects of reality such as economics - home and otherwise - in order to round out their experience and introduction to things that they are not particularly talented in. What follows next is highly opinionated, and assumes the present structure of school persists (government run/funded, 12 years to graduation, etc.).

That means they should be taught reading, writing, math, science foundations, and critical thinking by sixth grade. From there on, the next six years should be the following:

Exploration
Going into 7th grade is were you either already know what "you want to do", or are starting to figure it out. So exposing children to the various aspects would have the most benefit. One semester of a tradition art such as drawing, painting, or sculpting; one of a performing art such as playa music or theater; one of "creative writing" (logical and persuasive should already have been covered". Note the emphasis is on doing, not "appreciation". This is important because "appreciating" art can lead to "a passion" for something you suck at - which is not a fun life. Not to mention it is telling someone what to think about various tings and wide open to a teacher pushing their views on "art" onto moldable children.

Along with the actual arts must come exposure to the manual crafts. Here we have the various "shop" classes. A semester of such things as wood or metal shop or, ideally, a semester that mixes them; a semester of "construction" which can include things like drafting and how to do the site work: leveling, concrete, plumbing, framing etc.; and a semester of the "soft labor" trades often associated with "home-ec" - gardening, food prep, sewing, etc..

Finally we have the more intellectually oriented exposure. Here we are talking the hard sciences such as physics, chemistry, and engineering but also the softer ones such as economics. A semester of hard and a semester of soft ought to do.

The "middle/school" or "junior high" (depending on where you are) should be about taking what you've learned so far and finding what you may be good at. It is highly elective, while continuing certain aspects such as basic statistics, more advanced reading composition, etc.. Then you enter high school with a fairly broad exposure to various things you might good at, thus ready to focus on those. In this sense we treat high school similarly to the way we used to treat college.

High school is where you get to expand on what you've discovered. You did well in shop? Then here are courses that build on that. Oh, you excelled at the construction oriented classes? Here is a four year line of classes that provide you the opportunity to graduate with a solid grounding of those skills. Oh look, you did really well at physics, so here is a track aimed at making you even better at it.

Not everyone will find something. Thus you also have a more "vocational tech" track that gives them the opportunity to learn a more non-specific trade. Some schools have this and, frankly, I'm rather envious of the opportunities my daughters have in high school. Our high school ("Ronald Reagan H.S.") provides a track for students to graduate with the needed training and certification (right down to an apprenticeship!) to be a pharmacy technician. Thus right out of high school my daughters could (my oldest didn't take that route, my youngest still can) graduate with the ability to walk into a $36,000+ job. I think the option to take a four year apprenticeship alongside the minimum core high school classes should be there as well. But I lament the loss of apprenticeship for a lot of other reasons.

You still continue with a core set of classes for things such as reading/writing, some P.E., and foundational classes such as biology, government, history, math, etc., and you have some electives to provide additional nuances or mixing of topics. An example might be a budding chemist who likes to play the flute or do woodcrafting. And of course "remedial" classes for those who struggled with the foundations. But you shift the system away from what to think, and orient it (back?) to being a productive and civil member of "society".

Of course, to go along with that we have to drop the mindsets that "smart people go to college", "if you don't go to college you aren't as smart", and "vo-tech is for losers". Mike Rowe does some amazing work in this direction with what he refers to as the skills gap. That gap is also part of why I think so many of us are, as Rowe puts it, "disconnected" with that makes our society function.

Personally, because my father was military and we thus moved a lot I - a solidly scientific minded child - took shop (both metal and wood - the latter included a semester where we mass-manufactured and sold breadboxes), "agricultural tech" (we built a baseball dugout for our school, did welding, etc.), "mechanical drawing" (drafting), orchestra (violin) and band (trombone) alongside my more advanced economics and physics classes. I credit this with my more broad understanding and appreciation of these talents than the average scientist.

However, I am certain my economic life would have been greatly improved had I been allowed/encouraged to pursue the path my economics had taught me would be better: get a trade, then get a degree. Even the teenager me would have taken the aforementioned pharmacy tech path while taking my science classes. The heavy parental/familial obsession with the "first family member who can go to college did me in, which is part of why I think we need to eliminate this negative association with "vo-tech", or trade skills, training and overly focused "ZOMG go to college!" mindset.

So that was rather longer-winded than I intended but, then again, I tend to be so about these particular subjects. Now a funny thought occurs to me: could you imagine the sudden wild opposition to "common core" from the current proponents if the above was "common core"? :D

Mike Rowe's "skill gap" is large, growing, and addressing it has the potential to cushion the coming "college bubble bursting", all while producing a more solid economic foundation and more robust economy. Frankly, he is probably the one guy I would want to see as Secretary of the Department of Labor. I don't think we could do any better than him in that role. If Trump had/were to nominate him he would virtually have block on the next election. We don't need to create more jobs, we need people who can fill the nearly six million open ones we have. For perspective, the current official "unemployed person" count is around seven million.

We had woodworking, and I've used what I learned many times. Growing up on a farm makes you very practical as well.
One thing I missed out on is any education about food and cooking, which I've learned more recently (in my 40s and 50s) after a chronic nutrition-linked illness. Looking at the food pyramid today and official gov advice on diet, I expect any classes at school would have been a waste of time anyway. Better to learn from traditional sources.

When i was in high school in the fifties i was a math and science student. I also took Latin in preparation for college. However, i also took wood and metal shop. I quickly learned i had very little ability in that area. I also took sewing and cooking. I had about the same ability in sewing as metal and wood shops. But i learned my cooking skills were very good. I also took typing, which proved to be a boon in college.

Is that where the "Mother of Invention" came from?

Yes, yes, yes x 1,000 BT

You have hit a sore spot with me. Our local high school, Mira Costa, in Manhattan Beach has destroyed all vestiges of shop classes and all its beautiful shops just as sure as ISIS destroyed Palmira. Emphasis is on the music and drama programs (they do excel in these subjects however) and preparation for college. El Camino Jr. College and SC Regional Occupation Center are the only sources for hands-on crafts training now. I predict in a few years skilled mechanics, machinists, plumbers and such will routinely be making more money than most college graduates
while enjoying life free of onerous student loans.

My own rural Georgia high school was woefully lacking shop facilities, but offered Home Ec and
business prep classes. Only two or three of my
class-mates and I went on to college. But at Georgia Tech, in addition to math and physics and engineering courses we all learned green sand moulding, gas and arc welding, machine shop, engineering drafting, etc. (a legacy from when it startes as North Avenue Trade School in the late 1800s). Tech also offered a co-op program where students could alternate academic work quarter by quarter with internships at participating industrial corporations thus getting real-world experience.

I really believe our young folks are getting a royal shafting by today's education systems.

When I saw it, linotype was already passé, but that made it affordable for small shops. eaotin shrdlu, pot of melted lead, and lines of type at a newspaper run by Rumanians for some ethnic populations with weekly newspapers.

Yea, those creatures have ruined everything of value.

Yes, as in the goddess of truth, the daughter of Saturn (I think) and the mother of Virtus...excellence and merit.

Now it just seems to be a vehicle for the basest facets of liberalism to be put on display.

Veritas.

Yes, you have more flexibility by hand instead of rigid increments the machines give you. You also can sharpen for different materials better too.

Sharpening drill bits by hand/eye is an old school talent we share. :) I have guys that just can't do it. I had to buy them a machine. I often get out on the floor and sharpen lathe bits and drills for them. My work usually out performs the machine sharpened ones!

A skill set the "Left" continually fails at.

Agreed with useful skill sets, but even just the exposure to art helps integrate your mind even if you never use it. Art teaches, or used to, reality and balance, different ways inwhich to look at the world and eye, hand, mind and imagination coordination.

Exactly. Having all these skill sets or even just a basic understanding produces "Integrated" value creators...now you know why today's schools are an epic fail!

One of my first jobs was in a screw machine factory, I made all kinds of things in my spare time there. People in my neighborhood still come to me to sharpen their drill bits...I still do it by eye.

Yes, "timing" is important in internal combustion engines and the brain. TDC......LOL

I am very good at drafting and almost went to Rode Island School of Design. Designed my own house by hand.

Hello Olduglycarl,
I had two years of wood shop, two years of metal shop, one year of drafting and blue print reading and one semester of small engine repair in HS. Now the local High School no longer teaches any of these courses and I can't find any young people with skills or interest to work in my high-tech tool and die shop. I used to get regular inquiries- people wanting to fill out an application or submit a resume, but now if I get one a year it is a surprise. The pay is well above median... Now it seems rare to find any youth that know which way to turn a wrench...
I just hired a guy to train that is older than I am.
Respectfully,
O.A.

These classes are also so important in that they promote self sufficiency.

It also helps metaphoric integration's too! example: The meaning of "retarded": the firering off of a thought before your mental piston has reached top dead center.
Try not to laugh...