I wonder if the move away from things like shop class was a liability issue? Schools could not afford the insurance to let teens operate potentially dangerous machines.
Everything I’ve read, it wasn’t. It was changing goals of education. Teaching became about getting students to do well on certain mandated testing and everyone had to be prepped for college.
Nah, it was primarily driven by the “everybody needs to go to college” philosophy that took over in the 1960s. When I went to high school, there was a general requirement that everyone took two years of foreign language, two years of science (usually biology and chemistry), and two years of math (algebra and geometry.) But the college-track students had to take four years of those subjects, along with the the usual four years of English, four years of social studies, and an actual elective or two. That pushed shop classes into the same “practical arts” niche as typing, shorthand, home ec, and drafting - and if you were going to college you were strongly pushed to take typing, or drafting if you wanted to be an engineer.
Not to mention that the tools, machinery, and special equipment needed to keep even a basic shop class going were a lot more expensive than textbooks. And it was a lot harder to find a good auto repair instructor than a good language teacher.
The vocational schools were/are a good idea for concentrating shrinking resources, but they’ve too often been looked down on as second choices for students.
We had shop class in middle school, both metal and wood. Wood was fine, but since my Dad liked working with wood, I was familiar with pretty much everything we learned there. There was nothing in the school wood shop that my Dad didn’t have in his wood shop, and that I didn’t know how to operate already.
Metal shop was great, though. Yes, we learned oxy-acetylene welding, but even better, we had a forge. I found that I loved blacksmithing! Nothing like getting a piece of steel red-hot, then pounding the crap out of it in order to make something useful. I still have the crowbars and other things I made on that forge, and they are still useful.
My dad, who had me helping with car repairs when I was 8 or so, did not allow me to sign up for wood and metal shop class in middle school. The school levy had failed and the shop had not been updated to then current safety standards. (I want to say fire suppression system, but I would have to ask my dad to see if he remembers.) The school still offered shop class, but I took home ec, which had 1 male student and 29 female students. The middle school now has plenty of art classes, including working with wood and plaster, but no home ec or shop, as far as I can tell.
No chance to take shop class in high school - my schedule didn’t have space. I even took driver’s ed in the summer so I didn’t have to give up French and orchestra. Currently my high school offers auto shop, jewelry metals, robotics, and culinary arts.
Smart guy. 
thread win here …
I took drafting every semester. It sort of made me what I am today.
It got my foot in the door for mapping oil/gas wells, which got me into cartography which turned into GIS.
Now of course there are specific GIS degrees. No such thing back then. Nobody knew what it was. I just told folks I make maps with computers.
Are their drafting classes now? Of course if would be CAD. But really, pen/pencil on paper drafting is a very useful skill. You learn things like perspective and scale. And it’s heavy into geometry of course.
We (NY USA) had a fill-in-the-ovals test called the OVIS (not gonna look that up) that kind of did the “deeming” for you/guidance counselors. It’d come back with results that you ought to be a truck driver, welder, armed forces, banker, artist or in my case, computers. Such a smart test, I recall it only had 6 boxes for your first name and you had to use as many as fit so friends named Christopher were CHRIST.
The tube would either glow or perhaps there was a panel with green and red lights to tell if you were a winner/loser. Yet the final, final step was you’d pop that new vacuum tube into your TV and there’d be Cronkite or Carson. Nowadays you just say “That TV is shot” and head to the big box store or Amazon for a new one.
I reckon my OP was geared more towards safety concerns & litigation yet I can buy into a shift in education ideology. A bit surprising that - CNC machines aside - there basically is nothing akin to shop class (or even Home Ec) of old anymore.
If they don’t have shop classes anymore that’s a shame.
I went to high school in the late 80’s/early90’s. I was not a good student at the time and was kicked out of (I forget what class) and made to take metal shop with the “dummies” (advisor’s words).
I loved it. The kids weren’t dummies (some a bit rough around the edges but not stupid). I was a ton of fun, learning lathe work, spot welding, casting etc…
It was a ton of fun and I regret not keeping up with some of those skills, now that I’m an old.
I also learned some valuable life skills there. There was a HUGE guy in the class, you know, one of those mutant high school kids that seem to exist in every school. He was being a jerk one day and I told him to stop. He asked what I was going to do about it and I puffed out my chest and took a stance.
BAM
He knocked me across the bench.
After that he was my friend, because (he said) nobody ever stood up to him. The fact that I was ludicrously outmatched made it even better.
Mark, I hope you’re living a good life and not in prison!
I assume that is intended as a joke. Our high school had wood/auto/electric/foundry/machine shops (from memory - I’m sure there were more.) I cannot recall ever hearing of anyone making an ashtray. (Of course, as discussed in another recent thread, I remember making ashtrays in younger settings such as cub scouts.)
If it hadn’t been for the spot welder in middle school shop class, I’d probably be poor and destitute right now. And I only used it once.
CAD is not uncommon, in both middle and high school. All you need is computers and a free educational license of AutoCAD. Oh, and a teacher who can teach it.
Plenty of us in this thread have described how, in fact, there are still shop classes.
I took drafting as a freshman and sophmore, twelve years ago. I was also taking drawing & painting classes both years. I wanted to become an architect. CAD would have been introduced in the third year.
Both the drafting and 2D art programs were dropped from the public school system the next year. So was calculus. And physics. Also that was when they changed the class schedules to last two semesters instead of one, which meant you could no longer dual enroll at the community college outside of night class.
Coincidentally that was the last year of the multi-subject state FCAT examinations. The latter two years our state testing was per-course in the form of a standardized final exam.
I ended up messing around in AutoCAD after switching to engineering class, since we had the licenses. But we mostly used more engineering oriented programs like the bridge thing and SolidWorks.
As far as I know, wood shop survived. We also had a big agriculture program. I didn’t run in those circles, though.
~Max
My son is in 8th grade, so going into high school next year. For that reason we are very up to date on the local high school offerings. This is a large suburban high school.
Every student is required to take a Life Skills class, as mentioned that’s a combination of basic finances and home economics.
As far as career-oriented classes, there are no traditional shop classes. But they do have classes in the following areas:
Computer Animation
Digital Photography
Music Production
Sound Design
Construction Technology
Careers in Education
Engineering Design
Culinary Arts
Cybersecurity
Business Management
Marketing
Firefighting Technology
Law Enforcement
Automotive Technology
Medical Assisting
Pharmacy Technician
Sports Therapy
Holy moly! How big is this school???
Very big. About 4000 students. One of the biggest in the Bay Area, I’ve heard.
That’s impressive - but it also isn’t. It’s not realistic for most students to definitely know what career you want during adolescence; though I guess how many classes one can take may be a factor.
But learning a few cooking or carpentry skills is useful for anyone; knowing how to manage a restaurant may be less so for most people. Guessing there isn’t a “general skills” class?
There’s the required Life Skills class I mentioned.
I somehow skipped the home economics part of that after you mentioned financial literacy. Sorry.