In the latest Feud thread, the question was asked “Other than math(s), what was the hardest class you took in high school?” To me the answer was easy: Shop class, which I took for one quarter in 1980.
(Of course, I’m the only person to answer that - I’m really bad at the feuds.)
It was horrible - I’m not Mr. Fixit by any stretch of the imagination, and everything I did sucked. Like Brian in The Breakfast Club, every day in that class was a lesson in humility (though I never set my locker on fire). I couldn’t even put together the birdhouse which was:
Measure and cut 6-7 pieces of wood
Cut out one circle
Glue wood together to form house
Put in some vice thing to make boards stick
Bring to class
I passed, but it was on a mutual agreement that I would never take another shop class.
Anybody else have to take this? Do schools even offer it nowadays? Anybody else suck at it so badly that the teacher gave you a list of machines to avoid? (One day I was “operating” the lathe, the metal carving thing slipped and flew across the room, nearly braining a student. That was it for me and the lathe.)
I took “shop” in 7th grade. 8th maybe. One of those. It was part of an elective “package” where you did half a semester each of shop, home ec, and 2 others, I don’t remember what they were. Possibly art/photography, and drama, maybe?
It’s quite bizarre you found it difficult. It’s stereotypically the class filled with rejects who can’t pass any other class. To quote from South Park, (Tweek Vs Craig):
I took it for three years in junior high. Boys took shop, girls took home ec. I think that technically we were allowed to cross the gender divide, but no one ever did. I don’t remember if it was offered in high school, but I know I didn’t take it.
Does Home-Ec count? Because I figured learning to cook would be better for me than learning how to use a band saw, so I took “Bachelor Foods” and “Bachelor Living” in high school.
I took it in both 7th and 8th grade, I think 7th grade was wood and plastic, and then in Shop II (it wasn’t called that; I don’t remember the exact name) we graduated to working with metal. It was an elective, nominally, but there weren’t many options anyway.
It was called “Technical Education” but I took Shop in the late late 90s in middle school. Tech Ed included both the usual building stuff with tools element of shop as well as some minor computer education elements, though the only part I remember of the computer section of the class was working with CAD software.
I took the class as an elective in sixth and eighth grades. In 6th grade, we worked exclusively with sheet metal (cutting, bending, riveting and the like) and in 8th grade we did wood-working. As I recall, the shop had drill presses, scroll saws, lathes, band saws, belt and spindle sanders and a table saw that students were absolutely forbidden to use.
The woodworking year started with a full class period of horror stories about students injuring themselves horrifically with the various tools; I still wonder how many were actually true or actually happened in that teacher’s class. I know there was very little horseplay in the shop and it was strongly punished and I’m pretty sure there were no significant injuries during that school year.
As for whether it still exists, looking at my old middle school’s webpage, Tech Ed is still listed so I assume it’s still the same class.
Neither my middle school nor my high school offered any sort of shop class partly due to lack of funding and partly because, especially at the high school level they billed themselves as a college prep institution. Ironically, I majored in theater in college and took at least one design or technical work course every year so a shop class would have been exactly what I needed to be prepared for college.
We had to choose between shop & home ec, and I was one of 3 girls to choose shop. I got to make some neat stuff - my final project in woodshop was a backgammon set. It was actually pretty easy - vinyl and flocking inside, and slices of a thick wood rod I had to paint for the pieces. It looked pretty impressive once done.
I knew how to cook and sew so home ec held no interest. They made pillows but I used a soldering gun!
My high school (a highly selective public high school of national repute) had a selection of “5 period shop” (1 hour per day) and “10 period shop” (2 hours per day), with one of each required to graduate. “Shop” was rather loosely defined and just meant “hands-on class with a final project.” They did have wood shop and metal shop, but it also extended to technology and art/design.
So for example, the Robotics team was a 10 period shop. Speaker design was a 5 period shop. In my 5PS, we learned how to do a storyboard (illustrated in watercolor) and shot our own dumbass commercials. My 10 period shop was painting.
In middle school we had “Technology” which was kind of a strange class. On the one hand we were doing those “transporting an egg 50 ft” type projects, on the other we were reading 'Hiroshima."
How long ago was this, and where? I took “Bachelor Foods” in the 70s, in the Philly suburbs. I recall making sticky buns and, I think, club sandwiches, among other things.
I think it was thought to be a very progressive thing at that time. It seemed like common sense to me that both males and females should know how to cook, clean, and build and repair things, but that wasn’t the common wisdom then.
Does anyone call it “Bachelor Foods” anymore? Is it even segregated by gender anymore?
To answer the OP. Yes, I took shop. I think it was required of boys in those days. I think anyone, male or female, should take at least a semester. Knowing at least the basics of using tools and working with wood and sheet metal can be surprisingly useful in life, even if it has nothing to do with how you earn your living.