A good article that emphasizes the importance of encouraging and, when possible, helping the next generation of woodworkers get started in the craft, with tools and materials.
One of the ironies of woodworking is that, for most hobbyists, at least, it is a mostly solitary endeavor, yet one has a golden opportunity to improve one's skills most effectively and efficiently by relying on others, whether in classes, in an online woodworking forum, via woodworking videos, books, and magazine articles, or at tool-related gatherings and activities, such as Lie-Nielsen's tool demonstrations.
It is most unfortunate that many of the education system bureaucrats see fit to under-fund shop classes, perhaps because they do not fit in well with the current trend of college prep classes and (heavily) pushing students toward college, when, for many of those students, a career in one of the trades would be much more beneficial and satisfying.
Anyway, I find your writings interesting and very much worth reading, particularly as you include your perspective as a woodworking shop class teacher, with all of its unique requirements and challenges. That perspective has given me, as a woodworking instructor in an adult membership community workshop/maker space type of operation catering largely toward beginning woodworkers, more than one opportunity to think about woodworking from directions that I had not previously considered.
Thank you so much for the kind words and you're correct on all points.
As much as I LOVE being alone in the shop, we have to be willing to be at least a little extrovert if we want to grow ourselves or help others to grow.
And I'm glad to hear that I've been able to offer you a different perspective. This past week I spent four days at the International Builders Show and met many other instructors. It was so beneficial to see what they were doing in their shops/classes and their thought process, I learned so much. And with that group, we're reaching out to the industry and influencers to bring more awareness to the importance of the trades and trade-teaching and need of funding.
And lastly, thank you for being willing to be an instructor!
A good article that emphasizes the importance of encouraging and, when possible, helping the next generation of woodworkers get started in the craft, with tools and materials.
One of the ironies of woodworking is that, for most hobbyists, at least, it is a mostly solitary endeavor, yet one has a golden opportunity to improve one's skills most effectively and efficiently by relying on others, whether in classes, in an online woodworking forum, via woodworking videos, books, and magazine articles, or at tool-related gatherings and activities, such as Lie-Nielsen's tool demonstrations.
It is most unfortunate that many of the education system bureaucrats see fit to under-fund shop classes, perhaps because they do not fit in well with the current trend of college prep classes and (heavily) pushing students toward college, when, for many of those students, a career in one of the trades would be much more beneficial and satisfying.
Anyway, I find your writings interesting and very much worth reading, particularly as you include your perspective as a woodworking shop class teacher, with all of its unique requirements and challenges. That perspective has given me, as a woodworking instructor in an adult membership community workshop/maker space type of operation catering largely toward beginning woodworkers, more than one opportunity to think about woodworking from directions that I had not previously considered.
Thank you so much for the kind words and you're correct on all points.
As much as I LOVE being alone in the shop, we have to be willing to be at least a little extrovert if we want to grow ourselves or help others to grow.
And I'm glad to hear that I've been able to offer you a different perspective. This past week I spent four days at the International Builders Show and met many other instructors. It was so beneficial to see what they were doing in their shops/classes and their thought process, I learned so much. And with that group, we're reaching out to the industry and influencers to bring more awareness to the importance of the trades and trade-teaching and need of funding.
And lastly, thank you for being willing to be an instructor!