From: clare@snyder.on.ca   
      
   On Thu, 10 Jul 2025 12:41:25 -0700, Bob La Londe    
   wrote:   
      
   >On 7/10/2025 10:21 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   >> "David Billington"  wrote in message news:104oi4e$t596$1@dont-email.me...   
   >>   
   >> That brings back memories, I started machining on a South Bend lathe   
   >> like that in Junior high when I was about 12 in the mid 1970s. Do they   
   >> still allow kids to do that these days or are they too worried about   
   >> them injuring themselves, I still have all my thumbs and fingers and   
   >> none have needed to be reattached.   
   >>   
   >> ----------------------------   
   >>   
   >> AFAIK most/all of the school machine shops have been auctioned off and   
   >> the space repurposed for 'more relevant' training. I went to some of the   
   >> auctions and my lathe is from a trade school. There are still hands-on   
   >> courses in auto mechanics, welding and woodworking that I know of or   
   >> have attended in adult night classes. We learned how to use big sharp   
   >> knives in cooking class, and I surprised my sister last Thanksgiving by   
   >> knowing how to mince an onion to her satisfaction.   
   >>   
   >> The Jr High I attended had only a wood shop where the instructor's   
   >> preference was to teach us to maintain and use hand tools to power tool   
   >> precision. A friend's father was building a wooden sailboat and mine was   
   >> restoring our old house so we had good reason to learn. I use it for on-   
   >> site timber framing without electricity other than a solar-charged   
   >> drill. A 400 Lb beam won't go to the saw, the saw must come to it,   
   >> sometimes on a ladder.   
   >>   
   >> At a different Senior High the auto shop was the dumping ground for   
   >> delinquents and I avoided it, instead I learned vehicle maintenance in   
   >> the Army, the motor pool and the crafts shop garage, since I was on call   
   >> for repairs to critical digital communications equipment and had to be   
   >> able to drop whatever else I was doing.   
   >>   
   >> None of my fingers have been sewn back on, but I do have three teeth   
   >> screwed to the jaw. The jaw bone was originally too thin so the oral   
   >> surgeon grafted on ground bone from cadavers, hopefully fresh. It merges   
   >> in the way a break repairs itself. They wouldn't grant my request for a   
   >> square jaw like Superman. I can now deny responsibility for anything   
   >> that comes out of my zombie mouth, or that I write here.   
   >>   
   >   
   >   
   >When my son was in high school there was only welding and auto   
   >mechanics.  He setup and maintained their CNC plasma table while he was   
   >there, and for a year after he graduated he would go back and help out.   
   >   
   >The local community college sold off all their machine tools and bought   
   >more welding equipment many years ago. but a few years ago a buddy of   
   >mine got them back into machining, and they have some equipment again   
   >including an old industrial size lathe I'd love to own.  The Community   
   >college shares some lab space with the university, and they own one of   
   >the three HAAS CNC Super Mini mills in the room.  The University owns   
   >the other two and a TL1 CNC lathe along with a couple benches full of   
   >HAAS CNC simulators.   
   >   
   >When my buddy was setting things up there he felt me out about teaching   
   >CNC machining, but it just didn't pay enough.  I probably couldn't teach   
   >it cold, but if motivated I can still learn fast enough to keep ahead of   
   >the students who can't teach themselves.   
   >   
   >--   
   >Bob La Londe   
   >CNC Molds N Stuff   
    Back in 1972 when I started teaching it seamed the attitude was   
   "we'll never make a plumber or electrician or machinist or (whatever)   
   of him, so lets send him to the auto shop"   
      
    Then "I" had to teach them electrical theory and electronics,   
   hydraulics, plumbing, machining, welding, physics, chemistry, and all   
   the basics required to make a decent mechanic out of them.   
      
    People REALLY underestimate what is required to be a REAL   
   mechanic!!!!   
      
      
   Then I took on the REAL challenge - Teaching auto mechanics to guys   
   who had NO real life experience with things mechanical (or electrical)   
   - fresh out of "the bush" in central Africa. I was a young guy with   
   lbarely a year of teaching experience and little formal teacher   
   training in a strange culture with little support - and I LOVED it.   
   Their desire to learn absolutely spoiled me for teaching on my return   
   home - I felt I was wasting my time trying to convince spoiled brats   
   who had everything handed to them on a platter that it was worth   
   buckling down and actually LEARNING something.   
      
   Working with apprentices in the work environment was much more   
   satisfying than teaching school.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)