Wyatt Unhinged: Bring Back Shop Class (and Make it Mandatory)

  I like to do things with my hands. Messing around with spare tech in my grandparents' basement or that's just laying around, building things with wood that's sitting around in my grandparents' garage (or my parents' garage), I like to have the satisfaction of having worked on and done something, even if it's as small as moving a CD player and stereo system up from the living room to my bedroom and getting it all hooked up and plugged in. I even enjoy troubleshooting, especially when it means I can find out what goes into making something work, and the pleasure and feeling that comes when you figure out what's causing the problem and how to fix it (and then fixing it). In a world where everything is made to break and be replaced, I think that is something that should be taught. And what better way to do it than in shop class?

Recently, I've been helping my grandfather upgrade his PC. It should have been an easy job. Unplug everything, pop out the GPUs, pop out the motherboard, put in the new motherboard, put in the new GPU, plug everything back in, hit the power button, easy day. I wish it were that easy.  First issue: we don't have a 4-pin power for the CPU. No big deal, order an extender from Amazon, and voilà, everything is fixed. No. Second issue: we can't seem to get the computer to turn on. It wants to power on, but it doesn't. I should also mention we were struggling to wire up the front IO panel to the motherboard. So, a little over a week goes by, the PSU cables come, and the PC is still not working. But after chatting with Copilot and trying almost everything under the moon, including testing a couple of components on an old motherboard, I was able to get the PC to turn on. However, the CPU power was not plugged in. That is important. Because whenever I plugged it in, whether it was the 8-pin, 4-pin, or both, the PC would try to turn on for a split second, then turn off and not turn on for a couple of minutes. But from this experience, I've learned how to install PC parts, troubleshoot problems that have arisen, and celebrate when I have a success.

So what does that have to do with shop class? Everything. This taught me resiliency and critical thinking, since I couldn't just go on a computer and look it up and get the answer. And while I did use Copilot, that was to find the right pins to connect the power switch to and to get some insight into what might be causing the issue after narrowing it down. Shop class taught how to be self-reliant, how to create something by hand, and it built up physical strength. And just because the job market has gone more tech-oriented doesn't mean that learning how to woodwork is useless; those skills are still needed for construction and other manual labor jobs. Or even a hobby. I'm trying to get into woodworking this summer as something to do that isn't staring at a screen all day. And it needs to be mandatory. For everyone. No transfer credits, you gotta take it. And it should be made up of four parts: tech, wood, metal, and auto. Tech, so that way students learn how to fix tech problems on things ranging from a phone to a PC, wood and metal for learning to make something from scratch, and auto, so they know how to fix things on their car. This world needs more self-reliant people. The more people know how to fix things, the more likely we are to get repairable things. Also, more jobs open up as people open up their own businesses, providing repairs and things they've made. Now it's helping the economy. And if a student doesn't know what they want to do after high school, they have more opportunities to try new things.

So, in conclusion, bring back shop class, and make it a mandatory class. Give it four focuses: tech, wood, metal, and auto, so it's not just one thing, and make it so the students learn how to be more self-reliant. If we want more self-reliant kids who aren't helpless when they go off into the world, this is a great place to start.