Chinese woodworking class for kids - GIF

Chinese woodworking class for kids.

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Previously:

Agricultural drones in China - GIF
China using military drones disguised as birds - GIF
Congested expressway toll booth in China - photo
Cutting rock slabs in China - GIFs
Digging a hole in China - GIFs
Forging a large flange in China - video
Installing a pre-made railway point in China - GIF

Meanwhile, kids that age in the USA are being taught to fingerpaint, in preparation for a career desecrating their surroundings with graffiti.

The style of tools in the shop, the picture on the wall at 0:19, and the script on the child's apron looks more like Japan than China. Could be wrong. Regardless, good on them for teaching woodworking to kids.

It’s very heartening indeed to see this. I wonder whether this was an after-school club?

And in South Africa, our current African National Congress government since 1994 decided to eliminate woodwork and metalwork classes from schools that offered it, on the bases that if not all schools could offer it to pupils, then no schools could do so. And they now wonder why we have 38% unemployment and so many people with no usable skills. There are many other stupid ideological reasons why unemployment is so high, but the above is also a contributor.

No eye protection when carving with gouge and mallet?!
No eye protecton when firing projectiles?!
These kids need to be protected!

They are obviously struggling with tools, their actions are uncoordinated and clumsy.

Hey! We can save them from a lifetimes of living with debilitating injuries!
We can save them from looking less-than-youtube-perfect!
Their fragile self-esteem will suffer!

Let's make a virtual world, a meta-verse, . . . a video game!
That's it! A VIDEO GAME!
Then they can have high self-esteem, no injuries and be happy, happy, happy!

Whew! I just saved the world!

Just gonna link my oldish (2019) rant about the demise of shop classes here.

TLDR: it's because shop classes cost money that gets in the way of tax cuts and the folks strip-mining our public educational systems for private profit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bruce.desertrat

Just gonna link my oldish (2019) rant about the demise of shop classes here.

TLDR: it's because shop classes cost money that gets in the way of tax cuts and the folks strip-mining our public educational systems for private profit.

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All of my electives in high school were shop classes. I took wood shop, metal shop, engine shop and print shop. I did the same in college, except that I swapped print for photo. No regrets.

Neil

Going to big state Research 1 university my shop electives were more limited; there were some but they were mostly filled up right away by the MechE's. I did get in a jewelry-making class, and there was a scientific glassblowing class that I never was able to get into; it was taught by one grizzled old glassblower who was picky about who he let in his classes.

Midwest USA here.

I taught Shop class which evolved into "Industrial Technology" from 1974 through 2009. The name change went along with a shift in focus to problem solving and career paths along side the traditional skills. Toward the end, I had to fight every year to keep that program alive. The school district next to mine had closed all of their shops shortly after 2000. It only took 2 years after I retired to shutdown my shop.

About a year after I retired, there was an article in a local paper about that school district that had shutdown their shops in 2000. The headline was something like, "Innovative Librarian Teaches Kids Life Skills". She had some how secured a drill press for the library. The article went on to say how wonderful it was for kids to learn how things are made.

Well DUH... what an amazing discovery, so innovative, made me wish I had suggested something like that!!! :smash: (sarcasm)

There is one bright spot in the story, for me anyway. The teacher who followed me called one. I went to pick up the nice machine lathe which been stored outside in an unheated shipping container for 3 years during building renovations. It was declared junk as it was covered with rust, and they would not pay to have it refurbished. I had to take it all apart anyway to get it into my basement. It cleaned up very nicely!!!

Yeah you can see that in this chart from FRED: manufacturing employment pretty much fell off a cliff starting in 2000 (it doesn't look too scary, until you look at total employment over those years and realize that at the peak of US manufacturing employment in 1979, there were 19.5 million people employed in that area out of 89.8 million employees total (total nonfarm employees covers about 80% of all employees in the US economy.)

By 2009, there were only 11.9 million people employed in manufacturing, out of 134 million employed Americans. 22% of Americans to 8.9% in 30 years.

Your experience tracks the employment in those sectors.

Yep, there was a BIG push toward the end of my career, "Everyone has to go to college" Now we have a whole generation buried in debt with only a useless degree to show for it. As a result, we have few left to manufacture, build, repair, etc, all of the new "stuff". NOW, with solar farms covering so much of the farm land.....

Sorry, I get carried away sometimes...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bruce.desertrat

Going to big state Research 1 university my shop electives were more limited; there were some but they were mostly filled up right away by the MechE's. I did get in a jewelry-making class, and there was a scientific glassblowing class that I never was able to get into; it was taught by one grizzled old glassblower who was picky about who he let in his classes.

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Was it Charlie Amling?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by baja

Was it Charlie Amling?

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No idea, it was 47 long years ago.