Thought about this last night, again. My first woodshop class in 8th grade (1964?) taught me quite a few things like how to read a tape measure, how to cut with a hand saw, and how to clean a paint brush, etc.
The lesson I really remember was the first or second day of class. The shop teacher got a phone call. He hung up and told everyone not to move and be quiet.
He went over to the wood pile and got a maple 1×4 about 3 ft long. Ran it through the planer. Took it to the band saw and made some cuts. Took it over to the jointer and tapered both sides of one end until it was 1/4″ thick.
Now we all could see what he was doing – making a paddle for a teacher.
He put the paddle in the vise and used a spokeshave to smooth out the handle. Total time maybe 5 minutes.
Then he told everyone not to move till he got back and left the room. We were little angels. 5 minutes later he returned without the paddle and resumed the class.
To this day I don’t know if that was staged or some teacher really needed to adjust a student’s attitude. Either way we saw how fast a project could be made,
saw various power tools used, and put the lid on any thoughts about shop class being a goof off session. Several teaches had one of those paddles so I know they were used.
Always remember that woodworking/life lesson. Anybody else learn something in shop class back when they had shop class?
PS: We made our projects with hand tools. Never got to use the power tools.
Jim
Replies
That sounds just like my teacher Mr. Long--Wedgwood Junior High. I was in eight grade in '67-68. I swear that he pulled the EXACT same stunt on our first day of class!
It must have worked. I still work with wood, and I still respect corporal punishment.
Yes, I did learn a few things in woodshop. But I remember more the feeling of that paddle. (8th grade)
Sounds like he was planning on paddling a girl with one only 1/4" thick. All of the ones use on me were a full 3/4", with a bunch of 1/4" holes drilled in them so they would whistle on their way in, and to raise whelps:. By the time I graduated, I probably had gotten 20 whoopins.
Our football coach preferred a belt-line. For this, all of the students would line up in two lines about ten feet apart with their belts in hand. You had to get down in a track-starting position, then Coach would start you off with his paddle, and all of the students got to swat you as you ran by.
I had to dread knowing I had one waiting on mefor a year between 6 th and 7 th grade, for climbing a fence to retrieve a football that went over the fence. The dread was worse than the event.
My brother Wood and I caused each other more real pain than a whipping or belt-line on a normal basis, as sort of training in pain management. Ha.
Jim & All ,
Yup , junior high school wood shop , Mr. Silvera , he didn't like students sitting on top of the wood work benches they were like about five feet square .
He would sneak up behind the person sitting and talking and gesture to be silent to all others , while he poured a small cup of water behind your behind , man you should see how fast kids got up .
Gum was the other thing Mr Silvera didn't care for , if he caught you chewing he would make a paper mustache and make you stick it on with the gum , then you had to stop by after the last period so he could make sure you still had it on .
Swats , I only got 2 or 3 in my career , the metal shop teacher had one made of steel with holes drilled in .
dusty
My shop teachers in junior high had a paddle called "Speed and Accuracy 4" (if I recall the number correctly). It was drilled 'for speed'. Of course, we all understood that its predecessors were all lossed in use (perhaps the origins of the term 'hard a$$' are related to broken paddles). I only recall one kid who ever had an encounter with it during my time, so I think that it was pretty effective. Regrettably, these days this wouldn't fly -- I'm sure that the 'Speed and Accuracy' line has been retired.
Ahhh the memories of the paddle. I didn't take woodshop because it wasn't available in the all boys catholic school I attendeded in 62-66. We had Fransician priests and Fr. Stanley who had a canoe paddle with hole drilled in it to cut down on the air resistance. Could you just imagine what would happen in today's world if I child came home with that story Notatexan? My goodness, the lawyer's would be lined up to sue the school board on down. Perhaps a little more of this in the school systems today, woodshop and the paddle, would have prevented some of the terrible things going on today. Anyway, I enjoyed your story. TinCup
"Perhaps a little more of this in the school systems today, woodshop and the paddle, would have prevented some of the terrible things going on today."
Then again, it could be that we have fewer murderers and other violent criminals than we used to--media sensationalization notwithstanding--because we stopped using corporal punishment. (Murder rates in the U.S. are much lower these days than they were early in the 20th century.)
Then again, there could be no relationship whatsoever. Without serious inquiry, it's all idle speculation, nothing more than Stephen Colbert's "truthiness."
-Steve
Not to be a PITA ...
What about the 4 policemen killed by 'life-sentenced' criminals in Fla over the past two months?
"Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of men among them are given fully to do evil. "
Could it have been better stated?
dlb
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The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
My son, who is 26 now, was in the last wood shop/auto shop class in high school here. The next year they cleaned out the shop, laid off the instructor, and put in a computer lab.
Looking back, we had a real nice shop in middle school (for making paddles), and a great shop and teacher in high school. That would be hard to find today. Maybe the success of DIY stuff on TV shows the loss of how to read a tape measure in school. The loss of a paddle shows up on TV too somehow.
The one guy I remember getting a whooping in 7th grade continued to be a goof off through high school. Then he joined the Marines, end of problem.
The lesson I really remember was the first or second day of class. The shop teacher got a phone call. He hung up and told everyone not to move and be quiet.
I told the kids my older brother had this class and it was alot of BS... But he said the teacher was great so PAY ATTATION!
My 8th grade shop teacher used a slightly different method. He had paddles, but his favorite was to use a flexible 12" steel ruler and pop you on the palm of the hand(less likely to leave marks). We quickly learned not to walk away from a machine that was still turning after it was turned off until it completely stopped or not to ever lay a plane down except on it's side, among many other things. I am still very conscious of this even 35+ years later.
I had wood shop in eighth grade. Windsor CT was ruled by cheap yankees who resented how many kids the catholics raised and how much it cost to school us. So, wood shop had lots of kids and not much resources, just like the rest of the tax hating school system.
The son of an tool maker with a bare bones wood shop and the grandson of a finish carpenter, I wanted to make things and only needed some formal education. Well, I was small and nerdy, not a jock or a cool guy. The teacher handed me a beat up butterknife edged plane and told me to prepare a board, then walked off the work with the "cool" guys.
Needless to say, that class, as most of the school I attended early on, was useless and what I know I've learned from my dad or discovered myself. It wasn't until I entered St. Thomas Seminary and met folks like Frs Connefry and Edwards that someone actually took an interest in me and MADE me work hard and reach towards my potential. Although I'm not anymore of the Catholic (or any) faith, those teachers were the best people I've ever known.
The public school teachers in elementary and junior high were indifferent at best and actively hostile towards a hyperactive brilliant boy in a day when hyperactivity was just bad behavior. Hold still or else!! Good luck, I just wasn't wired that way.
Sorry that I couldn't contibute a sappy teary eyed reminiscence of that empathic woodworking guide; it just didn't happen that way.
My lesson came in 6th or 7th grade. The lesson was in communication. We had a great woodworking teacher. He had us working with handtools only. If you were an 8th grader you might be able to start on a band saw, planer or drill press. Other than that, it was hand tools only..
Anyways.. In 6th or 7th grade a Asian boy, who was new to English, the USA, and our school asked the teacher to help him cut a wide board. (the Teacher would do this now and then on the table saw when he wasn't busy) This time the teacher told him to cut it himself. He ment to have the boy cut it with a handsaw. Instead the boy headed to the table saw. No-one was really paying attention to him until we heard the table saw turn on. The teacher ran over shut off the saw and started yelling at the boy who was just following instructions as far as he understood. The boy was traumatized by the event, and I don't think he had a long woodworking future after that day.
The teacher and the boy were both great people. They just had a communication issue that day.
I learned a little about communication that day. Years later in collage I was a student teacher in that same shop with that same teacher. Though the 1st woodworking teaching lesson came years earlier.
I remember the first time I turned on the table saw. Couldn't do it in 7-8th grades. In high school we spent weeks going over every tool in the shop, the name, what it's for, how to use it. Both hand and power tools. Then we had to pass a safety and knowledge test. The only acceptable score was 100%. Miss one question and you fail and have to take the test again until you get 100%. Then you had to design a project and get it approved by the instructor. Then you could turn on a power tool AFTER asking permission. Turn on a power tool without permission and you were in big trouble.
For whatever reason I was the first one in the class ready to cut a board. I even remember stalling some hoping someone else would go first. But, I was the first and had the whole class watching as I ripped the boards for my project. For a shy young teenager I was nervous.
When anyone made a mistake the instructor would stop everyone and call them around the lucky student. He would then show the mistake and how to fix it or a better way. Great way to learn unless you make a mistake.
My dad still has the turned vase I made on his desk after 40+ years.
Jim
My most respected teachers in school were my shop teachers, probably because they respected me the most. Learned a lot about work ethic and quality of work from those guys, something I never got in those other classes. Took all the offered shop classes before I had enough credits to graduate, quit school, got my GED, moved to Florida, went to college, taught wood shop (techically Industrial Arts but you know what I mean) for 20 years until the local do-gooders had almost all vocational education phased out. Spent the last 11 years teaching video productions. Lots of downside to this and I really worry about where education in general is going, upside is I spend a lot more time in my own shop now.
Good opportunity to get on my soapbox here but no one really cares so I won't.
First day in shop, the teacher lined the students up and said, "I am TIRED of students cutting off their fingers in this class!" He switched on the table saw and threw a 2 x 4 on the blade, and it exploded across the room. Point made.
We had the same demonstration, except Mr. Kappa turned off the saw and let it slow down about half RPM, then dropped the board on the blade. He said he did it that way to keep it from going though the wall.
I was in Woodcraft the other day drooling over new table saws and the sales guy said a local school district just bought a dozen Saw Stops. So I guess there is some hope for shop class.
Jim
My first shop class was in 6th grade. Mr. Ferrier. Our first proj was to make a cutting board (pig or artest pallet). You first had to lay out a grid on paper with 1/2 lines then plot your design then transfer that to the wood before cutting it out.
I remember he could lay any size line on the edge of a board by holding a pencile and just using the edge of his finger to adjust how far away he need to make the line - ie 3/3, or 1/2 inch. He was exact all the time. A skill I still practice.
not,
My 8th grade shop teacher was Mr Wood. Honest. He was from S Carolina, which made him hugely entertaining, because his parents had named him Marion, and because he talked just like Foghorn Leghorn, the cartoon rooster. Mr Wood's bailiwick was mechanical drawing (this was in 1966, before the advent od CAD), and the 1/3 of the years spent in drafting class was very rewarding. Our shop experience was...less so.
Mr Wood's way of letting a student know he'd messed up his project, was to come up to the unfortunate one, and in a pleasant, conversational tone, begin a story, all the while handling the offending piece of wood he'd picked up off the bench.
"Son, back in the little tayown Ah grew up in, theah was an old black man. Naow, his jahb was to go around, and clean out the septic tanks and cess-pools of all th' folks. His name was Chahles Jones, but no bahdy called him by his propah name; evah'bahdy jus' called him 'Slop Chahley'."
Here, Mr Wood's voice began to gain a little fervor. "An' Son, what you got heah," a pause for effect, while he shook his head sadly, then speaking vehemently, "Is a Slop Chahley job!"
Ray
Life lesson in woodworking
Long ago in 'Shop' Metalworking.. Sorry but sort of fits in here..
I made a large copper bowl.. I had a Mexican friend at the time that told me his grandfather was a metal worker.. So we went to see him.
He gave me more than a few hints and drew some patterns I could use.. Just on plain paper..
Ok.. so I made it and the teacher told us we could only use a nail of any size and a hammer...
Teacher... Never said what kind of hammer and how many nails.
Anyway, my grandfather had a hand grinder and alot of nails and all kinds of hammers!
I got a A+ for my work and it disappeared! I bet for SURE the teacher kept it! Damn.. and I made it to bring back to my friends grandpa!
Live and learn.. Never let your good work out of your hands!
Will,
Your story reminds me of one of my first shop projects--a "pump lamp"
You pump the handle and the light comes on or off. I wish I still had it. Mahogany and pine if I remember correctly."She wrote a long letter, on a short piece of paper." Traveling Wilburys
This thread brings back good memories of 7th and 8th grade back in 1961 and 1962. Had the same teacher in 7th grade for wood shop and then in 8th for metal. He was (and still is) a quiet man who did not put up with any foolishness but taught us well. We used hand tools almost exclusively - and the book rack I designed and built as my first project still sits on the desk I am typing this note from. He even was my advisor for a couple of merit badges I earned. We did not have much trouble in the class at all - just a great atmosphere.
Of course I am somewhat biased, I guess. I married his kid sister in 1970 and he has been my brother in law for over 37 years. Also helped me build our house in 1977. The only problem I have is that to this day my wife always wants me to "ask Jim what he thinks" on something - even in areas I have more experience in! He and I go along with it and just chuckle. But I have always joked that it is great to have your junior high shop teacher living a quarter mile away when you have a problem with wood or metal projects
Too bad that so many of the good teachers and the programs have gone by the wayside. It was nice when I was in college (as a mechanical engineer) that I had already done more difficult drawings and knew how to read them than was required as a freshman.
Dale
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