Sitting at our dining room table, I can rub my bare feet on the legs of the over 100-year-old table and marvel at how well this table was hand-crafted so long ago, with skilled hands guiding wood working tools to a final end. I can look over to the five-board pine cupboard, that is very large and made with just five solid wide boards and on top sits a pendulum clock made in the late 1700’s that was in a stage coach station in the Massachusetts Berkshire Mountains.
These are old things that represent a time when things were made to last by skilled tradesmen. It took years to learn their crafts. A person started as an apprentice, then a journeyman, and they eventually became a skilled craftsman carrying on the trade. You can still find examples of craftmanship today, but it is more the exception than the norm on our fast paced, consumable, and throw-away culture we live in.
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to”, is common statement. Sometimes it is a good thing, as materials and technology have made better products that do a better job and can last a long time. There are also examples, and this is more the norm, that things are made to be consumed, thrown away, and replaced. I fly a 66-year-old aircraft that has been restored and maintained by professional airframe and powerplant FAA certified technicians. I can see the difference in how my plane was built compared to newer models of the Cessna 172. There are more plastic parts and less durable materials used in the newer planes. It has how things have evolved.
I have spent most of my life and a good part of my career building one thing or another. I went to school to be an Industrial Arts and Technology high school teacher. My major was Graphic Representation and Design (Drafting). I also took classes in woodworking, metal working, printing, photography, residential and commercial wiring, auto mechanics, construction, plastics, and ceramics. I am certified to teach any of these areas, although many of these programs are not offered in high school today. It just costs too much to have the labs stay current and it is even harder to find anyone certified to teach the programs. Times have changed.
I have stayed current with home improvement, construction and woodworking by watching TV shows such as This Old House, The New Yankee Workshop, and other woodworking shows. I have more tools and gadgets than I probably need and have always subscribed to have the right tool for the right job.
I’m an adequate woodworker, and sometimes more of a wood-butcher, but I get the job done. In the other areas, I guess I know enough to be dangerous but smart enough to call in an expert and or craftsman to do something beyond my skillset or that requires a certified technician. Many of the skilled tradespeople we use never went to college but have put time in learning their trade as an apprentice and took advanced training in their craft.
Many of these tradespeople make more than a new college graduate and they don’t carry forward a large college debt. If I need someone to repair a household mechanical issue beyond my skillset, I’m not going to call a political science major, I’m calling the skilled tradesperson. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pro-college if it provides you with a marketable skill. Otherwise, our youth should consider a trade that will provide them a living in an area of demand.
Many of our high schools have lost the opportunity to have the hands-on shop classes where kids can learn some of the basics of drafting and design and working with tools. Why do you think there are so many of home improvement television shows? These are the only places where someone can get any insights or instruction on how to use tools to fix or build things.
Our Highlands Aviation and Aerospace Academy was developed to help close the gap with a hands-on technical learning platform, and was enhanced this school year by adding an Aeronautical Engineering program. We are all about giving our students transferrable life and employment skills that will develop their future options and opportunities.
We can say with certainty that craftsmanship is alive and well in our program. Building real aircraft where someone will be sitting in the left seat flying what we built sets a very high standard of precision and craftsmanship. We are very proud of their skills and enthusiasm.
