High school shop classes are slowly disappearing from schools across the nation. Schools push students to go to college and are testing them on "skills that are preparing students for college, career, and life." However, these tests are in Math and Language Arts. Don't get me wrong, Math and Language Arts are both extremely important, but there is more to preparing students for life than just book knowledge. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in October 2015, 69.2 percent of 2015 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities. Which leaves about 30 percent of high school graduates looking to join the workforce, but are those students being prepared if shop classes keep disappearing out of schools?
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If you were to imagine a stereotypical shop class I am sure that a girl who was an A student and three-sport athlete isn't what you imagined. I currently attend a regent university, but I was also a student that took four years of Industrial Arts shop classes. Out of all the classes that I took throughout high school, including College Chemistry, Algebra, Trigonometry, College Composition 1 and 2, and economics, I can honestly say that without a doubt, I learned the most from my shop classes. As a freshman in General Shop, I learned how to draft house plans, something that no other class would have taught me. Not only did I learn how to draft but I also gained skills that have already been handy around the house but I have also learned life skills and problem-solving that I would never have learned had I not taken Industrial Arts classes. While I have yet to use the Pythagorean theorem, I have built a dresser, changed a tire, and used a ton of problem-solving that a student could only learn from an Industrial Arts class. However the year after I graduated, like many schools in the nation, my high school did away with Industrial Arts classes.
The world needs skilled workers, not everyone is meant to be a university student, some are happier going to tech and vocational schools and some are happy going straight into the workforce, and yet still some are meant to go off to college with life skills that are learned in an Industrial Arts class. No matter how you look at it, vocational classes such as Industrial Arts are vital to the future success of students and society in general. The world needs people with shop skills, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, construction workers, mechanics, and architects too; it's time that we give students a chance to learn the skills to become whatever they choose. So save the shop classes, because our futures are worth it.
