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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

> Administrators push 4-year college as the only viable option. Anything else is increasingly viewed as irresponsible advice. At the same time, 4-year college costs have been skyrocketing.

Something tells me these things are related...

My old man taught wood shop in a high school. Year after year, there was less and less demand/attendance. To stay securely employed, as he was getting closer to retirement he pivoted over to teaching drafting and then CAD which had tons of interest and were supported by administration. By the time he retired the wood and metal shop classes were gone for good. Pretty sad and worrying to think that since then an entire generation has gone through that school with no opportunity to learn how to actually make a physical good with their hands. We have YouTube now if we want to learn, and it’s a great resource, but it’s hard not to think something has been lost.

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> Pretty sad and worrying to think that since then an entire generation has gone through that school with no opportunity to learn how to actually make a physical good with their hands.

Welcome to globalism? 98% of the physical goods you buy are made in the developing world, there's not much point in acquiring these skills here.

A crappy assemble-at-home Target organizer costs like $20 and probably cost a fraction of that to manufacture, but a fancy artisanal lacquered organizer made by the hobbyists across town can be sold for several times the cost of supplies and labor.

But a lot of folks feel the squeeze so they buy the crappy Target one instead.

This reminds me of my neighbor who had recently retired and began a side business making furniture in his garage. He was just looking to make a little beer money, but his business grew quickly just through word of mouth and he was complaining to me that now it was more of a job than he had before he retired. He was thinking about shutting the whole thing down.

If artisanal, hand-crafted, built-to-spec, lacquered organizers became a big enough business, there will be, before the year is out, a school in Vietnam that will train thousands of people how to build them, by hand, to-spec, artisanally for <$1/hour.

I'm old enough ( graduated HS 1987 ) to have had woodworking in middle school. Still have the shitty pine box I made in class. I now enjoy woodworking as a hobby, not a profession. Currently building a dresser for the bedroom. Will take me probably a year. Real wood furniture built by real craftsmen is expensive, because labor aint cheap. Most people don't want to spend / can't afford to spend anymore.

I wonder to what extent insurance issues have driven the death of shop classes. I have no current knowledge, but it wouldn't surprise me if modern day chemistry class has veered away from actually touching dangerous items.

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