I like woodworking because it doesn’t easily forgive a mistake.
A few years later, a different teacher also lost part of a finger on a table saw, just working on something in his garage.
These weren't major factors, but have been partially responsible for me never developing a taste for hardware. I enjoyed metal shop in 6th grade for a bit, but... it got very loud, sometimes very hot, and the cost of doing anything wrong was great pain or death.
Contrast that with "nerdy" computer stuff... I could sit, relaxed, and 'create' stuff myself (often just typing in code from magazines and books, but it was a start!)
I'm just curious what era of safety devices were likely available.
We were in a 'newer' school district - the middle school was less than 10 years old at that time. All equipment was relatively 'new'.
It seems clear that using (riving knife) + (blade guard) + (push sticks or similar) + (feather board) + (careful adherence to safe operation) eliminates most of the risk.
I'm still unclear how much risk remains when following those rules. Maybe because most injuries I hear about involve people skipping at least one of those five elements.
You can still do much worse of course, like chewing off all your fingers in a jointer or embedding an angle grinder wheel in your face.
My father was a professional cabinet maker and a decade ago he built a new kitchen from scratch. The only power tools he used were a table saw (which admittedly is one of the worse) and a belt sander. Everything else he did with hand tools.