I was stunned a few years back when a friend in state government who worked on an education task force for Arnold Schwarzenegger told me that schools no longer taught shop classes. Everything is college prep, now. I was reminded of this again by a recent thoughtful article in the New York Times, “The Case for Working with your Hands“.  I took a few shop classes when I was in school and learned much from them, both about skilled crafts and about myself. Had my circumstances been different, it’s very possible I would have had a career in which I worked with my hands. (more…)