For countless years, the band saw at San Francisco's Thurgood Marshall High School collected dust, an educational relic left over from a lost era of kids building birdhouses and tie racks in woodshop.

Those power tools were put in storage when shop class went out of style - the victim of budget battles and politically correct policies that eschewed the idea of channeling kids into blue-collar jobs.

But the saws are buzzing again at the Bayview neighborhood high school.

Students are cutting pieces of maple and mahogany, building intricately designed 9-inch square panels that will cover the back of a wooden bench.

It's not called shop class anymore. Instead, it's a computer and industrial design course, sponsored by San Francisco State University with college students acting as mentors.

[www.sfgate.com]

Forwarded from Connect For Kids
by BJ Berquist
bjb@tappedin.org