Shop Class as Soulcraft - Essay Example

With the push to use your brain instead of your brawn this society seems to be slowly devaluing work done by your own hands. Work that would have been considered noble fifty years ago, perhaps even prestigious, is viewed as somewhat beneath us today. So is this just society moving on, using forward thinking to advance, or is America slowly digging its way into a hole that it will one day have to climb out of? After taking a peak at our country fifty years ago, where it is today, and where its heading, our society may want to reconsider reinstating shop class over the latest technology class in our educational system.

Fifty years ago a little over forty percent of Americans were “blue collar workers” and people employed in the farm sector in 1947 stood at 7.9 million (About). Sixty percent of Americans owned their own home, at this time and the majority also had a retirement of some sort (Young, and Young). The average male could not only change his own flat tire, but due to the fact that the majority of cars driven in America were American made, they also had the knowledge and resources to fix the majority of other problems that arouse in their vehicles.

At that time no job was considered unreasonable or too lowly if it was a means to support your family. In actuality many people took pride in what they could build or do themselves. Schools also prided themselves in not only teaching the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also in offering classes in the vocational since, such as shop, agriculture, and mechanics. It was out of this, “do it yourself” era that America made its climb to the number one spot in world power and recognition.

America was leading the way in the automotive, industrial, and agricultural industries, and there was no need to outsource because the American people were more than capable and willing to do the work themselves. Now we fast forward through the eighties were the push became to, “Prepare Kids for High-Tech and the Global Future.” During this time it was decided as a society that technology was were our future was heading and the need for people to do the work themselves was a thing of the past.

So slowly classes such as shop and agriculture were taken out of the mainstream public school system and replaced with computer technology and literacy. Now we arrive in present day were it is estimated that we are actually the first generation since the formation of this country expected to make less that their parents. 9.1 percent of people who graduated from college in 2009 are still unemployed and only 24 % of the people who applied for jobs upon graduating in 2010 reported getting one (Greenhouse).

These people graduated with all the right mental skills, and were promised hope for great careers and lives, and now they have nothing to do. In fact 8.7 of the people on unemployment in 2010 have some kind of higher education (Table A-4). There is a push to stop outsourcing and immigration because it’s, “taking jobs away from the American people”. The majority of the jobs, however, that are outsourced, or worked by those from other countries, are in fact blue collar jobs. If in today’s society the typical middle aged American male can’t, or won’t, change his own tire will he really be willing or able to work these jobs if presented?

It is no doubt that this generation is far more