Joseph Internicola September 15, 2018
Shop Class as Soulcraft Essay
After reading “Shop class as Soulcraft” by Matthew B. Crawford it had opened my eyes to other things that I could potentially be learning to do. “Shop class as soulcraft” is about a man named Matthew B. Crawford and his experiences working with labor jobs and how taking up a trade in trade school is a good thing. He also explains the feelings he gets when using the skills he learned in his every day live and how they make him feel like a hard working man. I was looking into trade schools and the jobs that you can get when you know a specific trade and you can make a decent living off theos jobs. So the question that came to mind was why do schools not offer vocational skills and should they? I view schools as a place where people go to learn and experience new subjects that they might have a passion for but I have never seen vocational skill classes in a school unless it was in a tv show. Not only can the things people learn in those classes help them with a career but I believe it can be very useful to know in general.
Think about it a vocational class can teach you how to fix a car, or fix your own plumbing, and etc. So not only can you get a job with this knowledge you get from vocinatal classes but you can also use them in your everyday life. Just like the knowledge you gain from Math, English, and science are used in your everyday life the same can be said for vocational classes. In the text it states “The trade are then a natural home for anyone who would live by his own powers” (Crawford 24) This is explaining that if you have the ability to do something on your own like fixing something then you don’t have to rely on anyone to do it for you. You have the power in your hands and the knowledge in your head to fix the problem on your own. Connecting to the initial question should vocinatal classes be in schools? This quote shows that you will be able to do these things on your own if you possess the knowledge and if schools did have these classes you will be able to do it on your own. Now one thing I realize is that schools don’t always have the proper funding to add some vocational classes to their list and I understand that, but if schools are supposed to prepare children for the future and let them experience new things then if they have the money to allow some vocational classes to their schedule then they should because it can open their eyes to a new passion or prepare them for a job they potentially will obtain in the future. Personally when I am able to do something in my own and I do it it make me feel like wonderful because I know I have the capability to do a certain task on my own and if there is ever a problem like that again I know I will be able to fix it and not have to rely on anyone but myself. My point being that if schools do have the money to have some vocational classes in their schedule then they should do it because there is so much to learn about and so many thing that they will be able to do on their own.
Not only does having vocianatal classes in schools give you the ability to do something on your own it allows you to have an even more verity when pursuing a career. When you look at someone like me for example I didn’t have classes like shop class in my school so I never really had and experience with learning vocational skills. Now that could be argued that I could have went out of my way to learn something like that, which yes is true, but if there would have been classes that teach trades in my school I would have almost been forced to learn about it. That’s not a bad thing at all because if I was forced to learn about it I could have either not liked it and went on with my life knowing that I don’t like like it or it could have sparked a passion in me showing me something new that I enjoy doing. What i’m trying to say is that’s it’s better to have it in school to allow people to see if they like it. And if someone does enjoy doing it they can study it even more and pursue a career in it. In the text it states “By all means, go to college. In Fact approach college in the spirit of craftsmanship, going deep into liberal arts and sciences. In the summers learn a manual trade. You’re likely to be less damaged, and quite possibly better paid…” (Crawford 24) This quite further shows how learning a trade can allow you to get further in life and it can give you more options in a career. Now imagine if schools introduced vocational skills, then you will be able to focus more on what you want to do for example in the quote he said take up a trade in the summer but if you knew about vocational skills before that instead of taking up a trade in the summer you can only do that and focus one hundred percent on that trade. That also works vice versa if you don’t like trade you can focus only on college.
In conclusion, I believe that schools should have some sort of vocational classes in them because of what they have to offer to the kids. They can open their eyes to a new passion, teach them certain skills they need to know to have a job, give them the ability to fix something on their own and or rely on themselves, etc. This connects to the world on a much bigger level because if schools offered vocational classes the same way they offered music and gym then more and more kids will take interest in it and there will be a huge increase in people applying for hard labor jobs and if they don’t like the vocational class at least they got the opportunity to try it out. My point being is that schools should have vocational skills to allow kids to have new experiences in a potential newly found interest.
