Why does it keep coming up that tradesmen and trades teachers are ‘different’ and as such are valued less than academic students and teachers…that we are incapable of the same achievements or outcomes, or that we certainly could not understand…?

I would argue that trades and academics are no different than are men from women.  While this statement would elicit a slap or two from a feminist, the majority would agree with me that while each are capable of all things (childbirth not included), some things are better performed by one sex over the other….generally speaking and allowing the exceptions to play as well.  This ties in with the trades dichotomy like this…we (tradesmen and trades teachers) have a brain and are fully capable of using it…the only thing separating you and I is the desire to pursue one subject over another, and a bit of a hard wired tendency towards the hands on.  Mankind would perish without both men and women working together and your material world would fall apart without a healthy blend of tradesmen and academics; like a healthy marriage, we need to work as an evenly yoked team.

• We critically think about our each and every action from the beginning of the project to the end…if we didn’t, we would loose a hand, ruin our material or some other catastrophe would result from our actions…if we didn’t think critically, a concept could not move from rough sketch through finished plans through machining and building…and if we did not think critically, we could not figure out the affordable means of production and how to improvise when the customer (you) want something unique and you want it now.
• To the prof who said that ‘without at least 6 credits of fine arts, one is not educated’…I am sorry, but I do not have the time to take an arts appreciation course…after spending years learning how to build and create eye pleasing and functioning things using tools much more dangerous than a paintbrush or a violin bow, there was no time left to take art 101…although I am sure it would be an enjoyable experience to play a guitar while sitting on the furniture that I built.
• To the prof who suggested we were incapable of comprehending the assigned text without the help of an English major…grow up and think about your words before you speak them…all of your students (English majors included) struggle with that poorly written text and I wonder the value in studying it.
• and to those who honestly think that you are better than your mechanic, good luck fixing your own danged Hummer

It is time to start valuing your tradesmen and trades women. 

The age of the backyard mechanic is gone due to the complexity of today’s vehicles and bylaws will soon prohibit anyone who has not been to trades school from working on their own home.  Every thing that you academics take for granted, from the vehicle you drive to the home you wish to remodel, was designed, built and maintained by people like me and the trades oriented students in your classroom…be nice to them for one day you will require their help.

We both have a valid and necessary place in today’s world; one group is no better or lesser than the other.  It is time to stop treating trades as a less esteemed career choice as it is these people who make the physical part of this world run…we need tradesmen in a desperate way.  Unless we start encouraging more people into the trades, the labor market will continue to be flooded with a gross imbalance of academics while labor costs in trades fields continue to rise due to an extreme shortage of skilled workers.

Building a teacher, like nurturing a child, is a personal experience and no two experiences are the same…. I know, that is not a rocket science grade of statement, but the truth is really hitting me as to the uniqueness of each of our experiences.  As I scan through some of my colleagues blogs, it becomes clear that the ‘teacher project’ is as unique for adults as the identity project is for adolescents; while the experiences are similar, what we are getting out of these experiences is vastly different.

I am very much the kind of person that likes to have all their ducks in a row before taking the next step…I like to succeed on the first attempt and am less likely to try if I am not convinced within myself that my first attempt will be success. I am sure that that is not a unique position, but I do know many who just want to leap in and problem solve later. I now realize that jumping in getting the feet wet is the only way to learn to teach.

That said, I am ready for this semester to be complete, and although I have my reservations, I am ready to get the feet wet…after all, that is what these last 3 1/2 years have been about.   I cannot say that I want to stand and deliver as much as I need to do so…I have heard some say that teaching is not a career that we choose as much as it is a career that chooses us.  For me too stand and deliver is a natural (albeit large) step from my previous life as a door shop supervisor.  Instead of teaching 1 on 1, I will be teaching 1 on 30…instead of evaluating for the sake of raises, I will be evaluating for report cards…the only real difference from my past life is the level of liability and the fact that I cannot fire those who do not live up to my expectations.

Have a great week,

Greg

To Build a Teacher cont…

I knew that I would come back to this topic, although frankly, this whole blog could be titled such. 

Building a teacher, as with building anything, requires input of materials, processing, refining, finishing….refinishing….more input of materials and labor….it is a never ending process.  Frankly, I feel that the day one has stopped learning in their field, I think this is the day to move on and try something different.

Let me share a poem I wrote in first year English to build a little more on this concept…In keeping with the theme, the poem is titled To Build a Poet.

To Build a Poet

Waiting  -  anticipating

Absent of rhyme, not a single verse

A blank canvas alone – no stanzas to rehearse

                        Plagued by the doggerels,   

                                           Lodged in a rut,

Bound by the rules of rhyme

Break . . . rest;

Learn from the best,

Do not, their dialect and idiom jest!

Analyze … critique,

Understand the technique!

What of their ways your curiosity pique?

What makes some good, while others bad?

How does one conjure the emotion of sad?

Study their verse, their best and their worst,

Understand the mechanics of the sane and the mad.

Read from the contemporary, apprentice with the classics.

Travel north with Service, south with Taylor, it’s really quite fantastic.

Like any other craftsman, poets grow through experience and practice.

And built upon a foundation of influence; they’re woven like lattice.

Drops of rhyme, a dash reason, stir the pot, and add the season.

Masters are built-not of their own-but teased by influences of the seasoned.

Drink with Shakespeare, dine with Milton; of poets, they are The Hilton.

With their experience, form a union; and with their legacy – communion

Into the pot … melt it down,

All of their wisdom

…Drink it up.

…Drown.

And when on the other side thou dost emerge

And with rhyme and quill you have the urge

Paint the canvas-fashion a verse

And never again the greats will you curse.

             Gregory Stickney   March 23, 2005

Whether or not you are a fan of poetry, (whether or not you would consider this poetry), it takes little effort to read this as ‘To Build a Teacher’.  Consider each line…ie. ‘What makes some good while other bad?’, or ‘Read from the contemporary, apprentice with the classics’…we have asked all of the same questions in this year of our education.  The challenge now is to ‘for a union with their experience’, and ‘communion with their legacy’…as student teachers it is time to move from a position of force fed education to one of apprenticeship.

So ‘when on the other side thou dost emerge’, we’ll likely look back at the headaches of education… and hopefully ‘never again, the (profs) shall we curse’.

Have a great day…and HEY!…allow yourself to be ‘teased by the influences of the seasoned’.

Gregory

To Build a Teacher. 

Who would have guessed, back when my jr. high English class studied Jack London’s ‘To Build A Fire’, that I would someday be looking forward to my practicum.  Back then I wanted nothing to do with school such that I failed my second and third course that year.  I guess you could say that I was a bit of a trouble maker and, can you believe it, I am now getting set to teach students like I once was.  Why?  For the love of literature, Why??? 

Although too late to get any academic credits for my graduation, I smartened up in my grade twelve year, and if I hadn’t done so already, I fell in love with the high school shop.  Mr ‘T’, my high school metal and drafting instructor, encouraged me in my passion for the trades and I finished that year with honors and the distinction of top Sr Wood, Sr. Metal and Industrial Ed student.  Al ‘T’ also encouraged my desire to come back to the high school shops as a teacher. 

I look at the course that my life has taken oven the last thirteen years and I can honestly say that I am grateful that I didn’t go straight to university.  Not only would it have meant moving to the coast, but I believe the practical experience I gained in the meantime will add to a shop class experience…I can see the real world experience add to my ability to foresee hazardous situations, make lessons personal and I can also see my trades experience assisting in the prioritizing of my hidden curriculum. <<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

From the frying pan to the fire, I left a secure career as an underpaid shop lead-hand in ’94 and leapt into university studies.  My family has been very supportive, but my studies have none the less taken their toll not only on myself, but on my wife and my kids as well.  Thankfully, our parents have been great by helping the kids get desires of their heart…namely Aric and his hockey and keeping the three of them enrolled in a private school.  They have also pitched in now and then for dates, holidays and other ‘nicessities’ of life.  I have to say that, financially, we haven’t really been in want for anything and we are forever indebted to our folks…the greater impact has definitely been relational. 

So, with three and some years of education, and ten years of industry and ‘real’ life behind me, I am now into my final year looking towards my practicum with excitement, trepidation and reservation.  Is this for me?  Will I be the teacher that students will migrate towards?  Will I gain their respect…will I enjoy this career?  I suppose the questions are as numerous as the stars in the sky…and I know that none of them can be answered with surety until I am there…but WOW, what a lot to chew on and digest while still cramming new stuff into the weary ol’ brain. 

I recently erupted on a professor criticizing the lack of this, the omission of that and the inclusion of the useless…for that I apologize…I now realize how little about teaching can actually be taught.  Having spent the last week in high school classes, I have so many questions that I wouldn’t know what to ask the university to teach me first.  I guess the reality of building a teacher is that it boils down to one thing……experience.  The only way to learn to teach is to, as Nike says, just do it.I met some great kids this week.  One in particular is a very motivated grade ten in a 4 grade split metal class.  This student thrives on helping, working, learning, teaching…defeating cancer.  And then there are the hockey kids…the ‘my dad is forking out 100G for me to be in the academy and make the NHL’.  Many of these hockey academy kids appear to have little use for school as they are set on making a career out of hockey…the reality is that I will have beaten the odds if any of my ‘kids’ ever make it famous.  What will these students do when they realize they didn’t beat the odds?  If I can give them just one thing while they are in my care, what should it be? 

Another class I sat in on was a keep-em-busy science credit course.  The students in this class are either living on their own, on drugs, pregnant, beaten….  While much of me wants to stay as far from these kids as I can, another part of me is inclined to get personally involved…I know I can do neither, but what can I do? 

To build a teacher….          ………to play the game. 

I have a heart for student success….what will I do when my student fails? I have a desire to equip for life…for career…for future…what if they won’t hear me?If I can keep them safe, show some skill, make my course sexy…I will have a career, but what can I do to have a success? 

….to be continued I am sure.