Case for Keeping Woodworking Class in Schools

Woodworking class is not as common in American high schools as it once was. This is due in part to shrinking budgets and insurance costs. But, one junior at an Arizona high school offers a good case for why woodshop should be a part of most high school curricula. The case of Thomas Cardella of Bisbee, Arizona, shows the benefits of woodworking in high schools and what needs exist to keep woodshops in high school systems.

Thomas Cardella is a junior at Bisbee High School who has taken woodworking since his freshman year. He is currently working on an octagonal-shaped stool made of ash and pine with walnut inlay. He says he enjoys the creative aspect of the class and being able to make something out of nothing. He also plans to continue his woodworking education at a junior college after graduating high school.

This case points to the value of woodshop in high school through its tie-in with geometry, pointing to a future vocation, and appeal of the class to both boys and girls. Cardella stated that he saw the value of studying geometry when he worked on the octagonal stool's plans and had to think in three dimensions. The same can be said for any student. The woodshop work also seems to have pointed to a future career for Cardella, who says he is more of a vocational student. Cardella's teacher, Darrell Thompson, has also stated that his class does not appeal only to boys. He says that 90 percent of his students were girls two years ago.

In the case of the school system in which Thompson teaches, a higher number of credits and electives needed to graduate should help keep woodshop in school. This may be true of other school systems. Thompson says that when the school district dropped the number of needed credits to 21,  it was expected that more students would take technical classes, but they did not. He thinks raising the number of credits and electives will keep his class alive.

Thomas Cardella is one example of why woodshop classes should not be cast off and that increasing the number of credits and electives needed for high school graduation may keep students coming. Like art and music classes, woodworking classes are shrinking from American schools but need to be kept around.

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