From Shop to Surgery
by Mr. Drake
March 08, 2010
Larry Eastwood from Nebraska Machine spoke to our automotive class and related this story.
Mr. Eastwood made his son take shop classes in high school although he did not want to and his shop grade showed.
Later in life, his son was seeking to get accepted into school to become an orthopedic surgeon and was one of the finalists. The school brought nine candidates in with nine tables, each having wire, screws, two dowel rods, wire cutters, and a cordless drill. The task was to connect the dowels together and make the strongest possible. Three walked out without making an attempt as they had never used a cordless drill before. Calling home his son thanked his dad exclaiming they use the same tools in orthopedic surgeries as he used in his high school shop class, and he knew knowing how to handle tools helped in getting accepted into school. His son is now an orthopedic surgeon in California.
Shop helps to bridge the gap from memorization to application of math, reading, physics, chemistry and the list goes on. Vocational schools are often looked down upon by people, but some of my more challenging classes have been taken at technical schools and the starting salary for graduates is often more than a four-year bachelor's degree. Visiting with a guest at my hotel, I learned his wages at his construction welding job was $18.00 dollars an hour with $80.00 a day per diem; that works out to be $40,000 with no overtime considered in.
As you and your student begin looking at post high school education, don't be too quick to dismiss vocational schooling.
