Welcome back to America under the Microscope, I'm Brad and we're gonna be talking about the advance series for American shop class. Hello, Lulu.

Hello Brad. I still have a lot of questions to ask. So last time we were talking about the basics, the class setup, how big it is. I have to ask you because based on my understanding from these TV shows or movies, they were mostly boys. It's more like what boys took. So is there like a gender divide when you were growing up?

In middle school there wasn't so much a gender divide because everyone had to take the class. But when you get to high school, students have more of a choice in what classes they're going to take. And so girls probably wouldn't often take these classes. And if a girl did take one of the industrial arts classes, they would often see her as more of like a tomboyish type of girl. So there was a...

A stereotype...

...a big stereotype. Nowadays, it's a little bit more open and you do see a little bit more of a mixture. Yeah. So you do see more of a mixture of boys and girls in these classes.

Actually along with shop class, I've also heard, so when boys chose shop class girls went to something called home economics?

Yeah. In middle school boys had to take home economics. And so they cook things like this with the girls. But in high school, if they do have a home economics class and they do cook, girls would typically take this kind of class just because typically it's an easy class. And occasionally a boy might take this class if they really wanna like impress a girl that's in the class and so they might take it. But aside from that, boys typically would take one of the more industrial arts classes.

So when you're talking about industrial arts, apart from shop class, what else does it contain?

So they have the typical shop class, working with wood or other materials, they also have like a mechanics class for car mechanics where people can repair cars; or they even have some schools with a little bit more money or like someone who's donating stuff to the school. In that particular situation, they might build like a race car or something like that and actually race.

Like remote controlled race car.

No, like an actual... like car that people sit in.

An actual race car?! You gotta have a lot of money for that.

Not necessarily, you can build a basic race car for just a few thousand dollars.

Wouldn't want to sit in that though.

A lot of people just go out and buy used cars and make race cars.

I see. I know for fact that in the UK, because I'm more familiar with the UK educational system. So they have something called design and technology which is a big part, especially nowadays all these big technology and then with an idea of design, so students have to design things on their computer, for instance. Nowadays, do you have something similar or how important is design and technology seen or regarded in the American educational system?

That wouldn't really be that important until university. If you're going into like an engineering program, you'd have to take auto CAD or Solidworks were actually designing 3D models. You might get a little bit of that in high school with some of the after school activities for some of the STEM classes. They would do something more like that. We're actually designing something like a robot or tool or something like that. It's not so much what you see in the high school shop class, so much. These kinds of classes are more focusing on a trade rather than actually designing something.

So it's more about vocational education. In a trade so that if they decide not to go to university, they can still have a skill to rely on. In high school, are these optional like elective classes?

Yeah. In high school students have a really big choice as to what classes they're going to take and when they're going to take them, every student has to take three math classes. And I they have to take three science classes. But aside from their basic classes, they can choose to take more advanced science classes or they can choose to take these types of industrial arts classes or both.

What if say, I'm not interested in technology at all? I'm not interested in industrial arts, not interested in DIY. How am I going to graduate?

You don't have to take this type of class. That’s not a requirement for graduating. Taking like one of the industrial arts classes is just purely elective. However, when you do go into university, if you're applying for a university and telling them that you wanna be an engineering program, something like that, they kind of expect you to have taken a class like this.

Oh, so these would actually look very good on university application if you are applying for relevant majors. But that still hasn't answered my question which is if, I'm not so much into engineering this part, what are the alternatives?

You could take like...

Arts related? Like can I take music?

Yeah, you can definitely take music. High school usually has like music or drama things like this. You can do an acting class. When I was in high school I took an acting class.

So you took acting and engineering.

Actually I took electronics in the morning. I went to another school for two hours of the day, went to one of the skills centers and studied electronics.

You said, you went to a skills center. So you're not learning this at your school on your campus. What’s that about?

So a lot of times, districts find it very expensive to have one electronics class in every high school, whereas you might not get a lot of interest in one particular school for an electronics class, so rather than do that, they would get students from all the different high schools to go to the skill center and take electronics. But the skill center would also have auto CAD; they can have cooking; they can have a lot of different classes.

Oh so all these like more hands on practical trade related or vocation related subjects, they are put in one skill center that covers or services multiple schools. And that's funded by the local government?

Yes, by the taxpayers basically. When they pay for schools, taxpayers are paying the majority of it, but also it lowers the overall cost. Most high schools will still have a shop class within the school. But then for something more specific, like electronics or for auto CAD, they don't really need to have all that software in one school. They can put it more centralized.

So that's a lot about trade and vocational information or knowledge. This I've heard from multiple sources, in America, actually if you decide to go into a trade, like you said do some vocational things in school and then after graduating just going to apprenticeship and perhaps in the future becoming an electrician or a mechanic. That is actually not badly paid.

No, it’s not. If you become an electrician, you can have a six figure salary, but it may take you a while to get there. But there are some companies that are looking for people and they'll pay them six figures starting as long as they have all of their certifications.

But is there still a thing about collar, like blue collar and white collar? Is that still a thing in America? Do people still talk about it?

It's still a thing. It's still something that people will consider. And when they're looking for a marriage partner, they will consider this person is a trades person. So they might think about that type of thing.

Even if he makes more?

Even if he makes more, some people will kind of look at it. But I think for the most part a lot of people have gone and said it's stupid to go to university and spend tens of thousands of dollars and have all this debt at the end. When you can go to high school, become an electrician, not have any student loans, and be making six figures after 5, 6 years of apprenticeship.

So I guess that wraps up today's talk about shop class and then the vocational content, the American education system. If you have anything to say about vocational education or the vocational elements in the education system that you've been through, share with us in the comment section what do you think. We would love to see your feedback. Thank you very much for coming on the show again. Thank you, brad.

No problem.

See you next time.

See you.

Bye.