Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

[Twitch Boy]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

For us, it was "Home and Careers". Gotta love PC...

Oh, and "shop" was gone by then. Again, budget cuts, but it's a Title I school.

Life Skills here. Personal care, sewing, cooking, and money management. Teacher was awesome (let us play Quake on the classroom LAN during lunch) but the curriculum seemed like a holdover from older days and an afterthought. Fewer dittos asking if buying pork tenderloin is a good use of money (well, you gotta eat SOMETHING.) More teaching us how to navigate a mortgage or do our taxes.

Shop was Applied Tech - there was a nice early CNC lathe if you wanted, but basically an excuse to come into the computer lab and play SimFarm and The Incredible Machine for an hour.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Life Skills here. Personal care, sewing, cooking, and money management. Teacher was awesome (let us play Quake on the classroom LAN during lunch) but the curriculum seemed like a holdover from older days and an afterthought. Fewer dittos asking if buying pork tenderloin is a good use of money (well, you gotta eat SOMETHING.) More teaching us how to navigate a mortgage or do our taxes.

Shop was Applied Tech - there was a nice early CNC lathe if you wanted, but basically an excuse to come into the computer lab and play SimFarm and The Incredible Machine for an hour.

Doing taxes would be a great life skill to teach in a government or economics class. Granted, I could figure it out doing a little RT*M, and I was in an economics class in college that taught it. Of course, I'm sure H&R Block would lobby against it for the public school system...

Basic plumbing also would have been a great thing to learn, and something I wish I knew now.

 

[Hammer]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Life Skills here. Personal care, sewing, cooking, and money management. Teacher was awesome (let us play Quake on the classroom LAN during lunch) but the curriculum seemed like a holdover from older days and an afterthought. Fewer dittos asking if buying pork tenderloin is a good use of money (well, you gotta eat SOMETHING.) More teaching us how to navigate a mortgage or do our taxes.

Shop was Applied Tech - there was a nice early CNC lathe if you wanted, but basically an excuse to come into the computer lab and play SimFarm and The Incredible Machine for an hour.

We had a few shop classes:

1) I forget the official name of the one I took our freshman year. We just called it "Woods". It was basically an excuse to saw things in half and fight. I swear, if there was one fight per week, it was a very calm week.

2) There was an advanced shop class we called "Advanced Woods". I don't know of anybody who took that class.

3) You could also take a class called "Powers & Metals". Translation: a class for stoners to work on their cars and raise hell with each other, since clearly none of them were going anywhere or doing anything with themselves after graduation (a theory later more or less proven correct). This class basically got the D- ****-ups of the school away from the rest of us for the better part of an hour.

I forget the name of our Home Ec class. I do know that the teacher got really ****ed off when I called it "Home Ec" in front of her.

 

[Hammer]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Doing taxes would be a great life skill to teach in a government or economics class. Granted, I could figure it out doing a little RT*M, and I was in an economics class in college that taught it. Of course, I'm sure H&R Block would lobby against it for the public school system...

Basic plumbing also would have been a great thing to learn, and something I wish I knew now.

We had three classes where taxes were discussed. We had a "General Business" class, where it was talked about a little bit. Then later we had another business class, I want to call it "Business Law/Personal Finance", where we got more into depth. Then, our senior year, our American Government class talked about it a bit, too. Our teacher (who was absolutely TREMENDOUS) split the curriculum into three pieces: 1) Your typical government & civics, 2) Current events, and 3) Practical education, like the very basics of a job interview, buying a car/house, insurance, taxes, etc.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

I took industrial tech as a high school freshman, fall of '91. It was basically woodworking, and the big project was to build a wall clock. A kid shot me in the leg with a nail gun. That was the last time we saw that kid in school.

 

[Twitch Boy]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Doing taxes would be a great life skill to teach in a government or economics class. Granted, I could figure it out doing a little RT*M, and I was in an economics class in college that taught it. Of course, I'm sure H&R Block would lobby against it for the public school system...

Basic plumbing also would have been a great thing to learn, and something I wish I knew now.

I never was a hands-on sort growing up, and I really wish I had those skills now. A low-risk environment where I could futz around with household level plumbing, circuitry, HVAC, etc. and learn a few basics without breaking anything or maiming myself would have instilled quite a bit of confidence. (The other hurdle is I rolled a 3 in DEX, but that's neither here nor there.)

Basic around-the-house level electrical/circuitry/HVAC work would be freakin' awesome, but you'd NEVER get the admin to sign off on it for fear of someone getting zapped.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

I never was a hands-on sort growing up, and I really wish I had those skills now. A low-risk environment where I could futz around with household level plumbing, circuitry, HVAC, etc. and learn a few basics without breaking anything or maiming myself would have instilled quite a bit of confidence. (The other hurdle is I rolled a 3 in DEX, but that's neither here nor there.)

Basic around-the-house level electrical/circuitry/HVAC work would be freakin' awesome, but you'd NEVER get the admin to sign off on it for fear of someone getting zapped.

That last part is definitely the biggest hurdle for anything Home Ec or Shop related, especially considering insurance and a sue-happy society.

Sadly, a lot of these things have been sent to the vocational school system (BOCES as it's called in NYS). I believe Hammer had a term for those that would normally go, but the sad thing is that they're probably better off with in-demand blue collar employment than those of us who wasted thousands on college, especially those who received what amounts to a worthless degree for their trouble.

 

[Hammer]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Sadly, a lot of these things have been sent to the vocational school system (BOCES as it's called in NYS). I believe Hammer had a term for those that would normally go, but the sad thing is that they're probably better off with in-demand blue collar employment than those of us who wasted thousands on college, especially those who received what amounts to a worthless degree for their trouble.

No. The guys I was referring to had NO interest in learning ANYTHING. The Powers/Metals class, as well as vocational school system (we had something similar called Vo-Tec) were simply something to keep these clowns out of jail, with lunch time being used for most of them to see just how many Marlboros and Camels they could inhale in 35 minutes or less, while throwing rocks at semis (true stories, both of them). Most of them are pushing a broom somewhere today, because that's all they were interested in learning. Sadly, the guys that actually used anything they learned in those classes after graduation were few and far between.

I do agree that vocational schools, when used properly, are EXCELLENT choices for those interested in doing something along those lines that have no interest in college.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

We had to take a couple of wood shop classes and a plastics class. Part of me wishes I had taken a real shop class where you learned to work on cars. But I'm glad I took extra math classes in the end. We had one or two Home Ec classes in middle school where we learned basic cooking skills and basic home skills like sewing. (I still have that pillow. Great quality!)

The only skills I've retained or grown are cooking and basic home repair like installing a light switch, replacing and repairing PVC pipe, etc.

 

[MissThundercat]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Overtime at work yesterday:

-Arrived at 2:30, as was required. Punch was rejected.
-Got to my department, and only found ONE tank.
-Went on a search for more tanks to clean. Found about 18 of them.
-Had to find someone to bring us these tanks, as my coworker and I don't have HILO licenses.

Basically, the gear grinder here is that it took about two hours for us to get going. Had those tanks been in the room at 2:30, we would have been out of there in an hour and a half.

 

[MissThundercat]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

The fact that political discussion in this country has gone from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to:

A: Derp durr... Trump is the greatest!
B: You are so wrong. You're an *******.
A: I'm an *******? You're an *******, pal!
B: Whatever.
C: LOUD NOISES!

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

The fact that political discussion in this country has gone from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to:

A: Derp durr... Trump is the greatest!
B: You are so wrong. You're an *******.
A: I'm an *******? You're an *******, pal!
B: Whatever.
C: LOUD NOISES!

And then once you think you've made progress with finding some common ground and making advancements that both sides can agree on, some idiot just has to ruin it with a talking point, and you're back to exactly what was quoted.

 

[SJHovey]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

We had to take a couple of wood shop classes and a plastics class. Part of me wishes I had taken a real shop class where you learned to work on cars. But I'm glad I took extra math classes in the end. We had one or two Home Ec classes in middle school where we learned basic cooking skills and basic home skills like sewing. (I still have that pillow. Great quality!)

The only skills I've retained or grown are cooking and basic home repair like installing a light switch, replacing and repairing PVC pipe, etc.

Our shop classes were great. We learned how to weld and were actually required to fabricate an item we designed using metal we welded together. We learned how to make fiberglass products, and again each student had to design and construct a fiberglass project.

I received my final grade in that class 40 years ago. I have never once welded something or created any fiberglass since. What I really learned in that class was I had no interest at all in spending my day welding or making fiberglass repairs. That's why that class was excellent.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

What I really learned in that class was I had no interest at all in spending my day welding or making fiberglass repairs. That's why that class was excellent.

Great point. Learning what you don't like is just as important as learning what you do.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

And then once you think you've made progress with finding some common ground and making advancements that both sides can agree on, some idiot just has to ruin it with a talking point, and you're back to exactly what was quoted.

Yeah, I can't imagine who would be guilty of spewing inflammatory "talking points" around here...

 

[leswp1]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Yeah, I can't imagine who would be guilty of spewing inflammatory "talking points" around here...

heh.

 

[unofan]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Great grinding: Credit card rewards options that make no sense.

I have a Visa that gives me, among other things, 5% back for Amazon purchases. I can use the points for a statement credit (essentially cash), or gift cards, or use them directly on Amazon. None of the options have more favorable terms than the other (ie 100 points = $1 whether put towards a gift card, used directly at Amazon, or turned into a statement credit).

Why the hell would I ever use them at Amazon, when I could charge the purchase, get the 5% in points, then use the points I otherwise would've "spent" as a statement credit.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

Great point. Learning what you don't like is just as important as learning what you do.

My biology classes must have been my most valuable, then. They taught me that it's possible for a science to be utterly uninteresting.

 

[aparch]

Great grinding: Credit card rewards options that make no sense.

I have a Visa that gives me, among other things, 5% back for Amazon purchases. I can use the points for a statement credit (essentially cash), or gift cards, or use them directly on Amazon. None of the options have more favorable terms than the other (ie 100 points = $1 whether put towards a gift card, used directly at Amazon, or turned into a statement credit).

Why the hell would I ever use them at Amazon, when I could charge the purchase, get the 5% in points, then use the points I otherwise would've "spent" as a statement credit.

Depending on how large your purchase is at Amazon, you could redeem the value of points and pay for the remainder of the purchase on the charge card?


Reminds me of a guy I used to work with who really wanted a flight from points. So he used his air miles card to purchase gift cards from Sam's Club (or wherever) earning miles. He then used the gift cards to pay off his credit card bill. Lather, rinse, repeat, until he got enough miles.

 

[alfablue]

Re: Gear Grinding 7: Really? This crap again?

We had to take a couple of wood shop classes and a plastics class. Part of me wishes I had taken a real shop class where you learned to work on cars. But I'm glad I took extra math classes in the end. We had one or two Home Ec classes in middle school where we learned basic cooking skills and basic home skills like sewing. (I still have that pillow. Great quality!)

The only skills I've retained or grown are cooking and basic home repair like installing a light switch, replacing and repairing PVC pipe, etc.

In theory, you learned how to learn. So get a welder, and make it work.

I managed to talk my wife into getting me a welder for my birthday. Took me a few years to get up the courage to use it. But I learned quickly, and now have no problem doing body repair on my cars. Other than the total lack of motivation to do it.