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Hawaii's most valuable export? Her children....
Most students I interact with are on their way to the mainland before the ink is dry on their diploma.
Doesn't bode well for the future. And our legislature fiddles while the future goes down the tubes.
I did wonder how many of their children are working on the mainland - but then realized that, since they are legislators, there's always jobs here for THEIR children here...
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how many of their children are working on the mainland
...as consultants, mostly in San Diego or Portland...
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STEM is not for them all, hence my encouragement as per the trades.
...
shop classes don't exist any more... They all became obsolete from funding cuts or replaced by things like robotics.
Unfortunately, the jobs shop classes taught and prepared students for in the past no longer exist. Woodworking? Furniture is all made overseas, and there’s limited demand for a $300 turned koa bowl. (Carpentry is different from woodworking). Metalworking? Machine shops are few, as are repair shops because it’s often cheaper to buy new than to repair something. Drafting? Blueprints are made on computers, no longer hand drawn.
The schools may be facing reality when they discard their table saws and replace them with a robot engineering & construction lab. Unfortunately a woodworking student who might have stayed on island in the past, is being replaced by a robot engineer who will leave for the mainland.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
Riiiiit >>> Furniture and Cabinet making are thriving. Maybe you too cheap to look around ? 300 Koa Bowls are an unrealistic comparison as they have always been more a novelty and high end kinda item. In any state.
Throw-a-way everything,,, amazoned to you @ the speed of the postman's stride.
Then you complain about saving us from the planes exhaust.
I really don't even care about above, but its the hypocrisy of it all.
FYI, again factual, STEM classes are elective and not all kids even want them folks. Choosing HomeEc or PE or MultiMedia bc they WANT TO. They can take BOTH woodshop A N D STEM BTW.
Woodshop is one of the few left and some kids have never even seen such a place, let alone been allowed to actually USE the tools to make stuff. To them its magic. I'm gobsmacked anyone would criticize this.
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its the hypocrisy of it all
Offshore the manufacturing jobs, then complain there's no living wage.
Offshore the farm production, then complain there's no local food.
Outsource the knowledge economy, then complain there's no STEM education.
Refuse to let anything be built, then complain about tax increases.
Woodshop? That's all about dangerous sharp instruments that might kill a child, far better they use their Samsung tablet on the Verizon network to order Guatemalan handicrafts from a virtual Amazon storefront, while the parents complain that they can't shop locally anymore.
Good thing I've almost got mine, pretty soon I won't need to care, right?
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Furniture and Cabinet making are thriving. Maybe you too cheap to look around ?
I have looked around. I have built solid wood tables and cabinets. I enjoy woodworking and I wish more people could make their living building furniture. But it’s a niche market at best these days. What happened to Koehnen's Interiors in Hilo? They didn’t go out of business because of the high demand for high end furniture:
Target furniture: China
Walmart furniture: China
Paradise Plants: Indonesia
Pier 1: Every Third World Country With A Harbor
RWR: where do you go for moderately priced, locally made furniture?
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Furniture and Cabinet making are thriving. Maybe you too cheap to look around ?
Yeah right, have you looked around at all the hardwood stores? Sources of cabinet plywoods? Hardware? Sure it is thriving, just not here. In fact the last set of cabinets I built took me a lot of time just to find enough material. Birch faces, you'd think it would be a no brainer. Good luck.
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"Woodshop is one of the few left and some kids have never even seen such a place, let alone been allowed to actually USE the tools to make stuff. To them its magic. I'm gobsmacked anyone would criticize this."
Now you're creating a straw man. No one has criticized children for going to a woodshop, despite that option not being particularly innovative (which this thread is about). That might be some children's best option for a future. What has happened, though, is some here have criticized children for their achievements in science and STEM subjects and telling them they should go to a woodshop instead, e.g.,
"Take woodshop. Learn a trade. Save your money and invest a little bit as early ss can. Got that in your pocket. Go from there."
glad i used a treble hook under this super worm moon