Shop class in eighth grade at Steger Jr. High School, in Rock Hill, Missouri, was the greater leveler, the great equalizer, for me. There, in shop, the academically oriented students were integrated with the vocationally oriented students. I was in the academically-oriented group. In shop class under Mr. Primm, we worked with our hands in woods, metals, and plastics, and made stuff, whatever we wanted.
I marveled repeatedly as those vocational students produced the most beautiful and elaborate creations, while I eked by making a wooden tie rack, a plastic initials escutcheon, later broken at home by an inquiring younger brother, and nothing in metal that I now recall. Meanwhile those other guys, the ones we were conditioned to believe were beneath us, were practically mass-producing furniture, tools, cutlery. It was no contest. We got smoked!
Humble pie comes in many taste and textures. This was definitely one of them!
Monday, July 7, 2014
humble pie
Shop class in eighth grade at Steger Jr. High School, in Rock Hill, Missouri, was the greater leveler, the great equalizer, for me. There, in shop, the academically oriented students were integrated with the vocationally oriented students. I was in the academically-oriented group. In shop class under Mr. Primm, we worked with our hands in woods, metals, and plastics, and made stuff, whatever we wanted.
I marveled repeatedly as those vocational students produced the most beautiful and elaborate creations, while I eked by making a wooden tie rack, a plastic initials escutcheon, later broken at home by an inquiring younger brother, and nothing in metal that I now recall. Meanwhile those other guys, the ones we were conditioned to believe were beneath us, were practically mass-producing furniture, tools, cutlery. It was no contest. We got smoked!
Humble pie comes in many taste and textures. This was definitely one of them!
