Materials rule 
Thursday, June 15, 2006, 09:21 AM
Found a good school subject for the disaffected recently: Resistive materials in design and technology. A doing thing with woods, metal, plastics with lots of useful handskills. A school subject always under pressure because workshops are expensive, technicians and teachers more so, but not needing math success at foundation level means that anyone who gets on with teacher can find a career basis in a trade. Worked as classroom assistant for disabled youngster, amazing what he could do for himself. Now marking the public exam paper shows lots of good thinking by beginners as well as the confidence of kids who are comfortable in the subject. This is real life, perhaps for their first time in school. A seriously useful project is start and heart of it.

Possible paths are a toolkit for home use or school use without workshop or power (think developing world), or parent guidance, or self-study. Lots possible from website. More anon.


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