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I mean, it has a different name, but surely every nation in the world has similar classes with similar content? In the UK the GCSE Design and Technology syllab

I mean, it has a different name, but surely every nation in the world has similar classes with similar content? In the UK the GCSE Design and Technology syllabus covers all of the bases mentioned in the article as a standard part of the National Curriculum for every child. http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/design-and-technology/gcse/design-and-technology-8552 http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/design-and-technology/gcse/de... The article is written as if there’s something special about it unique to Scandinavia, beyond its name.

Rumudiez 9y ago
The US does not have anything like this in its mandatory public school curriculum that I know of. My experience in a good public system was that if you had time in your schedule to take a shop class (wood and metal working) it was because you weren't taking a foreign language or music class. Same problem with art -- there was no room built in to accommodate those classes in a typical student's schedule.
- ci5er 9y ago
  Hmmm. Odd. I took all the above. Maybe our classes were shorter (~50min each)? Or we had longer days (7.30am to 3.30pm and then the extracurriculars started)?
  - Rumudiez 9y ago
    I and the other students from the AP classes at my school effectively had no electives -- we all took math, science, English, history, a foreign language, and at least one music class every semester of every year throughout middle and high school. With 6 classes a day and extra curricular sports, robotics and music there was no way to take a shop or home-ec class, and that's after getting arts and gym waived.
    - abeyer 9y ago
      > and at least one music class every semester of every year throughout middle and high school Seriously? I'm all for music in schools, did a fair bit myself, and went to a public school with a strong program... but 14+ semesters of required music seems like overkill for most people.
- mcphage 9y ago
  I went to my city's "public school you need to test into" (so it was very big on academics) and it still had a shop class.
  - Rumudiez 9y ago
    We had a shop class. What we didn't have was time to take it without skipping out on another core class. This should be required curriculum -- that was the point I took home from the article.
    - mcbits 9y ago
      States and school districts still have a fair amount of control over curricula, so "the US" does mandate hands-on classes in some places. My high school had a mandatory shop class (student's choice of woods or metals). Middle school had mandatory home ec for all genders.
    - mcphage 9y ago
      We didn't skip out on another class, it was just part of the curriculum. This was 8th grade, and I transferred out after that year, so I don't know what they did in High School.
- mbell 9y ago
  I went to a regular public school and we had a mandatory program called 'Life Skills' that served roughly this purpose in 8th grade. It wasn't a full class though. As I recall it was 2 hours each Friday afternoon for a semester and everyone rotated through a few sub-classes: cooking, wood shop, sewing, and mechanical drawing.
barrkel 9y ago
Not at similar age with similar intent, no.
NTripleOne 9y ago
Man, looking back I kinda wish I'd taken DT over some other subject as one of my GCSEs. Probably music.

Rumudiez 9y ago

The US does not have anything like this in its mandatory public school curriculum that I know of. My experience in a good public system was that if you had time in your schedule to take a shop class (wood and metal working) it was because you weren't taking a foreign language or music class. Same problem with art -- there was no room built in to accommodate those classes in a typical student's schedule.

ci5er 9y ago
Hmmm. Odd. I took all the above. Maybe our classes were shorter (~50min each)? Or we had longer days (7.30am to 3.30pm and then the extracurriculars started)?
- Rumudiez 9y ago
  I and the other students from the AP classes at my school effectively had no electives -- we all took math, science, English, history, a foreign language, and at least one music class every semester of every year throughout middle and high school. With 6 classes a day and extra curricular sports, robotics and music there was no way to take a shop or home-ec class, and that's after getting arts and gym waived.
  - abeyer 9y ago
    > and at least one music class every semester of every year throughout middle and high school Seriously? I'm all for music in schools, did a fair bit myself, and went to a public school with a strong program... but 14+ semesters of required music seems like overkill for most people.
mcphage 9y ago
I went to my city's "public school you need to test into" (so it was very big on academics) and it still had a shop class.
- Rumudiez 9y ago
  We had a shop class. What we didn't have was time to take it without skipping out on another core class. This should be required curriculum -- that was the point I took home from the article.
  - mcbits 9y ago
    States and school districts still have a fair amount of control over curricula, so "the US" does mandate hands-on classes in some places. My high school had a mandatory shop class (student's choice of woods or metals). Middle school had mandatory home ec for all genders.
  - mcphage 9y ago
    We didn't skip out on another class, it was just part of the curriculum. This was 8th grade, and I transferred out after that year, so I don't know what they did in High School.
mbell 9y ago
I went to a regular public school and we had a mandatory program called 'Life Skills' that served roughly this purpose in 8th grade. It wasn't a full class though. As I recall it was 2 hours each Friday afternoon for a semester and everyone rotated through a few sub-classes: cooking, wood shop, sewing, and mechanical drawing.

barrkel 9y ago

Not at similar age with similar intent, no.

NTripleOne 9y ago

Man, looking back I kinda wish I'd taken DT over some other subject as one of my GCSEs. Probably music.