Richard Bazeley sent me photos and the description as follows:
"My friend Merv, a retired engineer, has kept the projects that he made in year 9 at Technical school over 50 years ago. He is quite proud to show me this and other pieces that he made. The work has his name and grade stamped on it using a metal punch. I admire the accuracy of this work."

Merv is one of many students who have taken pride in their work and kept it for years as examples of their accomplishments. I know that most educators and parents these days think that there are more important things for our children to do in school, like learning the things that will be measured on tests and then quickly forgotten.

Today in the Clear Spring wood shop we continued our project making 3-d elevated models from topographical images. It was difficult for all of the students. They are too easily distracted and struggled to pull their attention from discussion of the latest video games. We had to call the chatter to a halt and ended the class with a discussion of the ineffectiveness of multi-tasking and the importance of giving projects full attention. Not all projects in the wood shop turn out the way we would like, but every thing that arises offers unique opportunity for growth. The photos below show teacher Andrea's model of Mount St. Helens and one of the finished wooden boxes for geometric solids (7th and 8th grades)