A sawdust-filled workshop was home to five sturdy wooden tables and heavy, rusty machines. The seats only sat a few students, overshadowed by the “better” electives like foods and art. Yet, I somehow got stuck with a full semester of wood shop.
The first day of wood shop amplified the surroundings of the room. The loud noise coming from weird metal tubes on the ceiling filled the void of silence as we waited for the teacher. Scuffling feet resting on the squeaky stools. I remember the class being mostly boys, with only three other girls. Day by day, as our teacher introduced us to his craftsmanship, they left until I was the only girl left. Needless to say, I got special treatment from my teacher in the long run.
A band saw, just like the image above, was the machine I dreaded to use. A long, sharp blade was a continuous, rotating band of metal with toothed edges. It was tall and green, with the same yellow sign of CAUTION. It was a big step up from the paper rockets and the handwriting exercises that we had to do. After many safety tests and procedures, we had to build a CO2 race car.
It started off as one block of wood and shaping it required the use of the band saw. Pushing it into the blade of the band saw made my hands shake. We each had to cut out our design and mine came out rough to the edges, so along with others, we had to sand it down. A lot.
With different types of sandpaper, it was a frustrating process. Sanding until my ears became sensitive to the roughness and crackling texture of the worn-out sandpaper. Sawdust piling up, with all the boys making it a competition. It was definitely worth it in the end, because my red race car beat all the other ones.
While taking the elective of wood shop was a scary and stressful experience, I got used to the environment. There were many precautions taken and a not-so-bad teacher. I would not take it again, but it was an unforgettable and respectable experience.
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Hey Alexis, you did a great job of explaining what woodshop is like, I've never been there and I can form a decent picture of what it's like. Woodshop was something I wanted to take when I was younger, but when high school came along it wasn't interesting to me anymore. Although you wouldn't take it again, I'm glad you had a good experience and were able to go through with it! I got stuck with comp sci this year and had to drop it immediately, it sucked.
ReplyDeleteAlexis, your blog made me think back to the time i took wood shop as an elective in middle school. It was confusing at first i must say but building the co2 race car was really fun. I totally relate to the description you made of that classroom because the atmosphere in that class was weird in some way
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