It’s not just about acquiring “basic skills” or “marketable skills”. Shop enables practical, skill-appreciating minds to use geometry, physics, and science in concert to solve problems. You learn about symmetry and measurement, force and torque, and materials and chemistry simultaneously.

Many learn better at a workbench than at a chalkboard. And even those that don’t often appreciate the chalkboard more when they can relate what they’re learning to what they are doing.