Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

by Matthew B. Crawford

The disappearance of tools from our common education is the first step toward a wider ignorance of the world of artifacts we inhabit. And, in fact, an engineering culture has developed in recent years in which the object is to “hide the works,” rendering many of the devices we depend on every day unintelligible to direct inspection.

“We have a generation of students that can answer questions on standardized tests, know factoids, but they can’t do anything,”

Being able to think materially about material goods, hence critically, gives one some independence from the manipulations of marketing,

The craftsman has an impoverished fantasy life compared to the ideal consumer; he is more utilitarian and less given to soaring hopes. But he is also more independent.

Craftsmanship means dwelling on a task for a long time and going deeply into it, because you want to get it right.

A thing requires practice while a device invites consumption. Things constitute commanding reality, devices procure disposable reality.6

I taught high school briefly, and would have loved to set up a Ritalin fogger in my classroom, for the sake of order.

I record hours on the left side of the page. Under that number, I’ll write another number, the hours I think I ought to bill.

When the point of education becomes the production of credentials rather than the cultivation of knowledge, it forfeits the motive recognized by Aristotle: “All human beings by nature desire to know.” Students become intellectually disengaged.