Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
I wasn’t supposed to say anything; I was there to make sure the digital connections, Wi-Fi, and especially the printers were all working. It was a meeting of school superintendents from Fremont County and around the region on the future of schools, held back in the early 2010’s. Aren’t we always talking about the future of schools? If we aren’t, we should be, it’s the key to success for every American child.
As vocational education classes came up, one superintendent said with bravado, “We won’t offer vocational classes any longer, our students are all college-bound.”
I suppressed the urge to do an “Animal House” response, you know, the one when Dean Wormer is testifying against Delta House at the Greek Council. If you don’t remember, or haven’t seen this classic, it involves coughing as you say bull#@#t.
Instead, I spoke up out of turn and said, “Are you kidding? What’s wrong with making a living getting your hands dirty? Not all of your kids are interested in college and you’re guaranteeing they’ll leave the state forever.”
I got a quick side-eye from my own superintendent, but agreeing nods from all the other administrators in the room.
Vocational education used to be the hallmark of Wyoming high schools. It was funded heavier than traditional academic classes due to the tremendous overhead in equipment. A four-post lift costs more than a row of desks, a table saw, and more than a couple dozen paperback novels. It just costs more.
The state cut that additional funding years ago, and vocational classes dwindled as a result. In the dark ages, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I was a high school student, vocational education consisted of woodshop, ag or metal shop, and home economics at small schools across the state. If you attended a larger Class 3-A or 4-A high school (AA and A in my day) there was a good chance you could take auto mechanics, drafting, culinary arts and carpentry.
How many students benefited from those classes and are now productive adults, living in Wyoming, not migrating to Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado or New Mexico?
My first vocational class came in seventh grade at Mitchell Junior High School in Rancho Cordova, California. Mr. Beauchamp was our teacher. He was an interesting man, a member of the Sierra Club, but a fan of mahogany for his students. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but the dichotomy of a man supporting the protection of the wilderness while working in wood harvested from the rain forest is striking today.
We learned to use hand tools, then portable power tools like jigsaws and skill saws, and finally big stationary tools like table saws, bandsaws, lathes, and planers.
When my mom passed away last year and we were going through her things, I found the napkin holder I made in seventh grade in one of her cabinets. Just a flat board, with two centered dowels and a smaller board that slid up and down. Shone to a bright finish with Deft polyurethane. I also found the mahogany bookends I made in his class the following year in the shape of the front and back of a cartoonish donkey.
There isn’t much demand for napkin holders and burro book ends, but there is for carpenters, electricians, welders, plumbers, mechanics, truck drivers, equipment operators, and draftsmen. A big demand, and unlike advanced research or other academic venues, the demand is right here at home.
At Wind River High School, I didn’t have the academic offerings that a bigger school could provide. Those two years at Mitchell Junior High School, taking accelerated classes in biology, Algebra I, Algebra II, and English, took away the need for many of the courses at Wind River. Vocational agriculture, woodshop, and carpentry classes were different. I had just the rudimentary skills from Mr. Beauchamps’ class, and I took every one they offered.
We built a house when I was a sophomore a few miles from school in Keith Avery’s Carpentry Skills class. We built another one my senior year with Jerry Fehring across from the old high school at Morton.
I learned to weld from Terry Slack in ag class and picked up additional skills working for Cliff Stickney on the summer crew at Wind River Elementary.
My career was as a history and math teacher and a football, basketball, and track coach, but those skills I picked up in vocational education paid the bills. A teacher’s salary is enough to live on, but to get ahead, I spent my summers pouring concrete, roofing, tying iron, building sheds, barns, decks, and entire houses. My partners were wrestling coach Dan Anderson from Lusk for the first three years, and my best friend, Tad McMillan, in those final years of teaching before I became an IT Administrator working year-round.
My story is far from unique. Many teachers still augment their income and get ahead of the curve during the summer months, painting, welding, driving truck, farming, or in the trades.
Without that foundation, it wouldn’t happen.
For those who go into the trades, the foundation is set by good instructors at the high school level. For a generation, Les Fossey turned out certified welders from his classes at the James H. Moore Career Center in Riverton. District 25 kids learned to build houses under the able instruction of Corey Clemetson and Len Abernathy. Bob Meredith, Loren York, and Roy Reno were all much more than ag teachers and FFA sponsors; they inspired generations of kids.
These vocational classes are under assault. The Freedom Caucus, in its insane quest to destroy public education, will hammer culinary arts, drafting, woods, welding, and business classes first, along with art, music, physical education, and extracurricular activities.
Wyoming’s future is already on the ropes as most of our graduates leave the state, never to return.
Some schools are battling back. Shoshoni High School is leading the way in bringing vocational education back to students in Fremont County School District 24. Shoshoni offers classes in culinary arts, hospitality, building trades, sports officiating, cryptocurrency, and cryptocurrency mining, and theater. They have an innovative Auto Revive class where students take donated cars and trucks, renovate them, paint them in Shoshoni’s new paint booth, and sell them. A student can get a CDL license or a CNA certificate on campus.
Riverton’s vocational program is extensive and covered heavily by the Perkins Grant. Lance Gard teaches beginning woodworking, advanced woodworking, and construction tech classes. His wife, Kelly, offers classes in advanced sewing, baking and pastry, and fashion design. Tann Gopp teaches automotive, auto electrical system, auto tech, and diesel performance. Art classes in stained glass, digital photography, advanced pottery, and mosaic art glass are offered by art teachers Tracy Wilcox and Joy Jones.
Riverton’s outstanding marching band, under the instruction of Andy Peaks, and vocal classes, led by Kimber Tower, prepare students for a life in musical performance, something that few people consider when looking at the local high school curriculum.
The same is true for Annette Thorton, Riverton’s exemplary speech and debate coach, who also prepares students for public speaking and life in a business world where presentation can be the difference between success and failure.
This is the kind of innovative, “out of the box” thinking that not only helps the students, but also the community in the process. The skills these kids pick up will last a lifetime, and possibly they can stay in Fremont County or Wyoming and thrive in the state they love.