Agreed, I loved metal shop in junior high. Neither my family nor friends had a shop where I could learn skills like casting and welding. However, rather than mo

Agreed, I loved metal shop in junior high. Neither my family nor friends had a shop where I could learn skills like casting and welding. However, rather than modernizing these shops with CNC mills and 3D printers (for example), schools seem to just be shutting them down instead. On the plus side, the cost of doing these things at home has been dropping. My 10 y/o daughter gets to play/learn/experiment with all kinds of stuff that I could hardly touch at her age. Arduinos and modern LEDs make for awesome electronics projects that wow her classmates, but are still cheap enough that she can smoke a part now and then. Fabrication costs are dropping thanks to 3D printers, opening a world that used to require a mill/lathe/etc. to get into. Sewing remains a low-cost hobby that lets you build very cool stuff (and for boys, too!). Of course, it still requires a nerdy family with disposable income to provide this kind of workshop for kids. I've done a lot of projects with my daughter and her friends. For more kids to have that kind of opportunity, however, the schools are really the best place for it.