DECATUR — Some skills never become irrelevant.
Denny Brue has been teaching the Building Trades course at the Decatur Area Technical Academy, a fitting activity after the years he spent building houses. Now, the course takes students beyond the classroom and gets their hands dirty, working on projects that teach them how to construct buildings, from the foundation to the electrics that go inside the walls.
Brue said he’s adapted the class slightly to meet the changing demands tradesmen are facing.
“We’re getting kids ready for getting into trades like carpentry skills, electrical, a little bit of everything,” Brue said. “We’re focusing on remodeling because of the way the housing market is and the economy.”
The nature of the class is always hands on and learn-as-you-go, Brue said. Meeting in a repurposed garage area at the academy, the class of about a dozen young men had the feel of a workshop. Materials and tools were out. The efforts of pounding hammers rang out over the conversation. The two centerpieces of the class are playhouses for kids, one intended for a boy, another for a girl. They’ll be auctioned off to benefit abused children.
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When the class isn’t working on the 8-foot-tall miniature houses, which will be wired with electricity and all, it’s out in the field doing small projects for local businesses and other entities, Brue said, such as a recent remodeling job for the Decatur Park District.
Tim Suddarth, a senior at Okaw Valley High School, said the hands-on approach of the class, the different places it meets and real-world projects it tackles keep things interesting. The students, he said, have bonded over their work.
“We’re close,” he said. “I didn’t know anybody coming in, but now we’re all good friends.”
For Ethan Padgett, a senior at Argenta-Oreana High School, the class is a chance to see what skills he’s best at.
“I got in because I like working with my hands,” he said. “I thought I’d give it a shot.”
Applying mathematical and technical knowledge to real-world projects provides students with more effective ways of learning some skills than reading books at a desk, Brue said.
“It doesn’t get any more real than this,” Brue said. “When you understand structure, I think you understand geometry better, for one. I think many students understand spatial awareness better, and for those that don’t, they’re learning it as they go.”
The class has also proved a springboard for many students to get into jobs immediately after school, Brue said.
“We’ve had kids hired right out of here by local builders,” Brue said. “One just took his electrical test for a union job. They’ll be somewhere in the trades.”
Even for those who don’t go on to a job in construction, the skills learned in class will prove valuable, Brue said.
“Anything you fix around your house is going to cost quite a bit, so if you have the skills, you don’t need to hire out,” he said.
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