I like this guy. I don’t know him, but I like him. Mark Dunn teaches shop in Luther Oklahoma. By all accounts, his kids love him, and he’s very good at what he does. This year, he taught his class how to build a locomotive. A frickin’ locomotive/smoker!
In a sane world, local media would be shining a bright light on what these kids have accomplished. Instead, Mark and his class have been largely ignored. Even the State Fair turned them away for some reason or another.
Mark Dunn is frustrated, and I don’t blame him. So much of what we talk about at mikeroweWORKS redounds to this exact thing – a rank indifference to the very thing we should be celebrating. Wanna know why shop class is dying on the vine? Wanna know why there’s a skills gap? Wanna know why we’ve got 1.2 trillion dollars in student loans? It’s because we don’t reward real initiative and real work ethic where it matters most – in kids who are trying to figure out how to be of use in modern society.
I never post links to gofundme pages, because if I did, that’s all I’d do. But Mark has one, and it’s worth checking out. They’re trying to raise money for their shop class, so if you’re in the market for a modest but working choo-choo/smoker, give it look. If that’s too much clicking and reading, just share this. Maybe it’ll help give them the exposure they deserve.
Mike
PS. Screw it. Here’s the link.