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Can Closed Public Schools Become Makerspaces? (Video)
In August Phil Shapiro wrote an article that asked the question, Can 50 Closed Chicago Schools Become 50 Makerspaces? Now, in September, we have a ruminative interview with him about schools, makerspaces, and how making places where kids (and adults) can make things and generally tinker with tools and get used to the idea of working with their hands to create new things and to repair old ones. For many of us in previous generations, our "makerspace" was our garage or basement, and our mentor was Dad. Today, this doesn't seem to be the case in a lot of homes. Besides, working with others is safer than working alone, and even if we bowl alone there is no good social or biological reason for us to create alone -- especially if we have a congenial makerspace nearby.
1. Can they? Of course.
2. Should they or will they? Maybe.
More to the point, has anyone actually demonstrated that "makerspaces" are an improvement over a standard school shop class or (for particularly motivated students) a public vocational school?
I am officially gone from
they didn't close the schools so that socialist anti-consumer degenerates could use them, they closed them so they could sell the land off cheap to developer mates.
Not just Betteridge's law of headlines, but the idea of a place where any person can come and do whatever they want is anathema to the perception Americans have to a "public good". There's a quite unspoken undertone to a lot debate in the U.S. that reflects the perspective that things are either done in private or by employees for money. Public gathering places are few and far between, and not just because of fiscal concerns.
Now, with a spirited group of concerned citizens you can achieve a lot, as many charities demonstrate, but that represents support for maybe a couple such building renovations, not 50 school's worth.
Seems to me there's something wrong if you have 50 empty school buildings but the same number of available teachers and students (or more) than before you closed them. They do make great workspaces but, hey, even better schools in many cases... unless the school is so run down that it's more suited to being a practice space for local bands.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Screw that, 3d print bullet hole plugs, each custom fit.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
'Makerspace' sounds like something that's been hijacked by corporate interests or sociology majors - not people who actually like building stuff.
There is an awesome, long running "Makerspace" in Portland, Oregon, that was formerly a public vocational school. http://watershedpdx.com/ - but it takes individual and collective will and effort for such a thing to happen. They shouldn't just be handed out by the state.
>> Can 50 Closed Chicago Schools Become 50 Makerspaces?
Here's a list of the schools closed and their capacities:
http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/school_utilization/
These aren't small buildings. Most are elementary schools. Many are in neighborhoods where you'd want tools and other equipment with "street value" locked up behind more than the average school door.
A better idea would be find "maker" space in light industrial parks. I'll bet there's plenty of that kind of unused space in those neighborhoods too.
There's no way they'll allow these unlawful felons to set up firearms factories in schools.
Old schools are generally closed for a reason. Declining attendance comes hand in hand with reduced tax roll, which means less money for maintenance. Even a relatively new school building needs a lot of maintenance. But usually, they're closing OLD schools that require roofs and countless other maintenance items. Asbestos, giant boilers that don't pass safety inspections, etc... I've done work in a school that still has a significant amount of coal sitting in the basement.
Remember these buildings aren't just a big version of your house. You might wire up a new outlet in your house, but you probably don't have the tools or know-how to core 2 foot thick concrete walls or work with 440 volt feeder lines, pneumatically actuated steam radiators or commercial fire alarm systems.
The population of Chicago has been declining for decades, meaning fewer students to fill the schools. That, combined with "No Child Left Behind"'s (unfunded) mandate to fix or close failing schools, combined with falling property values (meaning less property taxes to fund the school district) has led to the massive closures. Those buildings really aren't needed as schools, they have plenty of space for the smaller student population in the remaining schools.
Seems to me there's something wrong if you have 50 empty school buildings but the same number of available teachers and students (or more) than before you closed them. They do make great workspaces but, hey, even better schools in many cases... unless the school is so run down that it's more suited to being a practice space for local bands.
They have the same number of teachers, but not all of them are good teachers. The union walked off the job last year in protest of standardized testing, and rating teachers on their ability to actually teach children so that they can pass the tests; these are things that hurt bad teachers, and not so much good teachers,
Now obviously, part of the problem is mainstreaming children who are ineducable, either through no fault of their own, or because they could care less about learning; such children should go into remedial programs until they can be mainstreamed with certainty, and the teachers involved in teaching them shouldn't be penalized for the performance of kids we already know to be poor students: equality of opportunity is not the same thing as equality of ability, or equality of outcome.
Additionally, the Chicago Teacher's Union is claiming classroom overcrowding, which you could maybe buy if Utah weren't running 35 student class sizes, and have been since I was in elementary school in the 1970's, or their students weren't doing well on the standardized tests in a way that was attributable to class size. So it looks like what the district is doing is cutting dead wood.
Yeah, it's sad that those teachers couldn't teach very well, so they don't have jobs any more, but it's about as sad as trying to convert the under-enrolled schools, which no parent wants to send their children to because they won't get taught, being turned in blue collar training camps for blue collar jobs that aren't going to be there for the kids once they leave the makerspace. You're not going to get your machinists union journeyman card hanging out in a makerspace without a multi-year apprenticeship. Guess how many participants are currently in Seattle Machinists Apprentice program (you know, Seattle, where Boeing is located)? 34. Guess how many hours you have to put in to become a journeyman? 7,424. That's almost 4 years.
Blue collar jobs are not coming back any time soon. Unless you see the U.S. implementing trade tariffs in the near future so that it costs the same to buy something manufactured in a country that doesn't enforce environmental laws, making it a lot cheaper to buy labor there than in the U.S.? I didn't think so.