Editor’s note: In recognition of Career Technical Education Month, the Telegraph is presenting a series of stories on North Florida Technical College.
BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Perhaps the carpentry program at North Florida Technical College will inspire students to pursue a career in that field, but for instructor David Harris, it’s not about what his high school and middle school students go on to do with their lives. It’s giving them valuable life skills.
“It’s hand-eye coordination,” Harris said. “It’s follow-through. It’s completing tasks. It’s time management. It’s following diagrams and directions.”
It’s also about learning how to use tools that are unfamiliar to a lot of students.
“Most people don’t have these tools,” Harris said. “Most people don’t have a drill press at their house. Most people don’t have a lathe or a table saw. It’s learning the process and the safety parts of it that go along with it.”
The number-one priority is shop safety, which includes keeping the shop clean. As Harris explained, an unclean shop creates safety hazards.
Safety, of course, is also about how to properly use tools. That comes from instruction and working on projects that feature one tool specifically. For example, a recent project in which students made signs was focused on how to use a router.
“Once they get to the end of the year, I allow them to build any project they want again,” Harris said. “They can rebuild a project we’ve already built using all the tools.”
The first year of the program is basically centered around building a foundation. In successive years, students work on more complex projects, such as building a checkerboard. Harris said a lot of students think that making a checkerboard is easy until they start the design and layout phase. They don’t realize they have to lay out every single square.
“Most every project takes about two to three weeks because of the layout and the design,” Harris said.
Projects also take a little longer just due to the time constraints of a class period.
“By the time they get in here, get their safety gear on and start using the stuff, they get about 20 minutes of work,” Harris said. “Then it’s time to start cleaning up. That’s a good thing because it gives them time to reflect on what they did wrong and what they can do better the next time.”
When students make something, they don’t just grab a handy piece of wood that Harris purchased somewhere and get to work.
“We have a sawmill. I bring in trees off my farm,” Harris said, adding, “We make all our own lumber. They cut it, mill it and take it and do whatever.”
Harris said there’s a high demand for workers in the construction field, but he emphasized that his program isn’t geared toward preparing students for jobs. It’s all about providing a basic knowledge of tools and allowing students to combine the use of those tools with their creativity.
Students also come to realize that constructing something is a time-consuming process.
“They have to make a sketch of everything they have to do first,” Harris said. “They hate that because that’s boring. They want everything to be instant.”
Harris believes it’s a good lesson for his students to learn.
“I think the most important part of it is taking your time and completing a project,” he said. “It has nothing to do with woodworking. It has nothing to do with whether you want to go into woodworking, carpentry or construction.”
