William Herbert "Skip" Boyer, 32°
15817 N 6th Place, Phoenix, Arizona 85022
Skip.Boyer@bestwestern.com

There is nothing old-fashioned about the virtues that strengthen Masonry.

The Henry O. Studley Tool Chest, Smithsonian Institute

My best friend teaches high school English. Since she is also my wife, we frequently discuss educational matters. Between us, we have constructed what is clearly the perfect high school core, but, sadly, the Board of Education is too dense to appreciate it. Which is, of course, another issue for discussion at another time.

The real crime, I believe, is that most schools today don't require shop class. Almost everything I need to know about life I learned in ninth-grade shop class with Mr. Jones. For example, a lamp in the living room ceased functioning recently. A new bulb did not improve the situation. My wife suggested we throw the offending lamp out and buy a new one, cost around $70. I, however, purchased a new socket, at a cost of approximately $2, and replaced the old socket. I learned how to do this in ninth-grade shop class. I even remembered to unplug the lamp when connecting the new socket. No dim bulb here!

I learned how to do a t-splice, a pigtail splice, an underwriter's splice, and how to make a spice rack for Mom out of sheet metal. I still remember the look of wonder on her face when I presented it to her.

We learned about wood and how to make things from it. Some of the more talented made chests and stereo cabinets and such. The rest of us settled for something slightly less challenging. I think I made a shelf. You know, the kind you can fasten to a wall and put coffee cups or whatever on. Again, Mom was awestruck. Thanks, Mom. This was quite a practical approach to education. Every single thing we learned we knew would have some application someday.

It's a bit like our gentle Craft, I think. Some of the things we learn in Masonry have an immediate application (like my fixing that broken lamp). Other lessons are less obvious in their application, until you suddenly find yourself in a situation you didn't expect and you respond as you hoped you would-indeed, as you swore at the Masonic altar you would. Such moments are even more rewarding than when the lamp actually works or the shelf hangs straight!

Many modern educators seem to think that teaching shop is, well, old-fashioned. I wonder if, perhaps, that isn't at the heart of the problems facing education today. There are those who point at Freemasonry and smile condescendingly. It's such an "old-fashioned" thing, you know. There are those who feel the virtues of brotherly love, relief, truth, wisdom, beauty, etc., are old-fashioned, or, at the very least, out of fashion. These people are not Masons, of course.

For me, the times will come full circle some day. Others will discover what we've known all along-there is nothing old-fashioned about the virtues that undergird the strength of the human spirit captured in Masonry. Decency is never out of fashion. Brotherly love, truth, and wisdom-these things will always be necessary.

Until that day, however...well, I have a small shop in my garage where I do some very old-fashioned things. I do some scale modeling of ships in wood and tinker with a variety of small projects, to my wife's amusement and amazement. Every time I sit down at my workbench-which I built, myself-I use something Mr. Jones taught me in that ninth-grade shop class. Life would be very unfulfilled without the old-fashioned lessons of that class.

And I'm worried now. There is an entire generation that doesn't have a clue about how to wire a socket or do a classic pigtail splice. I just don't see how they're going to make it through life.

William H. "Skip" Boyer has been writing since he was three. His mother objected to crayon on the walls, however, and set his career back several years. A member of the Scottish Rite Bodies of the Valley of Phoenix, Arizona, he is a Past Master of Paradise Valley Silver Trowel Lodge No. 29. A native of Nebraska, he is Director of Executive Communications for the Best Western International hotel chain and serves as the company's Executive Producer and Senior Writer. He is the fifth generation of Master Masons in his family.