Maine's boat builders try to keep art afloat

USA Today, October 25, 2007

(excerpt) Boat builders say efforts to broaden Maine high school students' educational horizons have hurt the skilled trades.

High schools tend to steer clever students to college; State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron has even proposed requiring every senior to apply to college to be eligible for a diploma.

"There's been a generational shift," says Maddox of Washburn & Doughty. "The emphasis is on white-collar desk jobs, not blue-collar jobs. There's an embarrassment with getting your hands dirty."

Joel Pelletier, a shop teacher at Bucksport High School, says graduates would rather go into logging, which he describes as more dangerous than boat building, or take clerical jobs "with not a lot of skill involved." Many school districts have de-emphasized industrial arts programs, which develop the skills boat builders need. "People have this mentality that everyone has to go to a four-year college, and it's killing the trades," Pelletier says. "I literally have an industry knocking at my door. … We've got to fight the guidance counselors over this."