Back in 2003 I wrote a much-derided posting about how high school students should learn math, science, and engineering by building a bicycle. The latest issue of New Yorker contains “D.I.Y. School”, an article about a school in Malibu Canyon, Califronia where James Cameron‘s 11-year-old son built a motorcycle.
If parents are doing their job right a lot of this is learned at home way before high school. I know I spent about 3 days with my 8 year old grandson rebuilding his Dad’s old bicycle. He learned about bearings and wheel grease and lots of stuff. I am sure he will soon work on his own bike back home.
If you put much math or science into it and make it too much like school you will ruin the “natural engineering and mechanical” working fun of the effort…
Of course this is a great idea.
I am talking with my 11-year-old son now about this kind of project. I think he is going to go with an electric bicycle.
The article was very vague on what “built a motorcycle” means. Did he make his own engine the way the Wright Brothers did? Did he cut the gears for a transmission? Forge the links for the chain? Or did he bolt together some kind of kit? “Building a motorcycle” covers a wide range of things, some of which would be very impressive for an 11 year old and some of which would be trivial. I’m sure having a Daddy with millions of$ to spend meant that he did not accomplish this feat exactly on his own in any case.
Truly building a (safe) motorcycle from scratch is something that requires a lot of engineering talent and machine tools and is really not within the realm of possible for an 11 year old, or indeed almost everyone.
Shop class was definitely the highlight of my middle school. Nothing like turning 14 year olds loose with arc welders and blow torches. Nobody got killed/maimed. We learned aluminum casting (nothing like pouring molten metal into your own mold), machining, woodworking, and that every manufactured good doesn’t have to come from a factory in China.
In college, I was lucky to have a lab class for building a computer from scratch. Project classes are where all the learning happens.
@Bill: a lot of this is learned at home way before high school.
Absolutely. I grew up in the ’70s and my Dad taught me how to change the oil in his pickup truck before I was ten. And like many of the readers here I assume, the neighborhood kids and I spent our weekends and summers working on our bicycles and building push go carts to race each other. I always planned for a comfortable white collar corporate career, but still took four years of auto shop in high school and built my first hot-rod (a ’69 Camaro) before I was old enough to drive.
I was in a meeting the other day when my female boss received a call from her 23-year old son. The son was driving his mother’s car when the “idiot light” came on – in a panic he called his mother from the road asking what he should do. She told him to take it to the shop.
E: That 23-year-old has a bright future as an airline pilot!
@Izzie you right that the article is very vague on what “built a motorcycle” means for this 11-year older. However, I think Phil’s blog is to make a point that today’s kids are missing out on a lot of basics.
I grew up changing my own car oil, fixing the lawn mower, working on pluming, finishing my own basement, and I can go on. Today, with the internet, it is far easier to fix simple home issue vs. 15 years ago. Being a handy man can be like having a side job that will earn you saving. Beside, when it comes to jobs that you know you cannot do, you will be in control when negotiating the job and pricing.
Elon Musk didn’t like his kid’s schooling options, so he created his own school. Only 14 students (Space X employees’ kids). The curriculum involves kids building, and taking apart, things. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/elon-musk-has-created-his-own-grade-school-because-of-course-he-has