Business in our family was a priority and there were only so many hands. Understanding the plan always discounts the pursuit of frivolous information, if there’s not a profit in it don’t do it even if it feels good. School was an afterthought in the quest of profitability, most of the fall of 1973 I went to school Tuesday- Thursday worked on business and racing related projects on Friday and Mondays. This pattern carried over into spring of 1974. Mom was livid, Dad and I had an understanding, good grades kept mom happy, and Baker County School was challenged. Making straight A’s, being a better than average body man, sawyer and excellent vehicle painter made my life great until. In 1974 the state had issues in rural counties where farm families relied on their kids for farm labor and the kids didn’t go to school but a few days a week in the late winter/early spring. The state passed a law that mandated a minimum number of days a year a child must attend school. My dad at that point expressed his issues that I shouldn’t be getting A’s and going to school 3 days a week. The answer included, but was not limited to me going to a private school in the fall of 1974 in Lake City, FL. At the time my dad had an offer to teach at Baker County High School. The program was a vocational cluster format, 4 nine-week areas of hands-on training, construction trades, fabrication/welding, manufacturing, automotive mechanics/refinishing with a whooping $500 material budget. The Cal’s empire had plenty of teaching aids. This turned into a role reversal between my dad and myself, he attended Baker County High and I drove to Lake City every day. The cluster program gave dad 30 or 40 students to train using our projects as teaching aids while I concentrated on school, refinishing at Cal’s, and managing the pig operation. As my dad jumped into the formal education business, he realized that the system was challenged at best, this included professional teachers, administration, from the ground floor at Baker County High all the way to the Governor’s mansion. Baker County, Florida was two years into the segregation adventure, with a strong contingent of farm (hands on) kids. The Baker County system’s plan was to park the remedial, non-conventional and/or aggressive students into vocational programs. For my dad this meant several professional development training programs, these was designed to give him a knowledge base and a map for future programs. These training programs defined the approach the system wanted to follow, but he had another plan. My dad never accepted that a single student was in fact challenged, in many instances it was the failure of the system not the student for the labels they used. He discounted the approach of labeling the kids because in high school he too was labeled.
Cal’s Theory of Education and Skills Training
My dad embraced project centered hands-on training, his history managing teams of workers on construction sites gave him the ability to manage a project by identifying the skills of his crew, surrounding his talent/leadership within the group with folks that wanted to learn. My dad established a theory based on his own personality, that “wanting to” required basic knowledge and in most instances related equipment/tools specific skills. Conventional training in most instances is related to someone else wanting you to have a defined knowledge. Vocational training includes intimate knowledge of associated skills, tools and machine operation related to an occupation. As dad worked through the state’s professional development programs, a common theme of less training and more student time management/detainment was the basis of the state’s vocational vision. Dad’s choice motivated students as they embraced training that incorporated a teaching project. The key is to spark curiosity and imagination to drive the learning process. “Want to” is a powerful tool in human nature. The training we implemented in the Motorsports Training Center pushed the concept of short term focused specific training where already skilled craftsmen expressed their need for a given instruction direction and exposure to specific equipment. They didn’t need 2 or 4 years in an institution, they needed 10% instruction, and 90% application in an equipped training lab. Collegiate design programs are like high school programs in that their work environment is publicly funded, with provided space as part of an education institution. The HS program is more captive, projects have matured with STEM from typical ag/ auto shop/ welding/ body shop, to science, engineering, technology, and math. CAD / Robotics push the current generation. Collegiate design labs are as random as puppies in a pound. The FSAE, SAE Baja, NASA Moon Buggy, and AISC Steel Bridge have driven the hands-on programs within Engineering Colleges. These programs are critical in connecting student engineers with applied craftsman skills, the biggest issue at hand is 9 out of 10 professors discount design programs as a waste of funding and time, while chasing the same skills to enhance grad research. Engineers’ licensure requires training that is designated as professional development hours. PDH’s can be any engineering related topic, fasteners, refinishing, welding, powder coating, conversion coatings, metallurgy. They are counted as 1 hour to 1 PDH in a lab setting. Very similar to the short term, topic, product, or equipment specific programs dad started in 1987 for performance vehicle fabricators.