Young Turners Program

[Dave Bowers]

Now that my schedule has slowed down a bit since Portland, I wanted to post about the Young Turners Program. This program is sponsored through the AAW and is designed to promote youth programs in every AAW chapter. Whether you teach club member children and grandchildren, work with a boy scout/girl scout organization, various other youth groups, etc…. this is something that the kids can enjoy and learn from. My original motivation for this program came from school funding and budget cuts. Unfortunately many schools are forced to cut back on Arts and Music education. For me, this is one way to make up some of these shortfalls. I just recently read that the AAW now has 270+ chapters. Wouldn’t that be great if every chapter averaged 10 young turners before the next symposium. 2,700 kids exposed to turning. To be honest, I think we can do much better than that! All the program information may be found at the AAW website, under the community page. The direct link is:

http://www.woodturner.org/community/youth/

Some chapters already have outstanding youth programs running. I want to here about those and new programs starting up, along with pictures if you have them. I also want to hear about how many certificates your club gives out and how many kids are participating. There are contact links on the Young Turners page and the emails will be directed to me. This program is designed to be a blue print for each chapter to start its own program. Let me know what has or is working in your youth program so we might incorporate it or pass it on to other chapters.

Program highlights include a Woodturning Student certificate and a Woodturning Journeyman certificate, a 1 year membership to the AAW for young turners completing the Journeyman stage, and building a knowledge and skill base to make our next generation more well-rounded individuals. Now is the time to start your chapter’s program.

Dave Bowers

 

[SMarlow]

Hi, Dave:

While our club (The Florida West Coast Woodturners) does not have a "Young Turners Program" per se, we have been active giving classes specifically geared towards young turners.

Just last week we held an all-day pen turning class for the middle-school age youngsters attending St. Paul United Methodist Church Summer Camp.

A dozen young men and women between the ages of 12 and 14 had an opportunity – a few at a time – to learn the basics of lathe safety, tool use, and spindle turning.

We also provided a "Certificate of Achievement" (of our own design) to the kids when they were done. A copy of the certificate can be found at http://www.fwcwt.org/images/cert_of_achievement.jpg

Pictures and the full story, along with photos and blurbs from two of our earlier youth-based turning classes are available at http://www.FWCWT.org/news.asp

 

[Dave Bowers]

Czarcastic, 1) are those pictures in the newsletter larger digital images and 2) Can you send me details on your program? How it came about? Was it a one time thing? I read your news letter that the funding came via an AAW EOG.

This is what I need to help promote young turners and encourage other clubs to start their Program. Can you email me at DaveBowers@woodturner.org

Thanks,
Dave

 

[SMarlow]

Dave:
I will send you the digital pictures in larger format directly to your email. It would be an honor to help the AAW promote woodturning to "the next generation" in any way possible.

Our plans to promote “youth woodturning†came about as both a personal and club effort, which started in earnest a few years ago. Several of our club members volunteer at the local (Clearwater, FL) High School "Personal Enrichment Programs," which are evening classes for high school students and adults. CHS is one of the only high schools in the area that still has a functional wood shop, but their shop teacher was not well versed in turning and asked our then-president Cheryl Hermansen for help. Cheryl and a handful of our members make regular visits to the school to teach woodturning.
Details of the program can be found at the bottom of this web page: http://www.fwcwt.org/education.asp

One of my personal goals when I was elected president of our AAW chapter for 2007 was to greatly increase the amount of woodturning education available to young people in our area. It was very disappointing to learn about the woefully inadequate amount of “vocational and industrial education†(Shop Class, for those born before 1980) available through the public school systems today.

Since I have two teenagers - both of whom turn quite well - it was a natural fit to reach out to the youth-based groups in the community to try to set up simple, one-day “hands-on†classes. After all, I reasoned, I have kids in Middle School and High School who turn (and seem to enjoy it), who have lots of friends, attend many clubs, camps, organizations, etc., it should be fairly easy to make some calls and set up some demonstrations and classes.

I applied for and received a personal AAW Educational Opportunity Grant for the purpose of providing classes to youth-based groups in the community. The AAW has also been an invaluable resource for much of the “classroom†material, which was used to teach lathe safety, basic turning techniques, tool positions and cutting theory.

The AAW grant money was used to help me purchase much of the necessary equipment, like multiple sets of turning tools, pen kits, mandrels, and bushings, sanding and finishing supplies, several dozen pair of safety glasses and dust masks, printing supplies (Instructions, etc), and a white board and other visual aids for classroom instruction.
Our club already had three mini lathes (two Jets and a Fisch), plus a larger Woodfast lathe, and I could provide one more Jet mini - from my personal shop – which would give me five stations to use at any one time. We tried to keep the classes at a reasonable size – or schedule them for “rotations†where the class size was larger than the number of lathes available.

Since we began our educational program in the spring of this year, our first contacts were with local youth groups (churches and synagogues, community centers, etc.). The reasoning was that school and scouting organizations had finished planning their schedules for this year, and would start up again in the fall, but the youth groups all had summer camps and the like.
This summer, we were in touch with local scout troops to schedule fall groups.
One thing I have found however, is that age is important. It’s not until about “middle school age†(12-14) that it seems kids are ready (and willing) to learn, and be responsible enough to be safe behind a lathe. Of course, skills and attentions span vary by individual, and I have seen some as young as eight or nine who have the wherewithal to get behind a lathe.

The kids love (ok... maybe “love†is not strong enough)… The kids become absolutely, completely, and thoroughly engrossed in turning. They learn quickly, listen well, and typically do careful, meticulous work. Most produce GREAT turnings… much of it far better than an adult makes on their “first try.†I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because they have less of a pre-conceived notion regarding what it “should†be when it’s done. Or maybe they have more.

What I do know is that there is very little more satisfying to an instructor than seeing the glow of a student’s smile when they take that item they just created with their own two hands and show it off proudly to any one who will look.

Turning is “viral.†When one young student shows their finished work to friends, three more want to get behind a lathe and try it. The feeling one gets as a mentor – knowing that you not only did a good job with one young person, but that thy were so exhilarated by the experience that they passed their enthusiasm on to other youngsters – is amazing.

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from the camp counselor at “Camp Samaritan,†where fellow club member, Bob Winter and myself had given a pen-turning class the week prior. On the speakerphone at the other end of the line were all twelve youngsters whohad turned pens with us last week. The sound of twelve excited “kidsâ€Â, all calling to thank me for the class (and begging for another lesson soon!) made my whole day.

I can’t wait to do it again.

-Steven Marlow