Shop Class as Soulcraft

Crawford is critical of modern education, which he believes is flawed in several respects. He believes that modern education spends too much time dividing students up based on demographics and competency levels, all geared towards test scores. What educators miss is the differences in dispositions between students, so commanding and contemplative students are all pointed towards the same goals. He also believes that modern education is too theoretical and abstract, that students spend too much time engaged in “knowing that”—consuming information that they can repeat on a test—instead of “knowing how”—acquiring skills that they could use to solve their own problems in real life. Crawford is additionally concerned that modern education points all students in the direction of what he calls “clerkdom,” meaning an occupation in which the individual works under the pretense of doing “knowledge work” but really is just performing a white collar intellectual version of a Taylorized assembly line, following instructions on one task and not truly being an individual or using real creativity.

Crawford believes the being a pure consumer means that an object serves a narcissistic purpose for the individual. The object becomes an extension of the person. When it stops functioning in that way productively, it can easily be tossed aside and replaced. Crawford asserts that a craftsperson or a repair person sees objects differently. In order to repair an object or even to create one, you have to step outside of yourself to truly consider the object. In order to repair a motor, the mechanic has to listen to the motor and consider its needs and complexities. It is not simply an extension of the self. Rather, paying attention to the object draws the laborer out of himself to think in a new way and in great depth about this object.