Shop Class As Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford

We often reflect on our youth and wonder if the path taken was the right one. We have a burning to do something both more creative and physically demanding, and we think that we may have missed the boat on not getting a trade. Back when we were ready to graduate from high school, all we heard was "go to college." It was a message that we were inundated by, and going to a trades school was not only never mentioned, it was openly derided as the place for the people who got bad grades. A more incorrect message has never been force fed to impressionable youth. Enter Matthew B. Crawford and his book Shop Class As Soulcraft, which has concisely been characterized as "a little book about human excellence and the way it is undervalued in contemporary America." Mr. Crawford is a philosopher / mechanic who destroys the pretensions of the high prestige workplace and makes an irresistible case for working with ones hands. The book is available at finer book purveyors everywhere, or if the Vancouver area, head over to The Shop in Chinatown.