The graying of the collector-car hobby becomes an increasing concern with each passing day, particularly as the question of what to do about it remains largely unanswered. Yet a new lecture series, Bring Back Shop Class, aims to tackle that question by inviting New York Times bestseller Matthew Crawford to Hershey this year.

Initiated earlier this year by Collectors Foundation, a non-profit committed to supporting the collector-car and boat hobbies, Bring Back Shop Class aims to do exactly that, to "support and inspire the continuation and revival of shop classes throughout our education system for future generations." Michael Schneider, president of MacPherson College, kicked off the series earlier this year in Scottsdale, and it's only appropriate that Crawford, the author of the 2009 book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, continue it.

In his book Crawford, a motorcycle mechanic with a Ph.D. in political philosophy, argues that the dismantling of shop classes during the 1990s and 2000s and the push for high-school students to go on to college and then into the knowledge economy has actually in many ways made Americans less self-reliant and more anxious about their prospects in the world.

Read the Whole Article