Fukuyama, Francis. "Making Things Work." NEW YORK TIMES June 5, 2009.

Shop Class as Soulcraft is a beautiful little book about human excellence and the way it is undervalued in contemporary America. Matthew B. Crawford, who owns and operates a motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, Va., and serves as a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, notes that all across the United States, high school shop classes teaching mechanical arts like welding, woodworking or carpentry are closing down, to free up funds for computer labs. There is a legion of experts denigrating manual trades like plumber, carpenter and electrician, warning that the United States labor force needs to be “upskilled” and retrained to face the challenges of a high-tech, global economy. Under this new ideology, everyone must attend college and prepare for life as a “symbolic analyst” or “knowledge worker,” ready to add value through mental rather than physical labor. There are two things wrong with this notion, according to Crawford. . . . Find out what these are here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/books/review/Fukuyama-t.html.