Originally Posted by
adlai
I was thinking today that middle and high schools should teach bicycle mechanics. Especially for a lot of young people, a bicycle would be a great way to transport without having to worry about insurance, gas, and the rest. Anyone know if their local high school teaches it? Frankly, I think that the bicycle industry should be subsidizing bicycle shop classes in high schools.
...so here's a story. It's a true story, but take it FWIW. When I was on the bike co-op board of directors here, we used to fund various community projects. (We had money then.)
A few kids from the local "alternative" high school (students able to somewhat tailor their own curriculum, if they meet certain basic educational goals...so mostly smart kids who know they want something different), came to us with a plan to install a basic bicycle mechanics shop in one of the empty rooms of the school. They had some sort of faculty advisor guy who would supervise, and the plan was for kids to learn bike mechanics in there, were they interested in it. We spent several thousand dollars buying the tools for a very basic, but solid, repair shop.
It worked for about four months, then the administration of the school shut it down over liability and insurance concerns. They just locked it up, and we never did get the tools back, to use at the bike co-op. It was sad, but I understand the concerns. I hope, at least, that some of the students were able to sneak in there and fix their own bikes after that. I don't really know, I kind of lost interest after that.