Shop Class as Soulcraft

“The craftsman has an impoverished fantasy life compared to the ideal consumer; he is more utilitarian and less given to soaring hopes. But he is also more independent.”

Crawford argues that those skilled in creating and repairing have a different approach to purchasing new goods than more consumers. A pure consumer is interested in what is new, thinking that newness is always an improvement. A craftsperson, by contrast, is able to apply an objective set of criteria to evaluate how well made and useful a product truly is, whether or not it is shiny and new.

“Craftsmanship entails learning to do one thing really well, while the ideal of the new economy is to be able to learn new things, celebrating potential rather than achievement.”

Crawford sees many differences between college prep and vocational training. An advantage he sees in vocational skills acquisition is that an individual gets to truly master a skill and feel and see a tangible achievement before them. He finds this specificity lacking in college prep education, which is versatile at the expense of mastery and perhaps even real accomplishment.

“Those constraints cannot be arrived at deductively, starting from mathematical entities. These experiments with origami help us to understand why certain aspects of mechanical work cannot be reduced to rule following.”

Crawford reacts to the experiments of cognitive scientists Mike Eisenberg and Ann Nishioka Eisenberg with strong feelings of validation. What Crawford takes from their failed efforts to offer a computer program that facilitates making origami according to technical instructions is the proof that inhuman technology cannot replace skills. Even though the computer had correct technical instructions, the experimentation and intuitive skills offered by a human were the vital missing piece.

“Some Arts and Crafts enthusiasts conceived their task to be evangelizing good taste as embodied in the works of craft, as against the machine age vulgarity […] But it dovetailed with and gave a higher urgency to the nascent culture of luxury consumption.”

Crawford notes the focus on craftsmanship that was an integral part of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. While he appreciates the focus on well-made and handmade goods, he feels that ultimately the movement was not a true success. Rather than celebrating craftsmanship, the movement celebrated luxury and one-of-a-kind pieces. It became less about work and more about consumption, albeit artful consumption. 

“The need for such socialization was not simply a matter of assimilating immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who lacked a Protestant work ethic. It was recognized as a necessity for the broader working-class population.”

Crawford explains that when the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 gave federal funding of vocational training, the goal was not skill acquisition alone. For white collar kids of the managerial class, it was to serve as enrichment to their college prep studies. For immigrant laborers’ children, it was designed as socialization, meant to instill a proper work ethic, which was believed to be lacking without formal assimilation.

“When this happens, the mechanic is thrown back on himself and must make sense of the situation. Often this sense making entails no so much problem solving as problem finding."

Crawford argues that unlike other professions, mechanics cannot be rule bound and computer like in their thinking. Their job involves less of solving known problems and more identifying what’s going wrong and crafting a solution to the problem they just discovered.

“Once the cognitive aspects of the job are located in a separate management class or better yet in a process that once designed requires no ongoing judgment or deliberation skilled worked can be replaced with unskilled workers at a lower rate of pay.”

Taylor’s management ideas which helped fuel the movement towards assembly line work removed “all possible brain power” out of the shop and instead consolidated that information in the hands of management. This disempowered the working-class, made skilled workers extraneous, and cost people valued jobs.

“The habituation of workers to the assembly line was thus perhaps made easier by another innovation of the early twentieth century: consumer debt.”

Crawford notes that although works initially resisted the assembly line model, it ultimately succeeded because the idea was coupled with another innovation—the idea of consumer debt. Installment plans made it possible for people to own things they never dreamed they could own. It also kept them showing up to jobs they did not find fulfilling.

“It seems we must take a cold-eyed view of “knowledge work” and reject the image of a rising sea of pure mentation that lifts all boats. More likely is a rising sea of clerkdom.”

Crawford is skeptical about the notion that most students are suited for or will find a place in what he terms “knowledge work,” namely white-collar office employment. He believes an elite few are now performing genuine innovative knowledge work. Far more people are serving simply as clerks, using technology or pieces of information in an assembly line way that deprives the worker of creativity or individual accomplishment.

“Spiritedness is an assertion of one’s own dignity and to fix one’s own car is not merely to use up time, it is to have a different experience of time, of one’s car and of oneself.”

Crawford argues against the commonplace idea that it is more time and cost saving to replace a broken item than repair it. Although it may cost more in time and money, what is gained from the experience is far more than a repaired item. It is also a sense of self-esteem and accomplishment. More than that, fixing items makes a person more self-reliant.

“It points to a paradox in our experience of agency: to be master of your own stuff entails also being mastered by it.”

Crawford notes that in order to fully own an object, we need to view it not as an extension of self but as a distinct separate item that has its own problems and needs. To be independent enough to create and repair, we also need to be attentive and not narcissistic about own belongings.

“Old bikes don’t flatter you, they educate you.”

Crawford compares early motorcycles to mules, in that they were both not an extension of the self or of one’s self will. Both the mule and the early motorcycle required attention. They inherently demanded care and concentration, not allowing any of the modern forgetfulness that Crawford sees as too common in contemporary ownership of motorcycles and other goods.

“The expanding empire of electronics covers over the mechanical.”

Crawford cites the example of the Mercedes now sold without a dipstick to measure oil levels as proof of what he sees as a rising trend. Consumers have less information about the objects they own and less access to that information. Computers alert consumers to issues and direct them to experts, rather than letting individuals get their hands dirty doing the work themselves.

“Betty Crocker learned quickly that it was good business to make the mix not quite complete. The baker felt better about the cake if she was required to add an egg.”

Crawford cites the example of Betty Crocker’s mixes to illustrate what he believes to be a strong human need to create and not just consume. Whether it is applying decals to a motorcycle or adding an egg to a cake mix, individuals need to feel involved in the creation process.

“A good diamond cutter has a different disposition than a good dog trainer. The one is careful, the other commanding.”

One of the many aspects of contemporary public education that Crawford is critical of is the way in which the education system completely ignores students’ disposition. To Crawford’s mind, too much time and attention is paid to cognitive classes and demographics. Not enough time and attention is devoted to the temperament of students and how that temperament might guide them to a future calling.

“If different human types are attracted to different kinds of work, the converse is also true: the work a man does forms him.”

Crawford asserts that in addition to being drawn to certain types of work because of one’s disposition, an individual’s occupation molds one’s cognitive identity. It is in reaching this line of work then that a person really achieves self-actualization. 

“Fixing things, whether cars or human bodies, is very different from building things from scratch. The mechanic and the doctor deal with failure every day even if they are experts.”

Crawford advocates for the unique power of the “stochastic arts,” which are distinct in that they are arts devoted to repair, not creation. Failure is inevitable, a built-in part of the process. The nobility of the stochastic arts, in Crawford’s view, is this willingness to deal with failure and to constantly troubleshoot to keep it at bay.

“I believe the mechanical arts have a special significance for our time because they cultivate not creativity, but the less glamorous virtue of attentiveness.”

Here and elsewhere Crawford argues for the need for additional “unselfing” in modern society, which requires people to pay less attention to their own needs and desires, and instead to be more attentive to the issues and items in their lives.

“We have an idea of the thing that, in a sense, pre-constitutes the thing for us, prior to sensual experience.”

From his experiences in mechanical drawing, Crawford comes to see how much direct contact and observation shapes our understanding of an object. Seeing and looking in new ways plays a key role, but physical contact is also vital in correcting the misperceptions that adhering to only abstract contemplation causes.

“Any discipline that deals with an authoritative, independent reality requires honesty and humility.”

Crawford believes that dealing with real world problems as doctors, mechanics, and other workers of the stochastic arts do require them to have clearly articulated ethical responsibilities. Their work has direct outcomes, and they need to be sensitive to the needs of those they serve.

“Acquiring practical knowledge then entails overcoming the self-absorption of the idiot but also the tunnel vision of the curious man.”

Crawford sees both self-absorption and aimless curiosity as time and talent wasters. Pursuits should serve a concrete problem and goal, and curiosity should not be self-indulgent. 

“College habituates young people to accept as the normal course of things a mismatch between form and content, official representation and reality.”

Crawford sees the college experience as increasingly problematic, as students pursue a degree not out of the desire for additional learning or skills but just to earn credentials. The hollowness of the pursuit is apparent. Students are not looking for more powerful minds but tickets to bigger offices and bigger paychecks. 

“The difference is that on such a crew you have grounds for knowing your own worth independently of others and it is the same grounds on which others will make their judgments.”

Unlike the teams of corporate culture, Crawford values the objective realities that govern work crew. Each individual has a job to perform with an articulated set of goals. Each member is thus able to judge their own success and the success of other crew members. They are interdependent and independent simultaneously.