Ahoy All,
Ah, installment #2 of Norris Note! I confess, writing off the cuff like this sans publishing body still feels weird for me. But should it!? Maybe I’ve internalized something… something incorrect. Something not in our best interests. Something with motives other than our mutual edification and joy. We shall see.
Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to highlight one of my pieces of journalism from 2021. New Kids on the Dock (read here) was a piece I wrote for Power & Motoryacht magazine’s October 2021 issue. The piece highlights three different Washington state-based education initiatives to rebuild the shattered pipeline for youths interested in becoming professional mariners.
The three different strategies all report various degrees and types of success. The brand new public Maritime High School on the Duwammish River of South Seattle seeks to integrate a hands on STEM curriculum with a classic high school experience. CORE Plus Maritime offers a curriculum and resources for high schools to reinstitute Shop Class into existing schools. Tacoma Community Boat Builders is a rehabilitation program for youths in the juvenile criminal system that teaches them basic woodworking and boat handling as therapy and healthy socialization.
For me, this was a great scoop. How often do we hear the “woe is us” journalism that Americans are doomed to a future where we can’t do anything, be it helm great ships or work with wood? How often do we lament the fate of our young, cursed out of the gate by our collective irredeemable sins?
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