Evolution of Shop Class: Could 3D Printing become a part of school courses?

When I was growing up, my High School considered Trades courses to be Mechanics, Metal and Wood Shop and Drafting, all quality skills for students to learn, in fact I enjoyed many a hour in the Wood Shop and the skills from Drafting have been quite useful when it comes to being able to do Site layouts for Web Design (Seriously, Storyboarding a Website Really is nothing more than designing a plan of where everything goes)

So when some artistic verses to a poem woke me from a sound sleep early Saturday, my brain went into over drive and asked the question “Could 3D Printing actually become a course we see offered in Schools?”

When you think about it, the answer is  a resounding YES potentially. Many schools already offer Drafting courses, which use programs like Autocad to help students learn how to map the vectors of new designs, and the cost of materials could be worked back into the system by having Students figure out the cost up front (Project Management) and paid for by Parents (this is the way my High School actually handled Wood Shop projects).

At this point, the major cost that would be brought into question involves the price of the Printers and proper venting systems for Printer Lab modifications to existing Visual Arts / Drafting labs, with the Printers still costing Thousands each. but who is to say that in the next 5 years, maybe 10 years, we could actually see this new skill and trade being offered into schools all around the world.