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7: 8. Education Programs that Support the Growth of Amateur Woodworking
In 1958, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics launched Sputnik, the world's first space satellite, and galvanized the US Congress into giving America a "shot-in-the-arm", to stimulate education and, particularly, technology education.
Sputnik, in short, is one of the pivotal moments in American history that changed this nation forever, in a multitude of different ways, some of which -- like cordless woodworking tools -- had a great impact upon amateur woodworking.
These changes had one (sad) impact: former "general shop" programs in high schools that had prevailed since the 1920s, and which introduced woodworking to boys as a natural component of their education, were greatly reduced. [Much more on this later.]
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