Cars are something people use everyday and know almost nothing about. Wes Proudlove is here to change that. Proudlove has been working in the automotive industry for over twenty years, and has no shortage of experience with hands-on work. “Not in just a classroom setting, but a setting where they’re actually working with hydraulics and pneumatics,” said Proudlove. Proudlove, teacher of auto and advanced autotech, as well as being the robotics director, has many touch points with engineering students.
Proudlove emphasizes his worries with the lack of kinetic learning, or working with your hands, in most high schools. “About 80% of high school students are kinetic learners,” said Proudlove. “It’s more normal for someone to move around and learn something.” With most classes at high schools being sitting down and listening to the teacher, being able to assist with other’s work while at the same time critiquing your own work allows for the most angles on a single piece of work.
“When we sit you in a class to watch a teacher do a lab, we’re torturing you. We’re not getting you up and moving around.” said Proudlove. “Kids who are able to get up and think usually have better papers written.” Cars are a perfect match with working while moving, as you have to be able to work with small, leverage based tools such as wrenches and screwdrivers.
Working with cars isn’t everything though, with the social component of a class being accentuated with hands-on learning, “I’ve had kids that are shy,” said Proudlove. Being outgoing in a classroom environment can be difficult, and autotech is a great place to shed that fear. “By the end of the year, they actually have this confidence that they can do things.” Working with your hands allows you to literally and figuratively have control over something, rather than an escaping concept that you might remember in a fast lecture. “Hands-on work helps with memory, especially with students.”
The social aspect can last past high school graduation however with “a lot of my students in the advanced auto classes become lifelong friends, a lot of them have become friends of mine,” said Proudlove. Shorewood, being one of few schools around that actually offers an autotech class, there aren’t many options around outside of an actual autoshop to work on cars. It brings together the autotech community around Shorewood to one place. “It just becomes a big family.”
