When one of the toilets in senior Aiden Simler’s house was acting up recently, his family didn’t need to call a plumber. Instead, Simler was able to fix the issue himself with skills he learned in fine and practical arts teacher Christopher Tator’s Do It Yourself 101 class.
“At home I was able to fix a toilet tank. I messed around with the flapper, which is the mechanism that holds all the water, so I fixed it,” Simler said.
It was a perfect example of a student using skills learned at school in the real world. The purpose of Tator’s class is to prepare students for adult life by teaching them simple home repairs.
“There are a lot of kids nowadays who seem like they’re really good with technology, but they don’t know how to use a hammer,” Tator said. “The point of this class is to teach students the skills needed later in life.”
The class focuses on a wide variety of repairs.
“This class teaches the fundamentals of how to use a hammer, how to use a saw, how to fix a toilet, how to fix plumbing,” Tator said. “If I have a leaky faucet, how do you fix that? You don’t have to call a plumber. Nine times out of ten it’s just not that hard.”
The classroom, which previously was a woodshop room, has welding stations, table saws, and various different sanding and routing machines. But much of the work does not require advanced machinery.
“There is a model of a bathroom and you can set up a sink and a toilet and you can mess around with the electrical,” Simler said.
Sophomore Carson Verk highlighted another part of the curriculum.
“We’re learning how to build and solve problems with wood, and we’re learning how to drywall right now, ” Verk said. “I like crafting and building things with wood, and being able to work with building materials.”
There are several large wooden tables for students to work at in groups.
“With the DIY class being entry level, we rarely use any machines. So we stick with common materials like a basic toolset, and we do everything as fundamental as possible. Groups are distributed amongst five tables, and depending on the project, they will make their own model or unit,” Tator said.
Junior Reshma Timsina said that, as a female student, she knows that taking classes like this helps break “traditional” views of women’s roles in society.
“It breaks the stereotypes of women not being able to do things like this,” Timsina said.
More girls and boys should take the DIY class, Timsina said, as it teaches valuable skills that students can use in their adult lives.
“We learned how to plumb and fix stuff so we don’t waste money. It’s a very good class that teaches us valuable lessons that I think people should know,” Timsina said.
Students in class are also putting the skills to use around the school. They recently did some repair work on a table in business and computer teacher Michelle Kilburn’s room.
“The DIY class went into Kilburn’s room, and they looked and walked through the problem, and they fixed the table that was broken. Then they went through all the tables and tightened them up, ” Tator said.
That small repair job originated when Kilburn happened to tell Tator that one of her desks was broken. Tator saw this as the perfect hands-on lesson for his class.
“I said, ‘You’re never going to believe it – my desks are falling apart,’ so he had his entire class come over. Not only did they fix the desk that was broken, but they also tightened every other desk,” Kilburn said.
Supt. Dr. Randal Lutz said the new class aligns with some district goals.
“When costs are so much higher, to have someone come into your home to fix an electrical plug, you’re talking about a few hundred dollars to replace it. But if you go into a store to buy the plug, it’s only a few dollars,” Lutz said.
Lutz is a proponent of people working with their own hands. He grew up doing that, and as an adult he has taken on some repairs and construction work in his own home, including a recent installation of a new vanity and sink in his bathroom.
As for Tator, when he was in college, his brother’s SUV broke down. So Tator decided to repair it himself.
“I looked at the spark plug and it simply had a screw end. I unscrewed it as if it was a bolt. We then put the new ones back on, we started it up, and it worked perfectly,” Tator said. “I did (the work) over the course of half an hour.”
Principal Shaun Tomaszewski was also an immediate supporter of the class.
“I think it’s great,” Tomaszewski said. “We need to fundamentally reimagine the types of courses we’re offering and make them more engaging and relevant.”
For Simler, the class is doing just that.
“I decided to take this course because I thought it would be cool to learn how to do simple tasks and not have to call a repairman,” he said.
Tator said he hopes the class helps students throughout their lives.
“I think (having these skills) gives people confidence, and they recognize that they can do it,” he said.
