There is an intense desire to create excellence in technology education, or, if preferred, industrial arts. This is not something that has been brought on by recent efforts to renew the field although the zeal of the quest has been heightened in recent years. In the process of trying to encourage advancements in programs, one of the thrusts has been to identify exemplary practices and hold them up as examples. In some cases these practices have been by real teachers and schools, while in others they have been projected and described by visionaries. In large part, the models are of the content to be taught and are set in opposition to existing subject matter organization.
Less attention is given to methods of instruction.
These subjects are appealing to many who are fixated by the mechanization of modern life and they give the outward appearance of being advanced subject matter within the schools. Status symbols of success in the field are the artifacts of advanced technology in the laboratories where teaching occurs. Wide-belt sanders have been replaced by computers with more megabytes as rewards for doing what is right as a teacher. It is a rare person who has escaped this influence. In many instances, there is software to go with it.