Students use all skills (and learn new ones) in house building

by Jake Richards & Justin Renigar

If you like being outside and are a hands-on type of person, then you should consider house building for a Vo-tech Class. “I like being outside and not trapped in the school all day,” said Pittsford senior Jacob Gier. In house building you start off with nothing and you choose the designs of the houses you and your classmates want to build. Then you make an estimate of how many supplies you need to have to build the house. When you start building the house, you begin to see that over time everything you have done starts coming together and it begins to look more and more like a home. One cool thing about it to is you get to go outside and stay active for three hours of your school day. It makes the day go by a lot faster. And hey, who could forget the best part? “No homework,” said Pittsford senior Corey Gamble.

House building is also a good way to establish camaraderie. You get to meet new people from other places, just like real job, and work with these people. Kids come from all over the county so you have a lot of different kids there that have their own personalities. “Yeah, it’s cool working with different people,” said Jonesville student Jericho Kelly. With that being said, it is a good social environment and is really a team effort.

In school, you learn about all of the basics of the workforce like math, science, etc. In house building, you get to apply all of those skills from school to the job at hand. “Accuracy is very important,” said instructor Mr. Lubaway. You have to be precise on measurement and calculations, you get physical exercise, and hands-on experience. Whereas at school, you just do paper work. So it is a good trait to learn for the world ahead of high school.

The conditions (as far as climate and weather) are very different than that of school. House building is like a real job, you work in a climate that could be 100 degrees one day and 20 below the next. It teaches you a good work ethic because even though it may be nasty outside, that doesn’t stop you from getting the job done and at the end of the day you feel a sense of accomplishment.

If you want to get out and see what kind of skills you really have and how you will do in the real world then house building is a good way to start.