‘World of Work’ class exposes middle school kids to trades

At 86, Floyd Stewart has a pacemaker, bad knees and aches and pains from a back injury.

But he can still wield a mean blowtorch.

In a classroom filled with East Middle School seventh graders, the retired master plumber instructed — with patience and good humor — his young charges on piping, soldering and related skills.

With encouragement, he guides seventh grader D.J. Williamson on using a blowtorch to fuse metal. And he does it all school day long at least six to seven weeks out of the year.

"Girls do better on this," he confided on blowtorch skills as Williamson, with a shaky hand, did his best to solder pipe with an audience watching. "The others get too nervous." Since 2000, Stewart has paid regular visits to Butte’s classrooms, passing on his expertise after a more than 40-year career in plumbing. He’s served as a building inspector for Butte-Silver Bow County and on state boards of plumbing and building codes.

"He works them hard," said teacher Chad Williams.

Williams instructs an exploratory class called World of Work in which students work on plumbing, electrical and drywalling projects. Students have even built small rooms that contain toilets, working electrical outlets and walls that they tape and texture.

"He’s a total asset to my program," Williams said as students rotated through Stewart’s plumbing station.

By Leslie McCartney of The Montana Standard

Full Story: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2005/06/06/newsbutte_top/hjjejdjdjchaec.txt