Back when I was in high school, every boy was supposed to take at least one year of Shop (and every girl was supposed to take a year of Home Ec).
I didn’t want to take Shop; I never played with tools as a kid and didn’t see any reason to start. I convinced the administration that it would be just fine for me to use that period for the Literary Magazine (most people on staff used their Study Hall period for that purpose) – I got away with a lot of things back then.
Boy, was I dumb!
Over the years, I’ve learned some of the basics of home maintenance when I had to – but I’m still not comfortable with tools and am always worried when I have to deal with electricity, and I wind up calling in contractors for projects that I feel I should be able to do myself.
It’s frustrating. And expensive.
I guess it’s too late to tell high school me to develop some manual skills, not just academic ones!