I went to HS with the teacher, didn't know him too well. I was in classrooms mostly on the second floor and he was likely in that shop more often than not.
It's like I was sure about the college prep path and all, but sometimes I wish I would have put some more electives down in the shop just to learn some basic working with hands skills.
I tinker around with things, but to say I know what I'm doing..I don't think so.
I don't know what other high schools offer, but I recall in High School when they let us tour the shops - that the machine shop guy who was there at the time told us that they had the best shop programs in southern IL. And to see some of the tools coming out of the machine shop, really cool.