Educating for the Future

By: Patience Greene

Springfield High School Auto Shop is an award winning local program that teaches high school students auto mechanics from basic car care to rebuilding and selling used vehicles. Career and Technical Education teacher Mark Simmons tries to create a curriculum that imparts skills students can carry with them into the future, no matter what career they chose.

 

With calculators kept in spare pistons, tools and engine pieces scattered across book shelves, teacher Mark Simmons said, “We try to strike a balance between teaching and creating a work environment.”

 

Mark Simmons has been at Springfield High School for 15 years. Being head of the auto shop program requires more than just teaching; Simmons writes grants, takes care of equipment and finances, works with the community and administration, and spends hundreds of hours refurbishing parts of the shop.

 

Simmons helps a student measure a piston skirt in lab. Eventually every student will completely disassemble a Honda engine and then put it back together. While Simmons has to work to hold their attention in the classroom, hands on labs are where he believes much of the learning happens.

 

While Simmons teaches class, his student assistants have free roam to explore the parts of a 1989 Chevy Baratte. Simmons believes his job is to help create well rounded students. Simmons said, “We’re not here to roll out auto mechanics, our job is to create problem solvers.”

 

Simmons [middle] delivers lively lectures filled with mock threats to throw pencils at students, and often brings attention to those who skip class or forget homework. During students’ work time he moves around the room and patiently answers questions. “Managing people is all about building trust,” Simmons said.