This young man, 16, is one of the good ones, clean, neat, very smart, personable. So am I wrong in my despair because he didn't  know what a Vise-Grip was, or a Crescent wrench?

He's college-bound, of course, and may have been taught to disdain the kids who took "shop," as I was. But years later I found myself living in an enclave of graduate students. When we came back to our trailers from the library, or the seminars, or the part-time jobs, we were as likely as not to get out the tool box and fix the faucets or keep our ancient VW beetles  running. We considered that an annoying necessity, but not demeaning, and we were pleased to know how.