Jeff McCabe is hanging up his table saw(桌锯) at East High after four decades. The teacher — whose students have made 23 kitchens over the past 40 years — leaves behind one of the best woodworking programs in Lincoln Public Schools when he ends his teaching career. Those students’ skills were not confined to the kitchen: they’ve built cabinets, bookshelves, cash counters and display cases, many of which have been selected for national competitions.
McCabe has loved woodworking since he was a kid helping his dad, a dentist who loved to make things with wood in his spare time. He was a student at East High from 1968 to 1974 — in the days when it was a high school. After high school he earned a teaching degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then studied the guitar-making at Western Kentucky University. He was a musician as well as a woodworker and being able to join those two passions was a dream he desperately wanted to make a reality. The musician has built many guitars over the years, which fulfilled his long-time desire. McCabe made teaching his profession, landing his first job in Conestoga Public Schools.
He says he’s confident his department is in good hands, and will continue to be an important part of the career and technical education field. He’s fought for the career and technical education, arguing that such work is creative and challenging because it could lead to college degrees and good jobs and all sorts of careers. “I’ve been fighting that fight every day for my entire career, trying to change people’s wrong attitudes,” he said.
McCabe’s students have gone on to study woodworking in college, at least 20 of whom build airplane interiors at Duncan Aviation. Lots of others landed elsewhere but have some really great pieces they made in high school. “I challenge kids to rise to a really, really high level of performance,” he said. “And kids have done well by that.”
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