JACKSONVILLE — Teacher Wayne Griffin’s shop class at Jacksonville High School is firing on all cylinders.
His team has placed in the top third of national auto competitions, former students have got jobs at national truck companies and a shiny new shop class is set to open in mid-August at the new high school.
Both he and his students are eager for the new center, he said.
Griffin’s class functions like an actual mechanic’s shop, with all the accessories one would find in a professional garage. Students learn the trade and demonstrate their skills and knowledge. The vehicles they work on are donated by churches, local residents, car lots and local dealerships. Griffin said he and his team usually catch things others overlook, then fix them.
“Most people think wood shop when you say ‘shop,’ and that’s not this,” Griffin said. “We teach a college-level course, and the kids who like it come up real fast. Bring in a lawn mower; someone fixes it. We’ve handled some pretty insane things.”
The shop class has swelled in interest since Griffin took it over in 2012. Griffin said he has even had to turn away students because of the class’s ever-increasing popularity.
More than developing an interest in mechanic work, the class is preparing students for the realm outside his classroom, Griffin said.
“I not only try to teach them about cars, but also about life and what it will be like when they’re on their own,” he said.
Time in Griffin’s class pays off for anyone interested in learning about car and truck engines. There’s plenty of work out there for students with initiative and drive, he said.
A lot of students go on to work for well-known truck companies such as Kenworth and Penski, he said. Griffin even has students sign on to work with other hot-rod notables such as famed drag racer Terry McMillen and his Top Fuel Dragster Team with the National Hot Rod Association. Other students join local dealerships and independent shops.
One former student, Cody Anderson, who interned with the Terry McMillen team for the 2016-2017 season, said the technical experience and training in Griffin’s shop prepared him for work in the super-charged, competitive arena of the NHRA.
“I went to 12 races with the McMillen team, where I helped with body, tires, oil, clutch cleaning,” Anderson said. “At their shop, I helped with rebuilding the short blocks, cylinder heads, superchargers and clutch packs.”
Recalling his time at Jacksonville High School, Anderson said, he remembers lessons on car maintenance, as well as life.
“The way that he (Griffin) dealt with people will always have an impression on me, making sure a job was done 100 percent correctly and making sure the customer was happy with the work,” Anderson said. “He isn’t somebody to skip out on part of a job because it will make it go by faster, even when he isn’t working on cars. I learned a lot about life from him that I wouldn’t have gotten from other teachers.”
When the new Jacksonville High School opens in August, the new shop facility will be more streamlined and sophisticated than most dealerships, Griffin said. New shop additions will include a Snap-on diagnostic center, a tire-changing station and tire balancer, and three post lifts.
There’s activity happening outside the shop as well. Griffin crisscrosses the country, taking his shop team to competitions in Eastern and Western states. Recently, the team returned from qualifiers at the Hot Rodders of Tomorrow competition in Champagne, Illinois, an event leading up to the nationals round at the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association that takes place each year in Las Vegas.
Garrett Birmingham, 17, who is a student at Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood and on the HRT team, said they finished pretty well several weeks ago in Champagne, but there’s always room to improve. Griffin’s approach is what makes the whole thing work, Birmingham said.
“He’s pretty laid-back but very thorough,” Birmingham said. “He’s always making sure we do it right so we don’t mess anything up.”
SEMA is the biggest car show in the U.S., Griffin said. There, students race against the clock, tearing apart small engines and putting them back together. It’s also the place to meet auto-industry people, such as those with the National Hot Rod Association.
Griffin picked up an interest in auto mechanics at an early age. At 9, he became familiar with the basics of wheels and gears while fixing bicycles. Griffin later moved on to helping his father and grandfather repair family vehicles. The Jacksonville native attended Jacksonville High School and entered the auto shop class, which he said kept him in school. While his brothers were at home with sporting activities, Griffin found himself at home with wrenches and socket sets.
A teacher-friend later approached Griffin to ask if he’d be interested in teaching the shop class back at Griffin’s alma mater. Griffin was working as a technician at Gwatney Chevrolet at the time, and he remembered how important the shop class was to him when he was in high school.
“The opportunity to have a class I could relate to was very important to me,” he said. “I felt it would be cool to give the kids the same chance I had.”
At the shop, there’s always learning to be done, which includes textbook learning. To balance out his real-world, hands-on approach, Griffin said, he follows a curriculum. This involves some reading and writing. But in this area of education, he said, the teacher must know how to relate textbook learning to everyday problems that occur.
“If we get a chance to work on a motorcycle, car, truck or even a lawn mower, it gives them the chance to apply what they have learned to a real-world task,” he said. “The cool thing is when you see the light start to come on in them and the sense of accomplishment they have when it works.”
Griffin said his class not only gives the students knowledge and skills they can use in the real world, but he also tells them to further their education as much as possible — especially after high school.
“The day of just working the sweat off your back is gone; they will need a form of higher education,” he said. “For some, that’s a four-year college. For others, it’s a trade school or internship, but either way, life is coming. And it’s time to get going in a direction that can better their lives.”