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“After that I stopped looking for what the students didn’t have and started looking at what they did have. Sometimes people forget what it was like when they were children.”
Norman teaches welding mainly to boys. Four of his students (two of them from Rappahannock) were just hired by Smith Midland Corporation. These students were definitely anti-school, he said. “We are still making things in this country. There are loads of jobs (for machinists) in the paper; we have more jobs than students to fill them,” he said.
Even machines that are taking over assembly lines are made by machinists; desks, chairs, cars and computers all involve welding. Bridges use to be bolted, but they are now welded. It is the cheapest form of joining two pieces, he said. In the 22 years he has taught at Piedmont, Norman said he has never had any discipline problems. Students are more outspoken and not as academically inclined, but there is no time to loiter, there is too much to do.
Norman, 47, grew up on a farm in Rock Mills and he has lived in Rappahannock all his life. He attended Rappahannock County High School and worked at Westinghouse and Atlas Machines and Ironworks. Five of his siblings live in the county and the family’s roots in the county go back for many generations. His father lived on what is presently the Skyline Drive before the Shenandoah National Park was established, he said. He lives with his wife, Nina, 13year-old son, Eric, and 19year-old daughter, Leslie, near Washington.
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