In my high school, there were no shop classes, and as far as I know, the home ec classes were being phased out. As I was leaving though, the junior high shop teacher received a grant to teach in high school. Basically, what I had of "manual" classes were in junior high: woodshop with the above mentioned teacher (a fairly enjoyable but otherwise not very educational class) and "skills for living", sewing and cooking etc. Both classes were co-ed. I suppose looking back now I would have perhaps benefitted from taking the drafting class offered in my high school, but I don't think many other people would have. (It's not very useful to anyone not majoring in architecture of engineering.) Those type of classes were generally painfully easy and taken by apathetic kids who only wanted to get some easy credits. Really, anyone who knew they weren't college bound and actually cared about their future went to the regional vocational school (which is apparently the largest vocational system in the nation.
http://www.greatoaks.com)
In my opinion, it's far more valuable to give students an in-depth education in english, math, science and social sciences. I'm doing fine without the drafting and really, any college should be prepared to teach students the skills they need that aren't generally taught in high school. The speaking skills learned from English, critic thinking skills from math and science and social knowledge developed in social studies are much more valuable than being able to building a wooden bookshelf or race car.
