Behind forgotten doors
February 21, 2020
Erich Vanblargan
THE MIRROR
Hidden away in the tech department of the Stevens Point Area Senior High you can find Daniel Strobel. A man who almost has more heart than body Mr. Strobel is the instructor for both the Welding and Small Engines classes provided at SPASH.
Strobel came to SPASH 26 years ago and started his career as a teacher due to his passion for educating children.
“I always enjoyed working with kids and summers off even though I taught summer school for 25 years. But I always enjoyed working with kids. I always got along well with them.”
Although the Stevens Point Area Senior High has changed, Strobel still remembers how the tech department used to be. He remembers the number of teachers in the department, the students and their environment in the classroom.
“Well, there were 11 teachers in tech ed. There were a lot of kids in tech ed who had a solid work ethic. There was a lot of freedom for the students and they had a good learning environment.”
Those who know Strobel also know of his passion for the trades and how much he values them in our society. Strobel is always talking about how even though trade jobs may be blue-collar jobs they are just as important if not more so than the white-collar jobs so many strive for. The prosperous life that one may have doing these jobs and the debt will be lessened by the necessary schooling.
“I know the trades right now, they will always be in demand. No machine can be programmed quickly enough to do the jobs a welder does along with the situations that they may encounter.” And there are rewards. “Welding also has a lot of financial opportunity and success to it. You can purchase an automated welder but it can never do the job a human can it can never learn, adjust to difficult positions quickly or even work in confined spaces. Even if it can, it will still need a human to operate and fix its work.”
Mazie Maluka • Mar 10, 2020 at 10:07 AM
Mr. Strobel does have a lot of opinions and you did a great job of focusing his opinions and showing how it relates to SPASH and what teens should do after graduation.
Kaitlyn Flanagan • Mar 8, 2020 at 10:51 PM
Wow. This did a very god job about showing stroble’s character! I really enjoyed reading this. You did a great job on keeping it interesting
Wyatt Cornell • Mar 4, 2020 at 7:37 PM
This article does a good job expressing what Stroble is like. I like how you focused on one thing he rants about.
Larson Lewis • Mar 4, 2020 at 1:30 PM
He sounds like a teacher who takes pride in what he does and it’s cool he’s been teaching for 26 years.
Brian Kraege • Mar 2, 2020 at 1:53 PM
It’s good that there are teachers with this much history and experience helping students and the use of quotes really make you feel like you’re talking with him directly.
McKenna Coyle • Feb 28, 2020 at 1:43 PM
He sounds like a really good teacher and I agree with what he has to say about not being able to replace humans as time goes on.
Erich Vanblargan • Feb 28, 2020 at 9:03 AM
Mr. Strobel always makes class interesting and if he catches people gathered around hilarity always ensues. He is not fond of people doing nothing and in the welding class it is hard to do nothing. In his classes its more or less 75% lab time and 25% Strobel lectures.
Kenny Schultz • Feb 27, 2020 at 1:39 PM
I think Mr. Strobel is a great guy and really knows what he is talking about. It sounds like he is very interested in making his students have fun experiences in class.
Noah Viegut • Feb 27, 2020 at 1:26 PM
Teaching school and summer school for 25 years is crazy. he must really love teaching.