Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of articles helping you get to know the instructors at Camosun College a bit better. Got someone you want to see interviewed? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll get on it.
This time around we caught up with fine furniture and joinery instructor Cam Russell and talked about shop safety, losing sleep, and moving backward.
1: What do you teach and how long have you been a teacher at Camosun?
I teach the fine furniture-joinery program, and this is my 27th year.
2: What do you personally get out of teaching?
Not many people are lucky enough to have a job where they help others realize their dreams, but that is exactly what I get to do. Folks come to us with an ambition to learn how to design, build, and finish furniture, and between my teaching partner Ken Guenter and me, we’ve worked out a course that allows them to do just that; it is hugely satisfying.
3: What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
How much I respect them for their courage in taking a year out of their adult lives to come and spend no small amount of time and money in pursuit of their training. It’s a pretty big leap of faith in us and, to be honest, I’m not sure I would have the nerve to do it.
4: What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
How much sleep I lose some nights worrying about it all.
5: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
So many good things, it’s hard to list. But I think my ultimate satisfaction comes each year when we exhibit the final projects and everyone can stand back and look at how far their skills have come in the past 10 months. Also, it’s great when a grad from 10 or 12 years ago who has gone on to establish their own business phones in May or June to ask if we have any recent grads to recommend as prospective employees.
6: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
So few bad things, but it would definitely have to be when a student injures themselves in the shop. We focus on safety from day one, but in our shop environment, with spinning blades and knives, injuries do happen, fortunately very few serious ones over the years… touch wood.
7: What do you see in the future of postsecondary education?
Naturally I love the focus on trades training that we’ve enjoyed recently, so more focus in that direction would be my hope. So many of my students have dabbled in other postsecondary courses for years and finally come to us to receive enough skills and knowledge to go out and earn a living within the few months we have to provide that. Of course, I acknowledge a place in society for research and focused study, but it would be great to see the imbalance between that and lowly vocational training brought closer to level.
8: What do you do to relax on the weekends?
A few years ago my wife Karen and I built a house and workshop, so lots of time is spent on finishing that, but a bit of time is left for gardening and cooking, too.
9: What’s your favorite meal?
A couple of years ago we built a wood-fired pizza oven in our garden, so something cooked with wood heat has to be on the list, along with a salad from our garden that we can be eating when all of the ingredients were still growing a few minutes previously.
10: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Overuse of the phrase “moving forward.” Just once I’d love to hear our politicians and leaders propose to move us backward—just to an era where we made the things we need to live in Canada and didn’t import them from half a world away just because they cost less.