At the end of the school day, many educators leave the high schools and community colleges where they teach collision repair and go right back into the classroom to teach I-CAR^® courses to industry students. Educators already represent a major segment of I-CAR’s part-time instructor workforce, and we’d like to sign up more. This blog shines a spotlight on several of these multi-tasking educators who offer valuable insights about the benefits of their double roles.

It is a truth educators universally acknowledge that high school students with online access to I-CAR^® courses are no more likely to do homework. They are definitely logging on after school, but it’s to download music from Spotify or to check out Facebook postings. They’re not launching “Intro to Vehicle Parts Terminology,” that is, unless they are in David Weaver’s collision repair class at Applied Technology Education Campus in Camden, South Carolina.

While Jeff Wilson literally grew up in the collision repair industry, he never planned to stay in the field. Yet today, he loves his job and wouldn’t envision doing anything else besides teaching students how to make a comfortable living as collision repair professionals.

The problem is not what to say about Neal Grover. The problem is what to leave out of his story as an educator, which starts in the 1960s. There just isn’t enough space here. His abundant accomplishments and awards. Trails he blazed and “firsts” he reached. His early championing of I-CAR^® that accelerated its use in Utah. And, of course, the countless students he trained and inspired at his alma mater, Salt Lake Community College, and in industry.

Salem High School (VA) educator Steve Edwards knew his students would enjoy airbrushing just as he did when he was a collision repair student.  “It’s a way to get students into the shop and keep them interested,” he says.  But the best Steve could do with his high school budget was a show and tell lesson. He showed videos and did a demo with the class’ sole airbrush paint gun...