We throw away (丢弃) many things every day, though some of them can get a new life after a simple repair (修理). The problem is that lots of people no longer know how. It's a skill quickly lost.
Repair Cafés can make a difference to all that! They are free meeting places for people to repair things together. In the café, there are many tools (工具) to help visitors repair clothes, bikes, cars and so on. There are also some people helping with people's repair work. If people have nothing to repair, they can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Or they can give other people a hand. They can also get ideas at the reading table by reading books on repairs and DIY.
Matt Brewer is the director (负责人) of a Repair Café . Also, he is a teacher at a high school. In his eyes, schools should not only teach students to get high grades in tests, but also pass some important life skills on to them. Some of his students study many different skills and try to make broken things work again by themselves in his Repair Café . Zander and Chase are two of them. They enjoy repairing things in their free time, and they always help in the Repair Café on weekends.
Last month, Zander and Chase helped an old woman repair a telephone. The phone was so old that the two had never known it, but that didn't stop the repair work. Brewer taught them to use the tools and then they repaired the telephone. When the old woman told them the phone was nice to use, they were both happy. "It's fun to learn how to repair things," Zander said.
"That's the point of the Repair Café," Brewer said. "These kids are learning necessary life skills."
Repair Cafés | |
Background | *Many people throw things away instead of (代替) repairing them. *Few people are repair things themselves now. |
The director | Matt Brewer — a high school teacher He thinks teaching life skills is an important part of. |
*with the help of tools, helpers and books; * Have a cup of tea or coffee; * Help others with repair work; * Do some reading about repairs and DIY. | |
An example | * Zander and Chase learn to repair things as a hobby. * They helped an old woman repair . |
