From teenage rebel to respected teacher: Fisher uses auto shop to prepare students for the workforce, for life

Mike Fisher has a two-pronged approach to teaching auto shop. When his kids get something wrong in the garage, he makes them do it again. And again. And again.

Once the job is finished, then comes Fisher’s second and more important task: Encourage them. Thank them. Tell them they did a good job.

“Even with some of your more problem behavior students,” Fisher said, “if you give them something to do and tell them they did a good job on it and tell them, ‘Thank you,’ they’ll want to do it again.”

Fisher, 50, of Peru teaches auto shop for the Area Career Center on the La Salle-Peru High School campus. His two-year program begins with textbook study – first chapter tackled: safety in the garage – and his students finish knowing how to rotate tires, do oil changes and fix brakes.

“If I’d never taken his class. I don’t know where I’d be – maybe a 5-minute oil change where I wouldn’t like it.”

—  Ricky Pellican of La Salle

Above all, Fisher strives to make his students ready for the workforce. Even if his students don’t aspire to be auto mechanics, he demands punctuality and accountability.

“I do try to make them employable,” he said. “I do try to teach them how to make a living.”

Ricky Pellican of La Salle is one of Fisher’s notable success stories. Pellican was a lifelong car enthusiast who played with Hot Wheels toys as a boy but came into the ACC “not knowing a single thing” about auto mechanics.

Fisher’s hands-on teaching style helped Pellican learn the fundamentals. Today, Pellican works on vintage muscle cars at Magnum Auto Restoration in La Salle.

“If I’d never taken his class,” Pellican said, “I don’t know where I’d be – maybe a 5-minute oil change where I wouldn’t like it.”

Fisher’s skill in the auto shop shouldn’t have been a surprise to his family because he had shown mechanical aptitude at an early age. He’d tinker with small appliances and get them to work again. The problem was that Fisher had no taste for the classroom – indeed, none for school at all.

“I was a major rebel, major slacker,” he recalled. “Failing classes left and right.”

Fortunately, his school district in Iroquois County had a vocational unit. Fisher enrolled for no other reason than to get out of the classroom a few hours a day. Once inside the auto shop, he discovered a knack for fixing cars, and he liked it.

“I ended up studying a lot, trying very hard, learning all the stuff,” he said, “and working harder in my other classes to make sure I could take auto shop senior year, as well.”

After eking out a high school degree, it was off to Nashville Auto Diesel College, now Lincoln Institute of Technology, which offered a 12-month training program.

He spent the next 20 years at the Last Muffler & Brake Shop in downtown La Salle. Fisher might have stayed on had he not witnessed the physical toll exacted on his boss and a fellow mechanic. Fisher himself began having back trouble and a diminished grip.

Fearing his aches would worsen, Fisher contemplated a switch to education. He inquired about part-time posts before learning the ACC needed a full-time instructor.

The interview process was uncomfortable. A group of educators “interrogated” him while he squirmed at the end of a long table in the L-P board room, but he still was in the mix when the field of applicants was cut to four.

Fisher and his three competitors were marched down to the auto shop and told to arrange an impromptu lesson, either in the shop or in the classroom. The other three opted for a shop exercise. Fisher drew up a classroom lesson on a car’s ignition system.

For someone who’d never taught in a classroom, that took gumption – and it didn’t pass unnoticed. He got the job and never looked back.

“I’m semi-retired,” Fisher said, only half-jokingly. “My body loves me for it.”

Fisher’s curriculum is carefully structured. First-year students have book days where they learn the basics, Fridays are open shop when they can learn small jobs on the vehicles brought in for service. The second-year students do all shop.

He also encourages students to consider advanced training after high school and has invited technical schools to send in guest speakers. Bruce Bausman, admissions representative for Universal Technical Institute, has come to the ACC and been impressed with Fisher’s good command of the classroom.

“His students are rarely disrespectful, which is not a common theme anymore at high schools,” Bausman said. “They respect Mike. They respect him for his classroom presence and for his knowledge.”

One reason for Fisher’s success is his ability to work with all skill levels. Auto shop attracts kids who’ve been tinkering with cars since childhood, as well as novices with no fundamentals whatsoever. He delights in working with both.

“I have students who are way up here,” Fisher said, raising a hand high for emphasis, “and I have students who’ve never touched a ratchet before in their lives and don’t know how it works.”

Whatever the skill set, Fisher believes in repetition. A student is to do a job repeatedly until Fisher is sure they have acquired confidence – no small consideration where safety is concerned – or until the student knows how to fix a problem when things go awry.

“Get back on the horse,” Fisher preaches. “The last memory you should have is doing it correctly.”

Scott Bickett of Princeton is a car enthusiast who, for many years, has worked with the ACC’s car show, where he’s seen Fisher interact with his students.

Bickett said he’s been impressed with how level-headed Fisher is – “I’ve never seen him raise his voice” – and how well Fisher relates to his students. None of which is to say Fisher has no expectations.

“Some of these kids take this as a slough-off class. They think they have to just show up and he’ll give them a good grade,” Bickett said. “That’s not how it works with Mike. He wants you to do more, to be more.”

“Even the kids that weren’t interested in the class,” Pellican agreed, “he pushed them.”

Nevertheless, Fisher acknowledges having a soft spot for the hard cases.

“The ones who cause the problems are the ones I relate to because that was me,” he said. “I’ll tell them a little story now and again – a clean one – and then they tend to relax and show me a little respect.”