grasping...

Anaxagoras contemplates the Universe

In discussing the mind, we come to the best understanding of it through the use of metaphor and analogy. When we describe the acquisition of an idea, we say that we grasp it, thus using language of the human hand as though that idea is an object and the mind is an abstract hand with fingers exploring tangible and tactile qualities.

I am on my way to a funeral in Houston and had dreams last night in which I was viewing the interconnectedness of all things.

Our hands in their exploration of objects inform us of the separation between them. It is by making things from raw materials in our own hands, that we come to grips with the origins of distinct objects.

The wooden box is not distinct in full form from the forest in which the wood grew. Nor is it completely distinct from its ultimate destination as it's abandoned to decay and to return to the soil from which the forest came. By being involved deeply as a creator, we come to grip  with the origins and destinations of all things. By crafting objects in our own hands, with our eyes directed toward the capture of beauty and the creation of utility, we begin to grasp the interconnectedness of all things.

When we begin to do so  conventional things begin to fall apart. English class is no longer just the study of language. History is not only a dry recitation of the past. Mathematics is not just numbers, as the student has learned it has use in the interconnectedness of all things. And woodworking in school is not just making objects from wood, but instead is the process through which the child begins to grasp the interconnectedness of all things.

As we make things of useful beauty, with the simple hope that they will last through the ages, we are in alignment with creation and the forces of the universe.

Make, fix, create, and share with others the opportunity to do so.

resources...

I have been reading David Whittaker's book, The Impact and Legacy of Educational Sloyd, and have arrived at the point of conclusion. There is little he could say here that I've not witnessed in my own hands, and those who take the time to observe the relationship between the use of the hands and the development of intellect will also know what we know. And yet, it is good to hear what we know expressed in the words that others have used.

For instance (and as quoted by Whittaker) Juhani Pallasmaa, one of Finland's most distinguished architects said "philosophers regretfully continue to emphasize and value conceptual, intellectual and verbal knowledge over the tacit and non-conceptual wisdom of our embodied processes." Whittaker quotes philosopher Honore de Balzac as follows "A hand is not simply part of the body but expression and continuation of a thought which must be captured and conveyed." One single book about the hands can lead the reader to new resources worthy of exploration.

I want to remind my readers to participate in the book-a-zine giveaway on the Fine Woodworking Website, in which you be one of two winners to receive a free signed copy of a new magazine issue featuring boxes by Strother Purdy and me.

I am nearing the time to assemble the Silverware chest to be featured in an article in American Woodworker magazine. The photo above shows the interesting way I devised for the three piece top panel to fit.

On another related matter, AEP/SWEPCO has hired a public relations firm from Washington, DC  to fix the problems created by their own malfeasance in proposing an extra high voltage power line through Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri. The PR specialist visited area newspapers claiming that the power line would bring economic benefits to their local communities. I would recommend that she actually read their environmental impact statement before making any such claims. The particular public relations firm hired by AEP/SWEPCO, Capital Results, claims as their motto, "Perception is reality." This again is an example of what Matti Bergström called "finger blindness" in that those who've not had experience in the actual physical reality of crafting beautiful and useful objects are narrowed in their capacity to perceive intrinsic values. Just as those who are blind of eye cannot see objects, the finger blind are blind to the value of precious things and important cultural relationships.

Make, fix, create, share and teach...

compare and contrast: senseless destruction, purposeful creation

The photo comes courtesy of Dogwood Alliance. and shows "Enviva logging site in Northampton, NC. Sites like these are Ground Zero for the destructive rush towards unsustainable biomass energy."

The trees stacked at roadside represent thousands of acres of American forests stripped barren of natural forest growth. This mountain of material will be chipped, pelletized and burned for power and heat in Europe. The assumption of biomass energy is that once forests are cut, they will grow back given enough time, and so it is considered "green energy" and "renewable" by those who are dead from the neck down.

This level of stupidity can't be blamed on the lack of woodworking education in schools, but that we have schools that foster complaisance and allow kids to be out of touch with nature, creates a culture in which money drives all and our natural environment is available for corporate plunder. Anyone who is not disgusted with this would most surely be an example of finger-blindness, in which all reasonable cultural values are distorted by failure in the engagement of the hands in learning and creating.

We have had no school at all this week due to a snow storm that hit on Sunday night. In addition to heavy snow, severe cold has keep the snow and ice on the streets and roads longer than is usuall for Arkansas.

I've been working on an article for American Woodworker, and have nearly arrived at the assembly point in making a rather large box for silver, and the photo  shows sanding the curved surfaces for the front of the box.

On another front, I had an interesting conversation with a wood shop teacher yesterday who is has been teaching box making. His administration puts serious limits on student use of power tool, particularly the table saw. His 100+ students love box making, and he asked if I could help with a box design that could be completed by students using the band saw and drill press to form the joints.

This is a design that could work.The holes are drilled after the box is assembled and are for 3/16 in. dowels to lock the joint.

On another box making note, Fine Woodworking is giving away two copies of the new book-a-zine featuring wooden boxes done by fellow Taunton author, Strother Purdy and me. Each copy is signed by each of us. Go to this link and leave a comment. Every comment left on the FWW blog post has a chance to win.

Make, fix and create... then teach others what they can do.

discovery

The word heuristic refers to learning that is based on experience and discovery. As an example, I used a technique yesterday that I discovered on my own as a way of installing a new zero clearance insert in my router table. Th old one had worn over time... a thing that happens a router bit spinning at 22,000 RPM continuously hurls sawdust against it. My technique for installing zero clearance inserts involves the making of a log cabin routing template.

I call it a log cabin template because its structure is secured by overlapping corners that can be simply glued or nailed together log cabin style around an object. The making of this jig forms an exact representation of the object the jig is built around, thus creating a rigid structure around a negative space that can be used to guide a router in forming the exact same negative space in another material. This process may seem complex and abstract, but it is extremely accurate and effective. I use the same thickness of stock as chinking between the corners to provide a smooth guide surface for the bearing on the router bit.

Build the log cabin structure around the object. I made the zero clearance inserts first and used the log cabin corners to attach parts together cut from thin plywood.

Clamp the template to the surface you plan to route for the insert to fit. Use a router bit with bearing to follow the inside surface of the template and rout to the desired depth. Once the zero clearance insert has had its corners rounded to the required radius, put it in place and raise the router to cut through. To fit this bit, I first had to rout through with a smaller one to remove the material at the center of the insert.

With a guard over the cutter, I use this insert to support stock to form tenons on the ends of stock for making the fronts and backs of small boxes.

The things that you learn heuristically, through personal experience and discovery are so much more powerful in shaping character and intellect than those things that are simply told to you. It's a shame educational policy makers seem to have not noticed.

Yesterday, as I was reading David Whittaker's book, the Impact and Legacy of Educational Sloyd,  I found that my own writings had been mentioned in it, and had served to point out the impact of Educational Sloyd on American education. My own contribution amounts to nearly 3 pages in the book.

Make, fix, create and inspire.

To neither cramp nor deaden...

The following is from John Dewey's "Pedagogic Creed."

"I believe that the school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends.

I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.

I believe that the school must represent present life life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground.

I believe that education which does not occur through forms of life, forms that are worth living for their own sake, is always a poor substitute for the genuine reality, and tends to cramp and to deaden."

One of the things that makes woodworking at Clear Spring School so exciting for students is that in the wood shop, everything is real. The tools are the same ones that adults would use. The processes are the same that craftsmen have used for ages. The materials are real, and once modified in some way, retain the condition to which they are shaped, whether by error or intent. The level of cooperation required to attain success is real and demanding. When a child makes something in the wood shop, he or she is able to self-assess the results of effort, and carry home useful objects representative of real learning.

We have had another snow and ice storm in Eureka Springs, and have no school today, due to roads and streets in hazardous condition. We started out with freezing rain, then pellets of ice all day Sunday, then  another four or five inches of snow overnight. If you are suffering under such conditions, there is no better place to learn and enjoy the day than in a wood shop as shown above.

Make, fix, create and teach.

The hand off or brush off.

The focus in American education has become that of preparing children for the next prescribed level. If they are in Kindergarten they must be prepared for first grade. If they are in first, they must be prepared for second. If they are in high school, they must be made ready for college or trade school. After College, if kids are lucky enough or persistent enough to get that far, or can afford it, kids are often left to fend for themselves and figure out some way what they've invested their whole lives in leads to some form of employment. What about preparation for life? The following is from John Dewey's "Pedagogic Creed."

"With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judgment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work, and the executive forces be trained to act economically and efficiently."

In reading David Whittaker's book on Sloyd, he mentioned that John Dewey and William James had each become interested in Otto Salomon's Educational Sloyd through the promotional work of Gustaf Larsson. Larsson had been the teacher selected by Salomon to carry the Sloyd method to the US and whose Sloyd teacher training school in Boston had great impact. I had wondered about how William James and John Dewey had become advocates of Educational Sloyd and the Manual Arts and now I know. When children are helped to conquer life, we offer our own skills in a hand off to future generations. When our system is set up to simply pass children to the next level of an artificial construct, schooling, we give them the brush off. To change that we set the hands to real work doing real things as stimulation, inducement and reinforcement of the mind's engagement and growth. John Dewey, like so many educators of his time, believed in the use of the hands in learning as a stimulant for the development of character and intellect.

 Make, fix and create... be a resource and inspiration for the children in your community.

real cultivation of the mind

Children at play with saw horse.

As described in David Whittaker's book on Sloyd, Salomon's view was that

"Real cultivation of the mind has nothing to do with learning vast amounts of usually prescribed facts. Education, cultivation of the mind means what is left when we have forgotten what we learned in school. As a logical consequence of this, Salomon thought it advisable to reduce the number of subjects taught at school -- he used the expression 'concentration of teaching'."

In other words, it was learning at greater depth that brought the development of character and intellect. Proper subjects for teaching in schools  in Salomon's view should fit the following criteria:

1. Does it suit a child's capabilities?
2. Does it excite and sustain thirst for activity?
3. Is is capable of being used at home and elsewhere?
4. Does it engender respect and pleasure in manual labour and dexterity?
5. Does it train in habits of exactness and self-reliance?
6. Does it foster cleanliness and neatness?
7. Does it instill a sense of form?
8. Is it a benefit hygienically, e.g. by compensating for passivity?
9. Does it allow of methodical arrangement and progress and development of skills and patience?
10. Does it exercise bodily skills particularly those of the hand and eye where visual sensations plan an important part in developing understandings?

At the moment I'm interested in number 8 from the list. Is passivity characteristic of problems related to children's health? Is the general level of passivity practiced as a discipline in schools counter to the needs of all children? We know this to be true and very few policy makers care to do anything about it.

I thank David Whittaker for this list, and the reminder that Educational Sloyd was not just about woodworking, but about developing the whole child toward realization of his or her full human potential. For provincial Sweden, Salomon's ideas were ahead of his time. But as David Whittaker points out, the world at large was almost ready for a new view of education... just as we should be.

Make, fix, create, and model the joy that others can also find in self-directed discovery and growth.