important overlooked consequences

There are important and overlooked consequences of making beautiful and useful things. One of course is that we save money over the cost of buying things. Another is that by investing our time in such pursuits, we're not out shopping for useless stuff that we could easily live without. A third is that we learn. A fourth is that we develop character. A fifth is that we develop relationships in our own communities, quite unlike and on a deeper plane than those from shopping for useless stuff. A sixth is that by example, we model behavior that is more responsible to the environment, and may inspire others to do as we're learning to do ourselves. I can easily go on, but perhaps this is enough to digest in one day.

By embarking on a craft, you'll learn more.

Any craft will do.

In my shop I'm applying an oil finished to the boxes I sanded last week. I've added a few boxes to my Etsy site: http://dougstowe.etsy.com including this walnut and oak box with a fake drawer. I had mistakenly put the lift tab on the base rather than the lid, and this was my fix. The box is unique and available.

Make, fix and create.

Balancing economy vs. THE Economy.

When we spend money, it's good for others as it stimulates the economy. When we save money by doing things for ourselves, it's good for our own households, and also good for the planet, in that it reduces the impact of consumerism and the transport of materials and goods great distances and at great burden to the environment.

One of the differences between Educational Sloyd and the Russian system of manual arts training was that while the Russian system involved the making of useless parts of things, Educational Sloyd involved the making of things useful to family and community life. 

The Russian system was intended to develop workers for industry. Educational Sloyd was developed in response to a flood of manufactured goods that deprived the citizenry of their long standing self-reliance on things they could make for themselves. Its development was partially in response to the loss of community character that commonly came from the making of those things.

By making things useful within the family and community, the student would receive the benefit of being recognized as useful, and families would recognize the importance and value of schooling.

As Salomon had noted, the value of the carpenter's work is in the things the carpenter makes. The value of the things the student makes is in the student, reflecting the deeper relationship the making of beautiful and useful things brings to the student, the family, the community and nation.

The two carvings shown here were done by my great uncle, Charles A. Richards in Ft. Dodge, Iowa during WWII as his nieces and nephews were at war. They brought no benefit to THE economy but brought other things. And as we worship THE economy, we should pay greater attention to other things, and practice of economy, also called thrift.

Make, fix and create...

Sanding Small Boxes SD 480p

a fourth point

 A fourth point in educational reform

The fourth point is that teachers need to be drawn at least partly from the pool of those who didn’t necessarily do so well in school. Late bloomers and failures are important to engage in teaching others. 

A reason for this is that when faced with stress, as happens in most schools, teachers tend to fall back into positions most comfortable to them, often meaning the ways they themselves were taught. And those who go to college are generally the ones who learn comfortably by rote, rather than by doing. We need trained doers in schools whose most comfortable fall back positions are getting things done rather than talking about stuff. In doing real things, all the senses are engaged, more fully engaging the various parts of the sensory and motor cortices in the brain, establishing a deeper level of engagement and remembrance.

A child's use of senses should come first. An understanding presented by Comenius in the 17th century.

"The ground of this business (education) is, that sensual objects be rightly presented to the senses for fear that they not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this is the foundation of all the rest; because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which are to be done and whereof we have to speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding which was not before in the senses. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving of the differences of things will be to lay the grounds for wisdom and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in one's course of life, which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the things that are to be learned are offered to scholars without their being understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward and offereth little benefit."

Make, fix and create. 

A third point

A third point in educational reform (one emphasized by educational sloyd and progressive educators from the time of Pestalozzi), was the relationship between the concrete and abstract. All abstract studies should be preceded by concrete learning to build a coherent and useful structure of knowledge. Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner and others have called this “scaffolding.” 

For example, we make a huge mistake pushing kids to read before they’re doing real things…. reading is abstract, doing is concrete. Building from abstraction leads to further abstraction, and we never outgrow, nor need we outgrow our connection to the real world. And all children, even those in fantasy worlds of their own making, know the difference between what's real and what's been made up for their amusement or distraction.

How can they possibly know? The real world is full of sensory data, conveyed through the senses without which students are left ill equipped to test the truth of what they are being taught.

In the World Beyond Your Head, Matthew Crawford’s sequel to Shop Class, he’d written in his final chapter of the quote from me used as epigraph of chapter one of his first book, 

“In schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.” 

We put learning in a context of grades and test scores but in essence are telling students that what they're being taught does not really matter, as it appears contrived and undeserving their full engagement.

Crawford stated in his later book, “I don’t think this is true for every student, but it is true of enough students that we ought to worry about it." Taking a wider view, I contend that ALL students even those deemed most successful in the current model pay a toll for the artificiality of hands-off schooling, and they too, deserve more. In fact, as we turn the world over to new generations, we also deserve more, as I mention in my recent article in Front Porch Republic, AI, Misinformation and Manual Arts Training.

 https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2024/01/ai-misinformation-and-manual-arts-training/

Make, fix and create.

education reform step 2

The second thing to recognize in educational reform is that activities that are by nature real, engaging all the senses create a better network of remembrance, connection and utility in the brain. This has been proven by research. 

Learning that takes place hands-on, meaning it was accomplished by being physically present thus engaging all the senses has much deeper and longer lasting effect. You can think of the brain as real estate, and hands-on activities and experiences are noted in the full breadth of sensory and motor cortices with greater impact and depth of interconnected remembrance. Students sitting at desks with thumbs a-twittle is a waste that serves none well.

Modern classroom learning where students sit at desks, while teachers attempt to instill information into their brains insists on student passivity and leads to passive unresponsive lives. That may be useful to a political society in which direct engagement is to be squelched. But a democratic society requires active engagement of each and all in making the decisions that affect our own lives.

Again, the answer is simple. Insist that classroom teachers lead students in doing real things. Getting out of the classroom into real life is advised.

The walnut and spalted red oak box shown was made as a demonstration box in  class at ESSA years ago. In it I demonstrated hand cut dovetails and the making and use of wooden hinges.

Make, fix and create.

easy as one, two, three, four

There is a great need for educational reform in the US, so to make things easy, please follow for the next three days as I explain. 

The first thing to recognize is that the brain, even among college students is good for only a very few minutes of lecture. Even the best minds wander and must for newly delivered information to be compared both to that which had previously been learned or taught and to the student’s own personal experience. 

Scaffolding, an integrated structure of previously acquired experiential learning supports the integration of new learning. Teachers in classes that drone on and on serve none well, and even the best and brightest may be struck by the triviality of what they’re being taught. 

Steering education away from the model in which a teacher stands at the head of the class could be as easy as requiring each teacher to provide students an opportunity to do real things related to their subject matter. If in doubt, consult the school shop teacher for ideas if one is available. 

In the meantime, 50 boxes are now through the first sanding process, have had the edges routed, and are ready for orbital sanding, grits, 150, 240 and 320 before signing. 

Make, fix and create.