workingman's school

From Felix Adler, in describing the Workingman's School, New York, 1880:

We are seeking to apply the principle which ought to be at the foundation of every modern scheme of education: namely, that, as experiment conjoined with observation is necessary to the discovery of truth, so object-creating must supplement object-teaching in that rediscovery of truths which it is the purpose of all education to facilitate. Therefore, work instruction is not a something outside the regular instruction; it is an organic part of the regular instruction. It becomes the means of teaching mathematics, for instance, more thoroughly, causing the pupils to work out mathematical truths with their very hands; it becomes the means of teaching natural history more effectively; it is worked into inseparable connection with the entire scheme of the scholar's mental and moral development. It becomes the means of making the hand a wise and cunning hand, by putting more brain into it. But, on the other hand, it also makes the brain a clear and vigorous, and enlightened brain, by giving it the salutary corrective of the demonstrations of the hand. And so the system of work education considered as an advance in education, generally has a value of its own...

The Workingman's School is now the Fieldston "Ethical Culture School" and one of the most prestigious independent schools in New York and the US. They still have woodworking grades 1-4 and at this point draw no direct parallel in their literature between manual arts and the moral character development issues that led Adler to found the school in the first place. The roots of manual training are being forgotten, but as long as we have hands we will be called to discover what they can hold and what they can make. And we will be inclined to share what we have learned with others.


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Note to parents concerning engineering

The following is from an engineering website, Motion Systems Design concerned about our future: Note to Parents, Engineering is cool. The following isn't even the half of it:

One of biggest challenges facing the U.S. today is that we're not producing enough engineers who can envision and build real, working machines. Today's engineers have an overabundance of software knowledge, but far too few can devise products that put software to work.

Somewhere along the line, we've lost touch with the real world. Kids don't build tree houses anymore, they don't fix bikes, and when they start driving, they can't service their own cars. They lack “hands on” knowledge of anything short of a computer keyboard and joystick. Sadly, there are kids who've never worn a baseball glove or held a bat in their hands, but know the ins and outs of MLB and Madden NFL on their computers.

If kids no longer play with tools, fixing things and making things and learning the basics of problem solving, how will they gain competence as engineers? How can they solve real problems when most of their lives have been invested in fantasy?

Reader, Julian Behrisch Elce wrote to me about a program on CBC Radio One in Canada pointing out that the basic lack of early hands-on play with basic materials is preventing aerospace engineers from having the hands-on ability to build what they have envisioned. This of course has profound economic effect. But it also impacts the human soul. Are we to be confident fixers, makers and creators, or are we to be enslaved as complaisant consumers of meaningless cheap stuff?

senseless

Yesterday in New York, an after school shooting rampage by five youth gang members brought down a young honor student in crossfire. It is a story told again and again in American cities. Otto Salomon said, "the value of the carpenter's work is in the object made... the value of the student's work, making the same object is in the student." What we get when we set students to work making things of beauty and value are children of beauty and value. Fail in that, and we get what we get.

Children in many schools are subject to restraint, passing from boring class to class. It is completely against their natural inclinations toward active life. Can you see the relationship between classroom restraint, and after school when all hell breaks loose? Within the process of making things is the growth of moral character and human significance. Some would blame the schools for what we have now, and blame it on moral collapse of teaching and administration. But let me tell you this: Teachers and administrators care about kids.

I would instead look to the society at large. We have classes of wealth, people who grew up understanding nothing of hands-on creativity, who see objects as things to be made by others and sold at profit, not as transformative process through which community and culture are established and preserved. Life at the top secured by embrace of the bottom line. Radical conservatives propose that community and culture are what trickles down from their glorious economic success. But buddy, it just ain't so.

When we empower a craftsman to make, we set in motion the transformation of community and culture. When we take educational institutions and allow them to be islands of "excellence" in the midst of poverty, through which students pass on their way to "success" while remaining untouched by the full scope of their surroundings, we have preserved a culture in which long term failure is pre-ordained.

This is nothing new in this blog. I have talked about this before. It is nothing new in society, either. The following is from an 1883 report by Superintendent Samuel T. Dutton in New Haven, Connecticut.

Those (students) whose surplus energies are spent in outdoor sports, or who have active duties out of school, have less need for manual training. The fact that the dignity of labor may thus be popularized, and that many boys not members of these classes will be inspired "to do something," is a strong argument in favor of the plan. It is the industrial and industrious spirit that we want in our schools, and in the community as well, so that honest labor may be not only respectable but honorable. It must be counted a misfortune that popular intelligence does not yet grasp the principles which underlie an education which begins in the kindergarten and carries the industrial and productive idea through all grades.

And so, if we have become a nation of idiots, in which violence rages virtually from TV's and computer screens in children's bedrooms and in harsh reality in the streets of the cities of our nation, we have only the failure of our hands to blame. We have sought cheap goods. We have sought cheap, easy ways to teach kids. The kids know cheap when they see it and know that they are regarded as of little value, for character and value are what you discover in yourself when you are given the opportunity to create.

If we want our schools to be safe again, and to be places where both the intellect and moral character are nourished, it may seem ironic that one might start with a knife. But the simple sloyd knife is an interesting reminder of much more. Its creative use was the child's introduction to depth of will and strength of character... the process through which one becomes a trustworthy, upstanding and creative member of community. The knife, sloyd and manual training deserve a second look.

does this dress make me look fat?

Design questions can be doozies. How can a husband answer a question like that safely and without getting in very deep trouble? Actually knowing something about design might help. What if we were equipped to discuss design intelligently?

Much less risky on the social front, but demanding some design expertise are the questions my box making students ask me about mixing woods. Using more than one species of wood in a project is regarded as a bold statement involving some risk. Mixing species of woods for decorative effect was done in the furnishings for all the Kings Louis of France, so we know it can be an effective design technique. My students like what I've done using mixed woods in my own work but wonder, "What woods work well together and why? Are there combinations of wood that work and some that I should avoid?"



I was asked to write an article on this subject for Woodcraft Magazine that I hope to send off today, and the question of how to successfully mix woods in a project provides insight into the "principles and elements of design," the rules taught to graphic and 3 D designers in art schools. In other words, to know how to successfully mix woods offers insight that could lead any woodworker to become a better designer of things made of wood. More to come soon.

The photo above shows one of the simple forms of mixing species of wood, inlaying one contrasting wood in another.

kids, school and the arts

Eureka Springs is planning a new high school and tonight I made a quick presentation to the school board on the importance of the arts in whatever plans they make. I was invited to speak by a fellow artist who had gotten a few minutes on the agenda. The fact that the arts are so vital to our community, with over 200 professional artists in our city, and a host of galleries and others making their livings from the arts, the idea is a no-brainer and was well received by the school board. We all believe that if the school makes a larger commitment to the arts, the artists will make a large commitment to the school and that could be helpful in passing the necessary bond issue.

Some of my readers may be interested in the Macy Manual Training building, now called Macy Hall, on the TC campus. You can find it using Google earth at the following coordinates: 40°48'37.85"N 73°57'37.56"W or Google street view:


View Larger Map I am looking forward to my visit there next week, will take my camera and have my own images to share with you.

Teachers College

I have mentioned that Teachers College, part of Columbia University in New York City was the first college in America to offer advanced degrees in industrial arts, but what I didn't mention was that it was specifically founded to do so. Charles A. Bennett tells the story in his History of Manual and Industrial Education from 1870-1917. The time line is this: The Industrial Education Association was formed in 1884 with membership including Grace Dodge, Frederick Barnard, Seth Low, Theodore Roosevelt and others. One of its stated purposes was to promote manual training education by preparing teachers in the art. They began teaching teachers in 1886 in a building at 9 University Place formerly occupied by Union Theological Seminary and now part of NYU. The small but powerful organization led to the foundation of Teachers College in 1887. The first prospectus of the College stated that "for the present at least the instruction given will be almost wholly confined to those hitherto neglected factors in education which may be included under the name of industrial training."

At this point, Teachers College is one of the finest educational institutions in the country, and you might not associate it with something as simple and direct as whittling on a stick. There is always a great deal that can be learned from examining our roots. We are, after all, moving from point a through to point c. And while things may seem haphazard, reflection on origins can give greater strength of purpose to what we do now. Who would have guessed that such a fine institution would have been formed specifically to promote hands-on learning? Are there patterns in human affairs that lead to repetition? Is it true that that which we have nearly forgotten tends to be repeated? Do patterns come full circle? Could it be time for Teachers College to come back to its roots? Let's hope.

wagons Ho!

Today the first grade students finished their wagons as shown below.
The kids have such enthusiasm for making things. They look around the woodshop at projects from years past, and ask, "when do I get to make that?"And they tell me, "I want to do it myself!"

today in the woodshop

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the first second and third grade students will continue work on their wagons for study of pioneers and westward expansion. In the meantime, I'm getting ready to spend Thanksgiving week with my daughter in New York and have arranged to meet with an associate dean at Teachers College concerning their role in the creation of the manual arts movement. So, TC and Columbia University are on my mind. Lucy is now almost half way through her 3rd year and has classes on Wednesday, so I have arranged my tour of TC for that morning, and I hope to share photos of Macy Hall, one of the American homes of the manual arts movement.

Teachers College interest in manual training emerged from the "Kitchen Garden" and kindergarten movements both of which promoted the understanding of the connection between hand and brain, and crafts and the development of character. The movement included such notables as Seth Low, Columbia University President for whom their famous Low Library was named, and Frederick A. P. Barnard founder of the prestigious women's college across the street from today's Columbia University.

The following is from The Century magazine, 1885 with regard to the New York Industrial Education movement:

There is an industrial training which is neither technical nor professional which is calculated to make better men and better citizens of the pupils no matter what calling they may afterward follow; which affects directly, and in a most salutary manner, the mind and character of the pupil, and which will be of constant service to him through all his life, whether he be wage worker or trader, teacher or clergyman. The training of the eye and of the hand are important and essential elements in all good education. These elements the State is bound to furnish.

And so, I propose a renewal of American education built on old, yet solid principles. By placing our human hands at the center of learning, our hearts, too, will be present.

Fine Woodworking Glue Tube Blog

The following was posted today by Senior Editor Tom McKenna to the Fine Woodworking Website: For These Kids, Making Toys is an Entryway to Woodworking.

design day

Today the 7th 8th and 9th grade Clear Spring School students started work on our annual holiday public service project, making toys for distribution to children through our local food bank. We started by doing design work on paper, and by making and sanding wheels. Some students are more interested in design than others, so I offer the options of designing with scissors or by tracing around found objects, hoping to better engage those less comfortable with their drawing skills.

Next week we will start making toy cars and trucks, and I hope to bring all the students up to a higher level of craftsmanship. During the last weeks before the holiday break, all the students at Clear Spring School will be active in making toys.

pangaea

Fourth, fifth and sixth grade students at Clear Spring School worked on Pangaea puzzles today as part of their study of earth science and continental drift. The idea is that students will become hands-on familiar with continent shapes and their locations while studying the forces through which continents were created. And it was fun. To begin the project, I downloaded a map of Pangaea from the Permian period, and used a graphics program to redraw and simplify the map so it could be cut apart into various continents using a coping saw as shown in the photo below. To prepare for the kid's work and to keep the surrounding frame intact, I used the scroll saw to liberate Pangaea from the surrounding Panthalassa Sea in preparation for the kid's work.
In the photo below, you can see my almost finished launcher for our high school physics competition. We worked on them today and the kids think mine is cool, but ineffective. We'll see. My combination compound crossbow catapult is designed to give the ammo a roll effect that may extend its range. I also plan to add a second bow, doubling its force.