In order to understand the importance of the hands in learning, I can point you to a number of authorities. But first, I ask you to make a few personal observations. We have become a society reliant on experts. We hire people to tell us things about our lives, when we might find the greatest truths through simple and direct observation. For instance, we turn on the Weather Channel to learn the temperature, when we might step outside instead, feeling the chill or warmth of the air on our own skin.

He is a simple thing to help you to begin your own observatons. Pick up a long stick and hold it if front of you. Now close your eyes. You can feel in the tensions of your hand whether or not the stick is vertical, or slightly out of balance. You can feel or direct its motion, pointing it straight up or feel the weight of it when it moves away from dead balance.

When you pick up a tool for the first time, whether it is a chisel or a pencil, the same dynamic principles are measured by the hand. The hand, measuring and adapting to those forces moves from the foreground of awareness to the background , disappearing from conscious thought as it learns the weight, form and movement of the object. In the use of a chisel, the hand itself can disappear from thought and consciousness to the degree that the only thing felt in the mind is the position and sharpness of the cutting edge. We take our hands for granted due to the extremely close integration between the hand and brain in the development of our consciousness and our awareness of the world around us.

As an excercise in the development of your own wisdom, I invite you to watch carefully today as your fingers engage the keyboard, as you write notes in pencil to a friend, as you pick up a bag of groceries, pull a book down from the shelf, or wipe the tear from the eye of a child. Hands that we take for granted are the key to being fully engaged in our lives, sensing and creating.

Engagement in learning through the hands is the purpose of my program at the Clear Spring School . You can learn more about my school program, Wisdom of the Hands at www.dougstowe.com.