Crafts and woodworking in schools...It is extremely important that crafts be taught in school for a variety of reasons. Actual problem solving in real materials invites self-assessment. Crafts don't require the judgement of an external authority like a teacher to point out success or failure. Crafts allow learning to take on deeper meaning. Learning abstract concepts by stuffing in the brain is a sad substitute for knowing how to make something with your own hands. When you engage in training your hands in their creative capacity, lifelong learning becomes a meaningful concept and you realize that there are no external limits to your learning potential. To engage in the exercise of your own creative power provides insight into the beauty and inherent value of the objects treasured in our civilization.

There are particular values inherent in woodworking as a tool in education. Unlike many crafts, woodworking requires measuring and geometry and is therefore useful for bringing abstract mathematics to concrete reality. Woodworking can require a degree of precision and accuracy that can lead to a focus on quality work. Woodworking requires the use of tools that were originally the foundation of modern civilization. These tools provide an excellent introduction to the expanding role of technology in our lives. Since nearly everything useful in human life was at one point made of wood, the possibilities of what to make and how to integrate woodworking into general education are unlimited.

The greatest significance in woodworking becomes clear when you see the pride the students have in their finished work. The girl in the photo above told me proudly, "I still have everything I made last year in woodshop."