One of the best things we can do for our children is to be creatively engaged in our own lives. If you watch TV or play computer games with your time, what do you think your children will do when they grow up? Your time would be better spent whittling at the kitchen table, making things that are useful, beautiful or both and serving as a role model of creativity.

One of the things I do when I get my summers off from Clear Spring School is teach. There are a variety of wood working schools and clubs that engage me to teach week long classes to adults. The first school where I taught is one of my favorites. It got me hooked on the experience of sharing my knowledge and experience with others. I tell about my first teaching experience at Arrowmont on a page in my website which I call Turning Left at the Hard Rock Cafe.

I can't really describe for you what a rich experience a week at Arrowmont can be. You would have to experience it for yourself to understand. This year I'll be teaching at American Sycamore Woodworking Retreat in Indiana, William Ng's School of Fine Woodworking in Los Angeles, The South Florida Woodworking Guild, and with Diablo Woodworkers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Later in the fall I'll have two day classes at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock and at a Woodcraft Store near Dearborn, Michigan. Each of those will be an incomparable experience. Here in Eureka Springs, some friends and I have founded the Eureka Springs School of the Arts (ESSA) because we believe that being engaged in the arts is essential to the human spirit. At ESSA or Arrowmont, you can choose from a variety of crafts in addition to woodworking. The photos above are from Arrowmont.