What do you think Moses Brown School, Providence, RI, Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School, Cambridge, MA, the George School, Philadelphia, PA, Pinkerton Academy, Derry, NH, Putney School, Putney, VT and Belmont Hill, Boston, MA have in common? Other than being strong private schools known for long traditions of excellence in education, they all have woodshops. Does it make you wonder if the elite of east coast urban America might know something that few remember in the heartlands? Does it make you wonder whether woodworking might be something more than a program to turn children into future carpenters?

Paul Ruhlman, director of the wood program at Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, MA says the following about his program:

"Here... the woodworking program goes back over 100 years. Woodworking education has been considered part of the Fine Arts Department. Design and mehanical problem solving are emphasized in the wood courses. The courses are not about learning a trade but looking for ways to sense and explore the physical world with one's hands. A good word fo this is 'haptic' from the Greek haptikos which means to lay one's hands upon. It is the sense of the world one gets from one's hands."

Paul teaches in the "Sloyd" building, a name that ties his program to the near forgotten Sloyd system of woodworking education. The photo above is of Paul (at blackboard) with a class of box makers in the fall of 2001. The Sloyd building shown below on the BBNS campus is designed with the same floor plan as suggested by Gustaf Larsson in his 1907 book, Sloyd for the Three Upper Grammar Grades.