Yesterday I attempted to address the issue of why hands-on education is left out of the formal learning environment. It costs more. In essence, it is the same decision we make when we choose cheap consumer goods. We spend hard earned money on objects that are on their way to the landfill within weeks of their purchase. They make little or no real impact on the quality of our lives other than the temporary distraction they provide and the loss of time and money that could have been devoted to greater things.

So it is with education that fails to include the hands. Lessons are quickly forgotten as they are perceived to have very little real value or relevance in young lives. Even the things that are most important for children to learn are tuned out by children who become bored by the failure to engage their needs for movement and physical involvement. In the meantime, children are sorted by testing along the illusory hand/brain divide, and regardless of where a child falls along that divide, there is loss of culture, loss of understanding and loss of human potential.

This is one of those things that you understand easily if you have been involved in making things and learning through your hands. It is one of those things that you may never understand if you haven't had that chance. I can point to countless examples of highly educated men and women who through the good graces of family and friends have been encouraged to pick up some tools and discover the great depths of their human character... potential that had lain hidden and dormant as a result of their education. There is the greater tragedy of the poor... A story our cities tell... vast human potential left dormant amongst buildings of an earlier age in which craftsmen carved, and constructed great beauty to last generations, using skills that are now abandoned.

So, there at the end of your arms are objects of great sensitivity and expression. We take them for granted each day. The fingers at the keyboard, trained to act in seamless harmony with thought hit every letter as intended(most of the time). A revolution can start one woman or man, two hands at a time. Take a moment to observe and a moment to wonder. You may discover something very important.