Here's another simple hand trick. Take a piece of paper and a pencil and draw a straight line across the page from one side to the other. Unless you are practiced at this, you may find it difficult to draw a straight line. Now turn the page 90 degrees and draw the same line in a different manner. Hold the hand still and use the downward rotation of the shoulder with the concurrent bending of the elbow to draw a straight line. You will probably find it easier with less practice and greater efficiency to draw the line with the page turned.

A reader will always look at a page in the same angle in order to understand the information as it is presented. An artist, however, will rotate the page to make use of the geometry of the hand, and in consequence will observe things from a variety of perspectives. So does the use of the hand actually shape our perceptions, and the flexibility of our approach as we examine the world? Would you try it for yourself? Please do. Then, you tell me... Are we missing something by failing to engage the hands in learning? Do they offer anything significant to our intelligence or our perceptions of the universe? If all learning also required hands-on application of knowledge, doing, would what we learned be different in some way?

One way of learning leads us toward obedience and complaisance... the other toward creativity, active participation and leadership. No wonder we don't want the hands engaged in education! It might start a revolution.