We worry about our schools and what is taught therein as we watch a steady decline in the moral values of our society. We want to blame movies and video/computer games, but perhaps we have something simpler and more direct at the root. The following is from Charles H. Hamm's Mind and Hand, 1886.

It is possible for the mind to indulge in false logic, to make worse appear the better reason, without instant exposure. But for the hand to work falsely is to produce a misshapen thing--tool or machine--which in its construction gives the lie to its maker. Thus the hand that is false to truth, in the very act publishes the verdict of its own guilt, exposes itself to contempt and derision, convicts itself of unskillfulness or of dishonesty.

There is no escaping the logical conclusion of an investigation in the relations existing between the mind and the hand. The hand is scarcely less the guide than the agent of the mind. It steadies the mind. It is the mind's moral rudder, its balance-wheel. It is the mind's monitor. It is constantly appealing to the mind by its acts, to "hew to the line, let the chips fly where they may."

So as we watch case after case arise in the media of intellectual dishonesty, let's remember that what we see is the result of failure to engage our children's hands in their learning. As we fail to make them responsible to the truth inherent in hands-on fundamental reality we push students down the path of intellectual deception.