Sunday, March 16, 2008

Woodshop News this month offers a "Guide to Post-Secondary Schools" offering degrees in woodworking. With most high school woodworking programs closed and with most woodworking businesses having become dependent on computer aided design and manufacturing to be competitive, there is an increasing need for graduates with both woodworking and high-tech skills. Woodshop News has long been an advocate of high school woodworking programs. There is still a great deal that most don't understand about the potential of woodworking in general education.

The following is from Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of the New York College for the Training of Teachers, 1886.
"If the term manual training is used in antithesis to mental training, it is wrongly understood. Manual training, as I use the term is mental training. It is included in the psychologically determined course of study because it reaches important mental faculties which no other studies reach. It is also a most valuable and important stimulus to the receptive faculty of observation. The child can neither draw accurately, nor construct correctly unless he observes acutely."

No comments:

Post a Comment