I am home from Helsinki after a very long day of flights and airport connections. Catching up on my mail, I found an article about Walker Weed in Woodwork Magazine. Walker Weed was the long-time director of the wood shop at Dartmouth and was most recently honored by Furniture Society with its 2008 Award of Distinction.

The article describes how Walker Weed developed his early interest in furniture while taking Sloyd woodworking courses in elementary school. The article states: "The Sloyd approach, with its emphasis on progressively more challenging sequence of tools and techniques and on the whole person has profoundly affected Walker through his life."

You may recall my mention of Walker Weed earlier in the blog. It was suggested by one of his colleagues that in his honor and tradition, each student at Dartmouth should be required to excite the intellectual capacity of his or her hands through the making of the chair to be used throughout their college career. In that way, perhaps, what wasn't learned through hands might be imparted through their posteriors. This story was related to me in response to my suggestion that university core curricula be modified to include hands-on learning. I have added just a couple more photos to share the beauty of Helsinki.


I will have lots more information coming in the next weeks and months as I process my experience in Finland.