This blog is dedicated to sharing the concept that our hands are essential to learning- that we engage the world and its wonders, sensing and creating primarily through the agency of our hands. We abandon our children to education in boredom and intellectual escapism by failing to engage their hands in learning and making.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Apple Pie: The intellectual content of work with hands
There is an artificial divide in America in which the work of the hands is regarded as being of lesser intellectual content. Mike Rose's book, Mind at Work is a great reminder that when it comes to the brain, all is not exactly as it may appear. Thanksgiving is another reminder. The hands never function in isolation from intellect, and the intellect, if it is to function with any degree of certainty and reliability, must involve the hands... whether in the making of things with beauty (and flavor) and utility, or in the exploration of the most abstract concepts of science.
So what you see here is the American classic, Apple Pie. I will remind my gentle readers that it is far, far better to explore your relationships to reality and interpersonal relationship by baking, fixing and making in your own hands.
Enjoy this Thanksgiving day by putting your hands to work. Share with friends for the most satisfying results.
Thanks for the heads up about Mind at Work. I just ordered it.
ReplyDeleteDoug,
ReplyDeleteA book I think you might enjoy about handtool and working with your hands is "Tools of the Trade" by Jeff Taylor. A friend said I'd like it and he was one eccentric old "ludite"...John Brown the Welsh Chairmaker who past on last summer.
Joe
Click! I just ordered the Jeff Taylor book, too. It sounds as if he's done in the book what I've tried to do in my blog - only he does it better.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like another great book. I'll order it, too. You can find it here!
ReplyDelete