square cuts

This morning I am cutting some cherry and walnut lumber for table tops, and because they need to fit perfectly between top stretchers, I needed to make very certain that they are cut precisely to length and exactly square at the ends. After working with rustic woods for some time, it is a shift for me to go back to more precise workmanship. My first test cuts with my miter gauge were less than satisfactory, so I was given the choice of adjusting and tightening the miter gauge, making a sled which will guarantee square cuts or switching to the panel saw. I finally settled on converting and modifying an old sled from my Atlas table saw to fit the Grizz as shown below. My first test cuts were perfect. The stop block will allow each matching part to be exactly the same length.

Have you noticed how we use measuring to set standards, and then we use standards to gain control over things and situations? Have you noticed that some things are easier to measure than others? For instance, I can look at my bank statement and it will be correct to the penny. But we can look at behavior on the streets or in a city park and not have a clue as to what's going on.

In classrooms, it is hard to stick your head in the door and know exactly what's happening. Are the kids goofing off or are they learning? If learning, are they learning the right things that will lead to later success? Out of fear and concern, administrators set standards and then test to see that those standards are met. Some things being easier to measure than others, become the driving principles of education. For instance, we can measure reading comprehension, and math skills. But we can't measure the long term things. We can't measure the development of craftsmanship, character, honesty or long term love of learning. We can note whether or not these are present in our children, but we don't have an effective scale to measure or control growth. Have you noticed how matters of character, the things that matter most in the long term in children's lives are now only incidentals in education? And I wonder, whether we want each of our children to be cut to exactly the same length?

Standards can be pernicious. The imposition of standards implies distrust and external wrestling for control. Can you see how on the one hand, a craftsman might use his or her own set of standards to achieve a desired quality in work, but that on the other hand, rigid adherence to a narrow set of easily measured standards would be destructive of a wide range of other equally important goals? I might aspire to one set of measuring standards for one project and discard them entirely for another more freely expressive one without sacrificing the essential creativity at the heart of my work?

There is of course, no easy answer to the many problems facing American education. Knowing first of all, however, that letting our children's educations be dictated by the things easiest to measure is hazardous to our nation's health.

In my measuring poll, now closed, I note that the English system (inch, foot, etc.) squeaked past the metric system in votes. Last place was the rule of thumb. If you use the search block above left, and type in "rule of thumb" you can learn more about it. It was a system of measure based on the size and scale of the individual using it. In other words, it was personalized. My inch was the width of my thumb, not yours. In the education of our children, what scale shall we use? One that is personal and takes into consideration all the variations of skill, aptitude, and character? Or one that stifles the creativity and growth of students, teachers and communities? Today is your day. You get to choose, but having made your choice, you may find there is work to be done. And unlike checking your account balance, it won't be easy.