As you can see in the photo above, we are making real progress in box making. I tell my students that we are not merely making boxes. We are reshaping our own confidence and creative capacities. In schools, principals, common teachers and parents might have thought the kids in woodshop were making things. In truth, and as every wood shop teacher would have known, each student in the woodshop was engaged in a process of growth. Confidence and creativity.
When I was in high school, I, like other students, had to choose whether I was "college prep" or would enter the trades, and the college prep curriculum, allowed no time for participation in wood shop. But early manual arts teachers had noted that students engaged in the manual arts learn math, science, and other subjects with greater efficiency and enthusiasm, and so could participate in the manual arts without diminishing learning of other subjects. It is a great national tragedy that we no longer recognize what was once American common sense.
This evening, a news commentator told of the "double dip" recession we seem to be facing and also warned that the only successful course out of recession will be an increase in actual American physical, tangible, creativity. It is interesting to hear a talking head on TV putting words to what I've been sharing in the blog for years now. Perhaps there is time for us to come to our senses.
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