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.
Monday, December 13, 2010
what is true, what is false...
From Charles H. Ham, Hand and Mind, 1886:
It is not without reason that Anaxagoras characterized man as the wisest of animals because of his having hands. And what is it to be wise? To be wise is "to have the power of discerning and judging correctly, or of discriminating between what is true and what is false; between what is fit and proper and what is improper." The hand is used as the synonym of wisdom because it is only in the concrete that the false is sure of detection, and it is through the hand alone that ideas are realized in things. Again, we have the hand as the discoverer of truth.
And more...
This disposition to undervalue the hand is an inheritance from the speculative philosophy of the Middle Ages, which was based on con;tempt of the body and all is members. The effect of this false doctrine has been vicious in the extreme. Contempt for the body has generated a feeling of contempt for manual labor, and repugnance to manual labor has multiplied dishonest practices in the course of the struggle to acquire wealth by any other means than manual labor, and so corrupted society. That man should feel contempt for the most efficient member of his own body is, indeed, incomprehensible, since contempt for the hand leads logically to contempt for its works, and its works comprise all the visible results of civilization.
All of the materials used here are copyright Doug Stowe.
Photos of our students at work are published solely for the promotion of the Wisdom of the Hands program and Clear Spring School. Other uses are strictly prohibited and copyright will be enforced.
Questions about Wisdom of the Hands can be addressed to Doug Stowe
I have been a self-employed woodworker in Eureka Springs, Arkansas since 1976. I live with my wife Jean on a wooded hillside overlooking our beautiful historic community.
In addition to work in my wood shop,I'm retired from teaching at the Clear Spring School in a program called "The Wisdom of the Hands." That experience is summarized in my book, "The Guide to Woodworking with Kids". My book "Wisdom of our Hands: Crafting, A Life" is my attempt to explain the importance of hands on learning. I also write for Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking and other woodworking magazines. My new book, Designing Boxes will be released on April 16, 2024.
My resume can be downloaded at
www.dougstowe.com/resume.doc
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