box making extravaganza

It seems my face, hands, and jigs are all over the Fine Woodworking website these days. Check out the box making. One of things about box making is that you can use EVERY woodworking skill and technique, without investing as much in tools and by investing far less in materials. So what you could get from this in schools would be that every child regardless of academic objectives could have the opportunity to make something beautiful, useful and lasting from wood. A box. That could be the start of a revolution.

Think we ought to aim for that?

Jamie Oliver in his food revolution said that no child should graduate from high school without being able to prepare 10 healthy recipes. Most children can't prepare even one. I won't go so far as to say that each child must make 10 beautiful things, but will ask for at least one. But don't think for a minute that many schools will get it. They are under such pressure to meet other standards that ignore character and creativity.

So the revolution is up to you. Invite someone to your wood shop today. Share with them your excitement for creativity.

Ever wonder Why we use our fingers and toes to count? in addition to this article You can find a number of scholarly articles on this subject if you google the search terms intraparietal sulcus, fingers and math. The intraparietal sulcus is the part of the brain that controls finger sense and also basic math operations. We may also discover that the fingers are related to simple organization of steps of operation, giving us the capacity to anticipate or plan the outcome of a series of steps like those in the making of a box. My hopes are that research will be done in that area as well.

As is usual this time of year, I'm working on an award base for the Governor's Award for Quality which is awarded each year in a statewide competition. I make the wood portion and another Arkansas company finishes the award with a clear Lucite piece on top, engraved with the company name and embedded with a medallion for quality.

make, fix and create...