in touch with the heroic...

Each child has the potential of being touched by heroic inclinations as a longing from within. At Clear Spring School, Tyler, for years ran wild on the Clear Spring School campus with visions of Star Wars in his imagination. In wood shop, he made light sabers. Friedrich Froebel suggested that the heroic could be found in simpler forms, closer to home. Related to his song and lesson about the charcoal burner, he suggests that older children be told of the real life heroism of a charcoal burner in German (and English history) as follows:

"Frederick, Elector of Saxony, had two sons. Always at war, his enemies at length sent Kunz von Kauffingen with other soldiers to the Castle of Altenburg, July 7, 1455, to carry the two boys away. Kunz went off with Albert, Mosen with Ernest. Kunz neared the Bohemian border by noon on July 8th, but, as Albert was thirsty, stopped to pick bilberries in the wood. A charcoal burner suddenly appeared, and at once guessed this was the boy about whom alarm-bells were ringing throughout Saxony. He fought Kunz with his long poking pole (Schurbaum) till help came, or, as he expressed it to the Electress, when she thanked him, "Hab ihn weidlich getrillt"; and he is called merely "Triller" in the legal documents conveying to him and his heirs rights in the Saxon forest for ever. This Albert is ancestor of the present Saxon house. Prince Ernest was rescued on July llth. Twelfth in direct descent from him was Albert, the late Prince Consort; the Prince of Wales is thus thirteenth."

As children learn the depths of their communities and the nobility of each part played within it, their minds and hearts open to their own strengths and possibilities. Even craftsmanship involves aspects of the heroic.

Today I am leaving for North Little Rock and the Thea Art Show. Yesterday I completed a box (made of walnut and ash) to be delivered at the show and shown in the photo above.

Make, fix and create...