Time and trial...

Time and trial have shown that the boy may forget his theorems and rules, but he is rooted and grounded in the principles of mathematics and mechanics because with hand and eye he had united theory with practice. It is encouraging to observe that the workers in the manual training schools do not minimize the importance of instruction in the sciences; the grammar, history, arithmetic and geography go along with the lathe. The factory needs the cultured mechanic, and if this need is met, then capital and labor can be brought together in a more perfect union. Chas. H. Edmunds, Philadelphia, 1904

I brought my copy of the proceedings of the 1904 meeting of the Eastern Manual Training Association to Maine with me because it covers that important connection between the manual arts movement and preparation of the soil for the Arts and Crafts movement. In a fit of snobbery later, it seems, work with the hands in the making of things became the ugly step sister of the "arts", but at least in the beginning, it was understood that the foundation for the arts, the shoulders upon which they stood, we're composed of the saw, hammer, chisel and plane along with those measuring tools that brought hand, eye and mind together in the making of useful beauty within the lives of students, their families and community. Today I begin my box making class at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. It will be an unusually small class, so I expect it to be a particularly enriching time for each and all of us. I have some new box designs brewing in my head, commemorating this trip to Maine and with two weeks facing me, I hope to have self-made souvenirs to carry home to Arkansas. Make, fix and create...