every seven years...

Every seven years, Clear Spring School goes through our accreditation review, and this is the year we will have a visiting team come from ISACS to go through every thing with a fine toothed comb. The team will come form other independent schools. There is an incredible value in this process. Before they arrive we have to look closely at what we do, and make certain that everything we do aligns with the mission of the school.

I have been looking at what I do, and attempting to write a report on it, that will be short, succinct, accurate and readily understood by educators who are well equipped to walk into a room and assess what's happening from an educational standpoint.

This morning I'm thinking about craftsmanship. David Henry Feldman, PhD. had written a lovely treatise, "The Child as Craftsman." in 1976. It explores the natural inclination all children have to excel to the best of their ability in something. Feldman had made a study of "gifted and talented" children, but the inclination toward craftsmanship is much more of a universal principle in child development. Offering children the opportunity to discover how craftsmanship is constructed, and that it is constructed piece by piece through thorough repetition, gradual effort toward refinement is one of the many things that children learn in the Clear Spring School wood shop. Once discovered the values of craftsmanship can be applied to anything.

In the wood shop, I'm ready to apply Danish oil to box towers, sanded as shown.

On the power line front, we are winning thanks to friends like Faith and Michael.

Make, fix and create...