manual dextrity...

Calvin Woodward noted as follows (1886):

"Manual dexterity is but the evidence of a certain kind of mental power. Certain intellectual faculties, such as observation and judgement in inductive reasoning, can not be properly trained except through the instrumentality of the hand. The proverbial caution of the practical manipulator, and his distrust of mere theory,-- which reasoning based on assumed, not real, fact,-- show how unsafe is reasoning not founded on the closest observation and intimate knowledge of the facts of nature.

A manual training school does not stop with the training of the hand. Physical dexterity is but one, and the very least of the many things sought; and this is sought more a a means than as an end. The great end is education, -- the development of the mind and body and the simultaneous culture of the intellectual, physical, and moral faculties."

Lids and bases for boxes... trial fitted and ready to glue.

There is a misunderstanding in our culture... the assumption that skilled hands have little or nothing to do with development of intellect... whereas the development of intellect often arrives through the training of skilled hands.

If you look around, and with the near complete lack of manual training and laboratory science in schooling, there's enough idiocy cast in the field that one has to watch one's step. Take the US House of Representatives for example.

Today in the wood shop, I'll be working on boxes, putting a few sizes and types into production for my usual holiday sales. In addition,  I'm finishing the last boxes for my new book.

With regard to the AEP/SWEPCO power line atrocity, I have been reading through legal briefs that aren't brief. The attorneys for SWEPCO believe that it is in their interest to disparage our concerns, to mock us, and and treat us like fools. It is not the most fun thing to read in one's spare time.

While other parties submitted "briefs" of 35 pages more or less as requested, SWEPCO's is 104 pages, as though they could make up in quantity for what it lacks in truth.

That and the current fiasco in the US House of Representatives remind me of the kind of world we get when folks have "educations" that keep them out of touch.

The first of my magnetic assembly boxes is ready for sanding and finish. This is made of spalted sycamore and walnut.

I wrote the editorial in this week's Lovely County Citizen, "Serious Disconnect." As a student, I disliked writing. Later I learned that I had something to say. Most students are given empty exercises in writing. They are told to do it, but have little to say without it being contrived. It's just one more way that manual training can serve schooling. Give kids something to write about that's real and has meaning. It makes writing much easier and more fun.

Make, fix and create...