joyous purposeful activity

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, my first second and third grade students will continue making dinosaurs. the following is from the Normal Child and Primary Education by Arnold Gesell Beatrice Chandler Gesell, 1912

Joyous, purposeful activity is the secret of honest living. Little children come to the school with a gift for being busy. The business of the schools is to transform this tendency into purposeful work. Children are not inherently idle or lazy. Idleness and laziness are the scars left by hours of joyless, distasteful work. So long as work is defined as an unwelcome task, so long will idleness increase. School work need not be irksome in order to be profitable, but should be the wholesome expression of changing tastes and increasing power.

We do have joyless, distasteful work that must be done in our society and people do it because they hope to earn escape from it, either for themselves or for their children. But if all work were to be afforded a sense of dignity, rewarded by the appreciation of others and granted a living wage, we would all be the better for it.

Today we were joined in the CSS wood shop by Jennifer Jackson, a reporter from the  Carroll County News and Lovely County Citizen for an article that will come out next week.

With AEP/SWEPCO back on the main burner, I have a letter submitted to one paper and a guest editorial for another. In relation to hands-on learning, it amazes me that what is so obvious to some is so out of touch for others.

Make, fix and create, and share your passion for doing so.