Friday, May 22, 2015

a celebration of the child's senses

Two quotes from Édouard Séguin:
"Let us educate the senses, train the faculty of speech, the art of receiving, storing, and expressing impressions, which is the natural gift of infants, and we shall not need books to fill up the emptiness of our teaching until the child is at least seven years old."

"As soon as we, young or old, have taken to the habit of asking the book for what it is in our power to learn from personal observation, we dismiss our organs of perception and comprehension from their righteous charge, and cover the emptiness of our own minds with the patchwork of others."  – E. Seguin.
Yesterday was the last day of the 2014-15 year at the Clear Spring School and high school graduation. Our end of year program is called the Celebration of the Child, and we celebrate much more than the child's reading and math. Each scholar is recognized for the qualities of character they embody and express. Parents were very complimentary of the school's woodworking program.

For the next few days, in addition to planning for next year at Clear Spring School, I will be cleaning the shop and preparing for summer classes with adults. My first summer class will be making Scandinavian bentwood boxes, or Tiner. A fanciful version is shown in the photo above.

Make, fix and create...

2 comments:

  1. Hi Doug-

    Haven't written in a while. Glad to hear that your year went well and I hope you enjoy getting ready for what sounds like a fun and exciting summer class. Things are going very well with my woodworking program at the alternative school I teach at in CT. One of these days I will have to send you some pictures of my kids at work.

    All the best,

    Chris

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  2. Thanks Chris. It is good to hear from you. Yes, I would enjoy seeing some photos of your scholars at work. I'm glad your program is going well.

    Doug

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