veneered tops...

Yesterday my high school students began playing with veneers to make top panels for boxes. There is an aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect that suggests that those who know how to do things, underestimate what they know, thus making the erroneous assumption that what they can do is also easy for others. I found that what I do, though easy for me, may not be so easy  for some of my students. I assured my students that though they may have made a false start, they are welcome to begin again.

In my review of the Infinity Dovetail Spline system I have worked on a second and third box, and have thereby learned just a bit more about it. And yet, in schools, the value of repetition is seldom stressed. Children are encouraged to have a "been there, done that" attitude that will not serve them well in real life, for practice does truly lead to better if not perfection.

I also launched a conversation with my high school students, asking, "Between boys and girls, which gender is more encouraging of each other?" I have noticed that some students are reticent to admit liking things at various times, as to do so would encumber them with the judgment by others of being uncool. The fear of being adjudged uncool, can squelch ambitions and progress.  I told them about my weight lifting group in which each of us sincerely encourages each other's efforts. Perhaps I can help the boys to be more helpful and encouraging to each other, as all immediately recognized without question that the girls had greater capacity for encouraging each other than the boys. Recognition of what we do (or don't do) for each other is the first step in bringing change.

The box is made from spalted sycamore with a burled walnut veneer on top. The dovetail spline joints were formed using an Infinity Dovetail Spline system.

Make, fix, create and increase the probability that others learn to learn likewise.