workday 2

Bob builds lathe tool stands.

We had our second volunteer workday at ESSA to prepare the new woodshop for classes. We do not have electric power in the building as yet, but with the help of extension cords running from the blacksmithing studio we were able to build tool stands, tables for grinders, install lumber storage racks, and assemble a saw stop table saw.

Larry takes a coffee break

I am grateful to those who have made this new wood shop possible, and to those also who have volunteered to help.

Workbenches were delayed by the shipper and will arrive on Tuesday. Lathes come on Thursday.

Our opening day celebration will be June 4, 3-6 PM.

The following is from the Danish National Library Authority.

The Finnish brain researcher, Matti Bergström concentrates on the child’s inner life and its – as we see it – chaotic ’possibility space’. Professor Bergström maintains that it is not only a question of ’white games’. The white games are our pedagogical efforts trying to bring up children in our own image. But there must also be room for the ’black games’ where children test themselves and the world around them.They must be given space. At a recent conference, Matti Bergström posed the question: do children need a knowledge lift? His answer was no, they need a chaos lift. We must allow children space and opportunity for the black games which are created in the unorganized and unsupervised meeting with other children.

Very briefly, Matti Bergström’s reasoning can be boiled down to this: The core of culture is art. The core of art is creativity. The core of creativity is possibility. The core of possibility is play. The core of play is chaos. Therefore all culture is based on chaos. More than ever before do we wish to encourage each individual’s creativity and culture-creating ability. The skills of the agrarian and industrial society have long since become obsolete.

Steven and Sam assemble saw

Adults are very much the same. Figuring out the benches and arrangement of them and how to make them from construction debris was a bit chaotic. The start up of any new thing is like that. And preparing children to become adults in the world  is not a matter of filling their heads with knowledge derived from past exercises, but to get them to look and see, and participate in what is.

Make, fix, create, and accelerate learning by doing real things.