I am working on the last photo for my box guitar article in Woodcraft magazine. The art director and editor wanted a photo showing some of the less common tools and supplies necessary to complete the project.
From the top clockwise and centered around the fret marking template and fret saw, are tuners, fret wire in 8 in. lengths, small files for fitting strings over the bridge and nut, and the shop made 1/8 in. chisel I used to fit the nut into the neck.
There are days in which I have little to say, having already said the same things time and again about education: that it is necessary to have education hands on to have the greatest lasting effect. While I was in Hot Springs to make a presentation to the Hot Springs Village Woodworking Club, our upper elementary school and middle school students were there also. Their reasons for the trip were to study geology (among other things, and they found lots and lots of quartz crystals for which the area is known. They and their teachers are off today in recovery. Each student will have a collection of beautiful crystals they will have pocketed from their adventure.
Reshaping education to fit the hands and to thereby better fit the minds of our kids is no easy task. But the idea is rock solid, in that children who have learned by doing real things are better equipped to take on the challenges of real life. Wood shop is an excellent way to introduce reality into a child's education. It may take all of us, an army of volunteers, perhaps, to assure that children have the opportunity to make beautiful and lasting expressions of learning and growth.
Make, fix and create.... Insist that others have the opportunity to learn lifewise.
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