Out for summer

Yesterday, with the "celebration of the child," I am now out for the summer, but for a few planning meetings with my fellow staff at the Clear Spring School.

Being out for the summer is not what you think it might mean. I will be teaching adults at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, and at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. I will continue writing, and working in my own shop.

I will miss the kids. Perhaps they will also miss me. Where else can they work with real tools and develop real skills? I hope some are inspired to carry on through the summer months.

It is somewhat odd that folks in academia and government hold illusions of self-superiority over those who fix things and make things. Those who journey on through abstract learning and "higher" education are rewarded and advanced over those who have little patience with such things.  Their encounters with the real world would surely inform them of their ineptitude, which should in turn generate a reverence and respect for those who are endowed with skill and experience in the real world.  But it seems that is not always the case. If it were, folks would insist that learning be hands-on and that students be afforded the opportunity to be of real service to their families and communities.

National Geographic this month has an article about the proliferation of plastics and what they are doing to  our planet.  We are drowning in disposable plastic stuff. The Wisdom of the Hands presents an alternative. What if we were to revise our ways, and inhabit our lives with beautifully crafted  lastingly meaningful objects we had made for ourselves or that had been crafted for us by those we love? Think wood. It grows on trees, which are themselves beautiful to behold.

My thanks to Pam Greenway for the lovely photo of one of my students at work.

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.