seeing schooling through a child's eyes.

This is an excellent blog post on education week: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/civic_mission/2013/03/_seeing_curriculum_through_a_childs_eyes.html The post describes a man's daughter  (who attends what is thought to be a good school) watching a video Making it Real at Mission Hill. The daughter, mesmerized, wondered what it would be like to attend a really good school in which every child found their interests served through doing real things.

Is it not fair to wonder why Americans cheap out, when it comes to the education of our kids? We could do so much better than we do.

Today I begin preparing materials and projects for next week's start of school. I am also making 80 boxes for the Chancellor at the University of Arkansas to be used as gifts. Those at the moment are in the form of resawn walnut stock on the floor of my wood shop. Thickness planing will come next.

Make, fix, and create. When children are allowed to do real things, all their senses and attentions are engaged, and tests are not needed to measure their performance.