in reflection.

I am going through some of what I consider to be important stuff on this blog with an eye toward finding those things of particular importance to add as sidebar material in my new book that is now in the process of being edited for publication. This material I think is important, and from a wisdom of the hand blog post, Saturday, August 21, 2010.

"A few days ago, I posted on the subject of David Henry Feldman's metaphor, The Child as Craftsman, http://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/2010/08/child-as-craftsman.html and today I want to share Dr. Feldman's exploration of assessment. Our fixation on assessment is what drives our continuing "no child left behind" like testing psychosis, even within the Obama administration.

"Testing is a holdover from earlier metaphors discussed in an earlier post, which for the sake of making my writing a bit easier this morning I won't repeat.

"And so, how does one measure progress in schools in which each child is known to be a craftsman. Feldman suggests two measures, both of which came up recently in our small hands conference at Dearborn. To quote Dr. Feldman,

""The first is simply a restatement of the educational aim of engagement in a more precise form; to the extent that greater numbers of individuals find fields to pursue, find work that engages their energies and through which they derive satisfaction, education can be considered to be making progress."

"Imagine this relative to the level of disengagement we too often see in American classrooms.

"Feldman's "second criterion of educational progress" follows from his thoughts about creativity. That if

""education is done well, creative contributions will tend to take care of themselves. In other words, an education which fosters sustained commitment, satisfaction and joy in accomplishment will naturally lead to occasions that require one to go beyond the limits of one's craft. To reach the limits and find yet another problem to be solved, a goal to be achieved, an idea to be expressed, a technique to be worked out--these are the conditions which favor creativity.

"Feldman concludes,

"I submit that the twin signs of progress toward a fruitful education for the future are; (1) an increasing number of individuals engaged and committed to pursuit of mastery of their fields and (2) he number of novel, unprecedented, or unique contributions that occur in these fields."

"Feldman states further,

"If young children were prepared for a future of craftsmanship it might be possible to strike a better balance between the inculcation of basic skills and the encouragement of human expression; a balance, I hope, that does full justice to the universal and to the unique in each of us."

An example of the child as craftsman is my student, who once his bridge had been tested and proven to support over 400 lbs. without distortion, he insisted on adding additional support. You can also see it in the work by my Kindergarten students making "color wheels" on Friday.

Make, fix and create...