This blog is dedicated to sharing the concept that our hands are essential to learning- that we engage the world and its wonders, sensing and creating primarily through the agency of our hands. We abandon our children to education in boredom and intellectual escapism by failing to engage their hands in learning and making.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
A New Machine
Saturday, June 27, 2020
The "hand basket"
Friday, June 26, 2020
uncertainty...
"Put a young man in a wood shop, his hands will benefit his brain. He will become a philosopher while thinking himself only a craftsman."
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Religiosity and Faith...
There is a difference between religiosity and faith. Religious beliefs may require a teacher to demand something from her children. Faith allows the teacher to set up learning experiences for her pupils all the while clear in her trust that the children will draw what they need from real life, just as thousands of generations of children have done before. Faith requires freedom of consciousness while religion demands conformity.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Watching the oven door.
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Let's look at this...
Friday, June 19, 2020
ESSA on Facebook
Monday, June 15, 2020
open ended learning
These are the handsfor the 60th anniversary of the NHS
These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip.These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last. —Michael Rosen
Sunday, June 14, 2020
deign to design
The video is one I created to assist my students in a discussion of the principles and elements of design, despite our being at a distance from each other.
Make, fix, and create. Assist others in learning lifewise.
Friday, June 12, 2020
Asimov
"The hands?But why not the hands? Trevize found himself floating away, almost drowsy, but with no loss of mental acuity. Why not the hands?
"The eyes were no more than sense organs. The brain was no more than a central switchboard, encased in bone and removed from the working surface of the body. It was the hands that were the working surface, the hands that felt and manipulated the Universe. Human beings thought with their hands. It was their hands that were the answer of curiosity that felt and pinched and turned and lifted and hefted.
"There were animals that had brains of respectable size, but they had no hands and that made all the difference. And as he and the computer held hands, their thinking merged and it no longer mattered whether his eyes were open or closed. Opening them did not improve his vision nor did closing them dim it. Either way he saw the room with complete clarity."
Thursday, June 11, 2020
A 4th aspect of design...
You can think of the process of design, beyond the idea that it represents 3 dimensions, x, y, and z, the axes of a material object, in that an object also must fit cultural parameters, the 4th dimension. It must fit the lives of both the maker and the user of the product and possibly the longer term relationship of the material object to the planet.
So in the process of design, and beyond what something will look like and feel like and how it will be used, and whether or not it will actually be useful, we ask why it is to be made, how it's to be made, how long it's intended to last, and what's to be done with it in the very much longer term.
The photo shows the base of a white oak and walnut table I made just a few years ago. It is the expression of a shared set of cultural values.
The class on 3D design will be participatory and I'm expecting it to be fun. Join us if you can on Saturday June 13. https://essa-art.org/workshops/wood/online-principles-of-3-dimensional-design/
Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
finding a stark contrast.
I noticed in the news that an 8 year old boy in NYC was arrested and hand-cuffed for carrying a stick, and find that to be a stark contrast with police "forces" across the US carrying metal and wood "batons" into crowds of unarmed protesters. I've noted in my teaching of kids, how holding a stick can give confidence. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/us/new-york-police-complaints/index.html
Kids want to make hiking sticks and canes. They need to be cautioned about their use and about not waving them in the air where they might injure another. But it is natural to find some delight in the sense of power that one finds in waving a good stick. An officer who would arrest and hand-cuff an eight year old boy for carrying a stick should be ashamed of himself. And any officer who felt the need to carry a baton to wield against a group of unarmed protesters should also reconsider.
Geoffrey Canada had written a book that I consider a classic about the escalation of violence. It is called Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun. But the use of sticks is not directly related to an escalation of violence or an expression of violent intent. It can be an exercise in imagination. I'm reminded of many years ago when one of my much earlier students, Sylvester, stood triumphantly at the top of a slide, stick in hand. He proclaimed it to be a cane, a sword, a broom and an umbrella.
I also read a suggestion that police be redefined as a "service" rather than a "force." What a good starting point that would be! Some of my readers may disagree with me on this. But open hearts and open minds will find a path forward.
Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.
Sunday, June 07, 2020
Welcome to Kindergarten
On the workbench, I still need to do some additional sanding, a touch of routing, and the application of a Danish oil finish.
I've been avoiding writing in the blog for a few days. What does one write about when there are larger issues at hand. I have been sending short letters to my local and statewide newspapers about the mess we are in.
It seems that policing has a dual purpose. One is to protect and serve. But apparently protecting and serving often has to do with service to a social elite and protection of their properties, and not the people on the street.
It is often said that education has a dual purpose, one that's professed as a humanitarian ideal, that of educating the people, and with the other being control: of kids and classrooms and the social order necessary for protecting the interests of the societal elite.
So what about schooling during these days of crisis and potential change. Educators and parents ask about ceremonies and proof of learning as measured by seat time in classrooms, SAT and ACT scores and standardized testing of all kinds. The truth is that if learning is our concern, there's a whole lot happening during the coronavirus pandemic and disruption in the streets. What's learned may not be as easily measured in a standardized test, but may be more crucial to the health of our families, communities and nation.
Just as in the early days of Kindergarten children were to learn to listen to each other and to get along with each other and to respect each other and to value the differences between us, and we are all back at that point. Welcome to Kindergarten. I pray that we make the best of it.
Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise. Believe me, please, it's worth it.
Tuesday, June 02, 2020
This is a very sad time.
It is difficult, however, to think much of such mundane things as our country is purposefully torn apart.
On the one hand, we have the pandemic and a president far too inept and self-congratulatory in all things to mount an effective or humane response.
On the other hand, we have systemic racism and class division resulting in poverty and lack of equal opportunity that's pushed things to the brink of open warfare in the streets, with a president unable to feel what's felt and understood by others and that chooses to use violence against his own people, even when they are demonstrating peacefully as is guaranteed by our constitution and bill of rights.
I'm very sad. I have never seen our nation in such a disgusting mess. And I fear that it will get much worse before better.
Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise, even when it seems we are learning far too much and more than what we can handle.