across the board...

I learned yesterday that my Guide to Woodworking with Kids is going to be translated and published in German by HolzWorken, a publisher that also published my Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making and Building Small Cabinets. This will be my third book translated into German.

I get occasional inquiries from schools wanting to establish k-8 woodworking programs. I've corresponded with a number of folks through the years attempting to follow our example from the Clear Spring School, but have not kept up to see how they might be of help others.  I am a member of the New England Association of Woodworking Teachers, and that group, being in the Northeast and having both public and private school teachers represents a number of k-8 schools. The independent schools in the northeast kept woodworking in schools alive while many public schools no longer saw the need for it. Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge comes to mind. There they recognize that the skills learned in the wood shop apply across the board.

Many people over the years have asked me to share my curriculum and are disappointed when I tell them I don't have one formalized to share with them. My Guide to Woodworking with Kids is my best shot at that. My theory is that learning starts with the interests of the child. The teacher's job becomes to recognize that interest, respond to that interest, encourage that interest, sustain that interest and direct that interest toward further growth and increasing interest. This doesn't mean that the teacher's interests are ignored. We recognize the skills and attitudes that are needed for our own success and use student interest to build those skills and attitudes in our students.

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