making a shooting board...

Yesterday one of my first grade students was wondering what to make in wood shop, and said suddenly, "I'll make a shooting board." Then when it was done he decided he'd leave it in the wood shop where it would be most useful to him since he didn't have a plane yet at home. There were a few steps in making it that he did not yet understand, but the spark of interest will carry him far. And the value of the student's work is not what the student makes, but in the student.

The value of the shooting board in woodworking is that students need to grow into an understanding of the value of a square cut. If attention is placed early on to marking a straight line, attending to the process of cutting along that straight line, then cleaning up the cut with a shooting board is easy. But if you address the cut haphazardly, cleaning up the cut with the shooting board is a lot of work that could have been more easily avoided. I could set up jigs and fixtures to take the burden of attention away from the student, but to develop attention to the work is key.

A friend sent me an article about a gift from the Windgate Foundation to a community college in Bucks County Pennsylvania to support their fine woodworking program. I am deeply indebted to the Windgate Foundation for years of support for my own Wisdom of the Hands program at the Clear Spring School and for their help in establishing our Eureka Springs School of the Arts. The nationwide impact of the Windgate Foundation on the Arts has been huge. Their impact on my own life is what I describe here each day.

Linden Press is launching into the editing of my new book, "the Wisdom of our Hands." I hope it turns out to be a good read. The book has been a "during covid-19" relief project that I hope will be useful to others. There are so many ways through which our own creative spirits can be expressed. And again, the hands are key.

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