A+ Arkansas

We completed our third year of A+ Schools training at the Clear Spring School yesterday with the key word being relevance. If students do not see what is offered in school as being relevant to them, touching upon their own lives and solving the problems that are important to them, they tune out. This is a factor in education that haunts all levels from kindergarten through advanced degrees.

One of the most natural human engagements aside from breathing and eating and moving around is to learn, and yet we create schools in which students are held back from learning by failure to engage them in subject material  that is relevant to them.

I'll quickly repeat the principles of Educational Sloyd as these are essential to providing the scaffolding necessary to provide an effective educational environment. Move from the known to the unknown, Move from the easy to the more difficult, move from the simple to the complex and move from the concrete to the abstract. Start from and adhere to the interests of the child.

Lose the students' interests and you've lost the value of instruction. 

My Guide to Woodworking with Kids received a kind review in Fine Woodworking written by my friend Joe Youcha, founder and director of Building To Teach, a teacher training program that uses the building process to provide context for math. It is quite rare for Fine Woodworking to review books, so I hope this helps to sell copies and to renew and interest in the use of crafts to establish relevance in our nation's schools.

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