finger jointed boxes

Today I finger-jointed 9 boxes of various sizes in cherry and white oak. They will be mitered at the top corners. Then the tops will be fitted, the lids will be fitted and cut from the base. The bottoms will be routed and fitted. Then veneered tops will be glued in place and legs will be added.

You've 25 shopping days before the Xmas holiday. May I recommend something from my Etsy shop? http://dougstowe.etsy.com

Make, fix and create...

Maybe even build a boat.

I have an article published in Emerge called "Maybe even build a boat," https://emerge-magazine.com/maybe-even-build-a-boat/ It was previously featured in the Hedgehog Review.

Make, fix and create...

Strategic engagement of the hands

SETH (strategic engagement of the hands)

We have all kinds of new fancy stuff to keep us distracted and amused, but as some have said, “boys will be boys,” and in that, things haven’t really changed all that much. 

“My daughter loves school,” a friend confided. “She does well, she works hard. The problem is with my son.” And so it is that schooling works well for some, and less well for others. The problems are sometimes reversed with school being easier for sons, or for one son or daughter than another, but psychologists and educators have noted what some have described as an epidemic of underperformance by boys. It is nothing exactly new. Going to school in the fifties and sixties I was one of those boys myself. My grades were average. My test scores indicated I should have done better, and I can describe from my own experience what it means to be trapped in school, bored and disinterested. I graduated from college only due to the pottery class which provided a desperately needed dose of hands-on sanity.

Boys Adrift: the Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men, by Leonard Sax notes that boys naturally mature at a slower rate than girls, and are often less ready for sedentary classroom activities. He also notes that the rapid increase in the effect of video gaming and iPhone foolery lessens the physical activities that facilitate reading readiness. There are other environmental factors as well, having to do with chemicals in the environment that accelerate physical maturity for girls and retard the development of boys. Overall, the issues are complex. But what they add up to is that boys are often ill-served by the current model of education. And the effects are enormous. Major universities are admitting boys at a lower level of tested intelligence and college preparation in order attempt to maintain a gender balance. An article in a New England newspaper wondered aloud where young women would be able to find mates with an equivalent level of education and earning capacity.

And so, the question must be asked, "How do we create schools that will benefit all children?" Is there a formula for it? These questions are nothing new. John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), considered the father of modern pedagogy (the science of education) observed:

 

“Boys ever delight in being occupied in something for the youthful blood does not allow them to be at rest. Now as this is very useful, it ought not to be restrained, but provision made that they may always have something to do. Let them be like ants, continually occupied in doing something, carrying, drawing, construction and transporting, provided always that whatever they do be done prudently. They ought to be assisted by showing them the forms of all things, even of playthings; for they cannot yet be occupied in real work, and we should play with them.”

 

There is a rise in the use of Ritalin and Adderall to control classroom behavior and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Certainly, some girls are diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication for it or considered autistic. But the largest number affected are male. If Comenius were making his observations today, in observing boys, he would note the same qualities in them now as then and suggest that we make use of their natural inclinations to their and our educational advantage. 

We should note that all the examples Comenius offers, carrying, drawing, construction, transporting, all are physical, concrete exercises involving all the senses, not at all what we find in todays’ schooling where children are confined in their seats. One parent was called in to a conference with the teacher’s complaint that her son kept falling out of his desk. But what else would a normal boy (or girl) do?

One cannot help but wonder if the structured learning in our schools is at least partially to blame for ADHD and the underperformance of boys. That schooling works for some may justify its existence, but that it doesn't work for others should call into question its methods. Howard Gardner popularized the notion that we learn in a variety of ways, that we each are smart in some ways and not others, and yet, there has been little direct implementation of his concepts in American classrooms. So, how do you go about such needed change? I call it the "strategic engagement of the hands" and create my own acronym "SETH." Make everything children learn "hands-on" meaning of course that it must engage the real world, the child's physical senses, and the opportunity to respond to learning through the arts. Simple enough. But it will take work, and it will take change. Again, going back to Comenius, "...inactivity is more injurious to both mind and body than anything in which children can be occupied." 

Make, fix and create...

are schools part of the problem?

From the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/magazine/youth-mental-health-crisis-schools.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3k8.AMiE.O-PyNWzFR4-i&smid=url-share

Children need to be doing real things in schools.

read back and find quotes.

Do you have a few favorite quotes from this blog? links at the right will help you to navigate, back to October 2006, and every month up to today. I am trying to collect fifty, for publication in a small booklet, and you can help. Copy the quote, note the time and date where it can be found and let me know. Leave your comment below.

Make, fix and create...

a few published works

These are a few of my online published works, 2022-25, collected for your reading pleasure, I hope.

https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/the-path-to-learning-podcast-36546/the-power-of-hands-on-learning-doug-stowe-288588676

http://eureka.news/wood-whisperer-turns-consumers-into-creators/

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2022/05/your-brains-are-in-your-hands-doug-stowe-on-forming-mind-hand-and-culture/

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2025/02/crafting-the-ideal-school-finding-a-balance-between-high-tech-and-the-hands/

https://comment.org/considering-the-work-of-our-hands/

https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/cosmic-interconnectedness-coincidence-and-kindergarten

https://emerge-magazine.com/a-garden-of-children/

https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/maybe-even-build-a-boat

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2024/07/a-garden-of-children/

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2024/01/ai-misinformation-and-manual-arts-training/

https://comment.org/considering-the-work-of-our-hands/

https://makered.substack.com/p/from-desks-to-workbenches

Links to published works

I have updated this page of published works for your reading enjoyment.

Make, fix and create...

putting reality in learning.

We all love fiction and making stuff up and take some pride in our creativity, but enough is more than enough when it comes to learning. Kids know the difference between things that are made up for the amusement or to control them, and reality based education may not be as popular, but adheres more closely to truth, and offers efficiency because it leads to kids being able to do real things.

I was alerted this week to an article in Mortise & Tenon by Edward Bouvier that relies on my published materials.  ‘A communal legacy; Handcraft as part of a holistic education’ lists an editorial I wrote for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette  in 2022 as part of its source material. It is nice that the message continues to get out.

There can be little more lovely than that which nature provides. The trees shown are elm, dogwood and cedar, with dogwood providing the reds at center.

Make, fix and create...

Awakening passion in teaching

In order for teachers to awaken our children to their great potential as learners, we must provide for the awakening of passions in our teachers as well. That requires a change in the structure of schools, allowing flexibility, allowing creativity and experimentation. It requires allowing teachers to move beyond the set curriculum to explore areas of awakened interest and passion. It requires hiring teachers with the expectation that they will give their best, and then establishing a framework of trust that allows them to deliver.

Make, fix and create...

Rotary dial

My niece and nephew sent me a photo of toys that I had made for them at a much earlier time. Remember when we thought rotary dial phones would be with us for the ages?

respect for all labor

Instilling a respect for all labor. From Otto Salomon

"Words alone will not inspire this respect; hence we conclude that the best way to instill into children a true and proper respect for rough, honest, bodily labor is 1st. By introducing such work into schools of all grades, in order that all classes of the community may engage in it.

and 2nd. By the teachers taking both pleasure and pride in doing it themselves, as well as delight in teaching it intelligently to others. For what the teachers appreciate, the children usually appreciate."

I wish that the billionaires of today had received such educations. Perhaps it will come again.

Calculation of wood width as it dries.

 A useful tool is offered by https://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl to help calculate the amount of shrinkage that will take place in wood as it ages. Determine the moisture content, the species of wood, whether it is flat sawn or quarter sawn, the target moisture content and the dimensions and it will tell you final dimensions.

I am making matched solid wood doors that meet in the middle and need to determine the initial width that they should be cut. The calculator will not be exact.