tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post3062508656000542902..comments2024-03-26T07:00:11.620-05:00Comments on Wisdom of the Hands: fixin' it...Doug Stowehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13003845322415622289noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post-43411959952877706772015-11-07T12:51:57.523-06:002015-11-07T12:51:57.523-06:00I've been studying the near death of the manua...I've been studying the near death of the manual arts training movement for a long time now. Charles A. Bennet's books on the subject are useful, but how many people want to read through 5 hundred years of pedagogy in two thick volumes? One problem I'm finding is that folks are reluctant to find solutions from the past. But without an understanding of the values and difficulties a movement faced in the past, it is difficult to build a case for it... particularly in light of the investment that industries are willing to make to reshape things in their own corporate image. For instance a Walmart exec. would try to use teachers as check out clerks. In the meantime, educators at large know very little about the history of education and even less about the manual arts training movement and how it fit in or what it's original purpose was.<br /><br />So, what happened and how do we fix it? One of the points of educational Sloyd was to emphasize the importance, dignity and value of all labor. Unfortunately education policy makers as far back as the beginnings of public education saw no problems in a two tier approach, one education for the elite, and another for the working class. Then when many governmental policy makers decided that we could no longer compete industrially with China, the only solution that seemed to make sense to educational policy makers was to send all kids to college. That of course was absurd. And of course industry didn't care a whit about manual arts training as they were shedding capacity in the US as fast as possible to take advantage of lower production costs overseas.<br /><br />Add to this the fact that most educational policy makers are drawn from the educational elite... those who were successful in by-the-book schooling, ending up with PhD's and thus saw no problems with the status quo.<br />Those educators and policy makers would rather buy into some form of new technology than admit to themselves and others that they'd completely overlooked the value of what worked for over 100 years.<br /><br />As you probably noticed, I write on this subject nearly every day but that I also lack the credentials that educational policy makers would demand in order to take what I offer in a serious manner. It might prove embarrassing for them to listen and accept that there are some simple universals they've overlooked... the hands. <br /><br />And yet, there is research to back up my position.Doug Stowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13003845322415622289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post-10028437533674902052015-11-07T10:20:28.207-06:002015-11-07T10:20:28.207-06:00I presented our vision for an Indiana Advanced Man...I presented our vision for an Indiana Advanced Manufacturing Certification (IAM-Cert) credential to about 25 students at Atterbury Job Corps (http://atterbury.jobcorps.gov/about.aspx) on Thursday. <br /><br />Young men and women enrolled there are learning trades at this residential facility in central Indiana constructed as an internment camp during World War II and repurposed to offer vocational training to students for whom 'regular school' didn't work.<br /><br />Construction & building trades at Atterbury are promoted as a pathway to secure employment, good wages and a higher quality of life.<br /><br />It is ironic that very few students today are encouraged to pursue a career in Manual and Industrial Arts when the pride and satisfaction of making things so obviously leads to a 'virtuous cycle' of learning and improving one's skill and value.<br /><br />I found Doug's post today recounting a key turning point in the evolution of our current education system very interesting; particularly with respect to the political compromises between the two powerful forces of industry and labor. <br /><br />Today, the education industry, supported by a $73B federal DOE budget, and state budgets which in Indiana account for 63% of state spending, represent a third powerful constituency. Nobody should be surprised that it has incredible influence over policy.<br /><br />How then did Industry, Labor and Education allow the state of our schools to veer so far from what works? Was it complicity or incompetence? Selfishness or a simple misunderstanding?<br /><br />More importantly, how can we change the status quo? I'd like to help.<br />Kim J. Brandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02241312959214875576noreply@blogger.com