tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post4942329811272828159..comments2024-03-26T07:00:11.620-05:00Comments on Wisdom of the Hands: Making things real by making real things...Doug Stowehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13003845322415622289noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post-51587099158768040502012-10-19T21:15:59.497-05:002012-10-19T21:15:59.497-05:00Paul, I'm glad you enjoy reading here. Part of...Paul, I'm glad you enjoy reading here. Part of the problem with education is the matter of educational expertise. Most of us are experts on learning, how we learn and how we may learn best, and for most of us, hands-on learning from actual experience is best.<br /><br />But the study of education is often estranged from practical experience. Teachers are not invited to examine how they themselves learn and thence implement instruction on what we know about ourselves and how we learn best. Instead they are asked to manage classrooms, devoid of the kinds of activities that engage kids. It is a formula for disaster for all but those whose learning styles are to sit quietly and listen. 20% at best.Doug Stowehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13003845322415622289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post-79715485493157321272012-10-19T16:29:04.173-05:002012-10-19T16:29:04.173-05:00I love reading this blog. The half-baked notions t...I love reading this blog. The half-baked notions that rattle around in my own skull seem to take some comfort in knowing they're not alone.<br /><br />I was a pretty talented draftsman as a kid and can remember my middle school art classes being a terrible ordeal. It was the early 1970s and the curriculum had been newly revised around the modern notion that the entirety of "Art" had been transported beyond the mere reproduction of the visible. In my recollection, we spent two years "exploring" design fundamentals using nothing but white glue and coloured cardboard. The utterly useless products of this effort existed in a space beyond any evaluative measure, apart from that particular teachers' personal opinion. The one thing I excelled at suddenly transformed into a source of crushing anxiety. All my grades suffered.<br /><br />High school art classes weren't nearly as bad, but it wasn't until my final year, when the art class was "outsourced" to a local technical school, that I finally got my first proper art instructor. We had a model! We did gestures and long poses! We studied proportion! We did big terracotta sculptures! That class changed my life. I dropped the vague notion I'd had about studying psychology and decided to go to art school.<br /><br />It bothers me that very few talented kids get proper instruction at an early age, when it could do so much to advance their abilities. While it's sad that the education system seems to devote so little thought towards those children who's talents might lay outside the three Rs and sports; one positive change since my school days is the invention of the internet. I'm glad that today's kids have a chance to explore their interests and get advice from tons of other like-minded people. <br /><br />This is one of my favourite blogs. Thanks for keeping it up.Paul Bhttp://www.mindlessdrawing.tumblr.comnoreply@blogger.com