at the core

One of the things that sets some great universities apart is their "core curriculum" in which all the students, regardless of major are required to take certain core subjects which are intended to bring them to a particular level of shared culture. Many schools, like the University of Arkansas, are abandoning their core curriculum to allow more time for specialized training in specific vocational fields. At Columbia University, the core curriculum is still strong, at least for those students enrolled in the Columbia College for bachelor of arts degrees. Those enrolled in engineering have a completely different set of classes, and it surprises me that you can go through engineering, get a degree in financial engineering, become a project manager and never actually making anything in your life.

Some of my long term blog readers will remember 4 years back when my daughter was first enrolled at Columbia College. I began a conversation with Alan Brinkley, provost, concerning my naive proposal to add a hands-on component to the core curriculum. Oh, well. Here we are 4 years later, and the core curriculum on the Titanic remains the same.  I would never suggest that the core curriculum be abandoned. But I will continue to suggest that if the purpose of the core curriculum is to bring us to a common point of human culture, to leave the development of skilled hands out of the formula, is to sustain one of the worst shortcomings of American education. Early proponents of manual arts understood that to teach all to create useful and beautiful objects was an important component in essential democracy, as it helped to sustain the shared sense of the dignity of human labor. What would happen if students of one of the world's great universities were to enter their intellectual engagements through the shared framework of humanity that only the hands can provide?

As today is Lucy's commencement day, I realize that I have little leverage now to continue to propose change.

Make, fix and create. Nearly everything depends upon you and me.

can't shake a stick

Anyone who has been around kids for just a bit of time, will know that holding a stick brings flights of imagination. I remember watching one of my students about 40 years ago, standing at the top of a slide on the playground holding s stick. Held above his head, he proclaimed it an umbrella, extended, it became a sword, a bat and several other things besides.

I am here in New York for Lucy's graduation. Without my conventional tools, I've dressed in suit and tie to make up for being naked in comparison. A panhandler in the street referred to me as "Hey, Mr. Businessman" though I'm a long ways from that.

In the woodshop, there is a constant temptation for kid to pick up sticks, dowels or boards, and to wave them as did Adam in taming the wild beasts. There are deep seated primal concerns when we handle common objects, and so I can see clear reasons why many American classrooms have evolved toward being object free. There are complexities involved in management of things. One of the things we are in here in New York to do is to gather Lucy's things and arrange for their safe transportation to Arkansas. At University Hardware, I purchased 8 large shipping boxes which will be packed and sent by parcel post. And so, I can commiserate with those teachers who lean toward object free lessons. But remove the object and you have lost connection with objective. What if we became so diminished in actual capacity that we could no longer shake a stick?

Have you ever attended a symphony performance? Have you noticed that orchestra students can be brought to perfect attention, and that what arises in the presence of instruments can bring delight and surprise?

John Grossbohlin has informed me that Chris Schwarz has given kind mention of the blog and sloyd in the June issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, which is still for sale in your local magazine outlet store.

Make, fix and create.

threads

Last night my wife and I attended art gallery openings related to our May Fine Arts Month here in Eureka Springs. Seeing old friends in the arts community, I was reminded of how it feels to be tightly woven within the threads of community. We form a seamless tapestry. Pull one thread, and the entire community life is effected.

Today my wife and I will travel to New York City to attend our daughter Lucy's graduation from Columbia University. These four years have passed quickly. I seem to be left speechless. What is there to say, but that we are very proud of her and the young woman she has become? We trace many of her blessings of character and intellect to the tightly woven threads of of our community that we have been part of. To find oneself so deeply, and tightly woven within community would be the gift I would wish for each of my readers.

I may not have much time for the blog during the next several days. If you are needing something to read on your visit here, you can find a link to my published works here, or you can use the search function on the site to explore a variety of subjects related to hands-on learning.

Or take a break. Make, fix and create.

pick up a stick...

"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
- Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)

This morning, I'm interested in the relationship between measured intelligence and depression, and there's method in my madness. First, it has been long noted that men and women of higher measured intellect have a higher incidence of depression. There's a lot of speculation as to why this could be true. Some think that higher intellect brings greater awareness of complexity, and the complications of modern life. Secondly, studies have shown that episodes of depression have direct effect on performance IQ. This should be much easier to explain, as depression is known to cause one to become inattentive and distracted, focused on things other than the task at hand... which often involves learning and creativity.

I am interested in this because I know from personal experience that being engaged in the wood shop makes me feel better. When I am engaged or have been engaged in making objects of useful beauty, transforming raw, rough materials (wood) into finished, useful objects, there are feelings of power, completion and satisfaction that arise within me.

If we were to combine the the wood shop and laboratory with the classroom, creating one seamless experience of emotional and intellectual enrichment, can you see the value of the lessons we might create?

The following is from Charles H. Ham's book, Mind and Hand, 1886, exploring the idea that man is the wisest and most powerful of all animals because he has hands.

There is a legend to the effect that on the day when Adam revolted against his Maker, the animals in the turn revolted against him, and ceased to obey him.

"Adam called on the Lord for help, and the Lord commanded him to take a branch from the nearest tree and make of it a weapon, and strike with it the first animal that should refuse to obey him. Adam took the branch, the leaves fell from it of their own accord, and he found himself furnished with a stick proportioned to his height. When the animals saw this weapon in the hands of the man they were seized with an instinctive fear mingled with wonder, and they did not dare to attack him. A lion alone, bolder than the rest, leaped upon him to devour him, but Adam, who stood upon his guard, swift as lightning whirled his stick and felled him to the earth with a single blow! At this sight the terror of the other animals was so great that they approached him trembling, and in token of their submission licked the stick that he held in his hand."*

Throughout all the early ages the stick was both the symbol and the instrument of power; and it is only the hand that can grasp and wield the stick. The early kings reigned by virtue of the strong arm and supple hand. They claimed to be descended fro Hercules, and their emblem of power was a knotty stick. Nor does empire depend less up the hand now than it did in the morning if time.

So in the interest of inquiry, I offer this simple test for the value of engagement of the hands in the relationship between intelligence, and depression and the hands. Pick up a stick and wave it in the air. Like Adam's stick, it should be proportioned to your own height. See if there are feelings that arise from it. Take note of your own thoughts. See if something lifts in your own spirits. You may feel foolish doing so, or you may feel something more. Let me know, please, as I hope that this might reveal things that interest us all.

And in the meantime, Make, fix and create.

*"The Story of the Stick" p. 2 Translated and adapted from the French of Antony Réal

Today in the wood shop

This has been my second day in the wood shop posing for photos for two articles for Fine Woodworking Magazine. It has been intense. We've made bridle joint glass doors and made small parts for boxes, including 4 kinds of pull, two kinds of feet, and dividers. We've also started developing proposals for future articles.

With all that photography taking place, I couldn't resist taking one of my own. Matt Kenney, senior editor at Fine Woodworking is shown in the photo above.

Make, fix and create.

Teacher appreciation week...

It is teacher appreciation week at the Clear Spring School, and the parents have planned various things each day to show teachers how much they are valued. Politicians seem to want to beat up on teachers, but most parents seem to know that most teachers are doing their best under sometimes difficult circumstances. There are often new orders from the top, offering new strategies to which teaching must be adjusted, and long time teachers have seen new systems come and go. I offer my thanks to those parents who have an appreciation of what teachers do.

So what about the strategic implementation of the hands? Can it be a simple thing, barely felt, that in time can provide the foundation for reformation? The idea here is not to offer something new from the top, but something that can deliver from the hands up. There are examples out there. Montessori, Waldorf, the schools of Finland and our own Clear Spring School. It is a simple thing. You note the relationship between the hands and the development of character and intellect, and allow that recognition to become the guiding principle in the development of lessons within every facet of education, thus allowing for the multidimensional growth of each child.

On the other hand, lecture based education may be the direction things will be going. In a highly competitive environment in which students have accepted full responsibility for their own learning, and in which other troublesome multiple intelligences have been successfully weeded out from the student mix, lecture can be the way to cover the most ground at the lowest cost. In this article Eighth-Grade Students Learn More Through Direct Instruction Harvard's Paul E. Petersen lays out the case for Sage on the Stage, stand up and deliver, lecture style of teaching. The idea is that you can cover more ground if the instructor just stands and delivers rather than developing multi-dimensional, project based cooperative learning opportunities. We know from research that the brain can't track all that long, but if it is cheaper and faster, why not? And then there is the matter of our humanity.

Today in the wood shop, Matt Kenney, senior editor from Fine Woodworking will be joining me in the making of bridle joint doors for small cabinets. I make, and Matt will take photographs to illustrate an article for an upcoming issue.
Be smart, be wise.
Make, fix and create.

Dalai Lama in Arkansas

Today, along with teachers and students from Clear Spring School, many members of the UU church, and hundreds of residents of Eureka Springs, my wife and I are up early for a trip to the University of Arkansas to spend a day with 15,000 others and the Dalai Lama. The theme of his first panel discussion is changing swords into plowshares, and as one who has given great consideration to our tools and how they are used creatively, as expansion of intellect and development of character, I plan to take great advantage from the event.

I was contacted by a woman who is interested in interviewing me for a documentary film on the effects of modern technology from one who has great respect for the old. I am reminded of Chaucer:

"The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne, the' assay so hard, so sharp the conqueryinge"

It is interesting that technology is leveling the playing field, making everything easier for those who can afford it and yet it is the challenge of doing something difficult and demanding that leads to our growth. We offload intellectual content onto the tools we use and then have so little else for which to recommend ourselves. Call it the death of character, if you will. But think back to those things that demanded the best of yourself. Are those things of so little value?

Make, fix and create.

very simple stuff...

Today, I'll have very little time for the blog but just want to share what was circling in my thoughts during the night. "Creative self-actualization." What is it, how is it related to the hands? What is the difference between one engaged in service to others, and one caught twiddling thumbs in senseless, and meaningless acts? Which is the direction we have chosen for our children? What is the path we would hope they might travel and what are the rewards of that journey? Are there feelings that arise when someone is creatively engaged? To facilitate children's growth toward Self-Actualization could become one of the primary objectives of education. As we seem to be so incessantly concerned with things that can be measured through standardized testing, we seem to miss the point. What if we were to adopt self-actualization and the feelings that arise with it as a primary concern? The metaphor, "Child as Craftsman" recognizes the needs that each and every child has to develop skill and expertise at something.

Abraham Maslow, who proposed a hierarchy of needs with self-actualization being at the top, studied the healthiest 1% of college students, recognizing that to study only those who had neurotic symptoms would yield only a philosophy of illness rather than a philosophy of health and strength.

Make, fix, and create.

lifelong kindergarten

in·trin·sic/inˈtrinzik/Adjective
1. Belonging naturally; essential.
2. (of a muscle) Contained wholly within the organ on which it acts.

ex·trin·sic/ikˈstrinzik/Adjective
1. Not part of the essential nature of someone or something; coming or operating from outside.
2. (of a muscle, such as any of the eye muscles) Having its origin some distance from the part that it moves.

Knowledge/noun
1. acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition: knowledge of many things.
2. familiarity or conversance, as with a particular subject or branch of learning: A knowledge of accounting was necessary for the job.
3. acquaintance or familiarity gained by sight, experience, or report: a knowledge of human nature.

Knowledge can be either intrinsic, arising from one's own investigation and experience, or extrinsic, fabricated by others. We have a choice in which we pay attention to, and unfortunately we learn in schools to accept the one and repress the other, making us dull in comparison with what we could become. Our schooling teaches us to accept knowledge that comes from outside and to ignore that which arises from personal experience. We place greater value on extrinsic knowledge and suffer the consequences in every facet of human culture.

MIT has a lifelong kindergarten group which is concerned that children no longer get the opportunity to learn through their own creative enterprises.

"In the Lifelong Kindergarten Group, we're trying to change that. We believe that it is critically important for all children, from all backgrounds, to grow up knowing how to design, create, and express themselves. We are inspired by the ways children learn in kindergarten: when they create pictures with finger paint, they learn how colors mix together; when they create castles with wooden blocks, they learn about structures and stability. We want to extend this kindergarten style of learning, so that learners of all ages continue to learn through a process of designing, creating, experimenting, and exploring.

Our ultimate goal is a world full of playfully creative people who are constantly inventing new opportunities for themselves and their communities."

Some of my readers may recall that educational sloyd was first proposed as a means of extending the investigatory values of kindergarten into the upper grade levels. They scratched that. Now kindergartners are being trained to take bubble tests. Froebel is rolling over in his grave.

Make, fix and create.

Living with monkey mind...

Today at the Unitarian Church here in Eureka Springs, we had a visit from 5 Tibetan monks traveling with the Dalai Lama. They chanted during our traditional Mother's Day Service, so between regular members and guests who had come just for the monks, the church was crowded. In a question and answer session in which attendees were able to ask one of the monks questions, he mentioned what has been called "monkey mind," the incessant interior mental chatter that most often revolves around the painful injuries we may feel we have sustained, or the hopes we may have of changing circumstances to elevate our own position in things, in life, and within our communities.... A great deal of monkey mind is plotting and scheming and taking us out of the moment.

A quick question of my readers... "Is the status of monkey mind alleviated or made worse by our technologies?" I suspect the answer is obvious. If students, and we ourselves cannot observe at least a few moments of silence, how can we learn things that are most truly meaningful?

This afternoon, I'm exercising my monkey mind by doing sketchup drawings for boxes to illustrate a Fine Woodworking Magazine article on the safe machining of small parts. I am also working toward transcendence. Being in the woodshop with real wood is much easier and more fun.

Join me this day as I fall silent in my own quiet symphony of hands.

The photo above is of small boxes I am making so that I can adorn them with pulls and feet for an article for Fine Woodworking on machining small parts.

Richard Bazeley sent a link to a David Brooks talk that relates to the monkey mind, and how we are a social animal.It is a long thing to listen to, but worth the listen as it applies to education and craftsmanship. According to Richard,

"He refers to the transcendent state of mind of the craftsman and how some of these ideas are relevant to education."

Make, fix and create...

ameliorate or exacerbate?

Unplugged Schools--Education can ameliorate, or exacerbate, society's ills. Which will it be?. This is a great article suggested by reader Cindy, exploring the role of technology in schools and suggesting that schools become purposefully "unplugged." There is a huge chorus orchestrated by industry proposing that we turn over all of schooling to the wonders of technology... that there is nothing that can't be taught more efficiently or at less cost by computer gaming. This article presents an alternative view:

It is possible that a school system wholly devoted to developing technical skills would not be particularly damaging if other institutions compensated for children’s severely mediated lives. Unfortunately, the institutions that could serve that function—church, family, community—have been diminished by technology’s cultural dominance. School is about the only institution left that has the extensive claim on children’s attention needed to offset that dominance.

THE HEALTH OF OUR CHILDREN’S INNER LIVES, their civic engagement, and their relationship with nature all would be improved if schools turned down the thermostat on that technologically overheated aspect of American culture. Schools dedicated to that task—we might call them “unplugged schools”—would identify the values associated with technological culture and design curricula and an environment focused on strengthening the human values at the other end of the scale.

The most obvious thing schools can do in this regard is give children experiences with the real things toward which symbols are only dim pointers. Unless emotionally connected to some direct experience with the world, symbols reach kids as merely arbitrary bits of data. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but to a second grader who has held a squiggly nightcrawler in her hand, even the printed symbol “worm” resonates with far deeper meaning than a thousand pictures or a dozen Discovery Channel videos.

As so many schools are rushing toward becoming completely dominated by the current technology, Clear Spring School students spent the last two days camping, grades 1 through 8. Some high school students went along as camping assistants. Getting immersed in nature is a strong antidote for the dubious wonders of technology. But read the whole article. It is illuminating. If our schools don't offer what our children need, we have to take matters into our own hands.
Make, fix and create.

Bayyari Elementary School

Today I gave my career day talk to 100 4th grade students from Bayyari Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas. It was a wonderful time for me. The students were very well mannered, and attentive. They asked great questions. I was amazed by all the things they knew could be made from wood, and I was impressed that so many of them already enjoy making things. In other words, our nation's future is in good hands.

I was also reminded of the exceptional job done by our teachers. Twenty five students to a classroom is not an easy thing. And these exceptional teachers do what needs to be done, exercise as much creativity as is allowed to make learning fun and exciting for their students.

My friend Jan, counselor at Bayyari, who had invited me to speak, told me that the students have been challenging of late. They spent last week filling in bubbles in standardized testing. Even the kindergarten students face state mandated batteries of standardized tests that they must prepare for and pass. We all know how wrong that is. children need to learn from their senses, from experiences being creatively engaged, using real tools, and making things that are of service to their families and community.

One little girl informed me that she wants to grow up to be just like me, and one boy asked me when I can come back. I wish I, or someone like me could be there in their school for each of them, providing opportunities to make things from wood. I passed out pieces of my inlay to each of them with the words on the back, "If you can think it you can make it." And I know that can be true for each of them.

Make, fix and create.

today...

I have posted a couple more photos above of yesterday's Clear Spring preschool project, building a guinea pig outdoor play yard. I had most of the the planning and assembly done in advance, but that did not mean that hammering down all the staples that didn't go in all the way was not important work. And the kids had a great time. Some also helped me to drive the screws attaching the top to the base. For some it was their first time to use real tools.

Today I am taking care of a few things in my home wood shop, and will make my presentation to 100 4th grade students in Springdale this afternoon. I am hoping that they have some good questions and that we have a lively interchange.

My wife brought home copies of Make Magazine from the library and even though I have an article coming out next month in the magazine, I had been severely negligent in not more thoroughly exploring and promoting the magazine earlier. It is full of wonderful, inventive things to do whether you are a kid or all grown up, and many of the projects lead you directly into expansion of your scientific and technical awareness. If we are going to reinvent schooling to become based on the notion of laboratories and work shops,  Make Magazine will be there playing an important part.

Make, fix and for God's sake create.

Back when I was in 4th grade...

I am working on my talk for Bayyari Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas on Friday, and while I may wing parts of the talk, it is good to write it out in advance to collect my thoughts. Here goes:

Back when I was in 4^th grade people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would just say whatever popped into my head. Sometimes I’d say fireman. I knew that was a good answer. But I really didn’t know what all my choices would be. So I am glad to be here today to tell you about working with wood. I believe it is important for children to know what all their choices will be and being a craftsman of some kind can be a good life.

When I was your age, my father would give me things that were broken and no longer worked. I liked taking things apart and trying to figure out what was inside and trying to guess how things worked. Some times I’d put things back together and once or twice I was able to fix things so they worked again. From that time I began to think of myself as an inventor, and I began to think about making things. My dad had a few tools to repair things around the house and he would allow me to use them if I remembered to put them away when I was finished with them. I made all kinds of things. Once I figured out how to turn a self-propelled lawnmower into a riding mower, and that made the chore of mowing the grass a lot more fun.

When I had graduated from high school, I went to college and my parents thought I should become a lawyer because my grandfather had been one. But I didn’t have any idea what lawyers did. By the time I’d graduated from college, I’d realized that the thing I really enjoyed the most was working with my hands. I still liked making things, and I had noticed that things that I learned hands-on were at a deeper level of interest for me. So I went back to school to study pottery then moved to Arkansas as a professional potter. I became a woodworker in 1975, so at this time, I’ve been working with wood for over 35 years.

I make small wooden boxes and furniture and some sculpture. I also write books and articles about woodworking. If you go to Barnes and Noble and look in the magazine section for Fine Woodworking or American Woodworker Magazines you might find copies including my work. I design the project, write the article and take the pictures. Just in case you are wondering how I can take pictures of my own hands doing the things in the photograph, I’ll let you in on a secret. I put the camera on a tripod, aim it at where my hands will be at work, and set the timer so I have just a few seconds to get my hands in position for the shot. In the books and articles, I write, act as photographer, and do the woodworking, almost all at the same time.

There are some things I really like about my work. The first is that I get to be my own boss. I get to make almost all the decisions. I can work as long as I want to and I get to do lots of different things and take breaks when I need to. If I get tired of doing one thing, there is always something else I can do. But I don’t get paid for sitting around. If I don’t do the work, it doesn’t get done and I don’t make any money for it.

Another thing I like about working with wood is that it allows me to use most of the things I learned in school. Every day I use math, I use science, biology, and physics. I make things that are inspired by history, and social studies. And so woodworking is a place where I get to put everything together like a hands-on living puzzle of what’s in my mind.

When I make something from wood, I start with plain rough-sawn boards and go from there. Every step is one I take myself, so when a thing is completed, I feel pride in what I’ve done. Each and every day I can see real, tangible things I've gotten done.

I also like that working with wood makes me feel connected with the natural environment. I love wood, the smell of it, how it goes from coarse to smooth as I sand it. It is very pretty to look at and even more beautiful when I’m, finished with it. I also love trees, and by working with woods from Arkansas, I feel that I can help the forests by helping people to understand how beautiful and valuable the woods of Arkansas are even before they are made into useful things.

I also teach woodworking. During the school year, I teach students from 1^st through 12^th grades at the Clear Spring School in Eureka Springs. The students come to class and make things, and I get to see my own interest in making things passed into new hands. In the summer months I teach box making to adults. In both cases, it is fun to see how excited my students become when they have created a beautiful box or other useful thing using their own hands.

One of the best things about wood is that it can last over a hundred years if it is made into something beautiful or useful that people are willing to take care of or use carefully. I have been in museums and seen wooden furniture over 400 years old that could still be used in someone’s home, so I know that some of the things that I make may last on this earth a lot longer than I will, and it is a very great pleasure to see things I’ve made being used and cared for in people’s homes.

You may wonder if there are some things I don’t like about my work. First, it is messy. I sometimes have sawdust all over me, and I have to clean up a lot because sawdust can get on everything. Secondly, woodworking is not always a steady income. Sometimes I worry about whether I can sell enough woodworking to pay all my bills. It can be demanding.

Another thing, when I tell people I’m a woodworker, they want to see my fingers to see if I’ve cut any of them off or something. I work with sharp tools that demand my attention. You can get injured in woodworking so you can’t let you mind wander very far from what you are doing. I’ve had lots of small injuries, but so far, after over 35 years, I still have all my important parts. Doing something that is a bit dangerous is actually a good thing, as it keeps me living in this exact moment, instead of wandering off into fantasy and missing out on real life.

One of the things I like best about wood working is that I have to come up with new ideas all the time, so in some ways, I am the inventor that I wanted to be now that I’ve grown up.

At this point, I would like to open things up for your questions. Are there some things you would like to ask me about woodworking or what it is like to be a woodworker?

My audience will be 100 4th grade students ready for transfer to middle school, and at a good point to begin thinking of what their own futures may be. I will have a small piece of furniture to display along with books and magazines, and my reliquary of wood containing samples of 25 species of Arkansas hardwoods. In addition, I have a small piece of inlay to give each student with a label on the back which says, "If you can think it you can make it.
Make, fix and create."

reading vs. doing...

This morning I'm sitting at the computer for a few minutes wondering what to say, that I haven't said so many time before. The hands are not such a complex matter. But they do give shape to every facet of human culture. They have given shape to our natural environment in ways intended and unintended. An early proverb quoted by Comenius in the 17th century was, "We give form to ourselves and to our materials at the same time." And so the question is, "Do we gain knowledge best by reading or by doing?" And I suspect most of us gather a far greater quantity of information by browsing the web, than we would gain by twiddling our thumbs. But another question comes up, leading us in a new direction, "How do we find the truth?"  A passion for the discovery of truth demands action. While I'm at my computer, and you are at your computer, we are missing a few things that demand we get up and examine truth through our own hands.

Today in the woodshop, I began cleaning to prepare for next week's visit by Matt Kenney, and I visited the Clear Spring pre-school to work with the students building an outdoor home for their guinea pigs as shown in the photo above. The children ages, 3, 4 and 5 got their first experience working with hammers. For me it was just plain fun.

Make, fix and create.

The Quincy Experiment

Today the kids from Clear Spring School in grades 1-6 go for their annual spring camping trip. It is part of the long tradition of progressive education at our school. In case you want to know more about progressive education, you might want to read about the "Quincy Experiment"  (1881---) which took place in the public schools of Quincy Massachusetts.  The success of the Quincy experiment led to the adoption of the Quincy Method in Chicago public schools, paving the way for John Dewey. The theory of it goes back to Comenius, father of modern pedagogy, who stressed that children should learn through the engagement of the senses, that we learn best by doing, that children have natural inclinations to be active, and that educators should not waste those natural inclinations, but rather utilize them by setting the children to creative tasks designed to stimulate their learning and encourage their growth.

I will be working in my own shop to finish and assemble a small cabinet in preparation for a visit next week from Matt Kenney, senior editor at Fine Woodworking. The photo above shows the dowel joint used to construct the carcase of the cabinet. At one time, I had thought the doweled joint inferior to other forms of cabinet joinery. Then I remembered seeing it in use in the making of some of James Krenov's cabinets. If it is good enough for Krenov, perhaps it's good enough for the rest of us to make a small cabinet able to last beyond our time on earth.  The groove at the back is used to house the back panel and the small mortise shown at the front edge (away from camera) is routed for the knife hinges to fit. These things and sanding must be done prior to assembly.

Make, fix and create.

the other things...

I keep talking in the blog about the way the hands can transform education. When learning is hands-on instead of scripted to conform to text books, when teachers are provided the creative challenge of doing real things hands-on with their students, incredible things can happen to enrich learning, to improve teacher self-esteem and transform the effectiveness of education. They have to be trusted for that, and sadly, our nation does not, but would prefer to vilify teachers as the cause of school failure.

But that is only a small part of the story. There are other things the hands do. And so here is a partial list as a brief reminder, encouraging you to get in touch.

1. Being creatively engaged through the hands brings connections to the whole of human history and culture. If you visit a museum or walk the streets of New York (or your own community) and have experience in the making of things, you see things with greater insight, and deeper feelings of connection.
2. Being creatively through your hands brings changes in chemical balance, alleviating depression, enhancing feelings of well-being.
3. Use of the hands brings feelings of self-esteem, feelings of real accomplishment, personal power, and sense of place within community.
4. Use of the hands builds character, patience, and appreciation of the contributions made by others.
5. Use of the hands makes us smarter, provides a foundation for common sense.
6. Use of the hands allows us to test our intellectual hypotheses, bringing us closer to the truth, engaging each of us in the exploration of science.
7. Making things is fun. The things we have made contribute to the lives of others. And you and I can go on and on citing one benefit after another.

You don't have to take my word for any of this. These are things you can test in your own hands. Please accept this list as an invitation to reflect on your own hands-on engagement. Heads sans hands makes us a nation of dummies. Heads and hands, and the reverse shall be found true.

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the first, second and third grade students worked on fractions. We took round discs of wood, cut them in half, then cut half into quarters, then a quarter into eights. Then I showed them how the same fractions are used in measuring for woodworking, by comparing the small parts we had cut to the "super inch." Tara questioned, incredulously,"You mean we've been doing math? In wood shop?" "Yes, in case you hadn't noticed, wood shop is all about math," I replied. "I didn't know that math was fun!" Tara replied enthusiastically.

I am preparing a lecture for 100 4th grade students at Bayyari Elementary School in Springdale, Arkansas on Friday. How do you hold the attention of 4th grade students for a twenty minute presentation? I'll have to do it without my usual array of tools, and it brings me to contemplate what teachers in public schools do each and every day.

For yourselves and for your children, make, fix and create.

blaming the teachers...

The following editorial is worth reading:The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries.

"The consulting firm McKinsey recently examined how we might attract and retain a talented teaching force. The study compared the treatment of teachers here and in the three countries that perform best on standardized tests: Finland, Singapore and South Korea.

Turns out these countries have an entirely different approach to the profession. First, the governments in these countries recruit top graduates to the profession. (We don’t.) In Finland and Singapore they pay for training. (We don’t.) In terms of purchasing power, South Korea pays teachers on average 250 percent of what we do.

And most of all, they trust their teachers. They are rightly seen as the solution, not the problem, and when improvement is needed, the school receives support and development, not punishment. Accordingly, turnover in these countries is startlingly low: In South Korea, it’s 1 percent per year. In Finland, it’s 2 percent. In Singapore, 3 percent."

Today in the wood shop, the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students practiced whittling in preparation for their camping trip this week. The 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students made Jacob's staffs to assist in their study of trigonometry.

Not waiting...

I watched the movie "Waiting for Superman" last night about the faltering state of American education. It does a pretty good job of documenting the state of angst among children and parents facing the dilemma of schools that offer near-certain failure as their end product. That we have so many poor schools in the USA is a continuing nightmare for families and embarrassing for our nation. I can't imagine anyone watching the children and parents in the film without wanting us to do a much better job.

The movie lays blame on poor teachers, and if you were to watch the movie AND try to figure out someplace to point the finger of blame it would be at the teacher's unions and the inability of administrators to fire teachers who don't measure up. If you were to watch the movie hoping to find a solution, it would be the charter school movement, even though statistically, charter schools show performance measured at equal to or less than that of the schools they hope to replace. So, if you are waiting for "Waiting for Superman" to present clear answers, or hope for American children don't wait.

What we need most is a clear vision upon which to proceed.

One art teacher told me that what we've discovered, you and I, in this blog, is the "philosopher's stone of education." It is nothing complicated. It is nothing new. It works. It applies to all students regardless of social class, sex, race, or ethnicity, and it applies whether or not children have been read to and nurtured and prepared for learning in their homes. It offers dignity. It offers growth. It fits those who are going to college, and it fits those who for a variety of reasons will not.

Where the hands are engaged in learning, whether through arts, crafts, music, science, or athletics, what we learn hands-on is learned at greater depth, to greater lasting effect. Where the hands and mind are engaged as partners in learning through the development of skills expressed as meaningful accomplishments, there are transforming effects on the character of the child.

I don't know how I could be more precise. "Waiting for Superman" presents a complex problem. How do we get a grip on American education? With our hands.
Don't wait. Superman isn't coming. But YOU ARE SUPERMAN when your own hands bring wisdom, and when you offer your hands in transformation of education. Don't wait, Make, fix and create.

I've been retaking some photos for an article in American Woodworker Magazine, on making a sliding book rack. Math is not simply numbers, but also involves "spatial sense" which is the foundation of geometry, but also key to the making of things. I use a process of flipping objects as a way of developing symmetry in the fitting of parts and in the design of symmetrical objects. So how do you mortise or drill in from both sides of an object to get perfect alignment from both sides? That is the hidden subject of the article, and as you learn how to make the sliding book rack you also learn other things through your own exercise of spatial sense that forms the foundation of mathematics, engineering and human culture. The photo below shows the use of a flipping set-up piece for locating the fence and stop blocks (left and right) for drilling mortises that intersect perfectly at the center of the stock.

Dr. George Wilson's reverie for the hand. 1856

"In many respects the organ of touch, as embodied in the hand, is the most wonderful of the senses. The organs of the other senses are passive; the organ of touch alone is active. The eye, the ear, and the nostril stand simply open: light, sound, and fragrance enter, and we are compelled to see, to hear, and to smell; but the hand selects what it shall touch, and touches what it pleases. It puts away from it the things which it hates, and beckons towards it the things which it desires unlike the eye, which must often gaze transfixed at horrible sights from which it cannot turn; and the ear, which cannot escape from the torture of discordant sounds and the nostril, which cannot protect itself from hateful odours.

Moreover, the hand cares not only for its own wants, but, when the other organs of the senses are rendered useless, takes their duties upon it. The hand of the blind man goes with him as an eye through the streets, and safely threads for him all the devious way: it looks for him at the faces of his friends, and tells him whose kindly features are gazing on him; it peruses books for him, and quickens the long hours by its silent readings. It ministers as willingly to the deaf; and when the tongue is dumb and the ear stopped, its fingers speak eloquently to the eye, and enable it to discharge the unwonted office of a listener.

The organs of all the other senses, also, even in their greatest perfection, are beholden to the hand for the enhancement and the exaltation of their powers. It constructs for the eye a copy of itself, and thus gives it a telescope with which to range among the stars; and by another copy on a slightly different plan, furnishes it with a microscope, and introduces it into a new world of wonders. It constructs for the ear the instruments by which it is educated, and sounds them in its hearing till its powers are trained to the full. It plucks for the nostril the flower which it longs to smell, and distills for it the fragrance which it covets. As for the tongue, if it had not the hand to serve it, it might abdicate its throne as the Lord of Taste. In short, the organ of touch is the minister of its sister senses, and, without any play of words, is the handmaid of them all.

And if the hand thus munificently serves the body, not less amply does it give expression to the genius and the wit, the courage and the affection, the will and the power of man. Put a sword into it, and it will fight for him; put a plough into it, and it will till for him; put a harp into it, and it will play for him; put a pencil into it, and it will paint for him; put a pen into it, and it will speak for him, plead for him, pray for him. What will it not do? What has it not done? A steam-engine is but a larger hand, made to extend its powers by the little hand of man! An electric telegraph is but a long pen for that little hand to write with! All our huge cannons and other weapons of war, with which we so effectually slay our brethren, are only Cain's hand made bigger, and stronger, and bloodier! What, moreover, is a ship, a railway, a lighthouse, or a palace? What, indeed, is a whole city, a whole continent of cities, all the cities of the globe, nay, the very globe itself, in so far as man has changed it, but the work of that giant hand, with which the human race, acting as one mighty man, has executed its will." --Dr. George Wilson on the Hand - 1856

And so why do we not make deliberate use of our children's grasp of the world in their educations? Today we have an open house at the Clear Spring School and I will be set up with a work bench, some tools and children's work to explain to visitors, the strategic implementation of the hands.

"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." -Comenius.

In other words, children's activities, their hands-on explorations, are a useful resources that educators should use, not waste, for in wasting their most natural inclinations, we damage them in ways only succeeding and preceding generations may understand.

Make, fix and create.

practice

Just as one practices the cutting of dovetail joints, words may be crafted as well. Poetry is a literary form for which the concept "crafted" applies, for it is often reworked in the same manner as one would take thin shavings from a plank.

I have been waking up in the night with certain clarity about how certain things about the hands and the way we learn can be best expressed. And yet, when morning comes, I struggle with my thoughts. Where, now, is the clarity, precision and beauty of language I had experienced in the night? There is surely a poem that could be crafted from those fleeting thoughts.

Today in the wood shop, I'm making a small cherry cabinet that will serve as a prop when the editor comes from Fine Woodworking to take photographs for an article about making bridle joint doors. At some point the thoughts from last night's lucid dreams will gain clarity. That may be today, or tomorrow or the next day. Much of what a good writer, or a good woodworker does is to connect with the unconscious. And that connection is one that sneaks up on a person, rather than being tackled to the ground and beaten to death. There is no time schedule for the integration of one's innermost thoughts.

Make, fix and create. As you do so, as your hands are engaged in creative exercise, those doors are left ajar, that separate the conscious and unconscious minds. This is precisely why Jean Jacques Rousseau said,

"Put a young man in a wood shop, his hands work to the development of his brain. He becomes a philosopher while thinking himself only a craftsman."

Put your own hands to work on your brain. It is not rocket science, but merely the application of hand to mind.

metaphors for learning...

1. Children are empty vessels but of varying volumes. The teacher fills them up to their capacity. This is the classic approach.
2. The Biological and psychological urges model. Students are sets of biological and psychological urges and the teacher's job is to combat or control student urges through the use of conditioned response psychology. Doesn't this sound like fun? Both Skinner and Freud would like it.
3. Blank Slate metaphor: B.F. Skinner approach to teaching. The teacher, through a system of rewards (test scores and grades)gives direction to the student's growth. If the student's slate is already scribbled beyond comprehension and use, refer back to metaphor 2, or administer drugs.
4. Stages of development: Children are growing both in physical size and intellect. It is the teacher's job to recognize the stage of development and offer the appropriate lessons, reading, math, etc. timed on the basis of that recognition. This is the Piaget model.
5. The child as craftsman, a metaphor presented as an alternative by educational psychologist, David Henry Feldman and essentially ignored:

To see a child as a craftsman means to see him as a person who wants to be good at something. It also suggests that the child continually takes pride in accomplishment and has a sense of integrity about his work, regardless of the actual level of the work produced. The notion is somewhat akin to Robert White's competence motivation, except that White's notion implies more of a need to feel mastery over uncontrolled forces in the environment. The child as craftsman no doubt is moved by what White refers to as "effectance motivation," but the metaphor is intended to go beyond this to include a more direct link to specific fields of endeavor and to suggest why some activities are so much more compelling to a given child than others...

Perhaps the most important implication of the metaphor is to suggest that it may well be the main purpose of education to provide conditions under which each child will identify and find satisfaction through a chosen field or fields of work.

Readers interested in the child as craftsman metaphor might enjoy Daniel Pink's new book Drive: The surprising Truth about What Motivates US. You can read an excerpt here, in which Pink describes research by Harry Harlow and Edward Deci with rhesus monkeys in which intrinsic motivation is revealed. I would postulate that intrinsic motivation is what drives the craftsman. It may also explain the child at the back yard basketball hoop and those relentless free throws when no one is watching. It may explain why someone would dedicate his or her life to the arts or literature, while knowing that the pay may not be as great as that offered in banking or grand theft auto. For those who do not understand the value of intrinsic motivation, or its potential for application in schools, I recommend a healthy dose of the arts.

Yesterday in the Clear Spring School wood shop, we had creative day and some students in the first, second and third grades made small pieces of furniture for their own use, tables, benches and a ladder. Some made tops, another made a sign for the Clear Spring School open house on Saturday, 1 to 3 PM. In addition the students helped me to make new flag poles decorated with geometric solids as shown below for their patrol groups. The school camping trip will be next week.

Today I am working in my own shop and having meetings at school.

Make, fix and create.

forgive me as I repeat myself...

Nothing new here. As a craftsman, I repeat myself over and over in the same motions, and by paying attention, I learn new, small, simple things which demand further practice, and refinement, and so from watching closely, you might see incremental growth. Over the course of a maker's life, you might see more dramatic effect.

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, I've been asked to help the students prepare for their camping trip. They will need new flag poles for their patrol groups, as the ones they have used in past years have been lost. It is a simple thing.

In the blog, I am trying to collect my thoughts for an essay which I hope to submit as an Op Ed piece to the New York Times. Why the heck not? Others do it on subjects far less important to our children's futures.

In my own woodshop, I'm getting ready to make a small cherry cabinet to serve as a prop for illustrating an article on making bridle joint glass doors.

By watching closely you might notice that my mission over the years from when we first started the Wisdom of the Hands program at Clear Spring School gradually changed. At first the mission was to prove the value of woodworking education, and then as I became much more deeply immersed in educational sloyd and pedagogical history the mission became more fully that of advocacy for hands-on learning, for it is that which proves the value of woodworking education, the arts, music, dance, internship, basketball, soccer, and all those experiential activities that we no longer allow time for in American education.

In Schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged. --Wisdom of the Hands blog post of October 16, 2006

"I write this in the belief that, for all-round development of the brain, there should be in elementary and secondary education much more training of the hand, and of the power of expression through the hand, than is customary in the too bookish tradition which has come down to us from classical humanism. Such a subject as history is too apt to pass without challenge into the circle of those subjects which are taught out of books and from a literary point of view. We have to claim it as falling into the scientific division of the course not less than into that of the humanities. And there is need in the teaching of it for the use of the hand and of the constructive powers. From this point of view, handwork in the elementary school is not such a subject by itself as a form of expression ancillary to several branches of the curriculum, namely elementary science, geometry, geography, and history." --Sir Michael E. Sadler from Educational Handwork (1906)

And so, things are very simple here. Not much happening. Forgive me as I repeat myself. Since schools seemingly have the subjugation of intellect to boredom as their primary objective, you must take matters into your own hands. Make, fix and create.

strategic implementation of the hands...

In 2001, when we started the Wisdom of the Hand program at the Clear Spring School, part of our purpose was to demonstrate the continuing value of woodworking in schools. I know that some of my readers are here for the woodworking, but please have patience, for there are greater issues at stake. I quickly realized that the reason woodworking was no longer seen as relevant in American education was that educators no longer acknowledged the role of the hands in learning. The suggested role for the hands in American schools is for taking notes, turning pages and nothing more. Thus teachers' methods became tied to text books, and students hands became tied, their intellects stifled, and their characters diminished. In other words, the loss of woodworking in schools is a symptom of a far greater misunderstanding.

Education wasn't always so messed up.

The following is from John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), founder of modern pedagogy.

"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."

And this:

Artisans do not detain their apprentices with theories, but set them to do practical work at an early stage; thus they learn to forge by forging, to carve by carving, to paint by painting, and to dance by dancing. In schools, therefore, let the students learn to write by writing, to talk by talking, to sing by singing, and to reason by reasoning. In this way schools will become workshops humming with work, and students whose efforts prove successful will experience the truth of the proverb; "We give form to ourselves and to our materials at the same time."

If you are wondering how to fix American education, it boils down to a simple strategy,

The strategic implementation of the hands.

In the last few days Eureka Springs has had torrential rains. Some parts of the state have had deadly tornadoes. Some of our students have had difficulties getting to school due to road closings from high water and a few have had to evacuate their homes due to possible flooding. So naturally the students have had an interest in making boats. Each class, from elementary through high school has wanted to do the same thing. Can you see the psychic implications? Can you see how making boats might be a therapeutic endeavor, given the rains that never seem to let up? While Joah was carving on his boat, Hendrik remarked, "Joah's Ark." The sun is out now for a bit this afternoon, and more rain is expected tonight.

In the photo series at left, you can see how to drill for ball point pen inserts to fit a turning blank. First drill using a drill press and standard 1/8 in. bit. The shop made fixture holds the stock vertical and in the correct position so the hole is roughly centered. Next, use a longer bit to finish the hole. This one was 12 inches long but I ground off part to keep me from breaking it. In fact, this is the third one I bought before working out the bugs in the method. I broke two and the third is the charm. To keep from breaking the bit, it has to go in and out smoothly and in small increments so that chips can be cleared frequently. I also use wax on the tip to lubricate the bit and prevent it from overheating.

Some of my readers may remember the flood of 2008 when our Beaver Bridge was under water for over a month and there were questions about whether or not it might be permanently damaged. We have the same worries again this year due to the heavy rains and flooding of Table Rock Lake as you can see in the photo below.

The skills you develop in your own hands may become important to you sooner than you expect.

Make, fix and create.

"the DIY Revolution Starts Now" ???

This month's Wired Magazine is running the DIY revolution as its cover story. The cover is a Rosie the riveter wannabe holding a futuristic plasma cutter or other kind of sparky thing in place of the clenched fist. (Is that a real tool?) The pose nevertheless is triumphant. The lead article is "How to Make Stuff," and it proclaims, "If You Can Think It, You Can Build It." OK, now.

I take all this as a step in the right direction. It's about time that we became less a nation of all-consuming didiots, and returned to our human roots as makers of anything and everything that meets our legitimate needs and doesn't harm the health or happiness of our children, neighbors or planet. The magazine, however offers rather puny rewards when it comes to suggested projects. Want to get your iPod to do new things? Or how about sculpting particle board to resemble a lunar landscape using your computer controlled router that cost you $3,000.00 dollars? It looks like cratered particle board at the end of all that incessant routing. There's nothing with real beauty in sight among the "25 Awesome Projects", and I guess that is the direction DIY is going these days.

At least there's a display of real curiosity. And things have to start somewhere.

Some things will offer lasting beauty. Some makers will become curious about tools of all kinds and discover that there are rich traditions in their use. They like you may become curious about the things that inhabit our museums, and how they were made. In these things, there's hope for us all.

Make, fix and create.

The Meaning of a Liberal Education

In 1909, Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton University, delivered an address to the New York City High School Teachers Association. That address is best remembered from this quote, which I have repeated before in this blog.

"We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks."

It is always challenging when a whole speech is reduced to a single quote. But I have found a web address at which, The Meaning of a Liberal Education can be read in its entirety online and place Wilson's quote in clearer context. Wilson when viewed may thus be seen as more moderate and less harsh in his reasoning than that single quote suggests.

"There is one sentence with which I always open my classes, a sentence quoted from Burke, in my opinion the only entirely wise writer upon public affairs in the English language. Burke says, “Institutions must be adjusted to human nature; of which reason constitutes a part, but by no means the principal part.” You cannot develop human nature by devoting yourselves entirely to the intellectual sides of it. Intellectual life is the flower of a thing much wider and richer than itself. The man whom we deem the mere man of books we reject as a counsellor, because he is separated in his thinking from the rich flow of life. It is the rich flow of life, compact of emotion, compact of all those motives which are unsusceptible of analysis, which produces the fine flower of literature and the solid products of thinking."

In other words, Wilson would not fail to see the reasons for children to be placed in better touch with reality. Without the plane, the saw, the chisel, the aspirations of humanity, what would we write poetry about?

On yesterday's topic of effective doodling, expert doodler and corporate facilitator John Ward suggests the following:

"It comes after I've taught them to do blind contour drawing (with a 12" piece of black thread) and addressed the notion that doodling has great potential because it tends to quiet the monkey mind and put one in tune with one's subconscious. In this mode, "mindless" can be spun as "mulling," a way to shut off your yapper while someone else is talking.

But doodling can be elevated to MINDFUL and super-conscious if one wants to raise the stakes. The next time you find yourself doodling, pause and look up (most people are intently looking at their doodle when they're doing it) without lifting your pen. Look up and start doing a blind contour drawing of anything, ANYTHING that catches your eye. The mind state change is almost instantaneous. You don't and shouldn't pay any attention to the marks - just the act of actively looking and marking."

Try it and let John or I know how it works for you.

Make, fix and create. Not only will you inhabit your own life with physical beauty, you may discover something worth writing about.

doodling and stuff

I have been having conversations about learning strategy with our 7th and 8th grade class and their teacher, and it is somewhat difficult in a classroom with bench vises and a variety of tools. Students' hands become engaged at any and all opportunities, and those noises can be distracting. I realize that students hands are expected to be taking notes. But to be engaged trying to transcribe words onto paper may actually interfere with the process of anchoring fresh input to the child's foundation of prior experience. How can you say ahaaa, when you are trying to get someone else's words down on paper? And how can you write and listen at the same time, each requiring engagement of the same parts of the brain? And so what about doodling? Teachers, used to the highly discriminatory college model of information management tend to think of doodling as evidence of distraction, but it is not.

I bumped into a student from my last summer's class for teachers at ESSA, "The Brain, the Hands and the Arts" at the grocery store. Michael is a teacher in a neighboring community and had taken the class to help improve his own teaching effectiveness. He was excited to see me, as it gave him the opportunity to tell me how much engagement of his students hands had brought to his classroom success. He said he's told all his fellow teachers about what he had learned and how he has been applying it to his classes. A teacher's success is found when his students surpass him, and I'm expecting great things beyond the reach of my own hands.

If you watch carefully the inner workings of your own mind, you may observe that the note taking model is not necessarily what it is cracked up to be. As you begin to attempt to write down what the professor is saying, aren't you actually taking your mind off and missing what he or she has been saying next? And so here comes the value of doodling. Because it involves a different part of your brain, you can do it while listening. In fact, the research shows that it increases memory of what you have heard.

Robin was student at Clear Spring School who doodled during math class. She got in trouble with her teacher for making paisley doodles on the desktop. Rather than stopping her sketching entirely, her mother encouraged her to doodle on her jeans as a compromise. When she would come to wood shop on Monday, one leg would be covered with exquisite paisley patterns, on Tuesday the next leg would be covered. On Wednesday, that pair pair of jeans would be in the wash and Robin was working on a next leg. The important thing to note was her perfect scores in the class. She later went on through four years at the University of Arkansas with straight A's in class and is now working on her masters degree.

And so, how do we reshape classroom learning to be more effective? If the hands are engaged, the mind is not necessarily distracted, but may actually be more deeply engaged than would be the case if the hands were stilled. The following is from CNN:

"It's generally thought scribbling indicates daydreaming, but a study published... in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology says doodling may actually decrease those wandering thoughts and help focus the mind."

You can download the full paper What does doodling do? here.

And so, how do we develop effective classroom strategies for engaging the hands (and mind) during boring lectures and discussions? There are all kinds of wonderful, quiet ways to engage the hands creatively during lectures and discussions that should be used. If American corporations can use these strategies and the best corporate trainers in the US understand them, why not use them with kids in school?

Today in the wood shop, I am finishing my small products so I can ship them on Monday. The photo above is from an earlier production run.

Make, fix and create. Teach what you know. Allow children's hands to be creatively engaged toward the development of character and mind.

4/22/11 in the wood shop...

Happy Earth Day, 2011.
Today, I am engaged in my relentless friendly competition with the Chinese (and every other developing nation,) as I make small things for sale. I have an order to fill for Appalachian Spring, in Washington, DC.

I have certain advantages in this process. I can look out over our small acreage and see the woods that I use in this work growing through each season, and so the things I make are deeply and personally woven to and from the fabric of my own life and that of my community and natural environment. Can you catch at least a small glimpse of how that works and how it might impart wonder within one's own experience?

Tonight my wife and I will attend a small concert by local musicians Don and Scott to benefit the Clear Spring School. Don's music and Scott's exquisite harmonies have been delighting our small community for over 30 years. The concert will be held at 7 PM at the Gavioli Chapel in Eureka Springs. Tickets are $15.00 at the door. The venue is small, and intimate and if you have not purchased tickets in advance, plan to arrive early as the performance will likely be sold out.

Years ago, Don Matt wrote a song that he said I had inspired. I take these words as a particular challenge.

Consecrate my actions on the altar of attention.
Let me be awakened to this life.

And so there are things I can describe in this blog, that can only be fully known in your own hands, through the application of your attentions, and intentions not mine. And so this is an altar call for all hands.

The photos at left show a new idea in my woodshop, making easier the process of jointing edges on very small parts. It is a "jointer fence" for the router table which allows the user to take uniform cuts from the edge of a small object just as one would using a much larger jointer. The advantage of this new wood shop addition is that it allows you to see exactly what you are doing, and the router bit is almost completely buried in the fence where it poses absolutely no risk to your fingers, even though they are close to the action. To make this jointer fence, I used a 1 1/4 in straight cut router bit, and pivoted the fence into the cut until the bit was completely buried in it. Then I removed the fence from the router table and made a 1/16 in. deep jointer cut along the edge from the end to the opening left by the router bit. This creates an offset which allows the fence to perform like an actual jointer cutting 1/16 in. per pass along the edge of the stock as it is moved from right to left.

Make, fix and create. Share what you have learned with others in your life.

are video games the answer to education?

Some say yes. A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool, By Judy Willis MD. I am curious what you all think. There are obvious things happening when a kid practices basketball. He or she has a clear way of measuring success reaching goals that are clear and attainable. And thus you can see a kid standing at the hoop for hours after school perfecting his or her free throw technique. Now, we see kids playing video games with the same focus and intensity and we would like to capture that for their education. Besides, it would be cheap and the video game producers could make a large fortune by displacing teachers in the classroom. Are they missing something in their machinations? Are there dangers of the Einstellung effect and of children becoming narrow-minded, wide-bodied, anti-social pinheads from too many hours fixated on computer screens when there is a real world that might be calling them to attention? We are about to find out, as that seems to be the direction things are going.

On this same depressing subject, Microsoft and Edutopia have teamed up to sell us on the idea that gaming is the new future of education. In an upcoming Edutopia conference, Jane McGonigal is keynote speaker. Her premise described in her book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World is that real life should be made as exciting as video gaming. A review of her book can be read here: Upgrading the World: Could real life be made better by making it more like a videogame? For many of our children and young adults, perceptions of reality HAVE been broken or at least twisted out of shape. Video gaming has already changed some things for the worse. Children are having increasing difficulties paying attention to lessons that come from real people and involve reasonable shared cultural values and that require interpersonal face to face problem solving. Don't hold your breath for things to get better. When Microsoft dollars are invested in change it is hard for reasonable people to stand up to the buzz.

The photo is of a Japanese maple, as a reminder that there is a real world out there that might interest kids if we were to take the time to engage them in it. The tragedy of American education is that we do not.

Today the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students have been teamed with high school mentors for their fossil and rock hounding adventure using the mallets and chisels the students made in wood shop. We could have them anchored to keyboards instead. Which strategy do you think works best to create students ready for real world adventures in learning?

Make, fix and create.

Behavioral rigidity

A very dear friend (I was born on his birthday) mentioned the German word Einstellung that refers to a person's predisposition to solve a given problem in a specific manner even though there are "better" or more appropriate methods of solving the problem. The term seems to explain why proponents of school reform might think that testing would be the means of fixing schools since testing was what led them to believe there was a problem in the first place. Another term for Einstellung is "behavioral rigidity."

Blog reader John Grossbohlin sent this article, N.Y. day camps face state crackdown on games. Of course we all want our children to be safe. We want them to avoid injury. But do we want them stupid, too? Einstellung. It was a concept explored by Abraham S. Luchins through an experiment called the Water Jar Problem.

The photo is completely unrelated to this post. It is of dogwood leaves in the fall. Wrong season. But what's wrong with surprise?

In the meantime, and on your own time,

Make, fix and create.

effective surprise...

Researchers studying music are attempting to understand why some causes emotional response and some does not, as described in this article in the New York Times, To Tug Hearts, Music First Must Tickle the Neurons, by Pam Belluck.

"Research is showing...  that our brains understand music not only as emotional diversion, but also as a form of motion and activity. The same areas of the brain that activate when we swing a golf club or sign our name also engage when we hear expressive moments in music. Brain regions associated with empathy are activated, too, even for listeners who are not musicians.

And what really communicates emotion may not be melody or rhythm, but moments when musicians make subtle changes to the those musical patterns."

Jerome Bruner's concept of "effective surprise" should have been a thing explored by the writer for the New York Times, as it helps to explain why some executions of musical works are merely that, executions, leaving the work dead, the listener as much so, and some are awakenings. In explaining effective surprise, Bruner quotes Yeats,

God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone.

And so teachers, too, should learn to think in the marrow bone. Effective surprise is a tool that wood workers utilize in creating lasting work, or that a chemistry teacher seeks to engage in the laboratory to capture the lasting interest of his scholars. Get it?

The photo above was simply selected from my collection of original photography. Even photography makes use of "effective surprise."

Today we had "creative day" in the wood shop for the first, second and third grade students at Clear Spring School. It is a kind of a teacher's nightmare, as I try to be attentive to each scholar, as they ask for this and that, and need help and materials to make things that have captured their own particular interest. But it is immensely rewarding to see what the children come up with and to witness their enthusiasm. Two of the first grade girls wanted to make stools, and three of the third grade girls wanted to make doll beds or cribs. 

Make, fix and create.