happy father's day...

I am back in Arkansas after a great 4 days in Kansas City with the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild. Kara Paris, guild member with whom I had planned the classes and evening presentation wanted to close yesterday's class in time for me to be home on Father's Day, and yes, I've made it home safely and in plenty of time.

I want to thank all my new friends in Kansas City for the opportunity to share our  love of working with wood with each other. I want to thank them, also for their many activities as a club that encourage others to work with wood. We have watched our nation struggle and decline for too many years, but the men and women who work with wood and share freely with each other preserve something very important to the American spirit.

As described in this article, America's tale of two different dads, a report from Pew Research tells that there are two kinds of fathers in America.  There are those who take a significant role in the raising of kids and those who do not. On the one hand some fathers are very deeply engaged in parenting, while on the other, there are more single mothers and children abandoned by fathers than ever before.  Many of my friends with KCWG can describe the rewards that come from the kind of fatherhood (and grand-fatherhood) in which we are engaged in sharing what we love with our children. One of the challenges that many fathers face is that of defining meaningful roles for themselves in relation to their children. The ideas of craftsmanship and responsible creativity offer  a clear rationale for sticking things out in relationships and for making things far better for our children. And while we seem unlikely to bring forth the revolution in American education that our children most need, wisdom of the hands is not completely dependent on what happens in schools. We can take matters in our own hands, and even small gifts of our time and attention shared in the wood shop with our children can have significant effects.

Happy fathers day.  Make, fix and create.

Small cabinets...

Today is the start of an intense week making small cabinets. This morning I have a one day class with students at the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild, and then on Monday morning I will begin production of my DVD Building Small Cabinets. This will be my third time to work with Taunton Press video director Gary Junken, so I am looking forward to a reunion with a great professional. I'll share photos if I have time to take any. In the meantime, there need be no obstructions in your own creative life. Make time to make.

I have been very impressed with the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild, and I plan to write in greater depth about this fine organization and its many activities when things have had a chance to settle and the DVD "filming" is complete.

Make, fix and create...

prejudice against hands-on learning...

This article explains the obstacles faced by hands-on learning in our nation's schooling: Vocational education advocates battle ‘enormous’ prejudices. Mike Rowe from the TV program Dirty Jobs, explains:

"We've elevated the importance of 'higher education' to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled 'alternative,'" he said. "Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as vocational consolation prizes, best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of 'shovel ready' jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel."

Fortunately, Mike is finding many educational experts in agreement, and his view has been supported by the recent Harvard report.

"We don't encourage our kids to pursue those careers--we don't aspire to those things," he says. "It's the first thing we'll portray in a negative or typical way on TV. There's the plumber: He's 300 pounds and his butt crack's hanging out."

The new crop of advocates behind Rowe's cause argue that good vocational education doesn't mean kids have to choose between college and a career. They point out that some of the best new vocational programs combine rigorous academic standards with career-focused, real-world curricula and offer the opportunity for students to earn certificates in high-earning fields while they're still teenagers.

We've become a nation of knuckleheads through our failure to include the hands in our nation's schooling. Best is when the hands and brain are challenged to work together in the development of skill, character and intelligence. Turn every school into a workshop/laboratory engaging science through the making of tools for educational exploration and we will see more intelligent results. Give students the hands-on opportunity to discern that which is real from that which is not, and we will discover wisdom in our nation's youth. My thanks to Richard Bazeley, for the link.

In the photo at left, you can see some of the finished boxes from my Kansas City Woodworker's Guild Box Making Class. Students! Great work!
Make, fix and create...

Kansas City Box Making

 I had a very busy day today making boxes with students from the Kansas City Wood- worker's Guild, as you can see in the photos above and below. More to follow.

make, fix and create...

Talking heads

I am in Kansas City to teach a class with the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild so unlike most mornings, I am in a motel room watching talking heads on TV. I think that being connected through the hands to physical reality gives me a different view, but they(the talking heads) are the ones who are paid big bucks to shape public opinion and manipulate our elections. I am reminded why John Stewart is thought by many to be the bests source of news commentary as much of his program makes use of the foolishness of talking heads, who seem to be out of touch.

It is important to know what is going on in the world, but perhaps talking heads could be made more accountable to physical and cultural reality by bringing more of their whole persons into actual engagement. A wood shop would help bring some common sense grounding to their opinions. I'll wish for it.

"Put a young man in a wood shop, he becomes a philosopher while thinking himself only a craftsman." --Rousseau

This morning at the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild, we will begin making boxes.

Make, fix and create...

Kansas City Woodworker's Guild

I am in Kansas City for a presentation tonight, and then 3 days of classes on box making and building small cabinets. I may not have much time for the blog, but would invite you to explore. There is not much new here on the  hands. People have had them for millions of years, with the hands operating in seamless harmony with thought. Take note of the amount of time that you use your own hands unconsciously and then check the list below to see what you've been missing. Without getting very specific, here is a brief list of some (11) of the wonderful things we do because we have hands, ways in which the hands have shaped our lives, and that we seldom acknowledge.

1. The hands make us smarter.
2. The hands make us feel better.
3. The hands connect us with human culture.
4. The use of the hands in learning help us to discern truth
5. The hands lead to scientific hypothesis.
6. The hands improve communication skills and comfort in communication.
7. The hands allow us to share with others things made to last generations.
8. They express care.
9. They express skill.
10. They sense in greater detail.
11. They take the place of other senses when those senses are impaired.

If you want to know anything about any of these, you can attend tonight's meeting with the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild, 7 PM, 3189 Mercier St. Kansas City, MO, or you can spend a bit of time in my absence digging more deeply into the blog.

Update: My presentation with the Kansas City Woodworker's guild went well and was attended by about 150-200 members. What a wonderful group! I promised them that I would upload a photo to the blog showing the Krenov inspired cabinet that I showed in step-by step slides. Photos follow.

Make, fix and create...

segmented turning at ESSA

Today the Clear Spring School wood shop continues to be used by the Eureka Springs School of the Arts for a segmented turning class with Delbert Dowdy. In the photo at left, Delbert is gluing a small ring of wood using tape to hold the parts in alignment just as I do with box making.

A couple days ago I mentioned a post about narrative based on Jerome Bruner's discussion of narrative in one of his books. One point of distinction is that while Bruner did not recognize the significance of non-verbal narrative, I do. To fail to understand the narrative significance of art is to miss one of its important points.

My post on narrative continues to be a favorite among blog readers, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, many of the readers are from the Philippines. Now, why would that be? perhaps some professor at a university has told his students, "read this."

On the other hand, there is a close relationship between narrative and the true meaning of art. We tend to think of narrative as being a matter of written and spoken word. That limited perspective marginalizes the voices and stories of creative peoples placing greater value on the things that can be published in books over those things which take personal attention to create.

The internet is leveling the verbal playing field giving all a voice in written words that might be compelled to demand it. But wwe must be careful not to neglect other forms of narrative for they are what give us things to write in the first place. The post to which I refer is 3 characteristics of narrative.

While the CSS shop is being used by Delbert's class, I am packing and preparing for my classes with the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My evening presentation will be on Wednesday night, 7 PM at 3189 Mercier St. Kansas City, MO.  I'll be presenting on the Wisdom of the Hands.

Come if you can.
If not, make, fix and create.

A role for the arts...

Some readers may remember a campaign years ago, "arts for the arts' sake," which was intended to suggest that the arts had value without us expecting anything more from them. But why should we ignore the diverse benefits of the arts and leave them uncounted? The following is from Wikipedia:

"Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, "l'art pour l'art", and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "autotelic", from the Greek autoteles, “complete in itself”, a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings.

To see the arts as thus isolated is crippling and narrow minded, in the same way that to see physics, biology or math as isolated from the arts is destructive of education. To put the arts on a pedestal takes them out of reach, and hides from the bean counters among us their true value. If we were smart in American education, we would see that making, fixing and creating are tangible extensions of literacy, moving children from one side of a consumptive balance into the other as full creative participants in human culture. Maybe balance will be restored in the next generation, for it will certainly take some time for the wisdom of the hands to build a head of steam, and for NCLB legislation and its damaging effects to be left in the dust.

The arts are important as a means through which to engage the hands in learning, thus shaping character, intellect and creative relationship between individual and society at large. Simple but true. And the hands, in turn, provide a complete rationale for the arts of all kinds in American education. If you are concerned about learning, think of the hands, if you are concerned about how to engage the hands, remember the arts. One, two. Schools designed as studio/laboratories will be the new ideal for those who manage to get their hands on straight.

Today Delbert Dowdy, wood turner, will begin his 5 day class on segmented turning at ESSA, the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. I will meet him this morning to get the Clear Spring School wood shop ready to welcome the class. The turned hollow form vessel shown above is a piece of Delbert's work. Can you see in it the integration of art and math? You'd have to be fingerblind to miss it.

In the photo above, Delbert and his students have made sleds for cutting parts for segmented bowls.

Make, fix and create...

failure...

American Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is planning to relax enforcement of the No Child Left Behind legislation in light of its general all-around failure, according to this article, Fighting the Slow Motion Train Wreck of American Schools. Just in case you don't follow the link and read for yourself, I've quoted as follows:

"Republicans and Democrats agree the law is broken. The Bush-era legislation has led to schools being labeled failures even though they are making improvements, and has discouraged states from adopting higher standards. Duncan said he's encouraged by talks with federal lawmakers in recent weeks indicating the law might see revisions this year. But he said he wants a backup plan in case that doesn't happen. "We can't afford to do nothing," he said.

Duncan said the department is talking to state officials, teachers, principals and parents about how to help schools if the law isn't rewritten. He said any actions taken by the department would not prevent Congress from continuing to negotiate re-authorization.

The news comes as relief for governors, who say their schools should not be punished because of an outdated law. In Georgia, for example, the state Department of Education is creating a "performance index" that measures growth in academic achievement rather than just year-to-year test scores and looks at more subjects than just reading and math, the only two required under the federal law."

I hope that at some point, we all will realize that top down measures for educational reform will not work as well as those from the bottom up, and this too, involves the hands' close proximity to the problems at hand. Get administrators out of the way instead of forcing them to interfere in classroom management, then allow teachers to teach from the foundation of a clear understanding of what works. We all know that we learn best, learn most thoroughly, with the greatest energy and enthusiasm for learning and to greatest lasting effect when we learn hands on. It is a matter we each can test for ourselves, and then put in practice if we are brave enough to do so. Call it the strategic implementation of the hands. Where it must be done behind the back of reluctant administrators, call it the surreptitious, strategic implementation of the hands. In either case, put the hands to work for benefit of learning.

Does this sound overly simplistic? Believe me, there is nothing simple about the hands. They have given shape to human intelligence and the entirety of human culture. Then again, a bit of training helps. Please don't leave them dangling.

The photo is from last year's ESSA class for teachers that I co-taught with Dr. Peggy Kjelgaard, The Brain, the Hands and the Arts.

Make, fix and create.

favorites...

One of the ways that I can assess my own participation in this blog, and its value to my readers is through a tracking service which tells me which posts are read again and again by readers or forwarded to new readers via email. It also tells me how readers have found their way into my site. Tracking services are one of the advantages that internet writers have over writers of the past who often labored over their words for years before seeing any kind of response from their readers. Most wrote without knowing whether it would be of any interest whatsoever. Writing with the assistance of modern technology is far easier than ever before, and is thus of less value. In that it is on a par with most other human endeavors that have been assisted and simultaneously undermined at the same time.

One of my readers' favorite posts has to do with the narrative, or story telling aspects of craft, and a search for a discussion of narrative is a thing that brings many first time visitors to this blog. Seeing numbers is not the same as having a personal conversation with readers, but it does show interest in what I've had to say, and helps me to know that what I discuss has growing relevance. You can read a reader favorite on the subject of narrative here. The photo above left is a "narrative" work, as  described in the earlier post. Another favorite post concerns the relationship between Pestalozzi and Froebel in laying the groundwork for Educational Sloyd. That post can be read here. Readers of this blog can give feedback through the comments link below. Do you have a favorite post or subject area? Let me know. A conversation if far better than statistics.

A reader, in Buffalo, Jeff, who does woodwork with his 7 year old son, sent a link to Childhood Engineers. The article describes how the various opportunities that children have for play can be a strong influence in their future capacities in science, technology, engineering and math.

Today, I am cleaning the shop and preparing for my class at the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild and for filming my DVD Building Small Cabinets the following week.

Make, fix and create.

casting doubt...

One of the lines in yesterday's quote from Jules Payot on the subject of will used the term "methodical skepticism." Can you imagine a school system or educational method in which children are led to question rather than accept as certain the proclamations of the teaching staff and the state approved text books? The idea of methodical skepticism is related to Cartesian doubt, and the writings of Descartes:

Several years have now elapsed since I first became aware that I had accepted, even from my youth, many false opinions for true, and that consequently what I afterward based on such principles was highly doubtful; and from that time I was convinced of the necessity of undertaking once in my life to rid myself of all the opinions I had adopted, and of commencing anew the work of building from the foundation... – René Descartes, Meditation I, 1641

One of the things that happen when we work with wood or other real materials in our efforts to craft useful and beautiful objects is that we encounter physical reality and are forced to learn from it, not simply accepting those things that are described by others. Misquoting Descartes, he proclaimed, "I tinker, therefore I am..." Cast doubt, and see what you can catch from it... the truth perhaps?

So I raise the question, and cast the doubt, is education designed to put us to sleep? Or to awaken us to a world of exploration and discovery? As Jacob Bronowski said, "the hands are the cutting edge of the mind." Still the hands, still the intellect, and stifle the imagination.

According to a shocking article in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, my home town's public high school has been measured by Diplomas Count as having a graduation rate of 55.2%. That is an alarming figure, and while there may be some anomalies on which to lay the blame, it is obvious that our public education is not doing enough to encourage students to stay in school. According to Sterling Lloyd, senior research associate,

"If students have information about all the opportunities that exist after high school that might encourage students to persist. They'll see the connection between a high school education and future job opportunities."

I have been an advocate for mentoring and internship programs to engage students in outside the school learning opportunities, and have discovered that I have not done enough.

Make, fix and create...

the education of the will

The development of will, "The mental faculty by which one deliberately chooses or decides upon a course of action," is a more common subject for discussion in Europe and in Waldorf education than in the US. We seem more concerned with controlling willful behavior than developing children's motive force. How do we develop within students, the willingness to try difficult things, to face failure, and to thence try again and persist toward excellence? Are schools merely about meeting standards or transcending them? And is "ease of use" our terminal objective? Is it the anvil upon which human character is forged?

I have been reading a book from Waldorf Education called Will-Developed Intelligence, Handwork & Practical Arts in the Waldorf School, and also found a much older book, The Education of Will by Jules Payot, available as a free download. It can be read on Kindle or Nook or directly on your computer screen. The following is from the preface to the 27th edition.

The age to which we belong is conducive to mental unrest. Neither in dogmas nor institutions can be found the peace of mind which comes from the certitude of complete repose. Even Catholicism itself, which at one time offered a secure sanctuary for the unsettled mind, is full of the most serious internal dissensions.

In politics, sociology, and morals no principle remains undiscust. Secondary education, knowing nothing of the will, remains almost exclusively intellectual. From the moral point of view, it is an ineffectual compromise between precedent and innovation.

Young people start in life with a handicap; they have not been trained to patience long sustained, to disinterestedness, to methodical skepticism, all of which go to constitute the philosophical spirit.

Their tendency is toward intolerance, and this because the great doctrine of the relativeness of knowledge has not penetrated their practical rule of life. A discipline of liberty has not instilled in them the habit of looking for "the soul of truth," which gives birth to new ideas. They take sides too soon, and from that moment they are useless for the elaboration of superior syntheses, or in other words, for the search after truth. Every man should apply himself with all his soul to the truth. It is in this that freedom consists--in the infusion of one's personal attitude with the realities of life.

To be free means, therefore, that one realizes the laws which register the exterior and interior realities of life, and that one realizes one's self. If these two conditions are not fulfilled, the complete and harmonious development of the personality is impossible.

This double consciousness moreover can only be acquired by action. In observing the effects of action on one's self, little by little the cloak of prejudice and suggestion which conceals our deeper tendencies is penetrated, and the fundamental ego is revealed. Emerson remarks that his duty is something which has to do with his own personality, and not with the opinions of others-- a rule as hard to apply in the practical as in the intellectual life, but which can take the place of all distinctions between greatness and littleness. We must therefore have a distinct consciousness of ourselves if we wish to fulfill our personal destiny completely. If we do not know ourselves, we become the sport of circumstances, of suggestions, and of erroneous beliefs which mar our development and give it a direction, which does violence to our fundamental tendencies.

Realizing ourselves and taught by realities in the midst of which we move, in order to fulfill our destiny we only have to treat with the law of causation. It is thus with the commander of a vessel. It is the tendency of the waves to swallow him up; he obliges them to support him, in the same way that he compels a contrary wind to take him to port. Not only does reflex action lay bare our fundamental tendencies, but it renders almost tangible the great moral law which dominates our social structure. The expansion of my personality and the proportionate value of my cooperation in the common task depend for a large part on the richness, intellectual and moral of other men. My highest individual power coincides with the greatest degree of outside support and of justice.

But the slow exploration of our fundamental tendencies and the intelligent development of our will, subjected to the law of cause and effect, make repose necessary. We must resist the dilettante habits acquired by an early encyclopedic training; we must resist the terrifying menial dissipation of useless reading, and the trepidation of contemporary life. Tranquility is required before a solution will form into crystals of regular beauty. In the same way, we need meditation if we would mold our fundamental personality into good, energetic habits.
--Jules Payot, April 10, 1907

I know this is long but worthy of study. People like to read the short and sweet things that can be easily digested, but there is meat here. You will need to chew. We think of schools as imparting knowledge when we also need to think of them as building and informing character. Knowledge is easy, character is hard.

Today in the wood shop, I am working on small cabinet parts to prepare for beginning to film my DVD Building Small Cabinets.

I was just informed that readers can now download my DVD Basic Box Making direct from the Fine Woodworking Website for a price of $14.95, a significant savings over the hard copy price. You can also preview a portion of the DVD from the same link.

Make, fix and create. What the craftsman striving toward excellence most sincerely creates is him or her self.

subversive implementation of the hands...

I had a young friend here to visit yesterday with her husband and accompanied by her parents who had been my best friends when I moved to Eureka Springs. It was a very pleasant reunion. As a professional matter, I will not name her in the blog, but my friend is a first grade teacher in the poor area of a fairly large mid-western city and she's very well aware of the problems that face American education. Nearly every year, her administration orders some new program that is supposed to make things better. When she finds one to be working in her own classroom, they change the next year anyway, saying, "We don't do that anymore." And so the changes keep coming, rolling down from the top, devised and imposed by administrators sincerely trying to gain control of a system that is out of hand. And in the midst of that, teachers burn out, resign, and move on in desperation and despair.

My friend stated, "I wish someone knew what to do." And that was my invitation to raise my hand, and to suggest, "I do know what to do." Even in the face of administrators who just don't get it, who are driven by fear, I do know what to do! Teachers can and must liberate their children's hands. The use of the hands is the pathway to the development of mind. If crafts are denied you in the teaching of literature or math, begin a program of advanced deliberate sneaky subversive doodling. We learn more efficiently with greater lasting effect when our hands are engaged, and while administrators can attempt to control many things, the solution for the problems within American education are not ones that we can expect to be delivered from the top. The simple revolution I propose is all about getting a grip, gaining and offering a renewed understanding of the role of the hands in learning and thus re-energizing American education.

Preposterous?

It may seem truly absurd and egotistical for a woodworker in Arkansas to make suggestions for such subversive change, but I am actually not alone in what I propose. Nearly all the great educators have led us by the hand to this point. You can find the seed of what I present in the writings of Dewey, Montesorri, Froebel, Pestalozzi, Cygnaeus, Comenius, and so many more including those who were the founders of the industrial arts movement in the US. And so, I am not alone but stand on the shoulders of giants. If you don't believe me, do your homework. Then put your children's hands to work. Devise motions, gestures and hand signs through which children can express their engagement. Encourage them to doodle and engage with manipulatory objects. Let them knit. Let them make cake. Let them eat it too. When administrators realize what you've done, you may be required to explain a few things. But the impact on student learning will be self-explanatory. When the administrators begin to understand the impact of the hands, we can then move toward what schools could have been in the first place, workshop-laboratories for the development of intellect, character and creativity.

Make, fix and create.

3rd grade brain development

A new study shows significant brain changes between 2nd and third grades. The researchers think it might be caused by school, but have found no cause and effect relationship. I would suggest that the changes including increased cross-lateralization (cross-talk between hemispheres) are the natural effects of the maturing brain, having little to do with school and more to do with normal brain development. It explains why Finnish schools would start certain educational endeavors like reading when the children have reached the point of development at which those particular lessons would be most effective rather than detrimental. Students pushed too early and too vigorously to read also learn to dislike and resist reading. (and math) Children are more likely to enjoy reading and math if they are allowed to mature first and read later.

It used to be that teachers were trained to watch for cross-lateral brain development in their students as a means for assessing reading readiness. Kindergarten teachers were trained to observe whether or not their students could skip, indicating that the two halves of the brain were becoming more closely integrated. The idea was that if you could skip, you were nearing the time in which you would be ready to read. When standardized testing became so dominant in American education, they stopped training teachers in the use of more direct tools of observation and stopped trusting teachers as being capable of assessment.

Make, fix and create.

what to do?

Just in case you don't have a shop with tools, or any tools at all, there are things you can do to energize your creative self and explore the feelings that arise as you develop skill. Frank Rosenow's sailor's classic, the Ditty Bag Book, a guide for sailors could serve as the starting point for personal transformation from idle consumer to skilled craftsman. I discovered this book through a recent review in Wooden Boat magazine.

Ditty Bags are small bags in which sailors keep their important small tools for sail mending and sewing related fixing and mending on the ship or boat. As you can see from the cover, ditty bags themselves were often opportunities for creative craftsmanship. This book, small enough to fit in a ditty bag, gives you all you need to know to make ditty bags of your own, and build the skills necessary to do innumerable wonderful things related to your boat. For instance, stitched-on leather chafing gear is far more beautiful and interesting than rubber hose. No boat? Why would you let that stop you? Make a bag first, and stitch your way toward having the skills and confidence necessary for building a boat later.

The Rebellion of an Innovation Mom is a Princeton professor's answer to Tiger Mothering. While our children are being over-scheduled, and literally driven from one parental imposed activity to another, free time is being recognized as essential to innovation.

Remember that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to follow their passions.

Can we really imagine kids who have done absolutely everything expected of them both in and out of school being willing to ignore their college courses and their parents’, teachers’, and coaches’ expectation to suddenly pursue their own path?

I always have interesting conversations with my teacher friends, and a party on the Osage Creek last night was an opportunity for a brief conversation with a friend who is working as a teacher's aide. She said that how things are not working is a common topic for conversation amongst teachers in our local public schools. But the teachers, she says are "jaded and philosophical" about it. "The pendulum swings," they say. "First, the administration pushes this way and then that." We know that many of the pushes made by administration are in response to governmental regulations and the latest fads among politicians. Teachers as a result, are beaten down and hesitant to try new things, only to face criticism and disciplinary action. Can it be any surprise that many choose to leave the teaching profession within three to five years?

There are interesting changes that can come best from below. Administrative discipline cannot stop teachers from adopting an interest in the strategic implementation of the hands. Subtle things can be done that quiet the mind, and engage students in the classroom, even if they require sneaking pipe cleaners and playdough and other kinds of ditty into student hands. Teachers, try it. If you get caught, explain it. If that doesn't work, send your administrator to me and I'll try to explain it for you.

Make, fix and create.

tough time for graduates

"Let the youth once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick level in its mortar, and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him." --John Ruskin, "Time and Tide", 1883

Over the last two decades, as public schools have become serious at measuring rather than providing for student success, they began dropping their woodworking programs as extraneous. Wood shop was no longer relevant. We had become a nation of sellers and consumers. We were taking a shellacking in industrial productivity in comparison to lesser nations and it was judged reasonable for us to surrender our industrial edge to countries where intelligent labor could be gotten at less cost. We, in turn, were to be a "service economy" in an "information age" and manufacturing was no longer a matter of our strategic concern. Besides, the skills and character that are acquired and expressed through the intelligent acts of making real things, don’t fit neatly on bubble tests, and are thus too hard to measure in a school culture obsessed with measurable "standards". Skill and integrity expressed in the making of real things won't fit neatly on spread sheets.

In the meantime, many of the finest independent schools in America have maintained their woodworking programs, and wouldn’t give them up for the world. Can it be that they know a few things that have been largely forgotten in public education?

This year, with high unemployment, it seems that 85% of new college graduates are headed home to live with Mom and Dad, while jobs in industry requiring engineering degrees and some technical skills are going unfilled. How can they hire someone for complex technical operations if they can’t read a tape measure, or drawing or do the most simple of calculations? If you've never made anything in your life and think that google.com is the answer to all your problem solving concerns, to industry you need not apply.

Fareed Zacharia on CNN has a program on how to restore our American innovative edge. It just might be worth watching. If we are not a nation of makers, please don't expect us to be a nation of innovative idea makers, either. Here is a bit from Zacharia that you might be hoping for:

...if we are to get the U.S. back to work, we need perhaps even more urgently to rebuild American education, reform our training system, revive high-end manufacturing, focus on new growth industries and rebuild our infrastructure.

Today in my wood shop, I will be doing materials preparation to be ready to make small cabinets for a class with the Kansas City Woodworker’s Guild, June 17 and for the filming of my DVD Building Small Cabinets which will take place the following week in my wood shop. There is a lot of prep work to do in a short period of time. If I'm not here blogging, assume I'm busy in the wood shop. Go ahead on your own...

Make, fix and create, as though our human culture and national success depend upon it. (they do)

More from Sir Charles Bell, 1833...

More from The hand, its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design – Sir Charles Bell, 1833

It would appear that in modern times we know comparatively little of the pleasures arising from motion. The Greeks, and even the Romans, studied elegance of attitude and movement. Their apparel admitted of it, and their exercises and games must have led to it. Their dances were not the result of mere exuberance of spirits and activity; they studied harmony in the motion of the body and limbs, and majesty of gait. Their dances consisted more of the unfolding of the arms than of the play of the feet, ---"their arms sublime that floated on the air." Their Pyrrhic dances were elegant movements, joined to the attitudes of combat, and performed in correct coincidence with the expression of the music, The spectators in their theaters must have had very different associations from ours, to account for the national enthusiasm arising from music and their rage excited by a mere error in the time.

This reminds us that the divisions in music in some degree belong to the muscular sense. A man will put own his staff in regulated time, and the sound of his steps will fall into a measure, in his common walk. A boy striking the railing in mere wantonness, will do it with a regular succession of blows. This disposition of the muscular frame to put itself into motion with an accordance to time is the source of much that is pleasing in music, and aids the effect of melody. There is thus established the closest connection between the enjoyments of the sense of hearing and the exercise of the muscular sense.

"The hand is the instrument for perfecting the other senses and developing the endowments of the mind itself." -- Sir Charles Bell.

If we were to fully understand our children, would we have them sit at desks with their movements restrained, or would we set them at motion with their natural rhythms expressed?

In the meantime, we have a Republican presidential candidate willing to admit that man's activities may have "some effect" on global warming. We have such poor science literacy in the US that we have a large proportion of people in leadership positions in government who deny the validity of science. When schools and parents fail to engage children in making, those children have little skill or confidence in the direct observation upon which science is based. When science is taught in the same manner as religion, you can you see why some believe that belief in science is a choice unrelated to fact, and that they get to choose whatever is convenient. Please believe me when I tell you, that we have made a mess of things in more ways than one. Global warming damages our future, and the well being of every species on earth.

As Mitt Romney eases himself timidly into the issue he puts his candidacy at risk. I wish him luck. But the US cannot continue to be aligned with stupidity.

Mindless making is a waste, as is mind without the benefits derived from inquisitive hands. But when making is mindful, and when mind is applied hands-on to solving real problems, wisdom and compassion arise within the home, community and nation.

Make, fix and create.

Sir Charles Bell

The following is from The hand, its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design – Sir Charles Bell:

The property in the hand of ascertaining the distance, the size, the weight, the form, the hardness and softness, the roughness or smoothness of objects results from the combined perception--through the sensibility of the proper organ of touch and the motion of the arm, hand and fingers. But the motion of the fingers is especially necessary to the sense of touch; they bend, extend, or expand, moving in all directions like palpa, with the advantage of embracing the object, and feeling it on all its surfaces; sensible to its solidity and to its resistance when gasped; moving round it and gliding over its surface, and therefore, feeling every asperity, provided that vigorous circulation, and therefore, the healthful condition both of the mind and the body, shall result from muscular exertion and the alternation of activity and repose.

The pleasure which arises from the activity of the body is also attended by gratification from the exercise of a species of power--as in mere dexterity, successful pursuit in the field, or the accomplishment of some work of art. This activity is followed by weariness and a desire for rest, and although unattended with any describable pleasure or local sensation, there is diffused through every part of the frame, after fatigue and whilst the active powers are sinking into repose, a feeling almost voluptuous. To this succeeds the impatience of rest, and thus we are urged to the alternations which are necessary to health, and invited on from stage to stage of our existence.

We owe other enjoyments to the muscular sense. It would appear that in modern times we know comparatively little of the pleasures arising from motion.

Use your hands and mind their effects. They are cause for marvel. Make, fix and create.

makers vs. dilettantes and bean counters...

Bob Lutz, former vice-chairman of General Motors has written a call to arms (and hands), in "Car Guys vs Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business," which goes on sale on June 9.

"Lutz tells of the battles he fought after joining GM in 2001 to steer the automaker away from over-reliance on data and back to its roots making well-designed, popular cars. More broadly, the book serves as a clarion call for all U.S. manufacturers to focus on their products rather than quarterly numerical targets. "We are no longer the richest, most all-powerful nation in the world, where we can afford to pay each other high salaries and high wages and high benefits and import $19 DVD players from China," Lutz said in an interview. "That is not going to work. We pay for it in IOUs called Treasury bills," he added. "Time is running out and the country is going to have to reestablish its industrial base."

It sounds like a good read about an asinine situation. In the meantime, there are a few of us makers left, though we have long felt as though we are an endangered species, and might be the last of our kind. Now the pendulum seems to be starting its swing in the opposite direction and noticed that with the exception of bombs and missles we no longer lead in the making of diddly squat. In the meantime, David Brooks at the New York Times has some ideas for the recent generation of college graduates, presented in an editorial Its Not About You... The idea Brooks offers is that while many commencement speakers are telling students to go out and find themselves, they should lose themselves  instead in efforts to tackle real problems...

Much of what we've done in the last generation has been to seek ease. Ease of use, comfort and security, when what we all need are challenges that cause us to transcend our own perceived limitations through the development of skill.

Make, fix and create.

Hand in mind, mind in hand...

It seems that life is experimental. On the more personal level, some live long, some die young. Some individuals are met with recognition and success, some struggle long years without either. On the broad cultural level, as we've become rather homogeneous in our addictions to technology, it seems that we keep moving in directions that have unpredictable outcomes. An example is that now medical scientists have reawakened their serious concerns about cell phones, and as my wife and I were talking this morning, we were thinking about our own limited use of them, and our children's much more active cell phone engagement. Do they cause cancer? I guess that is one of those things that we will certainly find out. We spend about half our time hoping that science can be wrong, or that we and our own children can in some way be lucky enough to escape scot free, what we seem to be doing to ourselves.

And what about the hands? The rise of machine tools and automation brought with it the idea that the things that fill our lives can be created without effort and at little cost. But are there no hidden prices that we must pay? If only life could be as simple as we might hope. And it is not. There are those unforeseen consequences that play havoc. They sneak up on us. Life, after all, is experimental.

But what if we were to engage our minds more handfully and our hands more mindfully? They are, after all, entwined throughout our development, as individuals and as a species. Felix Adler wrote in 1883 about his experiment at the Workingman's School in New York City:

"The salient feature of the new experiment is that it introduces what may be called the creative method into school education. The system of teaching by object lessons has long been familiar to educators. It is proposed to improve upon this system by giving lessons in the production of objects. The step forward taken by Pestalozzi, when he summoned teachers to desist from the vain work of teaching the names of things, and to lead their pupils rather to a first-hand observation of things, marked a new epoch in the science of pedagogy. At present, still another step must be taken, viz, from the mere observation to the production of things as a means of acquiring knowledge; and the taking of this step will mark another epoch in pedagogy. Froebel began to apply the principle of the creative method in his Kindergarten. But the kindergarten system covers only three years of the child's life; while, for the school age proper, no valuable and tangible formulation of the creative principle has yet been given...

I have thus far spoken only of the value of the creative method for the culture of the intellect. But we who desire an "all-sided" rather than a "one-sided" development of the child must take into account the aesthetic and moral nature as well; only by the harmonious culture of all three can the larger humanity be perfected; and the creative method must show itself capable of giving a powerful stimulus in all these different directions if it would vindicate its title to the high significance which we are inclined to ascribe to it."

I am reminded of a diver. If you plunge in head first from a great height and do not have your hands positioned to first break water, the impact is painful and damaging. But lead carefully with your hands as all great divers do, and you enter the water beautifully with little splash. So even in the physical realm, the hands are the partner of head. In education, hand and mind are intertwined, except that in our dangerous experiment in education we have forgotten to lead with the hands.

Go against the flow. Row against the falling tide.

Today I am finishing the small cherry glass front cabinet to send to Fine Woodworking and one of the last steps prior to installing the pull on the front is to install rare earth magnets in the door and side. In the photo at left you can see the simple method for aligning holes for rare earth magnets to fit. In the hole already drilled in the door is the dowel locator pin. In the cabinet side, you can see the mark made by the pin.

I drill that hole next, and then using one magnet to hold the other (so their attraction is maximized and not negated), I close the door forcing the second magnet into the hole drilled in cabinet side. The fit is tight, so no glue is required. And no other method will keep the poles of the magnets oriented in the right direction so they attract.

Make, fix and create.

quotes

Today, I am writing an article for Fine Woodworking, reviewing my Building Small Cabinets book and attempting to get an idea what it would cost to manufacture a new tool for woodworking. On the subject of woodworking education, I have these quotes:

I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education. ~Tallulah Bankhead

A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. ~George Santayana

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. ~Malcolm S. Forbes

My review of Veritas Detail Rabbet Planes in Fine Woodworking arrived today, FWW NO. 220, August 2011. My article on making a Sliding Bookrack will appear in the August/September issue of American Woodworker.

The following article, Cause for alarm: Antipsychotic drugs for nursing home patients contends that we are over medicating our nursing home patients to keep them quiet and manageable. I have news. We never outgrow our need to be creatively engaged through our hands. What a waste we create of our lives when we deprive ourselves and others of the fulfillment that comes from creative work expressed through our hands. As I have been engaged today in computer based work, rather than in the wood shop, I feel disoriented and slightly depressed. But fortunately I know how to fix that. I go to the shop and make something.

Go ahead, make your day, make, fix and create.

lower visual field...

This is a long video and you most likely would not watch the whole thing. It is useful in understanding the significance of the hands in relation to the brain. We know that the eyes are important, but this video explains that much of the information processed from within the lower visual field is actually devoted to the hands. We constantly watch our hands and observe how they interact with our physical environment. Not only are our hands sensory organs, they are also primary objects of concern for the other senses. It has been well stated that our intellectual growth is the result of our motor activity rather than sensory input. And yet we put children in school situations that restrain their natural investigations.

Today I spent some time cleaning the Clear Spring School wood shop to prepare for this summer's classes with the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. I also planted tomatoes and peppers in containers on the deck. I am hoping to get deeper into growing some of our own food, and this is a very small first step.

Make, fix, create... and grow a few things, too.

how we understand ourselves

Throughout the ages, man's conception of self has had major impact on how we act, and on the decisions we make. For instance, Freud's notion of the unconscious brought major changes to our perceptions of self. The resulting field of psychology has had profound impact on business, education and culture, and how we think of ourselves.

The drawing of the homunculus above should be telling us something. It illustrates the proportion of the motor and sensory cortex devoted to particular portions of the human anatomy, with the hand occupying a disproportionately large proportion of the brain's activity. This is nothing new to early educators, who based their teaching on the direct observation of the hand's role in the development of character and intellect, and its unique ability to capture the child's attentions and interests in learning. There is not so much to say here that I've not said before. What we learn is best learned by doing. What I've told here is best tested in your own hands.

If we were to better understand and accept the role of the hands in our perceptions of who we are, we would come to the point of dramatic change in the ways we educate our children, and be more successful for it. Want me to spell it out more clearly? Restore the arts, music, dance and wood shop and integrate them with core subject areas. Each is a way to bring the hands into the classroom, and engage the heart of every learner.

Make, fix and create.

start with the interests of the child

Our front yard has been a pool of water for weeks, as heavy rains have regenerated a spring that had been active in the years before our house was built. Early settlers had built a dry stacked stone spring box large enough that we can walk inside, and it 's the only discernible evidence of their having lived here before our time. Now we have a steady stream of clear water flowing across in front of our house. That much water is no surprise. A neighbor measured 38 inches of rain this month, with the bulk of it coming in two storms. The first was 24 inches delivered in two days, and the second was 14 inches in a 36 hour period. Now it is beginning to dry again and we have the kind of beautiful early summer day that we are used to having in Arkansas.

I want to restate the principles of educational sloyd.

Start with the interests of the child.
Progress from the known to the unknown
from the easy to the more difficult
from the simple to the complex
from the concrete to the abstract.

A mistake has been made in thinking that once we get over the simple stuff, or the known stuff, or the easy stuff, or out of the concrete, we move on, without looking back...  but child-like wonder is something we must never allow ourselves to escape. It is the instrument that lures us onward toward growth. We think we have matured, but matured to what? And in what ways? Are our lives as meaningful as we have become adult? There is a difference between mature behavior and maturity of spirit, and maturity of spirit is the opposite of what we might think.

In my very early days, I wanted to be an explorer and inventor, discovering, sharing new ideas, in the making of new things, and what I've become instead is an inventor of methods specific to woodworking, that I have been given the privilege of sharing through a variety of means. I make things in the wood shop, and tell how they are made, and why they are made, and in the process, as described by Comenius, "We give form to ourselves and to our materials at the same time." In the making of things, I myself am made, and that too, is a process I can share. And all this begins with a child-like wonder. The precept, Start with the interests of the child applies to the child within each of us as well as to the children we are privileged to instruct.

My box for the article for FineWoodworking is nearly complete and is shown in the photo above.

Make, fix and create.

10 years

My wife reminded me that I've now taught woodworking at the Clear Spring School for 10 years, and while I've been a friend of the school for far longer, these 10 years have passed quickly, and have brought a great deal of excitement and interest to my own life. I have been enriched in so many inummerable ways. For instance, Oakley's dad told me that last night he had the toy tank he had made in wood shop earlier in the day at the dinner table, as he and his brother contemplated using rubber bands to form treads. There is a huge excitement in a child's life when he or she has the opportunity to engage in physical creativity, and besides the enrichment of my own life, I can see that what the kids and I do together in wood shop has lasting value in their lives as well.

This afternoon, I've been finishing boxes and a small cabinet for shipping to Fine Woodworking, and continuing to go over edited text and layout for my Building Small Cabinets book. The photo above shows setting up to rout the cherry door frame for the fitting of knife hinges. I use a story stick technique of my own invention to set up for the hinges at top and bottom to be in perfect alignment.

I often listen to the radio as I work, and was listening to a program at noon in which a man was describing the impact of human negligence on our streams and waterways in our communities. He used the phrase, "out of sight, out of mind," which I know is familiar to most of my readers. Another phrase comes to mind. When things are "out of hand," they are out of control. If we were to cease our hands-on engagement in nature and preservation of our natural resources, do you have any idea where we would be going? A third old colloquialism fits the bill. "To hell in a hand basket."

Make, fix and create. Come alive to your own creative potential

educational waste?

At left is a preview of a box I'm making to illustrate box making techniques for Fine Woodworking Magazine. The article will instruct on a variety of box making subjects including the making of the pull and feet used in this box.

The following is from John Dewey:

"A large part of the educational waste comes from the attempt to build a superstructure of knowledge without a solid foundation in the child's relation to his social environment. In the language of correlation, it is not science, or history or geography that is the center, but the group of social activities growing out of the home relations. It is beginning with the motor rather than with the sensory side... It is one of the great mistakes of education to make reading and writing constitute the bulk of the school work the first two years. The true way is to teach them incidentally as the outgrowth of the social activities at this time."-- from The University Record, The University of Chicago Press, 1896

I don't believe most Americans would know how important John Dewey was in the international arena with regards to education. He was certainly well known and admired throughout Scandinavia, and perhaps some of my international readers would comment on the importance of John Dewey in their own countries. Here in the US, it seems Dewey is largely forgotten, as we have designed the structure of American education to be so contrary to what he had in mind.

In Finland schools, as I've mentioned so many times before, they don't bother with reading until the students are 8 years old. Here in the US, we are pushing reading in kindergarten, which had been invented as a method of learning through play. Talk about twisted! We've got both Froebel and Dewey rolling over in their graves. By the time students in Finland reach 8th grade, they far surpass American students in reading with 38% fewer years devoted to the subject. In Finland students in the earliest grades do all those things that Dewey had proposed including wood shop, and the results should be telling us something.

Some of these things are not hard to fix. Give teachers better training in the fundamentals and educational theory. Allow them greater autonomy in making learning fun and correlated with the child's relationships with family and community. Make way for schools to become laboratories and workshops for hands-on learning. I call this the strategic implementation of the hands.

This morning we had the end of the school year program at the Clear Spring School, "the Celebration of the Child". It is hard to believe that another school year has passed. Now I have a summer filled with teaching, and writing and making.

You may know that I love discovering new things, and today I needed to make a new jig for cutting miter key slots in the corners of boxes. While making the new jig, as shown in the photo, I also discovered a new way to easily position boxes on the jig, by using measured blocks between the box and the slide that fits in the miter gauge slot. It is easier now for me than ever before, easy to repeat set-ups using the same blocks, and it will be a treat to share this new technique with my summer classes at the Kansas City Woodworker's Guild, ESSA and Marc Adams School of Woodworking. This new technique also eliminates the need for clamps and clamping stop blocks in place on the jig. If I make box making any easier for my students, it may take all the challenge out of it and they may have to turn to making small cabinets to keep their growth of skill challenged. The photo shows the new jig, box with miter key slots complete, and the 4 blocks used to position the cuts. The three thicker blocks position the height of the cut from the top of the box, and the thin block is used to raise the box so that the blade will not go as deep on the adjoining cuts.

Make, fix and create.

celebration of the child...

The students at Clear Spring School are busy today rehearsing for their end of the school year performances in what we call, "the celebration of the child," our end of the school year program. This year, we are losing our beloved head of school, Phyllis Poe, as she retires from a distinctive record of service to the school. We are sad, but also thrilled that a well qualified replacement has been found.

I have been so saddened by the devastation brought to Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Southwest Missouri, by this tornado season. The storms have been of unusual ferocity and destructive force. At Clear Spring School, we are having a toy drive to supply toys to children who survived the Joplin tornado, that lost everything as their homes were swept away. Our hearts go out to our neighbors who have faced such loss with such courage.

I am entering my own whirlwind of sorts, though one much more positive, knock on wood, than what we've witnessed around us. I am cleaning the school wood shop, working on last minute edits of the Building Small Cabinets book, writing an article for Fine Woodworking, preparing to teach this next month with the Kansas City Woodworking Guild, and laying out cabinet parts in preparation for the production of my DVD on Building Small Cabinets that will also be published by Taunton Press. I will also be fine tuning my Wisdom of the Hands book proposal, with the much needed help of my former editor from Woodwork Magazine.

The following is from The Century Magazine, 1885:

"There is an industrial training which is neither technical nor professional, which is calculated to make better men and better citizens of the pupils, no matter what calling they many afterward follow; which affects directly, and in a most salutary manner, the mind and character of the pupil, and which will be of constant service to him through all his life, whether he be wage worker, or trader, teacher or clergyman. The training of the eye and of the hand are important and essential elements in all good education. These elements the State is bound to furnish." --Washington Gladden

Make, fix and create.

sticks, tools and kids

This was the last class of the school year for my 7th and 8th grade students, and they can be a challenging bunch of kids, especially when the weather has been haywire, and they are counting their days until summer break. Their hands want to be engaged in everything. Sticks are of particular interest, as they denote power. If it is a movable object, it gets fiddled with, clunked, turned into a disruption, and the opportunity to ask children to develop self-discipline and self awareness is ever-present in the wood shop. Seventh and 8th grade students like to make threatening gestures toward each other, and at times I have to corral them and correct their behavior to keep the wood shop a welcoming, learning environment. Frankly, I can understand why some teachers would prefer an object free lesson plan in a sterile classroom, devoid of the kinds of objects that lay claim to children's attentions. It is easier, and less demanding of self-discipline. The clear need to reinforce self-discipline is why most shop teachers take on a curmudgeonly demeanor. But are we supposed to make schools easy or hard? How about difficult and challenging? ... Even when that means that children must develop self awareness and consciousness toward others, taking charge of their own impulses...

Today, I was able to explain to the kids why lessons on learning styles, and making things in the wood shop are closely related... that when they are making something, its value is not in the object made but in the skills and character they develop in the making. We also made cards to send to Beth Ireland as a small token of thanks for spending her time with us making whistles in the wood shop. Some kids got the creative spirit, and some did not. After one more day of classes, I spend time getting the wood shop ready for this summer's classes with the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. Kids are shown above and cards below.

Make, fix and create.

cherishing the views

General Francis A. Walker, President of MIT in 1887:

Cherishing the views I do as to what constitutes a complete education, I would allow no pupil to graduate from a high school who was not as proficient and exact in mechanical as in grammatical exercises; I would not make myself responsible for adding to the number of youth who have been trained in description, without having been taught to observe the things they should describe; who have spent years in the art of rhetorical elaboration and ornamentation, without acquiring any adequate body and substance upon which to exercise those arts; who are clever in dialectics and declamation, but purblind in perception and feeble in execution; great at second-hand knowledge, but confused and diffident when thrown upon their own resources; skillful with the pen, but using any other tool awkwardly and ignorantly.

This week I am wrapping up another school year, reviewing pages of my new book, checking for errors before it goes to press, and working on text for an article for Fine Woodworking. Our hearts go out to the people of Joplin, Missouri, who have suffered a tragic tornado, destroying nearly 25% of the city. My wife and I had been to Joplin on Saturday and had driven through the area hit by the deadly storm, and so seeing the damage on TV brings special sense of relationship and concern.

Today, my article on slow making appeared on p. 17 of the Summer 2011 UU World Magazine. If you are a UU, your own copy of the UU World should be arriving soon.

Make, fix and create.

failings and grace

This morning I listened to parts of an interview with Mike Rose, author of The Mind at Work, about his new book, Possible Lives, the Promise of Public Education in America, on the hopeful, grace-filled, elements of American Education. Mike reminds that while education in America has been taking an incredible beating in the press and by American politicians and corporate CEOs either trying to score points or make big bucks, there are some wonderful things happening in the lives of children and teachers in schools. There are schools that work and teachers that make them work, and if we look toward what has been demonstrated as possible, the chance of meaningful change is brought to the fore. Mike finds public schools and teachers that can inspire and lead the way. From the interview:

"As we continue to emphasize -- almost exclusively -- the economic, vocational purpose of schooling, and we tie that to a particular technocratic kind of assessment, that is, the standardized, high stakes test, we end up with an education system that narrows, rather than expands, and certainly doesn’t befit a democratic society...We know from research that particular subject areas are de facto being addressed less in our schools: the arts, music, literature, history, some of the social studies."

If you look back, the same dilemma in American education has been with us for some time. I was reminded of this by recent reports on the decline of engineering in the US, related to our failure to launch enough young engineers to fill the positions available for them. Calvin Woodward of Washington University was considered one of the two fathers of manual arts in the US, and like John Runkle at MIT, started his manual training program because his engineering students, most deficient in  practical hands-on experience, were coming to university unprepared for success. It was a situation very much like today, and so it is worthwhile to look back. (Though very few are looking in that direction.)

In Dec. 1885, Dr. Woodward spoke at a public gathering in Boston at the invitation of various leading citizens including the mayor, the superintendent of schools, the governor of Massachusetts, and the president of MIT. He quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"We are students of words; we are shut up in schools and colleges and recitation room from ten to fifteen years, and come out at the last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or eyes, or our arms... In a hundred high schools and colleges, this warfare against common sense still goes on."

And so Dr. Woodward stated the problem that is still with us today. He also proposed a simple one line epigram for educational reform. He said, "My educational creed I put into six words, Put the whole boy to school." As you and I know from our own learning, where the hands are engaged, the heart and mind are also engaged and the whole boy (and girl) follows. From the vantage point offered by our human hands, we know where the arts, music, manual arts, laboratory science, field trips, camping, nature studies and so many other fields of human adventure fit in American schooling and why they are too important to continue to neglect. Neglect the hands on the other hand, and intelligence and educational enthusiasm wither on the vine.

Make, fix and create.

hands and transcendence

Last night I had a wonderful White Street Studio Walk experience, seeing many wonderful old friends, meeting some new ones, meeting for the first time, people who have had my work in their small collections for many years. And I sold a bit of work to dear friends. This morning, I will spend a bit of time as docent at an exhibit of local art work at the Queen Anne Mansion in Eureka Springs, then return to work in my own wood shop. After being away for a few days, it is always refreshing to be creatively engaged.

Richard Alpert, A.K.A. Ram Dass was an early leader in bringing an interest in Eastern Religions to the US in the 1970's. His book Be Here Now, 1971 was a long time best seller in the hippy generation, and remains in print today. My wife and I had attended one of his lectures in the very early 1980's. He was quite popular at the time, and at the end of one of his lectures, many from the audience would line up to have personal words with him and to seek his blessings.

Ram Dass told us of an earlier lecture in which he noticed an elderly woman sitting in the front row. Her hands were quietly busy, but as he would make various points in his lecture, she would nod vigorously in agreement. Out of curiosity, Ram Dass began telling some of the more interesting and unusual things he had discovered about meditation, thinking to himself, "At some point I'm going to lose her." But she just kept nodding in agreement.

At the close of the talk, the woman joined the line to come up to meet Ram Dass. He asked her, "I noticed you in the audience, and you seemed to agree with everything I said. How can an elderly woman in America know so much about things that I had to go to India and study with a master to discover?" She replied, "I knit."

When the hands are purposefully and mindfully engaged in the creative exploration of physical reality, there are things that can happen that are transcendent of conventional human experience.

On the more practical side, a reader, Mike, in the UK sent this link,"Not Made in England". Americans also are becoming aware of the stupidity involved earlier decisions to no longer being a manufacturing nation. We will never outgrow our need for intelligent and creative craftsmanship. It has important consequences for the spirit and intelligence of a nation. I quote:

"People who make things do not just have superior mechanical skills to lard-arsed incurious tourists flying towards a temporary nirvana bought on credit, they have superior cognitive skills, as well."

CNN has an article on why we fail to graduate enough engineers. Why would-be engineers end up as English majors. I will take the liberty to suggest that students would be better prepared for engineering if they were better involved through crafts in scientific exploration at a much earlier age.

Freeman Hrabowski, president of The University of Maryland Baltimore County, said American attitudes toward science are hurting STEM graduation rates.

"We in America have accepted that science is just not for everybody. We send messages to students all the time that, 'This is not really for you,' " he said. "One of the reasons American (students) aren't more excited about science is that adults themselves aren't excited. Most (students) have been weeded out before they even get to college."

Hrabowski said many people assume they're not smart enough to study science or math. His response?

"No. Your teacher wasn't innovative enough."

Schools admit more science majors than they expect to graduate, and don't teach students to support each other, Hrabowski said, instead fostering an atmosphere of cutthroat competition.

"We say, 'If we accept you in science, you have ability to do it, and we'll help you succeed,' " Hrabowski said. "What has made the difference at UMBC is the way we encourage group work and teachers to rethink their approach in the classroom. The results are significantly more students are succeeding."

The hands provide significant leverage for learning, that is most often overlooked in American education. In other words,
Make, fix and create.

white street studio walk

Tonight is the White Street Studio Walk in Eureka Springs, an arts event founded by some friends who all live on White Street in Eureka Springs. They expanded the event by inviting friends to participate, and as usual, I will be displaying my work at Lux Weaving Studio from about 4:30 to 10 PM.

Despite the heavy rains, we expect a large turnout. If you live close to Eureka Springs, join us for a unique arts experience.

home again...

I am back in Arkansas after watching my daughter Lucy graduate from Columbia University. It was a big deal. There were over 19,000 graduates in all including Columbia College, the engineering school,  Teachers College, Barnard, and degrees offered at the masters and doctoral levels in social work, nursing, journalism and nearly every other field of academic endeavor including medicine and law. While there, I received the cover image of my new book, number 7, Building Small Cabinets. The final manuscript for review and last minute corrections was waiting for me when I arrived home. The final cover design is shown above.

While these things are exciting to me, being with the graduates of this major university reminded me of the great work at hand.

One of the things that stands in the way of educational reform is that understanding of theory is used as a gate, rather than a gateway to action, which is contrary to the ways that most human being learn best. So we ask students to take theoretical classes long before they have practical experience in the subject matter. We ask students to study teaching as a theoretical model long before they have classroom experience. Long hours of boring lecture forms the gate, rather than the gateway to experiential learning. And so, many students arrive at their last day of school, knowing little more of what they are to become than they knew when they first arrived.

Some of my daughter's friends are planning to go wwoofing as the followup to their academic careers. This is brought on in part by the faulty economy and lack of jobs, but also by their frustration with the unreality of their college careers. They have a longing to do things and become engaged in things that are real to them. And what can be more real and at greater distance from the their stifled academic existence than the world of organic gardening, getting hands in dirt, and watching real things grow.

Can you see how and why it would be important to have greater emphasis on hands-on learning in the modern university experience? Can you see how universities might become more gateway than gate, by getting students more deeply engaged in their studies? We all know that we learn at greater depth and to greater lasting effect when we learn hands-on. A simple recognition of the importance of the hands in learning can make all the difference in how we shape our children's educations, and our own lives as well.  Or have I lost my marbles in New York?

Years ago, when Lucy began her first year at Columbia, I had conversations with Alan Brinkley, then Provost of Columbia about adding hands-on components to their core curriculum. I know how naive I actually am in such matters. But that will not prevent me from making the same attempt with their new Provost, Claude M. Steele. Education is nearly all about the hands. It is not enough to fill brains with ideas that are untested through hands-on exploration of physical, intellectual and emotional realities. And there are important reasons to get hands dirty, and deeply engaged in learning. As I've stated so many times before, the engagement of the hands develops character and intellect.... and does a whole lot more besides.

On the same subject, can play get your kids into college? Read this from CNN. My hypothesis is that not only will play get you into college, it will help you to know what to do when you get out.

Make, fix and create.