Years ago, when I was a professional potter, Ceramics Monthly published an article about a Czechoslovakian potter who was using a 38 caliber pistol in the creation of sculptural forms. He acquired the pistol from the police for temporary use and would take blocks of clay in a plastic state, and blast holes through as a movie camera captured still images in serial progression. A 38 caliber police pistol for shaping clay is similar to using a back hoe to clean your teeth. It provides interesting effects, that may not of been of any real value. When potters finish their work, they fire it in a kiln, but in this case the firing came first and nothing remained of value except the movie images of the bullet passing through the splatter and mist of porcelain clay.
At the time, I was a serious potter and did not see the value of a 38 in my own studio... I was working toward more delicate effects that expressed skill.
I am kind of stuck in my mind on the relationship between tools and weaponry, swords and plowshares, and exploring the fascination our culture has with guns because I think it helps to explain a few things about the hands. I also believe that if we were trained in the use of tools, we would have a safer, saner and more creative culture, with less attraction to guns and gun violence. In a sense, the Czechoslovakian potter's work could be seen as a reaction to artistic and cultural repression. Unlike our situation in the US where he could get his tool for $40.00 from a thirteen year old drug dealer in Detroit, he had to borrow it from the police and return it when his blasting was complete.
There are striking similarities between a well crafted tool and a well crafted gun. They are each appealing to the hand. I have an interesting tool on my desk made by Bridge City Tool works, and although I haven't quite figured how to use it effectively in my work, I love the feel of it, its weight and how well it is crafted. Its working qualities cannot help but impress the mind, the eye and the hand. There are many of the same qualities available to the hand, in holding and handling a fine pistol or knife.
Human beings crave these tactile engagements. Our hands and attentions are captured by them. To have a pistol in your hand tells of a position of power. It can be put to destructive use without any long ritual of training or developed skill. And yes, I do know that many practice to develop skill, but also know that most do not.
Tools on the other hand, offer the same tactile qualities. A fine Lie Nielsen plane offers the same level of craftsmanship one might find in a Glock. And so it is time to compare and contrast. Both engage the hand. With a foundation of acquired skill the plane engages the imagination calling to mind things that can be created. The Glock, even with no skill, pushes the mind toward things that can be destroyed. A 38 fired into a block of porcelain leaves but a splatter and mist of that which was there before. Anything else you want to see in that state? You can do it and not undo it with what you hold in your hand.
All across the US, children have been educated in the tools of destruction. They participate endless hours in computer gaming in which their real fingers pull virtual triggers and their eyes, minds and hearts are compelled toward insensitivity to violence. Our politics tell them that holding and using real weaponry is their right. And on the other hand, our children are isolated from the tools that offer skilled creative engagement in their communities. The urgings of our hands are to engage one or the other. Our minds and imaginations take their cue from what we hold in our hands. The power to create or the power to destroy. I would prefer that our children have saws and hammers in hand, learn things that allow for the development of skill and community rather than tragedy and remorse. That we don't work toward skilled tool use in our nation's schools is a matter of my deepest concern. If what you saw happen in Arizona makes you sick as it does me, make, fix, create and make certain that every child in your own community has the same opportunity to develop skill in the use of real tools.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
mano a mano
President Obama plans to put new emphasis on education reform, according to this article on the Huffington Post: Obama Putting Education At Front Of His Agenda, But Trouble Lurks. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan,
When will people start to understand that guns and violence show no courage but are the antithesis of real bravery and should be scorned? Inability to resolve problems through reason and compassion should be burdened with shame. Need a gun to walk to the mall? Is that the world we want for ourselves or for our children? One Republican congressman thinks he should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon to Congress! What kind of cowardice is that? He should be called out for being such an ignorant, pathetic wuss, and should be ashamed of himself, but our gun loving, courage deprived culture applauds him for his foolishness. The congressman says he wants to protect others. Please forgive the sarcasm, but I can hear the song, Macho, Macho, Man playing in my head. In Arizona, one gun-wielding bystander rushed in ready to fire, only to realize at the very last second that he was prepared to shoot and kill the man who had wrestled the gun away from the shooter bare handed. What would our trigger happy gunman say to explain himself? Oops? Heroics. Aren't we proud? (Again, please excuse the sarcasm.) All too often the wrong people are killed through gun violence, and some conservative politicians have said that the problem with Arizona is that there were not enough guns. Can you see why I might be in a crappy mood today? I am tired of seeing such idiocy running loose and being given voice.
Courageous men and women fight mano a mano, hand to hand and it is a tragedy that so few understand the transforming capacity of our human hands. When the hands are engaged, love of learning follows. When the hands are purposefully engaged in learning, intelligence and character arise within each child. We all know that we learn best when we learn hands-on but we still refuse to offer hands-on learning to our children in our schools. As a nation, we simply refuse to give the eduction we know is most effective and best.
Arne Duncan mentioned "fighting for our country" and I would love to arm wrestle with him about this mano a mano. He may be young and scrawny, but my ideas are stout. He's got the weight of his official position. But the millions+ years of hand/brain system evolution is on my side. I'm not afraid of hand to hand. If any of my readers know the man, please extend my invitation.
Most would like some new handy, dandy fresh out of the box gizmos to fix American education. There actually is a relatively simple and effective working formula for educational renewal and reform. Make, fix, create, and love of learning follows.
"No one I'm talking to is defending the status quo. Everyone I talk to really shares my sense of urgency that we have to do better for our children. We're fighting for our country here."You can tell when someone is serious when they are willing to go hand to hand and I don't see that in what he and others say. Most politicians, out of cowardice, are busy TALKING and taking pot shots at education.
When will people start to understand that guns and violence show no courage but are the antithesis of real bravery and should be scorned? Inability to resolve problems through reason and compassion should be burdened with shame. Need a gun to walk to the mall? Is that the world we want for ourselves or for our children? One Republican congressman thinks he should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon to Congress! What kind of cowardice is that? He should be called out for being such an ignorant, pathetic wuss, and should be ashamed of himself, but our gun loving, courage deprived culture applauds him for his foolishness. The congressman says he wants to protect others. Please forgive the sarcasm, but I can hear the song, Macho, Macho, Man playing in my head. In Arizona, one gun-wielding bystander rushed in ready to fire, only to realize at the very last second that he was prepared to shoot and kill the man who had wrestled the gun away from the shooter bare handed. What would our trigger happy gunman say to explain himself? Oops? Heroics. Aren't we proud? (Again, please excuse the sarcasm.) All too often the wrong people are killed through gun violence, and some conservative politicians have said that the problem with Arizona is that there were not enough guns. Can you see why I might be in a crappy mood today? I am tired of seeing such idiocy running loose and being given voice.
Courageous men and women fight mano a mano, hand to hand and it is a tragedy that so few understand the transforming capacity of our human hands. When the hands are engaged, love of learning follows. When the hands are purposefully engaged in learning, intelligence and character arise within each child. We all know that we learn best when we learn hands-on but we still refuse to offer hands-on learning to our children in our schools. As a nation, we simply refuse to give the eduction we know is most effective and best.
Arne Duncan mentioned "fighting for our country" and I would love to arm wrestle with him about this mano a mano. He may be young and scrawny, but my ideas are stout. He's got the weight of his official position. But the millions+ years of hand/brain system evolution is on my side. I'm not afraid of hand to hand. If any of my readers know the man, please extend my invitation.
Most would like some new handy, dandy fresh out of the box gizmos to fix American education. There actually is a relatively simple and effective working formula for educational renewal and reform. Make, fix, create, and love of learning follows.
keep in touch
Today in the wood shop, I'll be sanding, hinging doors and doing final assembly on my cherry jelly cabinet. Then this afternoon, I'll spend time in the kitchen making pizza. A small group of friends is invited. I plan to make "tipico" Costa Rican pizza, as only I can imagine it.
In the meantime, a woman in Colorado was arrested for negligence in the death of her one year old son. She admitted she was "on Facebook playing Cafe World, checking on a friend's status and sharing videos in the living room," as her son drowned quietly in the bath tub. It calls to mind an earlier incident in South Korea in which a couple was charged in the starving death of their actual child while they were busy raising a virtual child online at an internet cafe.
We have a perverse relationship with our computer products. They have a tendency to displace engagement in reality. Let's work our way back to real things. It's easy.
Make, create, fix, nurture, tend and care.
In the meantime, a woman in Colorado was arrested for negligence in the death of her one year old son. She admitted she was "on Facebook playing Cafe World, checking on a friend's status and sharing videos in the living room," as her son drowned quietly in the bath tub. It calls to mind an earlier incident in South Korea in which a couple was charged in the starving death of their actual child while they were busy raising a virtual child online at an internet cafe.
We have a perverse relationship with our computer products. They have a tendency to displace engagement in reality. Let's work our way back to real things. It's easy.
Make, create, fix, nurture, tend and care.
Friday, January 14, 2011
beauty of Costa Rica
These are just a few shots in remembrance of the beauty and warmth of Costa Rica... The patchwork of acreage is on the drive from San Ramon to La Fortuna. The photo at center is the volcano at Arenal emerging from the clouds. The beach below is Playa Uvita.
full wooden jacket....
Some of my readers may remember Stanley Kubrick's film, Full Metal Jacket about an infantryman pushed toward murder and suicide. We are given choices of how to engage physical reality, and as human beings, we are challenged to either align with the creator and exercise human creativity in physical reality, or we may find ourselves estranged and engaged in other ways tragic to others and ourselves. You may be troubled by the events in Arizona and hope to find some way to understand, as do I.
There is a fine line between the power to create and the power to destroy. The movies are full of graphic illustrations from which we might learn from mistakes and misdirections.
The full wooden jacket is concept I just made up this morning as I woke up from my dreams. It's a way to describe what is offered by creative engagement in woodworking. There are challenges in woodworking. Wood doesn't always do what we we might hope or expect. We might even find ourselves talking to it. Wood talks back. As we shape or sand, it provides a dialog through tactile and visual changes from coarse to smooth. As it does so, it soothes, consoles, and opens our eyes (and every other sense) to beauty and our own creative potential. It provides armor and protection in that it allows us to feel engaged at our highest levels as positive forces within our families and communities. When a young man or woman becomes involved in making things from wood, he or she also engages in the remaking of self as craftsman. The values of craftsmanship are the essential values of civilization. We choose swords or ploughshares, one or the other.
I am amazed when I teach woodworking, how many people tell me that they were drawn to woodworking for the solace it provides. They may have felt a lack of connection and needed some way of creative engagement in tactile, physical reality to feel most whole and most thoroughly alive. They come to class, not only to make boxes, but to reformulate and nourish themselves as caring craftsmen.
Can you see what happens when we put children in situations in which their needs for creative expression are left unfulfilled? Watch the news.
It is cold here in Arkansas, and it is something of a shock to be back from warm Costa Rica. We have been going through our photo
Wherever you are, Make, fix, create.
There is a fine line between the power to create and the power to destroy. The movies are full of graphic illustrations from which we might learn from mistakes and misdirections.
The full wooden jacket is concept I just made up this morning as I woke up from my dreams. It's a way to describe what is offered by creative engagement in woodworking. There are challenges in woodworking. Wood doesn't always do what we we might hope or expect. We might even find ourselves talking to it. Wood talks back. As we shape or sand, it provides a dialog through tactile and visual changes from coarse to smooth. As it does so, it soothes, consoles, and opens our eyes (and every other sense) to beauty and our own creative potential. It provides armor and protection in that it allows us to feel engaged at our highest levels as positive forces within our families and communities. When a young man or woman becomes involved in making things from wood, he or she also engages in the remaking of self as craftsman. The values of craftsmanship are the essential values of civilization. We choose swords or ploughshares, one or the other.
I am amazed when I teach woodworking, how many people tell me that they were drawn to woodworking for the solace it provides. They may have felt a lack of connection and needed some way of creative engagement in tactile, physical reality to feel most whole and most thoroughly alive. They come to class, not only to make boxes, but to reformulate and nourish themselves as caring craftsmen.
Can you see what happens when we put children in situations in which their needs for creative expression are left unfulfilled? Watch the news.
Wherever you are, Make, fix, create.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
sorting things out...
I am still processing my experience in Costa Rica, and I suspect I will be for some time. This is one of the birds I saw as we drove along the river at Portalón. 
It is a gray-headed kite.
someone who gets it... and those who don't
John Grossbohlin sent a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal that will help us to explore some issues if you are even handed (meaning that there is some balance in your personal hand/brain/system functionality). Lynn Tilton is the unlikely hero of American manufacturing. Her firm Patriarch, named after her father, buys failing manufacturing firms (there are many of them) and builds them back up in value and competitiveness. She says,"The key to America's future is manufacturing." "We simply have to become a country that can make things again."
When those in American education so tragically failed to understand the value of the manual arts to ALL students, thus isolating career and technical training from "college prep", they shot our nation in the foot. As described by Ms. Tilton, "If we don't become a country that makes things again, we won't have enough jobs for our people. Without jobs, we could have social unrest. And that's not science fiction."
You can read about Lynn Tilton in the article Tilton Flaunts Her Style at Patriarch
It should come as no surprise to anyone with common sense that people are drawn to invest in the things the think they understand (whether they actually do or not). It should take very few brain cells to understand that a woman from a working class background, who put herself through Columbia's business school, would understand the value of manufacturing as those educated solely in college preparatory programs and universities would not.
So there are two things at play in the investment principle I just stated in the last paragraph. Because investment in the US has NOT been driven by an understanding of the values inherent in manufacturing, we've become crappy at it and drove it down the toilet, and then came up with all kinds of rationales to explain why we should abandon the American worker. Remember when we were told that we would be a "service economy?" When everyone realized that meant flipping burgers, they changed the name but left the mess. We would be an "information economy." Which meant we wouldn't really care about actually DOING diddly squat. Concurrently, because investment managers have had little insight into actual productivity, investment strategies have become driven by abstract market formulas, often unrelated to what happens on the ground. Thus investment has become riskier, less resilient, more speculative and less sustaining of long term economic success.
By abandoning manual arts training in schools, first eliminating it for those going to college, and then taking it away entirely from nearly everyone else during the last generation, we have done a tremendous disservice to our nation's people, to the value of our economy, and to our culture.
Lynn in the video above, describes "rebuilding with our own hands, what others have talked away." Those who are unacquainted with the serious, sincere, connection that the hands form with intellect, character, compassion and our essential humanity have pushed our nation to the brink.
I am back from Costa Rica. It was warm there, it is cold here. Back to work!
When those in American education so tragically failed to understand the value of the manual arts to ALL students, thus isolating career and technical training from "college prep", they shot our nation in the foot. As described by Ms. Tilton, "If we don't become a country that makes things again, we won't have enough jobs for our people. Without jobs, we could have social unrest. And that's not science fiction."
You can read about Lynn Tilton in the article Tilton Flaunts Her Style at Patriarch
It should come as no surprise to anyone with common sense that people are drawn to invest in the things the think they understand (whether they actually do or not). It should take very few brain cells to understand that a woman from a working class background, who put herself through Columbia's business school, would understand the value of manufacturing as those educated solely in college preparatory programs and universities would not.
So there are two things at play in the investment principle I just stated in the last paragraph. Because investment in the US has NOT been driven by an understanding of the values inherent in manufacturing, we've become crappy at it and drove it down the toilet, and then came up with all kinds of rationales to explain why we should abandon the American worker. Remember when we were told that we would be a "service economy?" When everyone realized that meant flipping burgers, they changed the name but left the mess. We would be an "information economy." Which meant we wouldn't really care about actually DOING diddly squat. Concurrently, because investment managers have had little insight into actual productivity, investment strategies have become driven by abstract market formulas, often unrelated to what happens on the ground. Thus investment has become riskier, less resilient, more speculative and less sustaining of long term economic success.
By abandoning manual arts training in schools, first eliminating it for those going to college, and then taking it away entirely from nearly everyone else during the last generation, we have done a tremendous disservice to our nation's people, to the value of our economy, and to our culture.
Lynn in the video above, describes "rebuilding with our own hands, what others have talked away." Those who are unacquainted with the serious, sincere, connection that the hands form with intellect, character, compassion and our essential humanity have pushed our nation to the brink.
I am back from Costa Rica. It was warm there, it is cold here. Back to work!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Costa Rica es cálido, Arkansas es frio
Burrr. We are leaving Costa Rica in the morning and returning to Arkansas. I am looking forward to getting back in my wood shop. Even though it will be very cold when we get back to Arkansas, a warm fire in the wood shop will make things just right. Did you know that the engagement of the hands is a primary means through which to sustain mental health? Ask any artist how they feel when they are engaged in their work. I can tell you from my own personal experience how it feels to be away from the shop for some time and then to feel a renewed rush of neurohormonal response. Some have called these "creative juices." And we have become idiots and psychopathic by neglecting hands on learning in our nation's schooling.
Do you think I'm kidding? Gun violence in schools has risen in direct proportion to the decline in wood shop and the arts.
And as I arrive back in he US from this peaceful haven, I come home with some anger seething. I am tired of living in a nation of idiots, and since I'm not going anywhere but home I vow my best efforts to make changes in our nation's schools.
In the meantime, one of the public responses to the killings in Arizona has been a dramatic increase in Glock sales, as that particular brand of hand gun was used to kill 6 and injure a number of others including Congresswoman Giffords. Can someone please explain to me why that should not be considered a completely morbid response? As these new Glock owners hold their weapons, do they feel some perverse connection with the killer's horrific acts? If there is one thing worse than being a nation of idiots, it just may be that a nation of angry well armed idiots takes the cake. Make, fix, create. Real men don't need firearms to prove a point.
Do you think I'm kidding? Gun violence in schools has risen in direct proportion to the decline in wood shop and the arts.
And as I arrive back in he US from this peaceful haven, I come home with some anger seething. I am tired of living in a nation of idiots, and since I'm not going anywhere but home I vow my best efforts to make changes in our nation's schools.
In the meantime, one of the public responses to the killings in Arizona has been a dramatic increase in Glock sales, as that particular brand of hand gun was used to kill 6 and injure a number of others including Congresswoman Giffords. Can someone please explain to me why that should not be considered a completely morbid response? As these new Glock owners hold their weapons, do they feel some perverse connection with the killer's horrific acts? If there is one thing worse than being a nation of idiots, it just may be that a nation of angry well armed idiots takes the cake. Make, fix, create. Real men don't need firearms to prove a point.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Pura Vida
Pura vida: It is difficult not to compare and contrast Costa Rica with Arkansas and with the USA. We have one more day of our stay here, and find the circumstances to be delightful. The people are happy, or seem outwardly so. They are friendly and helpful. While as some of my readers know I cannot help at times being deeply concerned about the direction of the American culture.
No one would consider the Costa Rican people to be out of touch. They're busy making things, preparing food, tending gardens and fixing things. They care for their children. Every small town has its own small school, neatly kept. It is not uncommon to find old cars operating on the highways beyond their years. They are kept clean and in working condition well past the time in which Americans would abandon them to the heap.
Yesterday’s events in Arizona, USA are disturbing. I have kept isolated from events in the US during the last week, and up until the shooting of an American congresswoman, I have done pretty well to put aside my deep concerns for the appalling quality of political discourse in the US. It is as though no one knows how to use their words in kindness, and too few know that words can incite those who are unstable to do horrendous things. I have hopes that all of this tragedy brings a renewed faith in reasonable dialog.
I want to talk about a few things. The first is that the shooter in Arizona probably suffers from mental problems. That is an assumption on my part based on the idea that no one in his or her right mind would do such horrendous things. The second thing I want to address is that it seems very apparent that sick minds are often drawn to gun violence and yet we do absolutely nothing to keep guns and ammunition out of such dangerous hands. Our video games and television programs have given substance to the delusion that addressing problems through gun violence is natural to those who have reached some kind of edge in their perceptions. The third thing is that some in our American politics believe in the glorification of guns as a political tool and part of natural political rhetoric. There is a huge shame to be associated with those who knowingly or unknowingly incite the dim, the dull, and the mentally ill with rhetoric or visual imagery that has the potential of leading to horrendous acts. If anyone is so naive as to believe that putting a congresswoman’s image behind cross hairs of a rifle sight in advertising is not incendiary rhetoric, they should be ashamed of their stupidity and should never to be trusted with power in the American political system.
No one would consider the Costa Rican people to be out of touch. They're busy making things, preparing food, tending gardens and fixing things. They care for their children. Every small town has its own small school, neatly kept. It is not uncommon to find old cars operating on the highways beyond their years. They are kept clean and in working condition well past the time in which Americans would abandon them to the heap.
Yesterday’s events in Arizona, USA are disturbing. I have kept isolated from events in the US during the last week, and up until the shooting of an American congresswoman, I have done pretty well to put aside my deep concerns for the appalling quality of political discourse in the US. It is as though no one knows how to use their words in kindness, and too few know that words can incite those who are unstable to do horrendous things. I have hopes that all of this tragedy brings a renewed faith in reasonable dialog.
I want to talk about a few things. The first is that the shooter in Arizona probably suffers from mental problems. That is an assumption on my part based on the idea that no one in his or her right mind would do such horrendous things. The second thing I want to address is that it seems very apparent that sick minds are often drawn to gun violence and yet we do absolutely nothing to keep guns and ammunition out of such dangerous hands. Our video games and television programs have given substance to the delusion that addressing problems through gun violence is natural to those who have reached some kind of edge in their perceptions. The third thing is that some in our American politics believe in the glorification of guns as a political tool and part of natural political rhetoric. There is a huge shame to be associated with those who knowingly or unknowingly incite the dim, the dull, and the mentally ill with rhetoric or visual imagery that has the potential of leading to horrendous acts. If anyone is so naive as to believe that putting a congresswoman’s image behind cross hairs of a rifle sight in advertising is not incendiary rhetoric, they should be ashamed of their stupidity and should never to be trusted with power in the American political system.
And so, what does this have to do with the hands? Everything. The use of the hands in creative acts is THE most healing and therapeutic human activity. When the hands are not engaged in the making and use of creative tools, they may be drawn to explore more destructive behaviors using various forms of weaponry and violence.
Some will say that the problem in Arizona has something to do with the availability of guns. I partially agree. They should not be allowed in the hands of the criminally insane, or in the hands of those suspected of being so. But it has been said that idle hands are the devil’s workshop, and if there is devilry afoot in the actions of an evil assassin, one must wonder, "could he not have been given something more rewarding and creative to occupy his attentions?"
The hands have a way of making whole. They fix, they make, they create and they serve. they plant, tend, nourish and protect. And the great shame of our American culture is that we have deprived hands of their dignity and greatest purpose, that of restoring and balancing our souls. Make, Fix, Create, Tend, Nourish, Heal.
Pura Vida is the Costa Rican national motto which means pure life. It also means something gentle that is too often lacking in the US.
The hands have a way of making whole. They fix, they make, they create and they serve. they plant, tend, nourish and protect. And the great shame of our American culture is that we have deprived hands of their dignity and greatest purpose, that of restoring and balancing our souls. Make, Fix, Create, Tend, Nourish, Heal.
Pura Vida is the Costa Rican national motto which means pure life. It also means something gentle that is too often lacking in the US.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Cut short at both ends…
And so it is, that by dividing our students into two classes, academic and technical, college prep and not, we cut them short at both ends.
I have been reading an interesting book about wood by Harvey Green, Wood: Craft, Culture, History. It describes how we took trees for granted, but then awakened to their value as we marched ever closer to their destruction. Perhaps it will be the same with our hands. We are perched at that point that those making and selling digital input devices propose that we escape them entirely. The fingers themselves and the awkwardness of learning to control them may lead us to self-tying shoes and automated nose pickers.
Of course, my very simple point is an invitation. Pay attention. Just as programs can track your every keystroke on the computer, to save your work from disaster, attention to the workings of our own hands are an enrichment. As described by Anaxagoras, Man is the wisest of all animals because he has hands. Nothing new there except what we have ignored or forgotten. DIY, Make, fix, create.
Friday, January 07, 2011
widening the comfort zone
I am reminded of the tools we give kids. How about plastic saws and hammers that allow them to play Bob the Builder, when we could give them real capacities. When my daughter asked if she could do wood carving in my shop, I thought at first of giving her my old carving chisels to use, but then realized that my better set would give better results, give her more satisfaction in their use, and be more likely to call for re-engagement at a later time. If I couldn't trust her in the use of my best tools, how are we to trust our children in the preservation of our planet? How we are training them in schools is an indication that we had best not. And yet, time marches like ants, and while the future is theirs, not ours what we do now has effects for generations.
There is a relentless quality to the natural world. The waves on the beach come crashing in one after another. Here on the mountainside, the jungle vines are growing each day. Unattended, they would devour this small house. There is a plane flying overhead. It will land. As a seemingly unrelated counterpoint, on a limb off the porch sits a black headed trogon like the one shown in the photo above. We stand still and stare eye to eye, with my binoculars forming circles around my eyes that match the circles I see around his. The moment is surreal, past in a flash and timeless.
One of the most important things about travel is stepping outside the comfort zone, and for kids, it can be essential. How do we create schools that provide both a sense of security for learning and provide a means for kids to step beyond themselves? We are preparing them for a future which we cannot know.
There are days in which I should refrain from posting in the blog. There are days when I'm processing what I have seen, heard and experienced. A few days traveling in Costa Rica have put me in that state. If you are uncomfortable with the challenges of engaging your hands in learning, (as some might reasonably be) there is nothing to it but to do it. Yesterday I had the chance to milk a cow, and I stood by shy. I watched my own comfort zone interfere with a simple thing that I now regret. The most challenging part of hands on learning is that you probably won't be led there by statistics and research, but rather by your own inclinations. Step our of the comfort zone. Make, fix, create. Milk a cow and have no regrets.
John Grossbohlin sent a link to an article in the New York Times about a turn-around in attitudes toward play. Parents are realizing that playing computer games does nothing for children's creativity. In fact, placing children constantly in the comfort zone of screen-time and game controllers is far more incidious. They say "playing" computer games. But they are nothing like being in he real outdoors. Baseball, anyone? And did you know that all major league baseballs are hand sewn in San Juan, Costa Rica? The article in the New York Times can be found here: Effort to Restore Children's Play Gains Momentum.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
ants and ants
Two kinds of ant
We spent the day yesterday with raincoats, binoculars and cameras wandering through the Costa Rican cloud forest. The rain kept most of the birds in hiding. We identified two kinds of ants, but even their activities were “dampened”. They are dependent on pheromes to travel in a line, whether they are “army ants”, always moving in mass from one location to the next or “leaf cutters’ who neatly snip small pieces of leaf and carry them from the tops of trees all the way down the trunk to stuff in holes in the earth and raise fungus which is fed to their queen. If you were not at all knowledgeable in such things you would probably notice very little difference in the two types of ants and have very little sense of wonder about them. Such very small things are taken for granted in the US, by all but the very few. We live our lives estranged and isolated from nature. See a bug, get out the spray. And our lives are made much more meaningful by the intrusions of mother nature.
Here at the Leaves and Lizards resort, you won’t find the typical USA American. At dinner we meet wildlife biologists, and others with deep environmental concerns. Costa Rica is a haven for scientists and biologists.
Howard Gardner had identified “nature smart” as one of our native and natural intelligences, and it is yet one more that is ignored and often suppressed in American education. I have talked before about the inherent bullying that takes place in schools as a result of our extreme focus on reading and math. Make a bit of noise with your pencil or pen and see how quickly your musical intelligence is suppressed. If your intelligences are not the primary two, you may find schooling to be generally oppressive.
At the airport, the sign said, Welcome to Costa Rica, where the people are the happiest in the world.” There is something to discover in nature about all that. First Costa Rica is green. Very green. It soothes the eye. Secondly, people spend their time in nature. You see them walking on the roads, carrying their children or machetes. Many work in agriculture, where “nature smarts” can be fully expressed.
I cannot help but marvel at the two types of ants I observed. How is it that army ants can travel as they do? When it rains the water washes their pherome trail. They have a tiny queen they carry along with all the pupae of their young. The leaf cutters on the other hand, have a huge queen nestled deeply in a hole in the ground where they tend to her needs as a way of preserving their own lives. To contemplate the incredible nature of their intricate symbiosis and atunement to the environment could leave one in a state of awe. And that awe is an important element that is often missing from American lives. We go goo goo and ga ga over technological devices and miss and ignore the more profound mysteries that surround us. In other words, we have the world at our finger tips and remain desperately out of touch. Make, create fix. DIY, TIY.
We spent the day yesterday with raincoats, binoculars and cameras wandering through the Costa Rican cloud forest. The rain kept most of the birds in hiding. We identified two kinds of ants, but even their activities were “dampened”. They are dependent on pheromes to travel in a line, whether they are “army ants”, always moving in mass from one location to the next or “leaf cutters’ who neatly snip small pieces of leaf and carry them from the tops of trees all the way down the trunk to stuff in holes in the earth and raise fungus which is fed to their queen. If you were not at all knowledgeable in such things you would probably notice very little difference in the two types of ants and have very little sense of wonder about them. Such very small things are taken for granted in the US, by all but the very few. We live our lives estranged and isolated from nature. See a bug, get out the spray. And our lives are made much more meaningful by the intrusions of mother nature.
Here at the Leaves and Lizards resort, you won’t find the typical USA American. At dinner we meet wildlife biologists, and others with deep environmental concerns. Costa Rica is a haven for scientists and biologists.
Howard Gardner had identified “nature smart” as one of our native and natural intelligences, and it is yet one more that is ignored and often suppressed in American education. I have talked before about the inherent bullying that takes place in schools as a result of our extreme focus on reading and math. Make a bit of noise with your pencil or pen and see how quickly your musical intelligence is suppressed. If your intelligences are not the primary two, you may find schooling to be generally oppressive.
At the airport, the sign said, Welcome to Costa Rica, where the people are the happiest in the world.” There is something to discover in nature about all that. First Costa Rica is green. Very green. It soothes the eye. Secondly, people spend their time in nature. You see them walking on the roads, carrying their children or machetes. Many work in agriculture, where “nature smarts” can be fully expressed.
I cannot help but marvel at the two types of ants I observed. How is it that army ants can travel as they do? When it rains the water washes their pherome trail. They have a tiny queen they carry along with all the pupae of their young. The leaf cutters on the other hand, have a huge queen nestled deeply in a hole in the ground where they tend to her needs as a way of preserving their own lives. To contemplate the incredible nature of their intricate symbiosis and atunement to the environment could leave one in a state of awe. And that awe is an important element that is often missing from American lives. We go goo goo and ga ga over technological devices and miss and ignore the more profound mysteries that surround us. In other words, we have the world at our finger tips and remain desperately out of touch. Make, create fix. DIY, TIY.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Arenal
We are at an eco-resort called Leaves and Lizards near La Fortuna, Costa Rica, and if it were not so foggy, we could see the Arenal volcano off the back deck. We watched yesterday afternoon as the clouds lifted to partially reveal portions of the volcano. The combination of volcanic soils and the intense sun and rain of the tropics makes the vegetation lush. Life is good in Costa Rica. But people are also busy. There is a whole lot of intensive gardening going on.
For the next couple days, I'll be busy doing tourist type things and may be inattentive to the blog. There is more than enough here to read for days in my possible absence. One word that you might enjoy while I'm focusing on my Spanish is the Swedish word Sloyd. Type it in the search block at upper left and see that the connections between hand and mind, and intelligence, skill, character and wood working are nothing new, not a new proposal, but one well tested and proved in education.
The article in the Boston Globe on the proposed return of shop class was published today. I was pleased to play a part in it by being quoted, but also by serving as a mentor and inspiration in the return of sloyd to the Eliot middle school in Boston, which we all hope may be the beginnings of an important development for Boston schools. You can read about it here:Drills and skills: Why some educators are putting a new emphasis on woodworking class
For the next couple days, I'll be busy doing tourist type things and may be inattentive to the blog. There is more than enough here to read for days in my possible absence. One word that you might enjoy while I'm focusing on my Spanish is the Swedish word Sloyd. Type it in the search block at upper left and see that the connections between hand and mind, and intelligence, skill, character and wood working are nothing new, not a new proposal, but one well tested and proved in education.
The article in the Boston Globe on the proposed return of shop class was published today. I was pleased to play a part in it by being quoted, but also by serving as a mentor and inspiration in the return of sloyd to the Eliot middle school in Boston, which we all hope may be the beginnings of an important development for Boston schools. You can read about it here:Drills and skills: Why some educators are putting a new emphasis on woodworking class
Sunday, January 02, 2011
who needs to know and why
My wife, daughter and I arrived this evening in San Jose, Costa Rica for a short family vacation. The 6:25 AM flight out of XNA (Northwest Arkansas) had mechanical trouble so we spent the day in the airport, eating junk food on vouchers. The ticket agent was operating near solo, the printer was malfunctioning and he handled all the changes with aplomb. But to spend all day in the airport when your vacation awaits is not the greatest joy
As we flew out of Houston, our first and only stop before arriving at San Jose, I looked down at all the lights. There are millions of them. Most of them come on without human attention, as they are programmed to come on at a certain time. And so, as I looked down, I wondered how much consciousness I would find if I were on the ground instead of in the air looking down.
We have surrendered a great deal to mechanical control, and are we not
As I have mentioned before in the blog, the hands, once they have learned a skill, withdraw from consciousness, and this thus allow the hands to proceed with only minimal supervision. A skilled craftsman can do wonderful things while his mind is engaged in other things. Anaxagoras said man is the wisest of all animals because he has hands. He had also been the first Greek philosopher to note the existence of Nous or mind. So you can say that the mind and hand together form a team through which consciousness is expressed. To neglect that essential partnership is to place human wisdom, intelligence and character in peril.
So, who needs to know about this? There are millions if not billions of people in the world who are deeply engaged in shaping reality and serving others through the conscious deliberations of their hands. They use them for healing, for making, for growing, for preparing food, or even for manipulation of information on computers to make sure that all the passengers in their care arrive safely at their destinations. Many use their hands to express their intelligence, wisdom and compassion without giving a second thought. But there are others in government and in education who have little sense of how important the hands can be, or why it is essential that children learn everything they learn, hands on. There are others who for some reason or another live lives lacking in some certain sense of fulfillment that the hands can most assuredly provide. Make, fix and create. If you feel so inclined, join the hand tribe and promote a better understanding of hands. You will discover a few things on your own from your own experience that I attempt to describe here in the blog. If you are reading and I repeat myself, know that I am like any craftsman, just trying to get things right. Demonstrate a few things so that others might understand. Let your hands speak up.
One of the things that you will probably discover is that the hands have a role to play in our meditations. They have a way of bringing us to the here and now. Your mind can rush off to other things, but your hands always are the voice of now and here. Let them speak up and call your attentions back from their wanderings to what lies at hand and in touch.
So, here I am in Costa Rica. The sign at the airport said the people here are the happiest in the world. Can that be true? Could it have something to do with the hands?
As we flew out of Houston, our first and only stop before arriving at San Jose, I looked down at all the lights. There are millions of them. Most of them come on without human attention, as they are programmed to come on at a certain time. And so, as I looked down, I wondered how much consciousness I would find if I were on the ground instead of in the air looking down.
We have surrendered a great deal to mechanical control, and are we not
As I have mentioned before in the blog, the hands, once they have learned a skill, withdraw from consciousness, and this thus allow the hands to proceed with only minimal supervision. A skilled craftsman can do wonderful things while his mind is engaged in other things. Anaxagoras said man is the wisest of all animals because he has hands. He had also been the first Greek philosopher to note the existence of Nous or mind. So you can say that the mind and hand together form a team through which consciousness is expressed. To neglect that essential partnership is to place human wisdom, intelligence and character in peril.
So, who needs to know about this? There are millions if not billions of people in the world who are deeply engaged in shaping reality and serving others through the conscious deliberations of their hands. They use them for healing, for making, for growing, for preparing food, or even for manipulation of information on computers to make sure that all the passengers in their care arrive safely at their destinations. Many use their hands to express their intelligence, wisdom and compassion without giving a second thought. But there are others in government and in education who have little sense of how important the hands can be, or why it is essential that children learn everything they learn, hands on. There are others who for some reason or another live lives lacking in some certain sense of fulfillment that the hands can most assuredly provide. Make, fix and create. If you feel so inclined, join the hand tribe and promote a better understanding of hands. You will discover a few things on your own from your own experience that I attempt to describe here in the blog. If you are reading and I repeat myself, know that I am like any craftsman, just trying to get things right. Demonstrate a few things so that others might understand. Let your hands speak up.
One of the things that you will probably discover is that the hands have a role to play in our meditations. They have a way of bringing us to the here and now. Your mind can rush off to other things, but your hands always are the voice of now and here. Let them speak up and call your attentions back from their wanderings to what lies at hand and in touch.
So, here I am in Costa Rica. The sign at the airport said the people here are the happiest in the world. Can that be true? Could it have something to do with the hands?
A Master's Life Unfolds
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Every component of thought
We give little credit to our hands in their having shaped our physical, social, cultural and political realities. It is in the nature of the hands that as they learn new things they require attention only at the first. As fingers and hands become skilled in the manipulation of physical reality, the need for conscious attention toward their movements diminishes, fades into the background of human consciousness.
I was at Grizzly in Springfield, Missouri last week to pick up a piece of equipment. My purchase required the attention of someone higher up in the office staff and as he input the data for my purchase into the computer terminal, his fingers moved faster than one could believe, each touching the keyboard accurately as fast as any pianist, and if one were to call attention to his movements, cutting the seamless cord between mind and hand it would have slowed the process. And so it is, that we do 10,000 or more discrete things each day requiring the use of our hands without giving them the attention they most assuredly deserve.
The most truly unfortunate thing is that we have thus designed the rest of life to ignore, denigrate, and diminish the role of the hands in learning and in life. I am reminded of a picture from years ago in the pages of National Geographic. It was of a Christian monk in his meticulously hand carved sanctuary. It was his life's work. It was his meditation. It was an altar to faith. Some have come to the erroneous conclusion that the body, and most specifically the hands are unclean, to be avoided, and that the work of the hands lowers us in some way, rather than providing the means through which we arise to our highest human potential and engage in our most significant and fulfilling service.
As described by Jacob Bronowski, "the hands are the cutting edge of the mind." In other words, they have given shape to every facet of human reality. All our intellectual concepts are derived from our having and using hands. The hands and brain co-evolved simultaneously as a behavioral system and it can be clearly and reasonably stated that the hands have given more shape to the mind than has been true in the reverse.
If we were to each attend consciously to the callings, the urgings, and the wonders of these hands, we could would see more clearly what we are neglecting in the education of our children. The hands, don't let them dangle!
Today I have been selecting photos for chapter 6 and getting them off to the editor. I feel blessed to have work that engages my hands, heart and intellect. At the beginnings of the year 2011, I wish the same for you, along with all the many blessings that the hands can bring to you and our human culture. Make, fix, create.
I was at Grizzly in Springfield, Missouri last week to pick up a piece of equipment. My purchase required the attention of someone higher up in the office staff and as he input the data for my purchase into the computer terminal, his fingers moved faster than one could believe, each touching the keyboard accurately as fast as any pianist, and if one were to call attention to his movements, cutting the seamless cord between mind and hand it would have slowed the process. And so it is, that we do 10,000 or more discrete things each day requiring the use of our hands without giving them the attention they most assuredly deserve.The most truly unfortunate thing is that we have thus designed the rest of life to ignore, denigrate, and diminish the role of the hands in learning and in life. I am reminded of a picture from years ago in the pages of National Geographic. It was of a Christian monk in his meticulously hand carved sanctuary. It was his life's work. It was his meditation. It was an altar to faith. Some have come to the erroneous conclusion that the body, and most specifically the hands are unclean, to be avoided, and that the work of the hands lowers us in some way, rather than providing the means through which we arise to our highest human potential and engage in our most significant and fulfilling service.
As described by Jacob Bronowski, "the hands are the cutting edge of the mind." In other words, they have given shape to every facet of human reality. All our intellectual concepts are derived from our having and using hands. The hands and brain co-evolved simultaneously as a behavioral system and it can be clearly and reasonably stated that the hands have given more shape to the mind than has been true in the reverse.
If we were to each attend consciously to the callings, the urgings, and the wonders of these hands, we could would see more clearly what we are neglecting in the education of our children. The hands, don't let them dangle!
Today I have been selecting photos for chapter 6 and getting them off to the editor. I feel blessed to have work that engages my hands, heart and intellect. At the beginnings of the year 2011, I wish the same for you, along with all the many blessings that the hands can bring to you and our human culture. Make, fix, create.
Friday, December 31, 2010
making screws
These days no one would make a screw. They come free in packages with other things. Buy a whatsit and a small plastic package of screws comes free, whether you end up using them or not. In my shop I have a a small cabinet of drawers with screws sorted by type. Still, I make occasional trips to the hardware store just to buy more. But less than 200 years ago, screws were a rare thing. Each required the investment of a craftsman's skill and time. Reader John Grossbohlin had worked as a craftsman at Colonial Williamsberg in his earlier life, and he wrote the following:
"I've been thinking about your blog posting on "10% Off" as my Rockler catalog came in today's mail...John, your screws are amazing. So you tell me... What are the values of such things? What are the reasons such things need to be preserved? Is there an intellectual component to making a screw? Is there a developmental component? Do you suspect that John's time in making screws added to his perspectives on the universe? Michael Wiener, in describing his relationship to the Spaulding Boatworks in Sausalito said,
Over time quite a number of skills were lost, or would have been lost, if it weren't for living history museums and individual crafts people. For example, if it weren't for Wallace Gusler, and the support of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the myriad skills involved in making flintlock rifles with 18th century (and earlier) technologies would have been lost. Wallace redeveloped the technologies by looking at the story artifacts and old guns could tell...
One of the things I learned while working in the Williamsburg Gunsmith Shop was how to make wood screws. Seems like a simple thing until you find out the shafts were shaped and the threads created with files... yes files. There were no screw plates for wood screws as there were for machine screws though a chamfer plate was used to shape the countersink.
I got good at making screws and it took me about 20 minutes to make a screw of about No 8 size 1 1/4" long... larger screws such as used on butt plates took about 30 minutes each. Today we take wood screws for granted as machine make them by the billions each year for pennies per piece. In the 18th century nails, pegs, clenched spikes or rivets would be used instead of a very expensive screw... can you imagine paying for an hour's worth of shop time for two screws?
Attached is a photo of screws I made. You can see file marks on them. The heads are thick on purpose. A temporary slot would be cut in the head, the screw inserted into the desired pre-drilled hole, and then the permanent slot orientation would be determined. The screw would then be removed and the head shaped with the permanent slot. This allowed for lining all the slots up in the desired orientation. Also, screws always had to be returned to the same hole due to variance in the threads and the slot orientation.
I know how to do this work but quite frankly have no occasion to use the skill!
It occurs to me that some specific skills are interesting but of no practical value. This was not one of those cases. I found out that if someone couldn't make wood screws the gunsmiths wouldn't waste any time trying to teach them the far more difficult tasks of gun making. I passed the screw test and was exposed to far more interesting and challenging tasks... after all, making screws was the work of women and children in the period, not something a skilled tradesman would waste time on! A lot has changed over the years but those stepping-stone skills should be preserved. -John"
"... it's important that people learn both technique and values while they're working here. That's my own sort of quiet contribution to the educational component of our mission. I find that kind of learning more to my liking than school-learning. I served a four-year apprenticeship--and then you're ready to start learning."One good thing about the computer age is that it is allowing those of us whose greater skills are hand skills, to take a few moments to explain a few things to those who may never quite understand. There is no better way to shape character and intellect than to become engaged fashioning real things from basic raw materials. Make, fix, and create. Take a straight shaving off a plank. There are two things that most worry those of us who observe modern schooling. Students become intellectually disengaged and lacking in character, missing two distinct components of craftsmanship. We have chosen to neglect the education of our children's hands. DIY (do it yourself) , LIY (learn it yourself), TIY (teach it yourself). Best yet, teach it to kids.
In the photo at left, you can see my finished tie cabinet, inspired by Greene and Greene designs.
As you can see, I continue work on the cherry cabinet, by assembling the cherry and maple raised panel doors and fitting the base molding. While the molding parts are clamped in place, I will use screws to attach them to the cabinet frame, then remove the parts for sanding, and then install them permanently to the cabinet. The doors are ready for routing, sanding and hinges. 
Thursday, December 30, 2010
make it and draw it
I have been working sequentially, back and forth, on the cherry cabinet and the sketchup drawing of it, first one and then the other. The making continues to be the easier part. If I were to draw it first, then I would have to be continuously revising the drawing to adjust to real world conditions in the wood shop. Unlike manufactured wood products, real wood has real characteristics and each board is unique and its qualities must be considered. Despite my best efforts, I also see things better in real life than on paper. How will this crown molding work? Seeing it in my mind's eye and then in real scale, full size, is so much quicker and easier than slaving over the keyboard first. A quick sketch on scrap wood will often suffice as a means of moving my visualizations toward a more concrete form. Attempting to formulate the design as 2 dimensions on paper does not work for me. And seeing something as a 3-d model on a flat screen is really not that much better.I usually work from the most basic of sketches. A sketch quickly done presents what I see in my mind's eye better presents the spirit of the piece than detailed drawings. Perhaps if I had become an illustrator first, it would be easier the other way around, but I would likely not see as much of my own work done.
I listened to an interview with a New York Times Technology reporter, Matt Ritchtel who has written extensively on multi-tasking and what technology is doing to our brains. Least known and most frieghtening is what our technology is doing to brains that have not yet fully formed. The frontal lobes are the slowest to mature, and it will be a while yet before we see the full impact of our experiment putting powerful digital devices in the hands of our kids. We have made the assumption that technology is wonderful and without fault, but we just won't know for some time what we have actually done. One thing I know from my own experience is that multi-tasking is a delusion. Do every thing you do without distraction. I got a phone call from a woodworker, wondering how I manage to do all the things I do. And it all comes down to this. One thing at a time, big fella.
Today in the wood shop, I'll continue working on doors. I'll also take beauty shots of a cabinet for the book.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
we are about to be Shanghaied...
The PISA study results for Shanghai have just been released, and just as when the launch of Sputnik sent Americans into a panic, the PISA results (of the very first PISA testing in China) have American educators scrambling. For some it will be perceived as our own worst nightmare. Just as the Chinese are beating us in manufacturing, they appear to be beating us in education (or at least the rote memorization part that brings results in standardized testing). The report can be heard on NPR.
Shanghai School Principle Liu Jinghai said that the West shouldn't worry about the PISA results. "They're just one index, one measure that shows off the good points of Shanghai's and China's education system. But the results can't cover up our problems," he says. "Why don't Chinese students dare to think?" He asks. " Because we insist on telling them everything. We're not getting our kids to go and find things out for themselves," he says. Doesn't that sound like what we are trying to do in our public schools? Prevent discovery?
But just because a few Chinese educators are as wise as Confucius, don't expect American politicians to take the news lightly. Being a nation of pinheads, we can expect American politicos to place greater emphasis on No Child Left Behind like legislation to further the teaching to the test stratagem, and continue to eliminate creative problem solving opportunities in our nation's schools.
In the meantime, Make, fix, create. There are things that we learn when we are engaged in the manipulation of real materials. Real science doesn't originate in the pages of a book, but through experiential, experimental process. Craftsmanship has long served as the foundation of the scientific experience, but your children are becoming far less likely to get what they need in school. DIY, TIY(teach it yourself).
Yesterday on NPR, they reported that American military bases are being overwhelmed by the lack of fitness among new recruits. After being hunched over tiny keyboards or passively entertained on the couch, new recruits no longer have a normal range of shoulder rotation, and troop exercises are being modified to prevent injury. But that's OK, right? Who cares if allow our kids to grow up to be conformist non-creative channel-surfing pinhead wussies? The Chinese won't mind. And also in the news yesterday was the new Chinese ground to ship missile that can take out a whole aircraft carrier, so let's keep the competition friendly, OK?
In my woodshop, I have made the top moldings for the cherry cabinet as you can see in the photo at left. Next I make the doors!
Shanghai School Principle Liu Jinghai said that the West shouldn't worry about the PISA results. "They're just one index, one measure that shows off the good points of Shanghai's and China's education system. But the results can't cover up our problems," he says. "Why don't Chinese students dare to think?" He asks. " Because we insist on telling them everything. We're not getting our kids to go and find things out for themselves," he says. Doesn't that sound like what we are trying to do in our public schools? Prevent discovery?
But just because a few Chinese educators are as wise as Confucius, don't expect American politicians to take the news lightly. Being a nation of pinheads, we can expect American politicos to place greater emphasis on No Child Left Behind like legislation to further the teaching to the test stratagem, and continue to eliminate creative problem solving opportunities in our nation's schools.
In the meantime, Make, fix, create. There are things that we learn when we are engaged in the manipulation of real materials. Real science doesn't originate in the pages of a book, but through experiential, experimental process. Craftsmanship has long served as the foundation of the scientific experience, but your children are becoming far less likely to get what they need in school. DIY, TIY(teach it yourself).
Yesterday on NPR, they reported that American military bases are being overwhelmed by the lack of fitness among new recruits. After being hunched over tiny keyboards or passively entertained on the couch, new recruits no longer have a normal range of shoulder rotation, and troop exercises are being modified to prevent injury. But that's OK, right? Who cares if allow our kids to grow up to be conformist non-creative channel-surfing pinhead wussies? The Chinese won't mind. And also in the news yesterday was the new Chinese ground to ship missile that can take out a whole aircraft carrier, so let's keep the competition friendly, OK?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
10% off
For some, the future of woodworking is high tech. Use your computer to control an automated router as shown in the illustration on the cover of the latest Rockler Catalog. It suggests "Take 10% off." For some of us, the idea of sitting at a keyboard while machines respond to data, is already a bit more than 10% off from what we think woodworking is best... the opportunity to express skill and wisdom through our own hands. The image of grandpa at the keyboard while the machine does the work for him is a thing Rockler knows will appeal to some and sell, sell, sell. If we make things faster that require less skill, Rockler will sell more hardware, more wood, more supplies, more designs that the computer and automated tools can execute for you, hence requiring even more hardware and supplies. If it can get easier, more people will do it, right? But if it gets too easy, how much meaning will be found in it?What are your thoughts on the subject? I am reminded of a gift my mother gave me. It was a walnut pencil cup with a laser engraved sailing ship on it. She had bought it at the thrift store for 75 cents. Is the skill invested in the object a source of its value? And how is the value of the object to be measured? Is its value something apart from the man or woman who made it?
Today, I am assembling the cherry cabinet I've been working on for days. A bit of routing, a bit of sanding, and then glue and clamps. Lots of clamps, as you can see in the photo above.Make, fix and create.
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