Concrete vs. Abstract.

Even educators need to be educated, and educational theory applies even to those who have advanced degrees. One of the major hurdles in education reform and arts education is that there is a large part of the population that just don't get the arts. The arts are too abstract. Many are embarrassed by a lack of artistic skill. Many just haven't been exposed to the arts. The arts don't necessarily seem to do anything practical to fit the bottom line (except bring parents out in droves to exhibitions to see what their children have created.) And so in educational reform, we need to turn our attention to the hands. We can talk about the arts all day until we are blue in the face and about half those we're talking to just won't know what we are talking about. So we and all those concerned with the arts must rely on the personal leverage offered by the hands to expand our nation's understanding of how we learn and how we each learn best. The early pedagogist's principles  "Move from the known to the unknown" and "move from the concrete to the abstract" explain the strategy that applies equally well to children and adults. You start with what we all have dangling at the ends of our wrists. Our hands. I call this the strategic implementation of the hands, and the strategy is the same whether we are teaching kids, or whether we are trying to stimulate educational reform. We move from the known to the unknown and the concrete to the abstract. The hands are concrete, the arts are abstract, and the path of education toward the arts is laid stone by stone by the hands.

Make, fix, create.

Today in the wood shop at Clear Spring School, first, second and third grade students worked on a new model of dinosaur at their own request. The long neck, as shown above and at left.

Small time

Last night my wife and I attended a house concert here in Eureka Springs. The concert was performed by two singer/song writers, one from Canada and the other from North Carolina, who travel and write music together, Corin Raymond and Jonathan Byrd. The concert was poorly attended (in numbers) as it had been rescheduled from an earlier date that had been canceled due to snow. There was little time to get the word out. But the few people in the audience did little to affect the rousing performance by wonderful, skilled and creative musicians.

Anyone wondering about the hands, needs to sit and watch (and listen to) a guitar in the hands of an artist like Jonathan Byrd.

The music business is a funny one. Men and women are compelled to follow their inclinations toward things that bring them the most joy, and who can argue with that. For some that inclination leads to international success like those performers on the Grammy awards the night before. But for many, many others, "There will always be a small Time," which is celebrated by Corin Raymond's lead song and on his new album each of the same name.

My daughter Lucy's Engineers Without Borders project in Ghana is being considered for inclusion in a PBS series Planet Forward. You can vote on its inclusion in Planet Forward on PBS. And so, in so many things, we are lured forward by the big time, or the next big thing, AND there will always be a small time. People's lives being made richer within small communities or within the confines of a small concert hall.

The hands themselves are so simple. They touch and give shape to every facet of human reality and they do so without laying great claims for themselves.

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, as you can see in the photo above, the 7th and 8th grade students worked on their hand made journals for school travel. My objective is to put it all in their hands, so we discussed learning styles as an introduction to the day's lesson. Students found that they were required to look, and listen and do in order to fully understand the process. We also noted that listening is more effective at some times than others. For instance, listening is of greater value when you are at that point in the process at which verbal instruction is most useful. Until that point, words tend to be a waste of time, and kids fed a steady diet of (to them) useless language, stop listening.

I have also been taking beauty shots for the making small cabinets book including this one: 

Make, fix and create.

Just Enough

Azby Brown is an artist, writer, and teacher who grew up in New Orleans and lives in Japan where he works to help direct our global society towards sustainable living. His new book Just Enough, is about the traditional Japanese culture that kept long term sustainability in mind. There are lessons in it for all those of us who can see that intentional, thoughtful, hands-on living offers values that are most frequently lost in the scurry of our high pressure internet age. You can read an excerpt here: Bent by the Sun, Lessons from Japan's ancient traditions of sustainability.

Azby's simple but elegant line drawings illustrate the concepts presented.

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the 4th 5th and 6th grade students continued working on their travel journals and began work on their looms. The high school classes are off from school today following their weeklong travel to New Orleans. What a wonderful school to be associated with! Make, fix, create.

Getting a grip on love.

A pre-Valentines day musing.

First we know that human beings are not as rational as we like to think and love is one of those areas that defies rational analysis. I make no claims of being all that rational myself. My own interest is what I call the Wisdom of the Hands. So I want to invite you to take a “hand-centric” view of love in order to attempt to get a much better grip on what love is all about.

So, what do the hands tell us?

We perform in excess of ten thousand discrete hand operations each day with little or no conscious attention applied to their use. There are very good reasons for this. If each thing our hands did required deliberation, we would be less efficient in what we do. As one grows in skill in performing difficult tasks, the conscious attention required for that task is reduced allowing for further development and refinement of technique. This was demonstrated recently in research involving pianists of varying skill levels performing finger manipulations while being observed in an MRI machine. Pianists of greater skill performed more complex finger manipulations with less observable brain activity than those of having lesser skill, leading researchers to speculate that brain plasticity and well practiced skill had enabled more highly efficient neural pathways to be established.

According to the law of chaos and the concept of entropy, nature tends from order to disorder in isolated systems. You can visualize this in action as a kind of centrifugal force. As things move farther from center and become more complex over time, they tend to get out of hand, less ordered and more chaotic. A friend of mine years ago had described love as the opposite of centrifugal force. It drew things together and made connections between them and brought them into order and relationship. So I would like to suggest that love is the opposing force to entropy and decay. It brings order from chaos and forms the human bulwark against entropy. Love may start with a feeling of emptiness or longing for completion, but at some point it requires that we reach out, touch and act consciously in service to others in opposition to entropy. That may in time, and with skill and practice actually restructure the brain toward greater love.

I want to make a Valentines day invitation. Pay greater attention to your hands. Adopt a hand-centric view. Do not leave them dangling. We associate love as being a brain and heart thing requiring deliberations back and forth and an impulse to fall into something inexplicable. But while the heart is looking for love, the hands are constantly finding it and making it.

In the meantime, the whole standardized testing scheme in American Schools is evidently based on some pretty fishy wishful thinking and exaggerated stats. Michelle Rhee, maven of standardized testing based school reform has come under scrutiny for misrepresenting her own actual classroom performance. Rhee faces renewed scrutiny over depiction of students' progress when she taught. While her students did improve, it was not like the miracle she claimed for herself and her kids as she jockeyed her way into a position of national leadership in education. If we come to a more progressive understanding of what kids really need to succeed, our schools and our children's lives will improve immensely.

Reader, Randall Henson sent this link to an article in the New York Times, When Factories Vanish, So Can Innovators-By Louis Uchitelle.
According to Susan Houseman, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo, Mich,

“The big debate today is whether we can continue to be competitive in R&D when we are not making the stuff that we innovate.” Houseman states, “I think not; the two can’t be separated.”

The hands, as stated by Jacob Bronowski, are the cutting edge of the mind. Restrain the hands, stagnate the intellect, shut down creativity. Still, some of us can make, fix, and create. Do it. Teach it. Set a living example for your kids.

Roy Underhill on Sloyd

I seem to have started something through my articles about educational sloyd. Roy Underhill has done a program, "Who Wrote the Book of Sloyd?"

Watch the full episode. See more The Woodwrights Shop.

Perhaps now the subject will be reaching a broader audience. Or at least we can hope so. You can tell by watching the program that he's been reading this blog. He even mentioned the wisdom of the hands. Nicely done, Roy.

On Otto Salomon's grave, it says: Den gode är en makt även i graven, which can be roughly translated, Good can be done, even from the grave. What Salomon did to illustrate the wisdom of the hands lives on in all of us who are inspired to understand the full dimensions of hands-on learning.

In the photo above, you can see a variety of shelf pins used in the making of small cabinets, including some you can make yourself. The maple parts laid out counter-clockwise show the way.

waste to power

My daughter Lucy is a member of Engineers Without Borders at Columbia University, and her group has produced a video about their project in Obodan, Ghana, Implementing Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management in Ghana

Your can vote on the viability of their project. Please do. In the meantime, I have one more day to prepare for my very brief talk about the relationship between the hands and the meaning of love. I welcome your thoughts as I prepare.

One point of interest on the subject is entropy, a concept for which there is no accepted opposite, but for which I propose love. While things fall apart, love is the force that holds things or puts things back together. In the case of bricks falling off the back of the truck love is what would keep them neatly stacked rather than scattered a random pile. In the case of Egypt, love would be what kept the Army from firing on demonstrators, and love is what led the people to peaceful transition. In other words, love is what arises or what is expressed when something is given attention, hands-on. "Here, let me hold your hand as we transform the universe." It is a thing you will see in Lucy's team video. Make, fix, create.

On the other side of the coin, I am deeply concerned by the growing lunacy and destructive power among some American "conservatives". Kansas governor Sam Brownback abolished the Kansas Arts Commission to "save" the state $600,000. Kansas is the first (and hopefully last) state to dismantle its arts agency. Republican "conservatives" are well known as being enemies of public broadcasting, and arts funding. Those of us involved in the arts hope Brownback's lunacy will not mark the beginnings of a wave of terror on the arts. American creativity has been the engine of our economic success, but are we to sit back and harvest the economic benefits of it while and not lift a finger to sustain it? When it comes to bricks, some are willing to dump them off the back of the truck, along with artists and the communities they have made wonderful.

Update! The Republicans in the House of Representatives have submitted a budget proposal that completely eliminates funding for PBS and NPR. Please don't let them remain this stupid.

senses

Is there a reason that we say "comes to his senses" when we discuss a man returning to sanity? When one is clearly delusional, do we not say he or she is "out of touch?" We think of intelligence being something that resides within the brain or mind, but is the mind  a thing whose boundaries are no larger than the space within the hard shell of the human skull? If we want children to care about who they are, to sense their full dimensions and creative capacities, we do so by setting the whole of their minds in motion, and the mind itself is not something apart from the full range of their senses. And so, I ask that we each pay greater attention to our hands, and reflect on their meaning.

We will have a warming trend in Arkansas, setting our accumulated snow to melt. This afternoon when it is warmer, I'll take the tractor to school and push snow from the drive. This morning in the wood shop, I'll begin applying finish to the last three cabinets for the book. I have some additional photos to compose, and then beauty shots to complete when the cabinets are done. I realize there is not much to say about the hands, even though I can go on and on in my discussion of them each day, relative to what a man or woman can actually do with them. They are much more for doing with than for talking about. They are the foundation of all human creativity, all human thought. Get yourself, your mind, your senses, in touch, Make, Fix, Create.

I suspect we are all feeling a sense of solidarity today with the Egyptian people. A non-violent revolution. Mubarak has stepped down and the celebration in Cairo and throughout Egypt is amazing. The whole situation informs us of what happens when people get out of touch...When you have rulers who are isolated from the day to day reality of their people. When their hands are not engaged in the service of others, this is what we've always gotten as a result. From one tyranny to the next. We are learning that the open hand is stronger than the clenched fist. Long live Democracy and the strong but peaceful common people of Egypt.

When I studied political science in college (my major), it was stated that no state can exist without the consent of the governed. What we are witnessing in Cairo is a triumph of non-violence and democracy. Today I am Egyptian.

Subscribers of Fine Woodworking will find my review of Amana mini router bits in the April 2011 issue that should be arriving in your mail boxes. One of my boxes made with the bit is shown in the review. Above and at left, you can see the Krenov inspired cabinet with the doors installed.



The cabinet shown at left is my freshly oiled Cherry and maple jelly or liquor cabinet.

looking from the hand to love...

We know that the most important things in our lives are inexplicable. We are not necessarily rational beings, despite our protestations and delusions that we are. We weigh pros and cons, make lists of them, and then are swept away by a simple touch. Industries invest millions to try to figure things out. Love is one of those things that defies reason on the most personal level.  Research has shown that we often make our best decisions when we act impulsively, in contrast to whatever the prevailing wisdom might be.

I have been invited to speak for 10 minutes at our local UU church on the subject of love, having to do with Valentines Day.  I am one voice of several. Love is a messy subject that concerns us all, and so what do the hands grasp of love that our intellects perhaps do not? I invite my readers to share in the formulation and refinement of my thoughts for this brief presentation. Think about your hands and the relationships with others in your lives. An obvious suggestion is holding hands. What does that simple thing tell us about love? Help me out if you like. If not, proceed. Carry on. Make, fix, create. We may be rowing against the tide for now, only to be best prepared.

Today in my wood shop I'll be continuing to work on my final cabinets for the book. The key cabinet is shown in the photo above complete with a working door knob.

Struggle by R. J. Gale & Laziness by James J. Montague

Life is forever calling--
The school forever still,
And the lad who looks from its windows
Must hold him with a will.
Teachers and  books and playmates
Inveigle him to stay--
But wind and brook and open field
Call, "Up, lad! and away!" - R. J. Gale

Today schools in Northwest Arkansas are closed due to heavy snow, so will have a day in the wood shop and some tractor time moving the snow about.

My teacher says a little boy is just a worthless shirk
Who sits around inventin' ways for gettin' out o' work.
An' then next day he reads about a little chap named Watt
That watched the water boilin' in a battered irom pot.
An' loafed around the kitchen til he'd figured out a scheme
To have the hardest kinds o' work all nicely done by steam.
An' there was Robert Fulton, loafin' round the Upper Bay,
An' watchin' barges rowed along about a mile a dy.
Of course he knew that work was right, an' dodgin' it was wrong
But still he thought a boat had ought to push itself along.
An' while he sat there by the dock a swingin' of his heels,
He planned hisself a boat that run by steam an' paddle wheels.
Inventors almost every day is makin' somethin' new
To save a lot o' people work they used to haff to do.
The fellers gets along the best who sits around and dreams
Of how to stall off honest toil with labor-savin' schemes.
I don't care whet my teacher says, for all my life I've found
That it ain't work, it's laziness that makes the world go round.

If you are blessed with a snow day, enjoy. Make, fix, create. You never know what you might come up with. Both of these poems are from 200 Poems for Teachers of Industrial Arts Education.

As you can see in the photo at left, I am assembling the last cabinet for the new book.  The wood is black locust. After the glue securing the top has set overnight, I'll add dowels at the top, fit the door and add the internal hangers.


This article from the Huffington Post claims that 10 States are Running out of Smart People. And another article sent to me by John Grossbohlin addresses the problem of high school graduates being ill prepared for employment. Graduates, but Ill-Prepared:
Big Disparity Reported Between Getting a Diploma and College-Readiness Rates If you want better news, you'll made to do it yourself. Again, Make, fix, create.

blest

I have been making a turn latch for a small cabinet as well as doing other things. I had two classes at school today, and if the snow comes tomorrow as expected, I'll get lots of shop time for the rest of the week. The turned knob fits through the hole being drilled on the drill press and the latch will be cut short, get some further shaping and will be glued in place on the knob's end. It engages a groove cut on the inside of the cabinet. Turn to open.

Blest are the horny hands of toil. -James Russell Lowell.
Work first, then rest. -John Ruskin

The Smell of the Wood

Oh, I like to open the door to my shop;
Each morning anew it elates me.
What incense is there, what perfumes so rare
As the smell of the wood that elates me.
The sunlight of a hundred years is there,
The winds from a thousand hills;
The dews from countless star-lit nights
And a murmur of mountain rills.
There's the feel of the orient and the jungle breath
In the smell of the wood that greets me;
There's the breath from rains and winter snows
In the smell of the wood that meets me.

What matter if others can sail the world around
And view all the grandeur for a year and a day,
I have ever ready a ship to command;,
A breath fills the sails and my boat is away.
It carries me back through the years that are past
Over wide oceans and far-stretching seas,
I have but to breathe and my journey's complete
I've traveled the world, though I sit at my ease.
Oh, the smell of the wood, what magic it holds,
(What treasures are ours oft least understood),
Though the walls of my shop encompass me round
I can sail far away on the smell of the wood. -A. E. Gray

Some of my friends from high places tell me that research to prove the value of the hands in learning is a wasted effort, as research is too often false in the first place. It does seem that human beings are not necessarily rational. We are more moved by feelings than by intellect and the recent Super Bowl game is an example. Forgive me if I have resorted again to poetry. By neglecting hands-on learning for our nation's youth, we are wasting lives. And so we have to make personal decisions. Do something about it. ASAP. DIY, and TIY (teach it yourself, as most schools are no longer giving your children much of what they need most).

My regular readers will remember my kind words about Costa Rica from my visit during the first week of January. Others, it seems have the same opinion, including Nicholas D. Kristoff of the New York Times. In his editorial, The Happiest People, he states:

What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists.

I’m not anti-military. But the evidence is strong that education is often a far better investment than artillery.

In Costa Rica, rising education levels also fostered impressive gender equality so that it ranks higher than the United States in the World Economic Forum gender gap index. This allows Costa Rica to use its female population more productively than is true in most of the region. Likewise, education nurtured improvements in health care, with life expectancy now about the same as in the United States — a bit longer in some data sets, a bit shorter in others.

Costa Rica has actually been measured for its happiness on an index which leaves the U.S. languishing in the dust. We're in 20th place. If we have become a relatively less happy nation of comparatively declining intellect, there are places we can look for a better role model. Make, fix, create.

A thought for today

Do you ever want to drill evenly spaced holes down the length of a board? This simple jig that I made this morning will allow holes to be drilled on center 3/8 in. apart for making weaving looms. After the fence is set in the right position, you simply drill the first hole, and flip the spacer out of the way to drill the next and so on. The idea is to make it easy enough that one of my students could do it.

From 200 Poems for Teachers of Industrial Arts Education, edited by William L. Hunter, Industrial Arts Dept. Iowa State College, 1933:

A Great Purpose in Art Education

A glance back over the ages impresses one with the universality of the art instinct--weak and struggling here, strong and virile there, but ever present, differing only in degree and kind. We find it woven and carved hammered and infused and generally breathed into nearly every known substance. Ever present, common to all, we find certain enduring qualities of patience, perseverance and sincerity, and the observance of certain satisfying principles and harmonizing laws. Our business seems to be that of perpetuating and defining this instinct for expression in the light of what the past teaches, the present requires, and the future promises. In the fostering of these instincts and the perpetuation of these standards lies the hope of tomorrow--a hope for deeper feeling, finer workmanship and nobler living. Our hope for accomplishment must be founded upon unbounded faith in childhood. Our approach must be thought out in the spirit of democracy. -- C.V. Kirby

C.V. Kirby taught carving, modeling and design at the Denver Manual Training High School in 1902.

One of the things neglected and forgotten about manual arts was the notion that those involved in making were also making themselves along the way. Character development was a distinct and valuable product that came from the wood shop. The following poem from the 200 Poems collected by William L. Hunter is a reminder of what we have given up when we abandoned manual arts education.

We all are blind until we see
That, in the human plan,
Nothing is worth the making, if
It does not make the man.

Why build these cities glorious
If man unbuilded goes?
In vain we build the world, unless
The builder also grows.-- Edwin Markham

research truth

"It can be proven that most claimed research findings are false," according to this essay in the Public Library of Science, Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, by John P. A. Ioannidis. Another interesting article on the same subject can be found in The Atlantic.com Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science

The following is from Charles Henry Ham's book, Mind and Hand, 1886:

It is thus that the trained hand comes at last to foresee, as it were, that a false proposition is surely destined to be exploded. The habit of rectitude gives it prescience. It invariably discovers, sooner or later, that a false proposition, when embodied in wood or iron, becomes a conspicuous abortion, involving in disgrace both the designer and the maker. A false proposition in the abstract may be rendered very alluring; a false proposition in the concrete is always hideous. One of the chief effects of manual training is, then, the discovery and development of truth; and truth, in its broadest signification, is merely another name for justice; and justice is the synonym of morality.

If medical research can be so corrupt what do you think about the standardized testing movement? Do we have any idea what THEY are doing? Just trying to make a few extra bucks at our children's expense. Throughout modern American culture we witness what Jerome Bruner has called Factual Indifference. There is a cure. DIY, TIY Let the kids make beautiful, useful things. Let them dance and sing. Let them learn the truth of things and become observers of real reality. Make, fix, create.

carpenter's hands.

Republished from the WOH blog, Sunday, November 11, 2007

One of the major challenges in American schools is that of maintaining a high level of civility. Schools are plagued by rude behavior, classroom disruption, and bullying. Teachers as a result, often leave the profession in as few as three years or less. So imagine, after spending 4 years on your college education, and with the amount of investment and debt that entails, leaving your chosen profession in discouragement. Imagine also, the students (and parents) who were disappointed in their educational aspirations by a faulty learning environment. Imagine the ultimate toll on the American economy of people left in the margins of economic utility and stunted in their creative power.

So what does that have to do with manual arts?

Here in the U.S. our Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and in order to assert and protect that guarantee, the Constitution provides for separation of church and state. This means that in our state supported schools, organized worship and prayer, and the promotion of specific religions and specific religious beliefs are prohibited.

Many Christian conservatives in the United States promote the idea that organized prayer in our schools and the promotion of Christian values would lead in a restoration and revitalization of moral values and behavior in schools.

While I would not question the value of meditation or prayer, I suggest that Christ was a carpenter before he became so widely known and promoted as the Christian Savior. There are significant human values expressed in and learned from craftsmanship, and the greatest failure in American schools is not the prohibition of organized prayer, but the disengagement of the hands in the skillful exploration of learning and making.

I would like to share an old saying. "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." Can you see a similarity between the word workshop and "worship"? Put the hands back in education, let our schools become workshops with children making things of useful beauty, and you will see other things happening as well. When children have the pride of self and confidence that arises from successful engagement in making beautiful things, civility will arise also. So the answer to improving American education is not to be found in hands folded idly in prayer, but in the carpenter's hands--- training, skill, service and devotion.

The photo above is a new type of door I'm making which is a cross between a board and batten door and a bridle jointed one. It could be called an internal batten door. It is made using standard bridle joint slots and a pieces of connecting wood planed to fit the slots. Only the outside boards will be glued, leaving the others to expand and contract without having effect on the size or shape of the door.

rehearsing discourse

I have this new theory, that human discourse and self-talk or internal dialog is so dominant within human consciousness because it was the last thing to develop and thus takes the greatest amount of cognitive energy and focus. This is based on Piano/MRI research which suggests that as a pianist develops greater skill in his or her hands, less cognitive energy and fewer cognitive resources are required to perform the piece. It has been surmised by researchers the brain functioning adapts for greater efficiency, neural shortcuts are formed between cells, thus requiring fewer cells to perform a given skilled task. To get words just right can take an incredible amount of energy, particularly when the outcome is extraordinarily important to us, when either the subject or relationship is important to our lives. We know that words and language can be spewed and spilled on overdrive, but there are times when our use of language must be as carefully crafted as a dovetailed joint.

I had a fitful night, with many things on my mind. Some things involved design on the cabinet I'm making. Those were the fun things allowing me to think in pictures and the ways things fit together. Then there is another thing nagging my mind that needs to be discussed that has to do with asking a foundation for support for Clear Spring School. Those words need to be well crafted, and believe me, it takes greater energy and is less fun. So, would it be any surprise that internal dialog might seem so dominant within the conscious mind?

Today, I'll be making some effort to communicate based on words that were crafted in the night. In the shop, I'll drill some pilot holes for assembly of things... holes that must be drilled before further shaping takes place.

In the poll at right, now closed, you can see that most of my readers are visual or tactile learners or learn best when all their senses are engaged. 100% of respondents identify themselves as other than primarily "auditory learners." One can thus see the problems inherent in telling each other things. Yackity-yack is not particularly effective, in schooling, inside the brain, or in life. Instead, let's utilize the strategic engagement of the hands. Make, fix, create.

PTA Wars, house wrens and the arts

With the shrinkage or loss of arts, music and athletics in many schools due to shrinking budgets and "teach to the test mentality," Parent Teacher Associations have been stepping up to the plate to provide funding for art and music teacher salaries and supplies. While one can find wonder in that, and feel awe for the generosity of parents and their commitment to the arts, the practice has not been without controversy. An article in Time Magazine last week called the situation, PTA Wars. Some parent teacher organizations in wealthier communities are offering their children advantages in the arts unavailable to poorer districts. Those parents in poorer communities are disturbed by the disadvantage their children face as a result. Some have filed suit.

Interestingly, you don't hear parents getting involved in matters of reading or math. It is as though they really do, in their hearts, know what children really need most. Attend to the arts and all else follows. Give the children something to read about that interests them (as the arts do) and then give something to calculate as we do in laboratory science and woodshop? Go figure.

Yesterday, I mentioned the Educational Sloyd principle, "move from the concrete to the abstract", and in that principle, we find that the arts are the actual concrete foundation of education, not a luxury to be provided by PTAs when they can afford it. We have things completely backwards in American education and our children and our collective future suffers for it.

Today I had a house wren visiting in my office and wanting to get out. I tried to swoop it up in a dip net to no avail. It is that time of the year when house wrens go into dark places looking for a suitable nest. I hoped to find a way to get it captured and released. Which brings me to the essential point of education. Do we restrain our children in boring and meaningless classes in which they perceive no relevance and feel no connection, or do we offer them capture and release through the arts?

I managed to coax the wren through the office door into the finish room by turning off lights. I was inspired by watching the Temple Grandin movie and wondered how birds think. Then I closed the door between the office and finish room and opened the door to the outside. With just a bit more encouragement the wren flew out. Is there a lesson in that for American education? By paying attention to the needs of our children could it be so easy? It is such a "no-brainer." I call it the strategic implementation of the hands. We all know we learn best by learning hands-on. But the challenge is to get American educators awakened to fundamental human reality.

As you can see in the photo above, I am starting the final project for the book which being a simple one will probably slide in as chapter one. I could turn Biblical and say the last shall be first, but I would rather just tell you what kind of wood it is. Black Locust, an uncommon Arkansas hardwood. You will see a bit more of it in the next few days and will see the entire step by step when the book is published.


Make, fix, create.

Turn them then cut them up

Today I've made door pulls for the Krenov inspired cabinet. James Krenov was well known for his hand crafted knobs and pulls which added distinction and interest to his designs. He regarded his work as "simple," though in actuality is was not. In the same way, Shaker cabinetry has been regarded as simple, though the skills required to attain that simplicity are beyond the scope of many modern craftsmen. In tribute to both Krenov and our Shaker heritage, my pulls for this cabinet begins with shaker styled pulls I turned on the lathe and then modified to better reflect Krenov's design.

You can see a bit of the process in the photo above. First turn the knobs to the same shape and dimensions (not an easy feat), then use the table saw to cut away portions of the turned shape, thus creating a hybrid, Krenovian Shaker. One more cut will be made to finish the shape.

John Grossbohlin came through with another interesting study of our failing schools. Study: Students need more paths to career success
"Education system needs to offer career-driven alternatives to a four-year college degree"

So how do we get there from here? An answer lies in Comenius, of all places. He says that it is cruel to ask students to do their work without offering a model of success to aim toward. We learn by moving from the concrete to the abstract. In most examinations of schooling the process is mired in abstraction, leaving the reader no clear path forward. So we end up wringing our hands and wondering "What to do, what to do?" A huge body of research tells us what we are doing wrong. We need models of how things can be done right.

My formula is simple. You can grasp it. With just a bit of will you can put it in force. It involves placing the hands at the center of learning in all schools and at all ages. Make, fix, create.

thinking in pictures

I watched the movie Temple Grandin last night which I highly recommend to my readers. It is powerful, engaging, illustrative of the challenges of autism and provides some clear insight into the fact that we don't all think or learn in the same ways. It also shows that not thinking the same ways is a tremendous benefit to our society and our economy.  The real Temple Grandin helped in the production of the movie about her and assures that it is an accurate portrayal of  early her life. She was encouraged to explore her natural ability "thinking in pictures" by her science teacher. From her difficult beginnings, she worked to make animal husbandry practices throughout the livestock industry more humane and efficient, but of even greater impact, she has helped our society better understand the challenges of autism and the unique contributions some autistic children and adults can make to our culture. Her book, Thinking in Pictures, My Life With Autism is an important work for anyone who has come to realize that American education should not be "one size fits all."

Today in the wood shop, I'll be making knobs for the maple stand up cabinet, and starting the last cabinet for the book. And trying to keep warm. You might also enjoy Temple Grandin's Ted Talk, The World Needs ALL Kinds of Minds.




John Grossbohlin sent a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Poetry, Painting to Earn an M.D. Early manual arts educators stressed the importance of "not becoming one-sided" or narrowed in student perceptions of reality. Human health requires a broad engagement outside the realm of primary discipline. The arts provide a metaphorical context that is the key to creative thinking. All creative human endeavors are achieved through the application of metaphor, and if we want our children (and medical doctors) to be creative in their thinking, we offer them things like music, the arts and wood shop. But then our society at large has become "one sided" and some don't get it. Explain it to them. Use your words, or pictures or both. Make something beautiful and useful and let it speak volumes.

Some of my readers may be curious about how to install knife hinges. I use a router table technique to rout the mortises where the hinges nest in the ends of the doors as you can see. A picture is worth a thousand words, which should help to show the value of thinking in pictures.

today in my wood shop...

It is snowing hard outside, and blizzard conditions are predicted for this afternoon. We seem to have passed the window of bad weather that makes ice, pulls down trees and power lines. So at this point, we can settle in and enjoy. I have been taking photos of my spoon carving knives for an article in Make Magazine and plan to head for the wood shop to build a fire and warm the space for work.

I have been involved in s brief flurry of messages from Frank Wilson and others exploring the ways we assess performance in schooling, which often is unrelated to what children need, a way of observing, measuring and assessing their own performance. And so, I have also been reflecting on David Henry Feldman's article "the Child as Craftsman." Frank said,:

I have more and more wondered when it will be understood that the most constructive and effective assessments come from the observations of the single individual whose goal is to develop and refine his or her own message. The most serious defect in both the logic and practice of exogenous evaluations is that there can be no lasting effect on the child or student unless the goal is to make that student a skilled and committed observer of his/her own work. Every artist knows this; every teacher who understands how learning “works” knows that the only critic whose opinion counts is that of the student who has clear, personally chosen goals and the skill to direct the process. Great teachers teach their students how to pay attention to everything they are doing.

My kids in the wood shop sometimes tell me "the wood doesn't like me." And I can assure them that the wood has no feelings one way or the other, but that they will have a better relationship with wood through practice and attention to its characteristics. If you look back on our history of science, The Royal Academy of Science in the UK, Jefferson and Franklin in the US, you see the close relationship between materials science and the making of things, and then the relationship between the making of things and every other facet of scientific knowledge, and then we make schools in which kids don't even make music. The sloyd educators precepts, start with the interests of the child, move from the known to the unknown, from the simple to complex, from the easy to more difficult, and from the concrete to abstract, laid out the steps for an ever expanding relationship with paying attention to everything one does.

The photo at the top is one I took for the article in Make Magazine. I'll let you know when it is published. The photo at left shows the nearly completed Krenov inspired maple cabinet, so I am nearly finished with the 7th chapter and beginning the 8th.

The Great Didactic of Comenius

These days, the education of our children is driven by statistics and standardized testing rather than by observation of our children and their actual learning needs. But for interesting reading we can go back to John Amos Comenius, the father of modern pedagogy. The Great Didactic, edited by M.W. Keatinge can be found on Google books, Here. If you were to go to any modern education university, you would learn far more about testing than about the arts and Comenius' proposed use of the arts in education.

Today in the Clear Spring wood shop, the upper primary students will be finishing their treasure boxes, and the high school students will be turning wooden bowls. We are expecting a major winter storm beginning later in the day, so I have errands to run, firewood to put in place, and a host of additional duties in addition to classes. Please take the poll at right. Give some thought as to how you best learn. Are we different from our children in how we learn? Do you think, based on how you, yourself may learn that our present schools are what our children most need?

Comenious said the following about schools:

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

In other words, we have our schools backwards. The arts and crafts should come first and be central to our educational model. And as Chris notes in the comment below, fat chance of that happening anytime soon. Make, fix and create. Working with you in your work shop may be the only chance your children and grandchildren ever have to discover the hands-on creation of self.

interests of the child

In educational sloyd, one of the guiding principles was to start with the interests of the child, then to move from the known to the unknown,  from the easy to the more difficult, from the simple to more complex, from the concrete to the abstract in increments that nourished the continuing and expanding interests of the child.

In an ideal world, children would come to the classroom with high expectations for themselves,  racing to engage in the lessons offered. They would see the relevance of everything they learn as being to their competitive advantage. But schools just haven't worked out that way.  My  illustration above may be helpful in reminding that spheres of interest do not always coincide.

There are structural changes that can be made in education to bring the child's interests and classroom lessons into intersection.

Sometime back in the late 1700’s a child in Pestalozzi’s school challenged his teacher, “You want me to learn the word ladder, but you show me a picture. Wouldn’t it be better to go look at the real ladder in the shed?” The teacher was frustrated by the child’s remark and explained that he would rather not take the whole class outside the building just to look at a ladder. Later, the same child was shown the picture of a window and again interrupted the teacher. “Wouldn’t it be better to talk about the window that is right there? We don’t even have to go outside to look at it!” The teacher asked Pestalozzi about the incident and was informed that the child was right. Whenever possible children should learn from the real world and the experiences it offers.

So what can be done? First, take the kid out of the classroom for lessons that engage all the senses. Next, bring components of real life into the classroom to expand engagement of the senses. Third, engage the children in making things with real tools and materials. All senses are required for that. And finally, be prepared to assist the student in pursuing interests beyond the school walls through real world engagement in travel and internships. 

I want to thank those who are taking part in the poll at right. It appears so far that for many, learning is a multi-sensory experience.

"Theory," says Vives, "is easy and short, but has no result other than the gratification that it affords. Practice on the other hand is difficult and prolix, but is of immense utility." Since this is so, we should diligently seek out a method by which the young may be easily led to the practical application of natural forces, which is to be found in the arts.  -- M. W. Keatinge, The Great Didactic of Comenious

The following is from The Education of Man by Friedrich Froebel, writing on the senses.

The debasing illusion that man works, produces, creates only in order to preserve his body in order to secure food, clothing, and shelter, may have to be endured, but should not be diffused and propagated. Primarily and in truth, man works only that his spiritual, divine essence many assume outward form, and that thus he may be enabled to recognize his own spiritual, divine nature and the innermost being of God.

The young, growing human being should, therefore, be trained early for outer work, for creative and productive activity. For this there exists a double reason an inner and an outer requirement; and the former, inasmuch as it includes the latter, is of the greatest importance and eternal. The requirement is supported, too, by the nature of man as such.

The activity of the senses and limbs of the infant is the first germ, the first bodily activity, the bud, the first formative impulse; play, building modeling are the first tender blossoms of youth; and this is the period when man is to be prepared for future industry, diligence, and productive activity. Every child, boy and youth, whatever his condition or position in life should devote daily at least one or two hours to some serious activity in the production of some definite external piece of work. Lessons through and by work, through and from life, are by far the most impressive and intelligible, and the most continuously and intensely progressive both in themselves and in their effect on the learner. Notwithstanding this, children--mankind, indeed--are at present too much and too variously concerned with aimless and purposeless pursuits, and too little with work.

In other words, Make, fix, create.