The following is from John Grossbohlin:

Doug,

Caught the measurement item on the blog... I take a little different approach with kids and adults alike when I teach hand cut dovetailing. I show them that you can measure increments without ending up having to find non-scale numbers on the ruler. The attached photo is an example of how to do this. The paper is 2.5" wide and to make three equal sections place the ruler at an angle so that 3 inches are spanned between the edges of the paper. Making marks at the inch marks gets you three equal sections with no "hard" math and without the need to measure in thousandths. I have the kids then measure the increments with the ruler to get an idea of what they "measure" and to show that they are equal (assuming they marked well). On short boards a try square is used to transfer the marks to the ends of the board for dovetail layout. Alternatively, similar marks are made near each end and connected with a straight edge.



As an aside, I taught a class on making hand cut dovetailed pencil boxes one time and right in the beginning of the class I showed that technique. One guy walked away from the bench, sat down, and loudly said, "I'm done." The group was somewhat stunned and one of the other guys asked what was wrong. The response was, "I got my money's worth already with that one trick!" That elicited a lot of laughs... he then rejoined the group around the workbench. ;~)

John

I received a couple papers today from Bent Illum, Ph.D. of Sloyd Education in Denmark. Bent's research has to do with determining ways to measure the non-verbal narrative taking place in the teaching of Sloyd in schools.

We pay greater attention to those things that can be measured and compared in quantitative analysis. Those things we can't measure don't seem to matter, at least in an academic setting. They are too fuzzy and science tends to avoid fuzzy stuff. But the values of craftsmanship, and the understanding of the intrinsic rewards that arise through achieving beauty or quality in one's work are matters beyond external measure, and may lead a student on a life-long path of exploration and discovery.

Many of the things that matter most are beyond measure, and the best material offered in the classroom, may not reach the point of significance until years down the road. But, if Bent can get the academic world to look more seriously at non-verbal teaching and learning we will create a more habitable learning environment for all students.

Bent got my attention in Helsinki when he started talking about embodied learning. Those who read in this blog, will certainly understand from that alone why Bent was one of those at the conference with whom I felt a strong philosophical connection.

On another subject, I got a question from a reader that I'll share.

Doug - do you have a way of teaching children how to measure?

Say the board is 3 5/8 and I want to divide it equally into thirds how on earth do I do this and get a measurement that can be measured on a measuring tape? It has to equal something that is 1/8, 1/16, or even 1/32

OK - I should have learned this in 3rd grade, but when I do this it comes out to something unmeasurable.

Oh the wonders of math and wood.

Measuring is easy if you are working in halves or quarters, but thirds are a challenge because of the way that our measuring instruments are arranged.

If you want to divide by half, you double the denominator. So half of one fourth is 1/8th. A third of one fourth is 1/12th and the ruler is laid out in 1/16ths. So this is where things get fuzzy.

There are other ways to measure and divide that completely ignore measuring instruments. Take a piece of paper or string and fold it, it becomes half. Or fold it in thirds (a bit harder to do, I grant you). Or in 4ths. Or 5ths. These are done by just playing with things, and accurate enough for most things. Working with kids, we routinely use folded paper as a substitute for numeric math. In actual fact, it is math, even without numbers, and builds those spatial visualization skills that math educators believe are necessary for success in Algebra and Trigonometry. We also use folded paper as a means to develop symmetrical objects (like algebraic functions, one side is the equal of the other.)

Sometimes I'll do an approximation. For instance if I want to divide 3 5/8 into thirds, I know each third will included at least one inch. If I were dividing 3 3/4, it would be easy, so I know that each third will also have almost another 4th, but not quite, right? So I can guess that each third will have somewhere between 1 3/16" and 1 1/4".

So, you can see that lots of things are actually rather fuzzy. Both in math and in the study of education.

This last week the conservatives were parading on national news proclaiming that we are a center-right nation. But we are truly a conservative nation. Just not in the ways they think.


We are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and if you haven't been there, you should plan a trip.

Isn't it strange that the liberal faction of American politics has supported the National Endowment for the Arts, has steadfastly worked to preserve the environment and the wild places from development, has worked in preservation of the past, while the conservatives are the ones who want to drill, mine and dump the heck out of the place?

In celebration of the anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, it seems we might revisit these old ideas, conservative vs. liberal, and perhaps see that sometimes we are deceived and only with the passage of time do we begin to see where real conservative values are present.

Self-identified "Conservatives" like Bill Bennett are always talking about values that other people should have and many in the Republican party have worked to control the behavior of others, while withdrawing into gated communities to guard their wealth. They have used their discussions of values to frighten and control the electorate, and for once at last they have failed.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a president despised by conservatives and responsible for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was the ultimate conservator, while George W. Bush and his supporters, full of rhetoric were complete wastrels in comparison.

The concepts I mentioned yesterday of "Formal or formative" education as contrasted with "material" education help to illustrate the difference between a real conservative, one who takes action toward the preservation of culture and values, and the kind of self-proclaimed "conservative" that has dominated the conservative movement in the US for decades.

We can talk about values until the cows come home, but the real deal is to put people to work as craftsmen, learning real values from their own lives. In the same notion, schools should put children to the task of doing real things that develop their skills, character and compassion. As any craftsman can tell you, we learn more about values from attempting to make something with beauty and lasting quality than we can sitting in a pew on Sunday morning and professing sanctity to our neighbors.

These are a few of the boxes and desk accessories being prepared for shipping on Monday. It is fun seeing the colors of the woods come to life when the oil finish is applied.


Making boxes is work. It takes attention. It seems that some people place special emphasis on things that are "hand-made" as being greater in meaning and of greater value. But we know that things can be hand made and carelessly done, so it is not just the hands that create meaning, but the hands and full caring attention of the human being that do so.

The following is from B.B. Hofmann's 1892 book The Sloyd System of Woodworking

Primarily Sloyd is to be used as a means of formal education—formal as opposed to material. A material education seeks to impart a definite knowledge of things for their own sake. A formal education seeks chiefly to develop the innate mental powers, and selects and imparts knowledge in order to strengthen character, will-power, memory, perception—in short, all of those faculties of the mind which at birth are dormant, and which gradually and through education become to a greater or lesser degree marked characteristics of the individual.

All subjects can be used both for material and formal instruction—some more, some less. History and science give material information; and yet, if the teacher seeks to arouse the imaginative faculty, or to inspire a love and sympathy for humanity, a formal training is thereby added. The child when he studies his history lessons sees that among the first causes of a nation's welfare may" be traced the underlying principle of order. Again, as he becomes acquainted with the elements of the sciences, and as he begins to understand the workings of nature's laws, a desire to systematize and arrange things in a rational and orderly manner takes possession of his mind. Mathematics and gymnastics are of more value as formal than as material means of education, as the former develops the reasoning faculty, while the latter strengthens the body. Materialists believe in giving a knowledge of the actual things met with in life, while the formalists lay stress upon the cultivation of correct habits.

One of the interesting things you will note in this passage is the unusual use of the words "formal education" giving a meaning distinctly different from that in common use in the US. Otto Salomon referred to this concept in Swedish as Formell which was translated as "formative." This presents an interesting reminder of the various purposes of education, and presents a distinct divergence from the usual understanding that woodworking in schools was purely for vocational purposes.

The photo below shows the next step after rough sanding. I rout each edge, prior to the final sanding operations and application of finish. The boxes shown are inlaid with either spalted maple or with an inlay I make from a selection of native Arkansas hardwoods.

Today, president-elect Obama had his first press conference and there was a follow-up discussion about ways to get the economy rolling. The WPA and CCC were mentioned.

Years ago, I was provided an apprentice through CETA, which stood for "Comprehensive Employment Training Act". It provided pay for my apprentice to help me in my shop, and after a period of training, my apprentice was provided an allowance for some basic tools. He was able to move from my employment into his own business and worked as a professional cabinet maker for years.

You can imagine what would happen if every artist and craftsman in the US were provided the opportunity to train new craftsmen. Now that we have Bush leaving the White House, many wonderful things may become possible. I took a break from competing with the Chinese to write out one more project variation for the book. I am nearly done!

Now, back to sanding boxes.

Hands A nice post on the hands at MollyChicken.

I am still in competition with the Chinese today, making boxes for my next order. Whenever I get low on a size, that's my cue to set that size on the production list and I make a few more than is necessary for the order to be filled. That way, when the next order comes in, I am part way prepared for it. The small table above is a rustic piece made by one of my students two years ago. The woods are walnut and hickory, and the top is textured with a rotary chisel.

This morning I listened to a conservative trying to rationalize their drubbing at the polls, claiming that Obama's win had nothing to do with a repudiation of the Bush years and conservatism. It is always amazing to me to hear political pundits running off at the mouth and getting paid for it.

Laura Ingraham on Fox said the following about Sarah Palin... she has the ability to connect with the Joe Plumber types, but also "smart people." Did she really mean that? I really wonder if Laura Ingraham can fix a toilet or unstop a drain or has any sense of the intelligence required to do so?

I am sick and tired of idiots who have no notion of the skill, imagination and intelligence that are required to do real stuff in the world. You can see where Joe the Plumber fits in their political scenario... he's like a wrench you use to twist the electorate into fitting your distorted notions of reality... Are "smart people" like Laura are what we get when the hands are left out of education?

So, what's the difference between Joe the Plumber and Wisdom of the Hands? It is a good question, don't you think? How can we recognize the can-do intelligence of the common people without succumbing to an anti-intellectualism which wrongly disparages those who engage in complex thinking?

Jean Jacques Rousseau said that "the great secret of education is to combine mental and physical work so that the one kind of exercise refreshes for the other."

When mental and physical work are combined, the participants are lifted to their highest potentials. Work with the hands liberates the intellect from the struggle with abstract concepts, and provides opportunity for creative insight.

But what happens when the educational system stifles confidence in learning and isolates work of the hands from the exploration of intellectual capacities?

Hello Joe. I hope you have a wonderful new life. I heard that being yanked into the limelight by the McCain campaign may bring other opportunities. In the meantime, I will keep blogging in the hopes that all of us who work with our hands will be encouraged toward greater intellectual curiosity, and the "intellectual elite" will find a renewed passion for creativity through their own hands.... drawing us all together toward the best of both worlds, as described by Rousseau, hands-on exploration and the exercise of intellect each refreshing the other.

Again, it is a day to compete with the Chinese, and believe me, I'm not complaining. It is wonderful to have a day of work to take my mind off the election and as I await further instruction on my photographs for the book.


Hand work has a bad reputation in America. It is considered drudgery, boring, demeaning, and for some reason, those who don't do it or haven't done it have little sense of the joy that comes with it. But it is there for us, even when we do something we have done many times before.

In fact, we have a tendency to repeat that which brings us success and joy, so with all the new voters streaming to the polls to support Obama, this will be a very sad day for the Republican party. They have maintained their position of power by sustaining a sense of powerlessness and despair amongst a large portion of the potential electorate.

Today I am inlaying small products to fill orders. So each of the things you see in the photo above will, when released from clamps, sanded and finished bring money to pay bills and support my family. There is joy in that, too. People have this idea that life is about getting ahead, as though it is a race. And yet, it is really to be savored, each moment, lest it pass quickly and without full appreciation.

We will elect a new president today, and I have hopes that he will be accompanied into office by a vice-president who knows that dinosaurs and men DID NOT walk the earth at the same time.

The link is to an article discussing the origins of American idiocy, "The Triumph of Idiocy" by George Monbiot from the Guardian.

Don't forget to vote.

I am getting very excited about finishing this book, and I think from the photos below, you will see why! It has been fun.








I am also ready for a change in presidents. The Bush idea in education was "no child left behind," a policy which neglected hands-on learning through music, crafts and the arts, and left the hands stilled and their natural contributions to the development of intelligence thwarted. The Bush idea was to build a system of testing to monitor what gets stuck in the brain, when what we need most is to inspire kids to become full participants in learning and making through their own hands. But that was too scary a concept for the Bush administration. If kids find out that they can do stuff, is revolution far behind?

Tomorrow will be a great day, whether or not you choose to vote. But I hope you will vote and take part in a wonderful revolution.

If you live in the northern hemisphere, you might find it nice to walk around outside and look at things today. I've been outdoors taking photos of rustic furniture and couldn't help but also take photos of things even more beautiful, like the colors of this Japanese Maple and the leaves of this Carolina Buckthorn.



And here is a sample beauty shot from a sea grass foot stool. I love the way natural branches reflect the movement and chaos of nature.

In order of appearance on my morning drive down the hill from our house.


Post Oak, Dogwood, and Black Oak.

I have had another busy day, making a small cabinet for the DVD as shown in the photos below and finishing the Scandinavian rustic bench. Tomorrow I begin taking the beauty shots for the book.

These are some of the projects I've done in 5 days of shooting for the DVD. I have two more projects that I hope to finish today, a chair and a small cabinet, but it is beginning to look like it will take one more visit to complete voice overs and introductory text.

I have had two very busy days making more furniture for the Rustic Furniture Basics DVD. In addition to other pieces I've nearly finished a rustic bench. Instead of "Danish modern, it is Danish Rustic. It was fun. I have one more day tomorrow in this "shoot"and plan to finish a rustic chair and a small cabinet.

Today will be a busy day. Gary Junken, Taunton Video Director will be here for round two of Rustic Furniture Basics. It is raining so we will bring some of the video shoot indoors until things pass. Today is also the Harvest Party at Clear Spring School. Gary and I will slip by the school for a few moments this morning to get the wood shop booth set up, so there will be some woodworking for the children to do at the party.

I have been reflecting on cursive. What if we learned to regard writing as a meditation? It is for some, and is made more meaningful, full of meaning, by paying attention to how the words are laid down on the page. What if your deepest thoughts and highest aspirations are reflected not only in what you say, but in how they are delivered with full consciousness... not only that of the mind, but the full attention of the body as well?

Would those words become so powerful that they might change the world? They will, one writer at a time.