Monday, March 25, 2019

five points.

The idea of manual arts training was and is to develop the skill, intellect and the character of the child. Allow me to reflect on the principles of Educational Sloyd.

From the easy to the more difficult refers most directly to the gradual development of skill, though it can also refer to the child's conceptual framework and what it can grasp.

From the known to the unknown can refer most accurately to the development of a framework of knowledge within the child's gradual awakening to the world around it. It can also refer to what the child knows how to do, thus referring to the child's growing capacity to act intelligently in its world.

From the simple to the complex  suggests that by starting out with simple things in school we build the child's capacity to grow into the complexities of life. These days we are particularly troubled by a population unwilling or unable to understand complex issues. They prefer to have complex things reduced to one liners and have been left too lazy to understand complex issues. Instead of having the strength, and interest to go deeply into complex issues, members of our society simply place themselves in us against them relationships with each other, and fail in their responsibility to engage intelligently as citizens.

From the concrete to the abstract really suggests where schools have generally left our population in the dark and emasculated of their intellectual capacity. Schools launch students into abstract subjects without building from the concrete realities of real life. Schools do that by teaching students to memorize factoids abstractly presented and irrelevant to their own lives while they ignore direct investigation of the reality that surrounds us.

It was believed that manual arts training in schools was crucial to the fulfillment of the ideals of democracy. All of this was to be launched from the interests of the child. Before the disruption of natural growth patterns by unnatural schooling, children learned by doing things in service to their families and communities.  Now students are expected to sit still and drugs are often recommended if they are incapable or unwilling to do so.

Make, fix, and create. Plead the case that others must have the opportunity to learn likewise.

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