it's not done til it's pretty.

The rest of the class is gone for the day, but one girl remains. She wanted to make an airplane because she found a plastic propeller, so  after two days of woodshop she wants to take it home, but not before the coloring is complete. Can you and I both understand that? When we are doing real things, they matter.

I was listening to the radio as I went to and from school this morning. They told of an organization trying to get young people to enter the job market. Work has become a hard sell. Students have become conditioned to doing nothing. They live in their parent's basements, and are disillusioned and disengaged. I place this at the foot of learning as it is practiced in American education.

Give children a chance at real learning! The inclination for it is hardwired in every human being. One word can change the whole of modern schooling. The word is industriousness and it's a natural part of being a human being. It's sad that it has been conditioned out of our student body by requiring our children to sit still and to do nothing but empty exercises.

There is a great quote in Time Magazine this week from Peter Tabichi, science teacher in Nairobi who won the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize on March 24. He stated his philosophy as, "You have to do more and talk less." Along with that goes encouraging your students to be of value to their families and their communities.

Today I'll be planing and sanding the large maple table top.

Make, fix and create... Provide for others to learn likewise.