History and why it matters...

History and why it matters: The point is not to go back in time, but to keep from repeating those things that which should not be repeated, and to mine from actual experience, a path toward restoration and repetition of those elements which by all rights and needs should have been kept.

There are nuggets of wisdom buried in the writings of others, kept, collected and passed on.

"The acquisition of industrial skill should be the means of promoting the general education of the pupil: The education of the hand should be the means of more completely and more efficaciously educating the brain."—Felix Adler, 1883

Connie Goddard's book "Learning For Work: How Industrial Education Fostered Democratic Opportunity." is a book about a movement that came and nearly left from the history of American education. A history that should be held closer than it is and mined for the nuggets of wisdom and the witness of wise folks that led it. 

At one time there were places like the Chicago Manual Training School (CMTS) that were promoted by business leaders, and that the book describes. The history would be useful to those business leaders of today that would have influence on the maker movement and on education at large. The effects are not just economic but formative as well. While there are whines about being heavily dependent on foreign industries, we might have taken pride in the industries we still had.

To make something beautiful, lasting and useful, are measurements of man. We ought to remember that.

Today I visited briefly with students at ESSA who were learning to hand cut dovetails. Some had done it before but were there to tune up and practice a lost art. Others were there cutting dovetails for the first time. All were having fun and learning in the company of others.

Make, fix and create...