twice the effect

The hands play a particularly important role in the development of human intelligence in that they are both sensory and active. We see and hear and that's basically the end of things for some folks. We might see something or hear something and be changed within, but the hands have the power to change the external reality of things. We touch and things are disrupted and transformed by our touch. 

If the purpose of schooling is only superficial, we do that quite well. If we are looking for deeper effect, we know how, and that is to make certain that the hands are engaged creatively in learning... that they are allowed to respond creatively with the hands to what the other senses have allowed them to feel.

ESSA, our Eureka Springs School of the Arts, has become one of my happy places because it is full of people learning to their deepest effect and are happily transformed be the experience. We may grow tired, and frustrated on occasion but the joy of creation wins out. We do things that we did not know that we could do, and in the process make the world a better place.

The photograph is the work of a friend and Arkansas Treasure, Hank Kaminsky. The words spell peace in a number of world languages, and as the globe spins  our hands and fingers tell us we are living with the same hopes. 

Make, fix and create...