Dual awareness

I have this belief that we are connected with each other in unseen ways, and if we are attempting to find clarity, those ways are gradually revealed. Sometimes suddenly that is the case. It's called enlightment.

 

There’s a phenomenon described in Nuclear Physics called “quantum entanglement” according to which, if two particles are introduced to each other and then thrust apart to the furthest reaches of the universe, what’s done to one is known to the other. Perhaps our own beings are too complex and too distracted to register and make conscious to ourselves the myriad connections between us. We spend endless hours spinning outwards toward greater complexity without seeking that which lies within.

Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten, saw the purpose of education as being the discovery of our interconnectedness within the frameworks of family, community, and nature. But that’s not 

what most of us were taught in school. We were taught and encouraged to attempt to stand apart and ahead as separated from each other and to seek recognition in inconsequential things. The centrifugal force. 

And yet, there’s growth that comes from recognizing and accepting that which lies within. This can require that we circle back towards simplicity, attempting to occupy an abandoned space within. The conscious engagement of the hands can be a part of the process. What we see and like, we must then touch and ascertain.

Yesterday I got my second covid-19 booster shot, not because I'm frightened of the disease, but because it's important that we protect others. Recognizing that we are indeed interconnected, we do such things.

Artists are taught to look at both positive and negative space. The positive space is contained within the outlines of the object. Negative space is that space that lies between. Negative space is not empty space like that to be found at the furthest corners of the universe. It is filled with strings and streams of entanglement—the interconnectedness that can be found by turning within.

As the world launched itself into the beginnings of WWI Carl Jung began his exploration of cosmic consciousness called the Red Book. As we sit once again on a precipice of World War, and as Putin threatens the use of nuclear weapons, as he's threatened in the past, we all have the need of finding places of peace within. Jung used his angst at the onset of WWI to attempt to engineer his own understanding of human consciousness.

Years ago a group of us from Eureka Springs would go each Sunday afternoon to a mediation group led by a retired engineer named Guy Loyd. Guy's theory of things was based on a concept he called "dual awareness." The idea of dual awareness was to bring ourselves in balance by holding a focus on oneness and interconnectedness as we went through our daily complications. It was like an artist holding an awareness of positive and negative space at the same time.

In the meantime, I'm given joy by observing joy as Goldendoodle Rosie chews a stick while also holding a favorite toy tightly in her paws.

Make, fix and create...

A sad day...

Yesterday my wife and I learned we'd lost an old friend in a tragic accident the night before. Lin Welford was the co-founder with my wife of the Books-in-Bloom Literary Festival here in Eureka Springs, an avid environmentalist, and library supporter. She was also the author of a whole series of books about painting on rocks, and a whole lot more than that.

She played a very important transformational role in my life. In about 1994 or so, and as a best selling author for F&W Publications, she invited David Lewis to come to Eureka Springs to meet various artisans who might be interested in writing a book for them. David's trip to Eureka Springs led to my being invited to write my first book, Creating Beautiful Boxes with Inlay Techniques. Now, after 14 books, I still have Lin to thank.

Lin's death reminds us that life is precious and can hang in the balance. Her life reminds us that we are connected with each other through serial effect—as things are set in motion in each other's lives. We are deeply and lastingly connected through the effects we have on each other, and had Jean and I not had Lin in our lives, our own lives would not be the same. 

We tend to think of ourselves as distinct individuals. We are not. We are profoundly and intricately connected to each other, and will remain so.

Make, fix and create...

a review

A reader identified as "Avid Woodworker" left a review of my new book, "The Wisdom of Our Hands" on Amazon as follows: 

"I have been a hobbyist woodworker for over 60 years. Although this book is NOT a "how to do it" book it is proving to be the most effective book for improving my woodworking skills that I have ever read. Reading Doug's book is improving my use of the two most useful tools in my shop, my mind and my attitude."

https://smile.amazon.com/Wisdom-Our-Hands-Crafting-Life/dp/1610355016/ 

Today in the woodshop at the Clear Spring School, I helped high school student Henry build a box for his chess set. It's nearing completion, and I'll have photos to show at a later date.

Make, fix and create... 

boxes of blocks

Today my Kindergarten students (the Rainbow Group) will be finishing the Froebel blocks they're making and building boxes to keep them in. The finished sets will look like those made by my high school students yesterday, but will likely not appear so well made.

Make, fix and create... Build your life upon these notions.

24 boxes

My students at ESSA finished 24 boxes  (3 apiece) in our three day class. In the photo I'm the old guy on the left. 

It was a very good class with all the students helping each other,  and for me, it is a rewarding and invigorating experience.

Folks, noticing that I teach both adults and  kids, ask "what's the difference between the two?" Learning at its best is always a matter of play. 

That's why Kindergarten is important, even today. It utilized the natural interest and engagement of the kids, doing real things and could serve as a model for the reinvigoration of all schooling.  

At ESSA. The tools are real, the materials are real. All the senses are engaged, and compare that to public school classrooms where kids are watching the clock, hoping to hear the bell and get the hell out.

Make, fix and create...

box making day 2

Yesterday my students in the wood shop at ESSA began making two boxes. A third box will be started today. The photo shows cutting finger joints using a dedicated ringer joint router set up. I have 8 students and the class is going well!

Make, fix and create...

box making...

Today I have 8 students for a three day box making class at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. I'll attempt to take a few photos during my very busy days.

Yesterday I arrived on the Clear Spring School campus to find our giant Froebel blocks, sets 3 and 4 arranged as a stage complete with seating and a cut up tractor tire for good measure.

Every small school in the country should have such cool blocks on their playgrounds. Even without administrators understanding Froebel or the true value of Kindergarten students would know how to learn from the blocks. The blocks and benches were made in the Clear Spring School wood shop.

Make, fix and create...

Kindergarten Woodworking

We had a very nice book signing at the Crescent Hotel last weekend and this week I've been back to work in the wood shop at the Clear Spring School. Today, my Kindergarten class began making sets of wooden Froebel blocks. When the blocks are finished and sanded, we'll make boxes to hold them so they can be kept and shared with the younger children in their families.

Last night I did a zoom presentation for the Northwest Corner Woodworker's Association and I was telling them of the joy that's to be found in teaching woodworking, particularly to the younger kids who show such enthusiasm for the work.

At this point I've done about all that I can do to promote my new book without being obnoxious. I hope others will take up the cause and assist and that the book takes on a life of its own. 

This week it will be reviewed in the Sunday edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and very soon, reviews will be published in Popular Woodworking, Wooden Boat Magazine, and Quercus, a magazine in the UK that's distributed in the US. If it takes on the life that the hands deserve, it will likely be because you've helped me to promote it.

Make, fix and create...

A big day...

At 9 AM Central Time the local NPR Affiliate KUAF will broadcast a longer version of my radio interview with Kyle Kellams on "Ozarks-atLarge." Then this afternoon I have my book signing at the Crescent Hotel from 2-4 PM. I'll do a short talk, a short reading and be available for questions as well as signing copies of my new book, "The Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life."

You can listen to the KUAF broadcast on any smart-speaker devise. Ask Alexa or Google to "play KUAF radio" at 9 AM if you are in the central time zone.

Make, fix and create...

If you missed

If you missed my interview on Ozarks-at-Large, you can find it here: https://www.kuaf.com/show/ozarks-at-large/2022-03-29/doug-stowes-why-to-along-with-some-how-to

In the meantime, I've been getting some one-of-a-kind boxes finished, as shown below.

Make, fix and create...

Ozarks-at-Large

Our local NPR affiliate station, KUAF will air an interview by Kyle Kellams about my new book at noon and at 7 PM today on Ozarks-at-Large. If outside the area you can listen through any radio streaming service. A longer version will be aired on the Sunday weekend show at 9AM Central Time.

Ask Alexa or Google, "Play KUAF."

Make, fix and create...

American Woodturner Review

The American Woodturner Review of "the Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, A Life" arrived in my mail box today. In it David Heim notes 

Readers of this journal already understand the value of one’s hands and the wisdom they possess. The Wisdom of Our Hands explains it for everyone else. Stowe’s book presents important lessons, taught with patience and grace. It merits everyone’s attention.

Make, fix and create... 

Happy Birthday Comenius

If John Amos Comenius were alive today he'd be 430 years old, and he being called the "Father of Modern Education" one would hope we'd have learned a few things, particularly about how learning works.

Jimi Hendrix had a song that asked the question, "Are you experienced?" And while Jimi may have been referring to either sex or drug use, Comenius asked the same in his request that schooling rely on actual experience as the basis of learning.

"The ground of this business is, that sensual (sensuous) objects be rightly presented to the senses for fear that they not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this is the foundation of all the rest; because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which are to be done and whereof we have to speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding which was not before in the senses. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving of the differences of things will be to lay the grounds for wisdom and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in one's course of life, which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the things that are to be learned are offered to scholars without their being understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward and offereth little benefit."

Make, fix and create... 

FDMC

The book review written by Will Sampson has appeared in FDMC magazine that's delivered to folks in the  woodworking business. In case you missed it, you can read the review online here: 

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/opinion/book-review-wisdom-our-hands/

Make, fix and create...

Measuring growth (and other things)

When my daughter was small we would mark with a pencil on the inside of a door frame how tall she had grown. It was a ritual in which she found pleasure, comparing how tall she was now, in comparison to how tall she was then. The early marks were painted over years ago when we neglected to tell the painter, not to paint in that spot. But the ritual of marking resumed and now there are marks for the growth of our niece Olivia when she comes to visit as well as Lucy's markings into her adult years.

Measuring growth is a good thing. Standardized testing is not. It doesn't measure the things that matter most—the ability and inclination to be of service to others. And the measurement should not be in some kind of abstract form, decipherable only to those with a certain level of expertise.

Last week  I thought I would present an example of finer workmanship to lead the students to attend more deeply to the quality of their work... On the lathe you can take wood to a very fine finish and polish, so I made a cane handle, and polished it a bit more toward perfection. I was hoping to inspire and persuade my students to take their workmanship to a higher level. But they asked, "How did you make it feel like plastic?" 

It's odd that feeling like plastic would be considered a compliment or that it might be considered a good thing, but it points out how little experience the students have in handling real wood outside the shop and how little experience the students have with the levels to which work can be taken. It also suggests that wood is a material that can be appreciated without reaching a level of finish emulating plastic. There are too many things made from plastic already, and things made from real wood may have characteristics and values beyond those expressed through modern manufacturing techniques.

The photos are of Wednesday's work in the Clear Spring School wood shop. Kindergarten students finished making their wooden treasure boxes and the outdoor studies class made bird sculptures, having so much fun that they want to resume the project next week.

Make, fix and create...

Tuesday was the day

My new book, The Wisdom of Our Hands: Crafting, a Life was released yesterday. If you pre-ordered it watch for it in the mail. The book was 20 years in the planning and writing and a long wait for me as the publisher and I worked to edit it, and promote it and the concepts it presents. What comes next is up to you. Will you buy it? Will you enjoy it? Will you find it useful? Will you share your enthusiasm for it to encourage others to read it also?

Working with a small press I do not have access to the same level of promotion that's offered to the big names. So at this point, if it has a large impact, it will be because you've helped to make it so. The most valuable thing you can do besides buying it and offering reviews is to tell other folks to read it and share with them why you think it might be useful.

This is the first of my books that will not require to to have any tools other than your own hands.

This morning my kindergarten students finished making boxes and my outdoor study science group made bird sculptures in red cedar.

Our local book signing will be held at the Crescent Hotel on April 3.

Make, fix and create...

All hands in

 This is my guest editorial from today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper.

Rex Nelson

Rex Nelson is truly a friend of the creative arts and has done a great review of my new book in yesterday's edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/mar/19/working-with-our-hands/

Make, fix and create...

What happens next.

We're inching toward the release date for The Wisdom of  Our Hands, Tuesday March 22. Yesterday it was mentioned in a podcast from the Arkansas Times and discussed by editor Lindsey Millar with whom I had a Q and A interview last week. 

Many fine things are being said about the book, and I'll share a few links, while also attempting to keep my ego in check. Yesterday Amazon had it listed as #1 in "new project books," and while that may seem cool, it's not a "new project book" and its wider ranking among books being sold is currently higher than 30 Thousand. And that too is likely a blip on the high side due to the ad placed in the Fine Woodworking newsletter.

In the meantime, our hands deserve all the attention they get and I particularly appreciate this comment from a fellow woodworker/educator/writer, Will Sampson.

"What is the value of doing things with our hands in a modern automated world? Woodworker and educator Doug Stowe argues that there is a huge value in tangible work that goes far beyond the product of the work itself. We’re not talking here about just some touchy-feely peon to the magnificence of hand work. We’re talking fundamentally about how human beings learn and create."—Will Sampson, Editor, FDMC and woodworkingnetwork.com

Yesterday my wife, Jean and I got books out of boxes so that I could sign them to be ready for our book signing event at the Crescent Hotel on April 3, 2022. A great delight is to relax with Rosie. What do you say? Is she too big for a lap? Of course not.

Make, fix and create.

Sales begin on Tuesday

If you have preordered my new book on Amazon it will be delivered this Tuesday, March 22. It officially goes on sale on that date and we'll hold a local book signing to benefit the Eureka Springs Library on April 3, not very many day away. 

The Wisdom of Our Hands was advertised in the Fine Woodworking newsletter this morning that goes out to thousands of woodworkers around the world and the ad will also be placed in the next print edition of the magazine. You can also order direct from Linden Publishing.

I have been working on an essay explaining the cultural values of working with our hands that I hope will be published in the New Atlantis.

Make, fix and create...

Fixing it.

There's a good saying, "If you break it, fix it." Unfortunately most folks don't know how to fix things anymore so we assume the things we've bought or in some way forced to be surrendered into our hands can be thrown away when our misadventures are complete.

But what if what you've attempted to take is a whole nation and your insistence on taking over wreaks destruction that will surely last generations. What I have to say to Putin (and the Russian people), is that "What you're breaking each day, you will be required to fix." It's called reparations. And if Putin and the Russian people he's bankrupting think they can skate back to Moscow when it's all over, they should think again.

During WWII, Finland had sided with Nazi Germany in the war as a way to protect themselves from Soviet aggression. It was not a good choice, and when the war was over, Finland was forced to pay reparations to the Soviet Union, with the Finnish people paying a serious price for standing by as the Nazi's invaded Russia. 

The Russians wanted their reparations paid in goods that the Finns were required to build or surrender. The Finns built a number of ice-breaker ships for the Soviets, and surrendered miles of cobblestone streets with the cobblestones being loaded up and shipped to places like Tallin, Estonia and St. Petersburg where they were used to replace cobblestone streets damaged by war.

What will the Russians be forced to pay? Will they put Ukraine back to rights? Certainly, Putin is not solely to blame. People may think they have no choice but to follow evil despots into damnation. But that is not always the case.

In the meantime, Fine Woodworking has a new book-a-zine coming out this spring. Two of my boxes are featured on the cover, and I'm hoping that I was also a contributor to instruction on the inside.

Make, fix and create...

foreword reviews interview

My interview with foreword reviews came out today and can be read online. 

https://www.forewordreviews.com/articles/article/reviewer-sarah-white-interviews-doug-stowe-author-of-the-wisdom-of-our-hands-crafting-a-life/

I thank Sarah White for an excellent review and for her thoughtful questions. In her introduction to the interview, Sarah notes the following:

This week is all about hands so look down and ask yours if they’re happy.

What, you don’t know?

Well, do you let them play at things? Are they skilled at chopping vegetables or knitting quilts or throwing pots on a wheel or landscape watercolors or working gold and silver into innovative jewelry? Hands like to do things, with our brain’s inquisitive help. We’re not in the Jurassic anymore, Martha, note your thumbs.

Today in the wood shop students made cutting boards and worked on the lathe.

Make, fix and create...

Garry Knox Bennett on Education

I have an interview today with Kyle Kellams from Ozarks-at-Large, a radio program with our local NPR affiliate station. It will be aired sometime closer to the release date of my new book, and the interview will be held at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, giving Kyle a chance to visit the ESSA campus.

Then later in the afternoon I'll participate in a zoom call podcast with WoodworkingNetwork.com. The site, woodworkingNetwork.com is one that will certainly interest other woodworkers as it has useful features and reports including  a remembrance of Garry Knox Bennett in the current edition. 

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/remembering-garry-knox-bennett

The annual Spring Fling fundraiser for the Clear Spring School is now live on-line for you to view auction items for sale in support of the school. Please attend. 

https://www.clearspringschool.org/events

The video above is of Garry Knox Bennett talking honestly about education.

Make, fix and create...

a lovely day in the woodshop

Yesterday my Rainbow group (kindergarten) finished work with gluing blocks. They loved it and were proud of the various things they made. Later we installed bluebird houses on campus where they can be monitored and maintained. 

Of greatest excitement for the students was finding an old wheel barrow tire and rim buried in the muck in the ditch that separates our hands-on learning center from the field where the birdhouses have gone up. 

The students dug the wheel and tire out of the dirt (a thing that took some effort and strategy), and decided it should also become an instrument for their study of birds. It is now being converted to a bird feeder. This tells the story of how a bit of youthful imagination (and allowance for it) can facilitate learning.

Make, fix and create... assist others in learning likewise.

woodworking network

My new book, "the Wisdom of Our Hands," has received a glowing review on WoodworkingNetwork.com  

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/opinion/book-review-wisdom-our-hands 

It is an incredibly thoughtful review written by editor, Will Sampson. Woodworkers in general have a deep appreciation of what the hands provide to learning. Perhaps we can lead the way to a renewal of American education.

Thanks, Bob, for alerting me to the publication of the review.

Make, fix and create...

The soul of the craftsman.

They used to say that politics ends at the water's edge, which meant that when faced with crises that are international in scope, folks would suspend criticism of leadership to present a united stance. That is no longer the case, as some Republicans and talking heads on one of our major networks attempt to use the crisis in Ukraine to sew discord among us and undermine our leadership in the international response. What can I say, but shame, shame, we know your names and will deal with you later.

In the meantime, a friend of mine has been selected to make the keynote address to the Hand Society, on the subject, "the Soul of a Craftsman." He asked me to offer a few reflections on the subject.

I don’t know that all buy the idea that there is a soul, but if there is indeed a soul connected with each of us, or that connects each of us with each other at some deep barely detectable level (and I suspect there is), the soul of a craftsman tends to be deep and wide. For some folks, the soul, if it could be found, it might be nothing more than a shriveled up raisin of what it might have become. For the craftsman, the soul is reflected in our deep engagement in the materials of our choice. It’s also deep  and wide in that we’ve chosen such means to connect with others that demands the cultivation of skill and taking personal risk. 

There’s a great quote from Chaucer that I used in my new book around p. 42. It’s about the development of craftsmanship and discusses the challenge of it. "The lyf so short, the craft so long to learn, the' assay so hard, so sharp the conquerying." In that is the soul developed and portrayed. I do not believe soul is something that’s developed in a vacuum, but is something exercised in real life and in the challenges we face. 

What is meant by Chaucer's "assay so hard?" The word assay refers to the analysis of things, like of an ore from which other minerals may be extracted. And so it is with the soul. We can try to extract it, and perhaps to no avail. But we do see it in action. At this moment I'm thinking of the courageous men and women of Ukraine and their president... There is of course, some courage on the other side, on the wrong side, on the evil side, on the inhumane side. May Putin and those Americans who support him please come to their senses.

I got a lovely card in the mail from my friend Bob Ebendorf, an internationally known jeweler/teacher/craftsman. His postcards are his preferred means of communication, and each is hand made from recycled stuff. This one celebrates the coming release of my new book and he found a picture of me in a pensive state to paste on the front. The picture is from an article I did in Fine Woodworking a few years back.

Make, fix and create. Help the people of Ukraine to stand firm and with heart.

The Moscow Finger

In Riga, Latvia, the Soviets built a highly controversial "Victory Monument" to honor their defeat of Nazi Germany. The Latvians call it the "Moscow Finger," as it juts 76 meters in the air and serves them as a reminder of years of Soviet imposed trauma that followed WWII. The Latvian people hate that thing.

There have been efforts over the years to have it demolished, even though about 25% of Latvian citizens are of Russian origin and use the Russian language. Folks generally want to get along with each other. It has been kept standing on a slim margin.

I suspect that now they will actually get around to tearing the thing down. The Latvian people must be reeling as they watch the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As are others in Estonia and Finland.

I read that both Finland and Sweden are now interested in joining NATO, having seen up close what a tyrant Putin has become.

I'm grateful for those Russians who have demonstrated against Putin's war. It takes courage to stand up against a powerful totalitarian state.

In the meantime, here in the US, some members of the Republican Party and television hosts on Fox News are trying to give aid and comfort to Putin by attacking president Joe Biden. It was once believed that politics ended at the water's edge. That seems to no longer be the case. Giving Biden the "Moscow finger" is apparently what  some have in mind. The photo is from our visit to Riga in 2018.

Now Russia is threatening Sweden and Finland with severe military consequences if they join NATO. It makes great sense for them to join now.

Putin

About 3 1/2 years ago my wife and I visited in Helsinki, Estonia and Latvia, and it is with great sadness that we witness the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ugliness of Russian dominion over neighbors is tragic. The pattern among oligarchs is to strip assets from their own people and to then launder their ill-gotten gains and invest them abroad for their further enrichment, so we hope that sanctions will have some affect.

In Latvia we visited the KGB museum in a building that actually served as the headquarters of the KGB, the network of Soviet secret Police that were used to bring the Latvian populace under Russian control. Their remembrance of KGB horrors remains vivid. And we can know Putin by knowing the KGB. The KGB provided the platform for his ascent to power. In the short term, things are unlikely to go well for Ukraine. In the long term, people will remember who Putin is and with luck will hold him personally accountable.

Entering the KGB museum you are met by a Russian guard (a living history actor who had actually served as a Russian prison guard, during the Soviet occupation of Riga). His harsh demeanor toward all guests as he matter of factly describes what went on within the walls of the former KGB headquarters leaves a strong taste of what it was actually like. The photos and video interviews with victims of the KGB and the visit to the killing spot where Latvian citizens were executed will leave you chilled, as will the prison room where more than a hundred victims were confined naked, crowded in to the point where they lay massed in filth.

Authorities in Latvia and Estonia have called for the NATO article 4 to be discussed. Article 4 requires that when one NATO nation is attacked all others must come to its aid.

If you want to know more about what Ukraine is facing in areas that the Russians occupy a visit to the KGB museum would be informative. The image shows our (former) Russian guard in the area where Latvian patriots and common citizens were murdered by the KGB. 

Garden of Children

Friends Scott, Jay and John are doing a kickstarter campaign to assist them in furthering their Kindergarten documentary series. I made a contribution because it's a vital view into the workings of childhood and might assist in a much needed reform of education. You can contribute here: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/froebel/garden-of-children-documentary-series-on-education

The video series shows some of our students and contains interviews with over 100 educational experts pointing the way toward meaningful reform of education.

You can find trailers on youtube or view this extended trailer for a small rental fee here:

https://www.froebelusa.com/offers/HhkL8RDX/checkout

Make, fix and create.  Assist others in learning likewise.

American Craft Book Review

The Spring 2022 edition of American Craft Magazine, p. 18 has a review of my new book as shown. The text reads as follows: 

"Educator and craftsman Doug Stowe has long been exploring what it means to be a maker. In a collection of thoughtful, self-reflective essays, Stowe delves into the important lessons that working with our hands can teach us and the deeper meaning that brings to our lives."

Make, fix and create... Assist others in living likewise. 

algebra anyone?

All too often, the perceived value of an object is based on market demand rather than on the qualities the making of it offers the maker. The photo above is an example of my mother's craft work from when she was a teen. The quality of her work may not have been at the level of work done by her mother or grandmother, but as stated by Otto Salomon, the value of the student's work is not in the work, but in the student. To make such an object imparts qualities to the maker... a fact neglected in modern American education.

The making of such objects is part of the process of development of character and intelligence, and as we have become a nation of consumers rather than makers, we have grown more and more out of touch.

The piece shown above is an example of a needlework technique called crochet. Another form for making lace patterns is tatting. Both were part of the compulsory school curriculum for women in Finland, and as shown in the photo below, the University of Helsinki still has a room dedicated to their collection of student work which I visited in 2008.

Each drawer on the wall in the background is filled with amazing works of student craftsmanship, the intellectual content of each piece leaving the viewer in awe.

It is interesting how much emphasis is placed on instruction in algebra, a thing most students will not use following graduation, even in college unless they're judged deficient and placed in remedial classes.

I'll go out on a limb here to suggest that the value of fine lacework may be of equal or greater value in the construction of a solid mind than balancing algebraic equations, and of equal value to algebra in mathematics through the building of spatial sense. Spatial sense is a factor in mathematics that is useful in all occupations, and even helps in doing algebra.

Make, fix and create...

my new book arrived

A copy of my new book arrived today. The release date through Amazon.com and other outlets is planned for March 22, 2022, and we have a book signing planned for Eureka Springs on April 3.

Yesterday I did an interview with Foreword Reviews that will be posted online near the time of the book's release.

Make, fix and create...

Bluebird houses and 16 bit kits.

Yesterday in wood shop, students and I finished 10 bluebird houses as part of their outdoor studies class. Six of the bird houses are being sold to supporters of the school, and one or two will be installed on campus for students to tend and observe. Left-overs will be sold at a Clear Spring School event near the end of the school year.

Also yesterday, my Rainbow Group (kindergarten) tested our 16 bit building kits. The sixteen bit building kit is one that our small business studies class will be taking by appointment to demonstrate to big business giant Walmart next week.

While many woodworking kits designed by adults lack the opportunity for child creativity to emerge, the sixteen bit kits each contain 16 blocks of wood, a glue stick and sanding strip that allow the kids to design and make whatever they want. In a test with 7 kindergarten aged students, each came up with their own unique project. 

The students in the small business class have been designing the packaging for four project kits. One contains parts for making tops. One contains parts for making flip cars. One contains the parts for building a Soma cube puzzle, and the last is the 16 bit kit. The students are also working on their sales pitches that will be offered to a Walmart product specialist. The point is to get pointers on product sales and design.

Make, fix and create...

Putting a child on the bus...

On Friday I had  an interesting conversation with professor Bart Kahr, from NYU who is a crystallographer and an enthusiast for Froebel's Kindergarten. I had wanted to contact Dr. Kahr because of comments he'd made about his son's first day of school, in the Kindergarten Documentary Film Series.

As Dr. Kahr described, he took his son to the bus after having spent years in which he had kept his son constantly in sight. He watched his son climb onto the bus and noted that upon delivering his own precious son to the state, he didn't even get a receipt. His comments so perfectly mirror what all parents feel, and perhaps might help us to understand the angst that so many parents feel about education. Are loving parents ever fully ready to simply surrender our children to the arms of the state? We must do a lot more to build trust.

In our conversation Dr. Kahr described what came next after he watched his son climb onto the bus. He was living in Seattle at the time, and feeling confused and out of sorts, he walked to the nearest coffee shop and then to the book store where he found a stack of Norm Brosterman's book Inventing Kindergarten for sale. Had he not just put his son onto the bus for his first day of Kindergarten, he would not have found the book, nor would he likely have been interested in the book, nor would he have discovered in it the intense relationship between Kindergarten and crystallography, his own field of scientific study. https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/bart-kahr.html

Froebel had been an assistant to Christian Samuel Weiss  and was influenced by his study of crystals in his development of his gifts and perhaps also in his understanding of how children grow from a pattern inherent from within if provided the right circumstances for their growth. For Dr. Kahr, discovery of Froebel's Kindergarten had an important affect on  the direction of his work as a crystallographer, even to the point of growing crystals with kindergarten kids, a thing we can do with kids at the Clear Spring School. Dr. Kahr's work includes growing crystals in color, which he also suggests we can do as shown in this video. https://youtu.be/wBs1LqHZgiw The image shown above is from that video.

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Ozarks Watch online

The Ozarks Watch video filmed at ESSSA about hands-on learning can now be viewed online at your convenience.

https://video.optv.org/video/hands-on-education-p5fsiw/

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop we'll be working on bird houses and bird feeders. 

Kindergarten students will be making boxes.

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Harbor Freight Fellows

Harbor Freight Fellows continues to repost some of my blog/facebook posts on occasion as they did today.

It's a reminder that we're all in this together and there are many hands working on educational reform.

https://www.harborfreightfellows.org/post/wisdom-of-the-hands-serial-position-effect

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perfect for radio...

Yesterday I watched myself on the Ozarks Watch video production, and have decided TV does not put me in my best light. I've gotten a bit too old for that kind of spotlight. The old joke, "you look perfect for radio comes to mind."

In any case, however, I did manage to tell my tale and get some word out about our Eureka Springs School of the Arts and about the need for hands on learning. The crew took some nice video of my boxes and of the school and I thank them sincerely for their interest in my career and their kindness during the production of the show.

Pre-orders of the new book are going well with over 1200 copies being ordered so far.

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putting education on fresh path.

Today, February 6, 2022, Ozark Public Television's program Ozarks Watch features an interview with me recorded at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. Locally or on local satellite, look for channel 21. The program airs from 1:30 to 2:30 with my segment being the second half.

News around the country is that being an educator is an endangered profession. Teachers are disrespected and undervalued and are leaving the profession in droves. Teachers with a masters degree in education often leave the profession in their first five years. This is in part due to the unreasonable expectations placed upon teachers—too large class sizes, the rigid expectation of teaching exactly by the book, and the use of standardized testing to measure student and teacher performance, while neglecting the fact that each student and each teacher is unique.

Let's go back to one of the basic principles of educational sloyd, that of moving from the concrete to the abstract. If you want to  become a teacher at one of the diminishing number of colleges and universities that offer that course of study, you'll spend hours and hours of class time and reading to prepare for your final year in which you'll do student teacher, in school training under the watchful eye of a licensed professional teacher. 

If you recognize the value of moving from the concrete to the abstract, you might notice that teacher training is backwards. To enter the teaching profession the educationally sound manner would be to serve in schools as a teaching aide while concurrently being taught the fundamental theories and history of education in college coursework. A program like I'm proposing should be set up in every neighborhood in the US.

There are some significant values in the reversal I propose. The first is that while teachers are working on their degrees they'd be earning salaries as teacher's aides instead of amounting debt. Secondly they would be given a view of what they were getting into long before having invested years in a career that they so quickly abandon. The third value is that with almost all students and teachers in the US suffering from too large classes and too little classroom help, a massive investment in new teachers aides, each working toward full credentials, would completely re-energized schooling. One of the areas of education needing the most help is in integration of the arts to build science thinking. We need to enlist scores of young artists to help as aides for these reasons: 

“The discoveries of science, the works of art are explorations — more, are explosions, of a hidden likeness. The discoverer or the artist presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.” —Jacob Bronowski

Those are just my thoughts on this sunny February day a it warms in Arkansas and snow melts.

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Ozarks Watch

Last night at 9 Ozarks Public Television broadcast an interview with me and I forgot it was being aired. It will be rebroadcast on Sunday February 6 at 1:30 PM in case you missed it as I did. Later it will be made available on the network website. I'll share the address when its available to me. 

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An article link

This is a link to the article in Independent School if you want to read it online and pass it along for others to read. NAIS - School News: Two Decades of Woodshop Class.

Today we're out of school due to a serious winter storm watch. Hopefully as the temperature is dropping below freezing we'll avoid the worst effects of ice accumulation that breaks trees and power lines.

I'm working on promotion of my new book by writing op-ed pieces to submit to various newspapers and magazines. It is fun to reflect on the various benefits of woodworking education. 

In the wood shop at School this week my students helped me by whittling pens and allowing me to take photos of them as they worked. The photo shows a simple jig for drilling the holes where the nibs fit. The kids were able to drill their own pen making stock.

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independent school

An article about the Wisdom of the Hands program at the Clear Spring School is in the Winter 2022 issue of "Independent Schools Magazine" that's published by the National Association of Independent Schools. 

The article tells that we are celebrating our twentieth year of a program designed to bring the hands to greater focus and attention in schools. Over the years we've had a number of articles about the program in various woodworking magazines, and mention in the New York Times and Boston Globe. This is the second article about our Wisdom of the Hands program in "Independent Schools Magazine."

Yesterday in class we whittled  writing pens to allow me to take a few photos for a magazine article. The kids enjoyed it and tested their work using real ink.

Make, fix and create. 

Ozarks Watch

I learned this morning that my interview on the Ozark Public Television's program "Ozarks Watch" will be broadcast on next Thursday February 3 at 9:00 PM and again on Sunday February 6 at 1:30 PM. If you receive Ozark Public Television on your cable channel or set, put these dates on your calendar and watch. The program will be offered online at a later date and I'll share that link when it becomes available.

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This week at the Clear Spring School

We've had a challenging week as a number of students and one staff member were out with illness and possible exposure to covid-19. But it was a good week with students building interesting things with blocks and making bird feeders with the outdoors study group. 

My assistant Dustin suggested the use of glue sticks for gluing blocks of wood together and we found that even though glue sticks are often  almost worthless on paper, they do work with blocks of wood. They are far less messy than wet glue and far safer than hot glueguns. Adding glue sticks to assembly kits we hope to develop will make them a more complete kits, less reliant on other things being provided from a household supply.

I've been working on an op ed piece I hope will be useful in promoting my new book and that reminded me of when I was quoted in the New York Times regarding school wood shops. The article was "Kindergarten Shop Class" published on March 30, 2011.  I was quoted as follows with regard to a renewed interest in woodworking education for kids:

“There is an awakening going on for sure,” said Doug Stowe, a longtime woodworker and educator in Arkansas, who was named a Living Treasure there in 2009 for his efforts at preserving and teaching the craft. Since he started a blog five years ago called Wisdom of the Hands, named after the program he founded in 2001 at Clear Spring School in Eureka Springs, Mr. Stowe said parents, educators and woodworkers from around the country have been contacting him for advice on starting projects and classes in their communities.

“Up until the early 1900s, there was a widespread understanding that the use of the hands was essential to the development of character and intellect,” said Mr. Stowe, 62. “More recently, we’ve had this idea that every child should go to college and that the preparation for careers in manual arts was no longer required.” "Somewhere along the way," he added, “we have forgotten all the other important things that manual training conveys.”

If you are a subscriber to the New York Times you can find the article online. 

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Toys that inspire creativity

Many educational theorists complain about the toys made for kids.  They note that most of the creativity is put in by the designers and manufacturers leaving little to exercise the creative imaginations of kids. 

So today we did a simple experiment with each student being given 8 blocks. The idea was for them to observe their own creativity. Each came up with something different to made from their 8 blocks. When done with one project the students asked for 8 more to build something else. Of course this experiment was derived from Froebel's Kindergarten.

One of our objectives is to develop a set of project kits that the kids can sell in their study of small business. You can buy kits for children to assemble at Lowe's or Home Depot, and aside from giving the kids a chance to use a hammer they are of less value than a set of 8 blocks if your point is to develop both the skill and imagination we want our children to have.

My new book has received a positive review from Foreword Reviews. The review will go in the March/April edition. I'll not share the whole review here except for one line: 

The Wisdom of Our Hands encourages people to engage themselves in crafting, applying their hearts and minds to the art of bringing about a better world.

They note that Foreword Reviews only reviews books that they love. 

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

at sea in a sea of change

Kids deserve the opportunity to do life building/altering things. For instance, going to sea to learn history as well as other things about character and relationship.

This article: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/aboard-the-schooner-harvey-gamage-students-learn-about-african-american-history/article_7378800e-6fc8-11ec-83bb-f7debfe070ec.html describes going to sea with students from the Met School in Providence, RI and students from New Hampshire's Proctor Academy. The article notes despite the diverse backgrounds of the students, on board all are the same: 

Put a bunch of people on a big sailboat and watch what happens.

Differences evaporate like fog on a warm morning. On the water, it matters little where you come from, how you grew up, how much money you have or who your people are.

The moment you step onto the boat, you are a sailor, nothing more, nothing less. You have a job to do, and you have to coordinate your work with all the others. You are a member of the crew, and the crew has a narrow focus: to stay safe and sail well.

For these students going for a sail brings lessons for a lifetime. And this kind of lesson is not only important to kids. They will be our important citizens of tomorrow.

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The Institute for the Future of Learning

The Institute for the Future of Learning (the-IFL.org), has mentioned my new book, The Wisdom of Our Hands in their January Newsletter as follows:

"Doug Stowe's beautifully written book, "The Wisdom of our Hands," grounds us in the power of meaningful, useful, beautiful work and how it provides a path to unleash the potential that lies within each of us." https://mailchi.mp/048529ae046c/ifl-january-2022

Julie (Wilson) Jungalwala, director of the organization offers praise for my book as follows:

"Somewhere along the way we seem to have forgotten that the brain and the hands are "intricately intertwined". In "Wisdom of Our Hands," Doug Stowe (re)introduces us to the life giving, shaping and affirming power of working with our hands. A beautifully written book, Doug shares his 45-year journey as a woodworker and weaves the research-based evidence of how handcrafts shape us as we shape them. As an educator, Doug has experienced first hand the atomization and abstraction of content - and the negative impact on student motivation and learning as a result. This book reminds us of the power of meaningful, useful, beautiful work and how it provides a path to unleash the potential that lies within each of us."

Julie's own book is called "The Human Side of Changing Education."  It is "... centered on the premise that when we ask schools to change, we are asking human beings to change and this requires special tools and a human-centered approach. We cannot change the heart of the system without enabling the hearts and minds of those who give their all every day to making schools work."

In the US, teachers are regarded by the system and by policy makers as being of far less than their potential value. They're expected to be "classroom managers" and  "information delivery specialists" with too large class sizes allowing them no opportunity to take more meaningful roles in the growth of their students.

My wife Jean is planning a book signing to promote my new book and support our local library that will be held at the conservatory at the Crescent Hotel on April 3, 2022. We are on a 60 day countdown for the book's release.

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entanglements

Physicists have noted and proven that if you take two particles, introduce them to each other and then thrust them apart to the furthest reaches of the universe, what is done to one is noted within the behavior of the other. The phenomenon is called quantum entanglement and may someday help us to understand higher levels of human interconnectedness.

Friedrich Froebel had been born the son of a Lutheran minister and his mother had died at a very early age. He was a bright child and cherished by his father's second wife until her own children came along. At that point he was left to fend for himself to obtain the emotional support every child needs. At an early he was apprenticed to  an uncle, a forester, and it was there in the Thuringen forest that Froebel discovered a love of botany and the seeds were planted for what would become Kindergarten, a garden of children. In witnessing the wonders of nature he likely gained a first glimpse of the interconnectedness of all things.

In college Froebel had planned to become an architect but had an opportunity to work as an assistant to Christian Samuel Weiss, a leading authority on minerals and crystallography. Helping to organize the collection of minerals for Dr. Weiss, Froebel was to witness how things of great beauty grow from patterns inherent within. Should children, given the right circumstances, not grow in the same manner? You see the impact of his work with Dr. Weiss in Froebel's development of his gifts, one through 6 which were designed to lead the child into an exploration of the structure of the universe and through association with other Kindergarten activities, understand their place within it.

Many of us have seen, even before the internet and before facebook, evidence of our interconnectedness. Living in a small town and knowing a few folks, I'll think of someone as I drive through town and then see them coming in the next car. This is not always the case but happens often enough to make me wonder. Under such circumstances, we don't need facebook to remind us that we are a part of one another and that what we do reflects who we are and may be guided by unseen patterns within.

And so, what are we to make of all this? Froebel had suggested three uses for the Froebel gifts. One was to use blocks to create what he called forms of knowledge. Forms of knowledge were used to represent numbers and mathematical constructs important to the growth of the child. Another use was to create forms of beauty. These were to develop the child's design sense through representations of symmetry and rhythm. The third use was to create what Froebel referred to as forms of life, representing the objects to be found in everyday life, thus connecting with the child's natural inclination to serve others by making useful things. So you take these three things, development of intellect, artistic sense, and inclination to serve and you have the formula for growth.

It's ironic that Froebel did not become an architect of buildings, but instead an architect for a system of education that allowed the child to grow from within, as a crystal or flower might grow. In his autobiography Frank Lloyd Wright said about his play with Froebel blocks and their impact, "I can still feel those maple blocks in my hands to this day."

The illustration from wikipedia shows an experiment demonstrating quantum entanglement.

If you are reading this, we are entangled.

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Path to learning podcast

I've been listening my way through the path to learning podcast and finding each episode to be quite meaningful. There are times in my wood shop when the noisy tools are off and I'm doing handwork, and that's the perfect time to fill my head with hope. 

Looking at education in general one might become depressed. But to hear our nation's experts in learning express their ideas and ideals, even when they are ignored by educational policy makers, tells me that with some work, investigation of some old ideas and recognition of the value of teachers, we can make things better.

In Finland, they attribute the success of their educational system to two factors. One is that the profession of "teacher," is a highly respected one. The other is that they train their teachers well to observe closely the needs of each child. In fact, the Finnish folks schools were originally established to follow the model of learning established by Froebel's Kindergarten.

You can a find the path to learning podcast available on all the usual podcast services. For example, I listen on an amazon device. I ask, "Alexa, play path to learning podcast." If I enunciate carefully the podcast comes right up.

I am very sorry to have lost a dear friend over the weekend. Steven Foster was the father of two of my students, a long time friend of the Clear Spring School, a vital trustee of our City Parks, and a world renown authority on medicinal herbs and plants. He will be sorely missed, not only here in Eureka Springs, but in the world at large and I offer my condolences to his family. 

Steven was the one who first introduced me to Bill Coperthwaite, a friend in Maine whom I've written about before in my blog. https://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/search?q=coperthwaite The photo shows Steven's son Colin with Bill Coperthwaite building a yurt with students from the Clear Spring School.

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building a sense of commonality

We had a great time on Thursday at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts as members of the staff and I made boxes. Shared experience in a common venture builds a sense of commonality, that we're all in this together, and even though each person in class was working on their own box, the journey through the process required taking turns at the saw and allowing for the needs of each other. 

At one point I looked around the room at my students and each was holding their box as though it was a small child to whom they'd just given birth. That's directly a part of the nature of such things.

In selecting woods for lids, the students would take a board and work out with each other which portion would become the lid of their box. If anyone out there needs to find a location for a corporate retreat with built in team building exercise, ESSA might be the place for it, and box making might be an exercise around which various folks might gather.

Friedrich Froebel is remembered most for his invention of instructional materials related to his invention of Kindergarten. He was also intent on the creation of a sense of commonality within children through which they sensed their relationship to others and their place and potentials within community life and beyond.

These days a lot of politicians and policy makers are focusing their attention on devising a sense of common history, by prohibiting teaching about the uglier parts of American history. Slavery for example. That's a strategy that offers no potential for the development of empathy and leaves us divided against one another. But when we seek commonality through the shared process of creating useful beauty, walls come down. We take turns, not only at the saw, but also in listening to each other and building space for each other in each other's lives.

And I again assert that the creation of useful beauty should be a requirement for children in school as it can be instrumental in developing a sense of shared community.

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staff class at ESSA

Yesterday I taught a one day box making class for the staff at ESSA. Seven staff members were able to attend and each made a box similar to the box shown. 

I supplied ash for the box sides, walnut corner keys and a variety of woods that students could select from for making the lids.

It's my belief that no one in the US should be allowed to graduate from high school without having had the opportunity to make something beautiful and useful from wood. A box, lovingly crafted, would hold memories for a lifetime. I thank the staff of the Eureka Springs School of the Arts for joining me in a day of box making. I can train others to share the same experience.

My week of teaching at the Clear Spring School was disrupted by a serious spike in covid cases in Arkansas and the local community. Other schools are also closed. At ESSA we kept each other safe by being fully vaccinated, tested the day before class and masked with KN95s. Please stay safe and keep others safe. We want all to survive this and keep our health care workers safe Please!

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