wheels and things...

I'm going to start my first, second and third grade students on a project building toy trains and hope the larger project with engage their interests for at least a couple weeks. All but one of my students at the lower elementary age level are new to the school and are presenting a bit of a challenge for me.

So this morning I'll go to a handle factory in Missouri and get a bunch of round wood scraps, that I use to make wheels of various sizes. I get the scraps for free and in a quick trip can gather what will be at least a year's supply.

The objects shown in the photo are tally sticks, used as memory devices to record numbers of things. Human intelligence has never been an inside the head thing, and yet, in American education we treat it as though it might be. Heads are purposely crammed with useless and meaningless stuff, and then measured to determine the success or failure of the operation.

Over the past two weeks, we had no feral hog activity surrounding our hog trap. But last night we had 4 new pigs show up, having just moved into the area. The trapping of feral hogs may be a thing we will face on our property for years to come.

We might instead:

Make, fix, create and lure others into learning likewise.

blogging...

I just realized I've entered my 10th year of blogging. My first blog post was on September 7, 2006. I wonder if I and my readers are beginning to lose enthusiasm for the platform, and I know of course that I frequently repeat myself.

You can find my very first blog post here... September 7, 2006. 

I have made my last corrections, additions and comments for my book, Making Classic Toys that Teach. So I will return my attention to work on the box guitar book, an article for Fine Woodworking, and my classes at the Clear Spring School.

Make, fix, create, and offer an example that others may learn likewise

My second group...

We had our second group of visitors from the American Folk Art museum, and I was ready for them with a display of my work. But in the confusion of it all, I neglected to invite them to visit this blog.

They had enjoyed their visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum, and to Thorncrown Chapel, and wanted to buy a few hand made things.

The interesting thing about technology and its continued application is that it speeds things up to the point that the objects made lose value. This is not just a matter of there being so many objects that they become a nuisance, but that the amount of actual human attention and intention is diminished within them, and its the investment of humanity in a object that brings material to life.

We are, however, in an age of massive delusion. Here in the USA we are engaged in the process of choosing our president based on how boisterously he lies, whereas in a simpler time, the truth mattered. Those who are actively engaged in the making of useful beauty through their own hands would be able to recognize it and not be deceived.

Today I'll be putting things away, preparing for tomorrow's classes, and taking a few last minute photos for my 11th book Making Classic Toys that Teach.

Make, fix, create, and offer your example that others may learn likewise.

this day...

I am getting ready for a visit from members of the American Folk Art Museum but this week instead of having them come up our gravel road to my studio, I am setting up my work at Eleanor Lux's weaving studio. It will not be quite the same, as they will not get as deep a view into my work, and may not feel quite as inclined to purchase what I've made. On the other hand, I may be pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday in the school wood shop, my high school students worked on jingle bell rattles to sell as a fundraising project, and they began making shaker boxes. The problem of course is that in order for a student to make a shaker box so much work has to be done for them in advance. The wood has to be milled to a thickness at which it can bend when boiled, forms and marking templates have to be made and ready in advance, and the teacher has to know exactly what he or she is doing. Still, there is some learning taking place, and if the student gets the bug for woodworking, or any other creative activity that can be accomplished on his or her own, there is some hope.

I am also engaged in reading through a draft of my new book, Making Classic Toys that Teach, and finding things that must be fixed before it goes to press. I am also working with an editor from Fine Woodworking on an article about selecting hinges for box making.

Make, fix, create, and offer others the opportunity to learn likewise.

hinges and lift tabs.

 I have a number of boxes around here that I'd left unfinished for a variety of reasons, and if they are not done, they won't sell.

These walnut boxes, inlaid with maple and cherry, are receiving Brusso stopped hinges. It's an expensive option for rather small box, but being made of walnut and with inlay, it should bring a premium price. Also shown are the small lift tabs now fitted to the lids and ready for finish.

The joints used on the corners of these boxes is the hidden spline, seen only when the box is opened. It allows the grain to move around the box undisturbed.

Today in the school wood shop, my high school students will continue making cutting boards, and begin making shaker boxes.

This is also that time of year when teachers in training from Ball State University dutifully follow a link from their professor to this blog to read about the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, and its impact on the development of manual arts training programs in the USA.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood of others learning likewise

Plan b

I have been planning for weeks for a group of guests from the American Folk Art Museum, but may now meet them at Eleanor Lux's weaving studio instead of in our home. The visit last week with 11 members told us that a one hour visit was too little time, and that twice the number of guests at once would be impractical. So I'm yielding and will move my work into town for the convenience of our guests and talk about it there.

 My time spent cleaning my studio will not go to waste, as I have an editor coming from Fine Woodworking on the 29th to take photos for an article about selecting hinges.

In the school woodshop, I am working on Shaker boxes in preparation for my students doing the same thing.

Make, fix, create, and offer others the opportunity to learn likewise.

forms

I am working on forms for making shaker boxes. I made 4 last week and have 5 more glued up and ready now to bandsaw. What you see in the photo is a stack  of 15-1 in. thick ply pieces glued to form 5 units of three, so each form will be three inches thick.

This afternoon, I have students from first through 6th grades.

Today also, I am going through edits of my new book on Froebel. I am pleased with the organizational effort that my editors have put into making it work.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the likelihood of learning likewise.

enthusiasm...

Mondays are my busiest days in the school wood shop and yesterday I had my hands full. My seventh and eighth grade students began making shaker boxes, making jingle bell rattles to sellfor fundraising, and we began discussing the making of skateboards later in the year.

My first, second and third grade students are so enthusiastic, they want to make everything they see, so I provided them with materials for boomerangs as a way to get them familiar with some basic tools.

My 4th, 5th and 6th grade students wanted to make working puppet dolls, but of course they want to make them of their own design, and I encourage that. Is it not better that they make some of their own decisions and learn to solve the various problems they can create for themselves?


In the meantime, I've received the files for my book on making Froebel's gifts, and am in the process of review. It is a complex book, interweaving material about Froebel, his theories and methods, and the history of the Kindergarten movement, with instructional material on how to make his most precious gifts.

Make, fix, create and extend to others the likelihood of learning likewise.

teaching as performance art

Seymour Sarason compared teaching to a performance art. In the classroom, the teacher stands in front of class and engages the students attention, or at least makes the attempt to do so. But unlike a musician, or a theatrical performer, the teacher gets little or no direction to improve performances, and no rehearsal time.

He or she is judged from outside the classroom based on whether or not order is maintained.The teacher's power over his or her students is the basis upon which administrators and fellow teaching staff judge the teacher's effectiveness, and yet when it comes to kids, intellectual engagement is more often expressed by an enthusiasm that would be adjudged intolerable in many schools. So one can see that administrators and policy makers would like to find some way to measure teacher performance without having to put directors and stage managers in every class.

Seymour Sarason had maintained a rather dark but realistic view that every attempt at reform of public education would fail and so far he's been proven 100% right.

The charter school movement takes a spitwad approach. Throw a bunch of new ideas (that are really old ideas) in the form of charter schools (most of which follow a single not so new formula) against a wall, and see which sticks best. Sarason, on the other hand, suggests that the secret to effective schools may have more to do with how we train our teachers for collaboration within and between classes, training them to draw forth from students their deepest engagement.

His thoughts are a deep well, and should be read by all who might take an interest in the subject of school reform. Between 40 books and 60 articles, getting to know Sarason would be a monumental task, but for the book I'm reading, the Skeptical Visionary, edited by Robert L. Fried

Today I have lots of kids classes in the wood shop, grades 1 through 8. We'll be making wonderful things, using real tools and real materials, removing the artificiality of school learning, and taking the teacher (me) out of the way of direct learning.

Today, also, I will receive the laid out version of my Froebel book and begin the process of review before publication.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the likelihood of learning likewise.

An experiment in education.

Forgive me, this is long, but I've felt compelled to leave it so.

Yesterday I had a brief visit by members of the American Folk Art Museum. I led them through an overview of my philosophy and work, gave them a tour of the shop, and some brief instruction in the processes of my work. It was a very small pinprick of time that I hope was useful and informative for my guests. I sold some boxes. At the end of the week we will have a visit by 25 more members.

My daughter graduated yesterday in New York with her second master's degree. This new degree is in education.

We would all like education to be cut and dried, in that we want each child to be treated fairly, and with respect, and that each will be fully prepared for a future that will be forever unknown to us. I have been reading Seymour Sarason on the subject "Why teachers must also be psychologists," and visited with a friend yesterday who had pulled her daughter from the Bentonville School of the Arts, after her teacher had a near breakdown in class, screaming at the kids, and blaming them for everything that was wrong. Sarason noted: "Teaching teachers involves every psychological issue and principle involved in teaching children. The would-be educators, like the pupils they will later teach, are not un-formed, empty vessels, devoid of knowledge, assets, interests, and experience in matters educational."

By the time a student graduates from high school, he or she will have spent in excess of 15,000 hours in schooling, whereas, 10,000 hours has been recognized as the threshold of mastery in various fields. From that vantage point, we can see that our students become masters and a half in being schooled while learning much too little about life.

Sarason does not offer the most hopeful view of what we are up against. He notes how little use education makes of the resources offered by modern psychology, and that most of our experiments in education pay little attention to how children learn or to what drives them to learn. The point is that teaching children can be like walking through a minefield. On the one hand, you have the truth (or lack of truth) of the material being taught. On yet another, each child presents a complex psychological pre-disposition in its own right. Parental expectations pose yet another potential for explosive and disruptive force. Add to this, that all teachers and all administrators are by their own rights, walking sets of psychological pre-dispositions, and that each and all are given the rights in the classroom to perform in manners that either enhance the child's interest to learn, or threaten psychological harm.

I am often reminded of Bob Dylan's line from a song,  being "bent out of shape by society's pliers." Having been in school at the time the song came out, I knew exactly what the words meant. Schools have a not-so-well-hidden purpose of twisting students into shape, that they may perform in ways pleasing to adults, but that do severe damage to the child's interest in learning. And if a child simply emerges from the process of being schooled with some great love in hand, that child may arise in time to conquer all.

When my daughter attended our Eureka Springs Public High School, she came home several times in tears, not because of what other children had said to her, but because of insults laid upon her by a particular member of the teaching staff. And so a strong personality can overcome the slights and insults offered in schooling, and propel beyond them.

Some good while back, Matt Crawford had used a quote from this blog as the opening line of chapter one of his book, Shop Class as Soulcraft, as follows:

“In schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”

Part of the point is that when children have real things to do in school, there's more at work than wrestling with the psychological insuffiencies of the parents or of the teaching and administrative staff. The student instead becomes engaged in real life and may actually learn more about himself  or herself in the process.

On yet another subject, a blog reader expressed his admiration for my triptych boxes, and wants me to bring one to my class next summer at Marc Adams School. That suggestion led me to submit photos of one to editors and friends at Fine Woodworking. A comment from a friend had led me to submit photos of my walnut work bench to Fine Woodworking and that led to it being included in their magazine several years ago. Perhaps this will work in that same manner. When friends offer encouragement of your work, make the assumption that others may also.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the love of learning likewise.

ready for guests.

I have been preparing my shop, finish room, office, and home for guests that come this afternoon from the American Folk Art Museum in NYC. There will be only 11 today, and then another 25 or so next Saturday. They planned trips to see work from their museum featured at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR and arranged a side trip to Eureka Springs to visit Eleanor Lux, Arkansas Living Treasure for 2016, and me, ALT for 2009. Craftsmen rarely get this kind of attention. So I have tried to make the most of it, pushing a few projects to completion, like the triptych boxes I've had in mind for years now.

I got the first set of 27 individual samples of wood completed and will install them and brass pulls on the doors sometime today before guests arrive.

As you can see, the woods of Arkansas, are diverse in color, texture, hardness, workability, and even in smell (though you can't sense that here).

Make, fix, create, and offer to others the opportunity to learn likewise.

rewards and punishments?

I recieved an inquiry from a woman in Florida who had acquired a post office door bank I had made in 1977. It is nice to know that some of my earlier work is still around. The banks were one of my first woodworking projects and the photo above shows them as displayed at Nelson Leather Company.

A letter from a parent to our local free newspaper, the Lovely County Citizen complained of a system of rewards and punishments for students based on their performance on standardized tests. You can click on the letter at left to see it in a larger size.

If you think that rewards and punishments might be effective, I would like to introduce you to the writings of Alfie Kohn.

Billions of dollars have been targeted toward school reform and for every school district in the US there are special absurd measures taken and absurd mandates forced upon children. Even small things can scar children for life.

I have also begun reading Seymour Sarason's compilation, the Skeptical Visionary. It tells of the difficulties involved in educational reform, which ought to be quite simple with the right formula.

Still, what stands between education and meaningful reform is an understanding of the relationship between hands and brain, and our failure to put the hands at work in learning.

Make, fix, create, and increase for others the likelihood of learning likewise.

favorite things

 It is our second week of school and our students are already proclaiming that wood shop is their favorite thing at Clear Spring. Can it be any wonder why? Otto Salomon (also Diesterweg and Cygnaeus) spelled it out when he asked that we begin with the interests of the child, and proceed from the known to the unknown, from the easy to the more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract.

I am still finishing my small chapels of wood, and am at the point of sanding the small samples of Arkansas woods. My next version of this box will use rare earth magnets to hold the samples in place, as the tiny round tenons on the ends of the samples are somewhat difficult to size.

My office, finish room and shop are clean enough for guests. Come see.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the possibility of learning likewise.

Kniven är slöjdarens bästa vann

"Kniven är slöjdarens bästa van. Se bara till at den ar vass och att du inte skar dig!" These words launched Valdemar Stubbes Slojdskola by Mattias Isaksson. It is a lovely little book of instruction I brought back from Sweden in 2006, and even yet tests my understanding of the Swedish language. Translated, the words mean: "The knife is the handicraft maker's best friend. Just make sure it is sharp and that you do not cut yourself!" Amen to that.

The small booklet is a good introduction to things you can make with very simple tools, and the knife recommended is the same one we use at the Clear Spring School. The booklet is well illustrated so that you can understand it even without understanding svenske.

I have been cleaning nearly all day in preparation for the arrival of members of the American Folk Art Museum on Saturday. There will only be eleven members on this visit and another 25 or so the following weekend. So I will leave the shop, finish room and office clean for the coming week, even though that is relatively difficult to do.

As I mentioned, I have been going though old photos and slides in preparation for a 40th year of woodworking celebration. The photo at left was when we built my garage workshop about 27 years ago.

This morning we had another 5 pigs in the trap, each weighing about 50-60 lbs. The one good thing about the process is that it gets me out at the crack of dawn, just as soon as it is light enough to see whether the trap door is open or closed. The process of hog removal is rather depressing on the whole and getting out to find the trap empty is rewarding in that it offers the illusion that we are making some progress. But the game camera showed three additional pigs of the same size outside the trap after the trap door was closed. We know of 4  or 5 other full sized pigs that visited the trap the night before, and other landowners throughout the area are having similar problems with feral hogs.

Today in the wood shop at the Clear Spring School, my students from first through 6th grades will be making Sloyd trivets and desk boxes.

Make, fix, create, and insist that others be granted the opportunity to learn likewise.

almost done

My triptych boxes are almost complete and ready to populate with the turned samples of Arkansas woods. I am cleaning the shop and getting ready for a visit by members of the American Folk Art Museum in New York, while my wife is getting ready for a trip in the other direction. My daughter will receive her second masters degree in New York and Jean will be there to applaud while I'm sharing my studio and our home with visitors from New York.

I mentioned that I've been going through old files and photos in preparation for a celebration of my work in November. The photo below is of my brown hair phase.

Frank Wilson sent me a link to an article about the American College of the Building Arts.

Make, fix, create, and offer others a chance of learning likewise.

Happy labor day...

I spent the whole day yesterday scanning slides and photos from my files so that they can be more easily accessed and used for various things, including my 40th year of woodworking celebration coming in November.

For Labor day, the editor of the Democrat-Gazette wrote about his father, a shoe repairman, who took great pride in his work. He noted that in the struggles between labor and capital, labor came first, for without it, capital was not. And yet, we have a society that so wrongly celebrates and exalts capitalism each day and reserves but one day in which labor is held high. It celebrates mainly by taking the day off from it. Even capitalists are given the day off, which seems a bit unfair on a day that is intended to celebrate labor.

But of course, the struggles between labor and capital for dominance of our culture and economy are symptoms of the estrangement between the brains and hands. We suffer from the idea that they can be successfully separated without damage to human culture, and without damage to the individual, the community and the nation.

On my own labor day, I'll apply Danish oil finish to tiny bent wood boxes, and my triptych boxes that will hold collections of wood. The photo above is of my Dad, two of my sisters and me. My dad had gotten shipping crates from the Memphis General Depot where he was a Major, and used them to build a play house in our back yard. We were given hammers nails the and the opportunity to do real work. I was the bare chested boy in the middle.

Make, fix, create and extend to others the chance of learning likewise.

triptych

My boxes to hold samples of Arkansas woods are nearly complete, and I'll be able to apply an oil finish this afternoon. The boxes open in the manner of a triptych, but instead of being an enclosure for religious images, they serve as  enclosures for the display of our common woods.

In medieval churches a triptych would have served as an altar piece proclaiming sacred its contents. That same point is made here.

These boxes have been evolving in my imagination for several years, so it is good to actually see that what I've been thinking of is finally made real.

More usual triptychs are shown in the images below.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the likelihood of learning likewise.

back to normal

Yesterday I had my high school students in wood shop and we talked about projects for the coming year. I also began installing doors on my small chapels of wood, and discovered that one of the doors had warped. I am trying to straighten it will clamps, but that may not actually have any lasting effect.

For the students I supplied pieces of cherry for them to use to make cutting boards, so that we had work to do while we discussed plans. All the students were completely and fully engaged in their work.

The photo below shows that we still have further trapping to do. This boar cruised by the trap, but did not go inside.

Make, fix, create, and extend to others the opportunity to learn likewise. 

bells and chapels

 Today will be my first class with my high school students for this school year and I'm quite certain they are pleased to be back at wood shop. We have acquired thousands of large jingle bells and I plan to launch a fundraising project to help cover the costs of school travel. The hand bells shown would be useful as rhythm instruments in preschools or could be used by Salvation Army bell ringers during the holiday season.

So, as the final design is established and we begin to have an inventory available, the school will begin selling these. We are using wood as you can see, so ours will be a bit more lovely than the ones made of leather or plastic.

You can see that I'm also making progress on my small chapels of wood. Next comes the mounting of the doors, the application of finish and the installation of the plexiglass rosettes.

Make, fix, create, and hope the tide turns that others may learn likewise.

kids at work...

It was a lovely thing getting kids back to wood shop after a long summer break. With the students 1st through 6th grades we made desk boxes for them to keep their pencils and such on their desks. This activity allows me to introduce fractions, measuring, square cuts, and the use of various tools, including vise, square, tape measure, saw, hammer and magnets when they spill the nails. They need no instruction when it comes to decorating their work.

Strictly speaking, in educational sloyd, decoration of work was frowned upon, as the purity of underlying form was an objective. But that may work best when kids are in middle school or older.

I tend to be more closely aligned with the first rule of educational sloyd... Start with the interests of the child. Decorating their own work is one of the things children love best.

In my own work, I've made progress on making turned steeples for my chapels of wood, as shown in the photo far below. The steeple is not mere decoration of form, as it is intended as a symbol suggesting that viewers enter a state of reverence as they behold samples of the various woods of Arkansas.

Make, fix, create, and offer to others the chance of learning likewise.