spoon racks

Robin Wood in the UK has a nice showing of spoon racks and discussion of wooden spoons on his Greenwood carving blog.

two shoes

Toshio Odate tells the story of two shoes in this month's Woodwork Magazine. His story describes the very subtle difference between art and craft and challenges craftsmen to regain the moral high ground that has been their tradition. He talks about his pride in his family heritage. His father was a Shokunin, a craftsman, and he still holds to that pride. He says,

Too often I have heard craftsmen say, "Trustworthy, beautiful materials and work are useless when customers do not understand or appreciate them. And they won't pay!"

It is their excuse for poor and inattentive craftsmanship. But he states further,

I understand their dilemma, but these craftsmen do not know that their social responsibility and obligation is 100% of social service. We have to provide our best to society, with sincerity. We must build on a strong, true foundation and morality. Perhaps then we will regain social trust and respect.

Interestingly, as long as we attribute a situation to others, blaming them for what is, we overlook our own power to bring change. But when we say, "I can change that!" We have begun the process, accepting our own power and will.

I built my business as a craftsman by attempting to give each customer more than they expect. When the deal is struck and we agree on design, material and price, from that point on, I am no longer working for the customer but for myself, attempting to fulfill the highest standards I am able in the circumstances. Some would say that I am unreasonable. I would argue that doing less than my best would be to sell myself short through decision I might resent my whole life. After all, a thing made of wood can last for generations. Look for this month's Woodwork. If you are interested in craftsmanship you will enjoy Odate's story of two shoes.
Walter Hart sent a photo of a pen box he made from plans of one I made for Woodcraft Magazine. He says there are mistakes and he learned a lot. I don't see the mistakes, but knowing how hard this box is to make, I do know he learned a lot. Beautiful work.

Finding balance

You can see our culture's fascination with the ancient Greeks in our universities. While in college you may be a participant in athletics, but are unlikely to do anything of more meaningful expenditure of physical effort. You might join a fraternity or sorority and take part in celebrations of inebriation while wearing togas.

Socrates and other Greeks have glorified the human body as long as it was applied in games, and not in real work. That would be considered demeaning and inappropriate for a citizen.

I woke up with a bit less soreness in my shoulders and elbow than I expected. After hauling limbs, chainsawing and removing downed trees, we next went to the library and moved thousands of books and large book cases away from the walls so the interior of our original Carnegie Library can be painted in preparation for its centennial year. Today, with fresh paint on the walls, we will move books back. And then do the same thing over again next weekend so the second half of the library can be made new.

As human beings we need balance between the physical exertions of our bodies and the expansive pursuits of our intellects. The stupidity of our industrial age was that we placed men and women in jobs that were either physical or mental, but not both, missing Jean Jacques Rousseau's point that "each refreshes the other". But human beings are both mental and physical. That is why craftsmanship should be taught in schools, and why children should be given the opportunity to do real work in yards and fields under the watchful eyes of loving teachers and parents, to discover their physicality not just in games, but in service to community.

In the meantime, many financial experts are predicting failure of the Obama stimulus package. It will make it through Congress, but not have the necessary effect. The American love affair with senseless consumerism seems to be grinding to a halt, and will lead to a shrinking of the economy regardless of how much money we print and distribute to banks. The Chinese are beginning to suffer their own economic decline and will be unlikely to shore up the American economy at their previous level through the purchase of Treasury Bonds. We can all hope once again that experts are wrong. But the important thing at this point is to invest in our communities through hard work and our saved resources. In the recent past, communities have been those places we displayed our blatant consumerism, but they can become the places in which we display our generosity of spirit, putting the wisdom of our hands into the efforts of restoration.

bone weary is a good thing

Today I've been cutting up the downed trees and limbs from the ice storm and hauling them out of the woods with the tractor. It is surprising that so many seek the life of ease when the experience of hard work can be so rewarding. I realize there are strange notions afoot. For instance, Socrates believed that physical labor should only be done by slaves. He wasn't the first to come up with that absurd notion, denigrating the physical experience of real work and the character of those who perform it, but he parroted it widely, even into the universities of today. But working out with real wood, even when it is to become firewood and not fine furnishings is better than the gym. It leaves you with a sense of accomplishment and order that you won't find on the treadmill.

Today I had to cut down what remained of a white oak, 18" in diameter. The top split away during the storm. It was nice to have the skill necessary to fell the tree safely and have it land within inches of where I planned. These are the kinds of things that don't happen in the office, even in the best of weeks. The point is, we have become so cerebral in our perceptions of self, that we have nearly incapacitated the sense of self that arises in tangible, physical accomplishment.

Power at last

We finally have power restored to our home. Just in time for the weekend cleaning. It has been 245 hours since the ice storm turned out our lights. So it is a relief to look forward to a more normal evening.

These kinds of things can bring out the best and worst in us. Some locals literally accosted linemen demanding "Fix my power now!" But most were kind, cooperative and helpful toward each other.

There is very little more to say about all that except that the times and the economy are telling us to adjust, to keep loose and felxible and those who are too tightly wound and fixated on the status quo, overly addicted to comfort may have a tough time of it.

realism earned through craftsmanship

I've been reading The Limits of Power by Andrew Bacevich, and he quotes President Jimmy Carter from a speech made in 1979 that was considered to lay the groundwork for his loss to Reagan in the presidential election. He attempted to awaken Americans to the reality of our situation and Americans didn't like it much.

"too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."

The book contrasts Carter's honest realism in American foreign and domestic policy with the pure fantasy of the Reagan presidency that was sustained by his Republican successors. Thankfully, we are at the end of the Reagan era.

It is interesting and significant that Jimmy Carter is a woodworker. There are things that you learn working with wood, about limits and capacities, and about quality in relation to quantity. When you have a board that can be made into something, and that board is real wood with its inherent beauty and limitations, strengths and defects, you learn about the qualities of the real world. You learn to be careful, caring and frugal in its use. And you also learn about yourself through the making of things from it. Sadly, these are things that no presidents have known since. Unless, of course we were to discover that President Barack Obama has a secret love of woodworking in the White House basement. We can sincerely hope, not just for the wisdom of the nation, but for the joy it would bring to his own life.

Adding keel and gunnels

The high school juniors and seniors worked on the boat today, beginning to add the keel and gunnels. So it is beginning to look like a real boat. The 5th and 6th grade students are interested in helping with it. The juniors and seniors will be pulled off the project for a time to allow the making of a "table" of periodic elements, the start of a school collection of samples of various elements. The table of elements made in the wood shop will house the samples in an arrangement matching the typical periodic table. It is kind of challenging to figure out how to make such a thing, but the enthusiasm of teachers for these kinds of projects is infectious. The students get swept into the whirlwind of learning. We also made a coffin today for Wellington, the ball python. He lived in a cage on the Clear Spring School campus for 8 years and succumbed to low temperatures due to the loss of power during the ice storm. He was a gentle snake and will be missed by all.

proper use of knife

In this photo Julian illustrates the proper use of the sloyd knife. In the UK, knife work was discouraged, as boys in schools, particularly from the lower classes were not to be trusted with knives. Knives, sadly, were regarded as weapons rather than tools. Whereas the child growing up in Sweden and Finland knew the practical applications of a knife and could use it safely. For Otto Salomon's theory, you started the child's education with that which is known to the child, thus moving from the concrete to the abstract. To begin learning creative tool use with the tool already in the child's belt was sound educational theory that the social circumstances in the UK would not allow.

10 days and counting

We are in our 10th day of power outage from the ice storm and I took a walk yesterday to find out about how our power arrives to our home, a convoluted path through the woods to a larger line, then to larger lines in a complicated incoherent grid. I was pleased to find that there were no obvious defects in the neighborhood, and so there are more than just us on this line waiting for repair. We hope we are not forgotten. Our electrical system is a remnant of the great depression, and the efforts of another Democratic president, FDR, to restore the American economy which collapsed in the stock market crash of 1929 and following a period of senseless, irresponsible investment on Wall Street. They say that which you don't remember, you tend to repeat, and at some point, you would think we would learn from the lessons of history and make new mistakes rather than the same ones over and over again.

Here in Arkansas we are set up for continuity of the dark ages. If you invest in a grid-tied solar or wind powered system that has the potential for helping to save the environment you can save some money, but not be paid when your generated power exceeds your needs and puts energy back into the system. That is a strong deterrent to investment in local power production. That is something that State law needs to fix, but the same power coop that is working hard now to restore power, also works hard at the state legislature to protect the status quo.

In 1995 power transmission losses through the power network were 7.2% of power produced, which means that a significant cost is incurred in global warming just to keep wires humming over long distances.

Sometimes history repeats itself because of our stupidity. Sometimes we repeat history out of wisdom and vision. It is ironic that Obama's first FEMA disaster declaration was Northwest Arkansas with our antiquated power distribution grid, shut down by a random distribution of ice. Part of Obama's investment in economic recovery should be to localize power production, increasing efficiency and resiliency in our network. We can produce our own power on rooftops and hillsides, eliminate the transmission losses and build a more secure future.

For our children's future, however, we need to think beyond the electric grid and consider their hands. We know they need to be engaged in learning and making, and yet, as a nation, we take no action. But we can take matters in our own hands. Take a kid and introduce him or her to the joy of making, cooking, planting or making music. Nursing and caring for others is good, too.

Parents during the crisis found going without power to be very challenging for their kids. No games. It is a shame that we have engineered their lives to be so dependent when they could be learning self-reliance and the quiet within which the best ideas take root and grow in the imagination.

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the 5th and 6th grade students will be working on puppets, and the high school students will be working on the boat and starting to make a table of elements for the study of chemistry.

Limit on CEO salaries

Today Obama placed a limit on the pay of top corporate executives, at least for those of firms receiving the second round of TARP bailout money. The critics are claiming that the limit will make it difficult for corporations to recruit the best leadership. Currently, top American CEO's make an averabe of 350 times the average corporate salary. This compares with 20-30 times ratio in Europe and Japan. It is interesting that the current economic crisis started in the US where we have been paying too much money for too little expertise, but in Europe and Japan, they've had better corporate leadership for one tenth the expense.

That should be telling us something. We should can the lot of them and hire some people with hands-on practical experience who know without a doubt which end of the wrench fits the nut.

Today the solar system, tomorrow the world

At Clear Spring School this afternoon the kids in the wood shop were weary at first. They attended the county-wide spelling bee and three Clear Spring students were remaining in the top five. One of our students missed the top spot in overtime when his opponent was given an easier word. You may have observed in your self that those kinds of heightened emotions can leave you feeling drained.

We got started making models of the solar system. The students were very excited to share what they knew about the planets. I was too busy to get photos, but will be sure to take some next week as they are assembled and then later of the finished models when they have been painted.

We got word this afternoon that we are still 7 to 9 days away from getting our power back on. But you can see that things carry on. Winter is commonly a time of reflection, meditation and introspection, a time to slow down and rest in preparation for new beginnings.

I will be glad when the power comes on and I can get back to my heated office. I'll have power tools that work and a working desktop computer. We are rocking along despite the difficulties of being off the electrical grid.

Society of the Arts, London 1885

"The civilized boy in school is taught many theories, but is not required to put any of them in practice; hence he enters upon the serious duties of life unprepared to discharge any of them." This is from a discussion of the subject of technical education in London, 1885 and is quoted from Charles H. Ham's book Mind and Hand as part of his discussion of the civilizing aspects of the education of the hand:

It may be said that he (the civilized boy) is in real danger of the penitentiary until he learns a profession or a trade. "Of four hundred and eighty-seven convicts consigned to the State Prison for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1879, five-sixths had attended public schools, and the same number were without trades." It is noticeable also that during the same period "not five were received who were what are called mechanics." In the State of Illinois four out of five of the convicts have no handicraft. The fact that the skilled workman is far more likely than the common laborer to keep out of the penitentiary is a powerful argument in favor of joining manual training to the mental exercises of our common schools.

Many of the early advocates of hands-on learning made this point... that education of the hands was a means to lift the moral fiber and integrity of the common man. But they were careful to also point to its value in the lives of all children, even those of the upper classes. Unfortunately educators only got part of the message. And now we have CEOs in America who make 340 times the salaries of their common employees and feel that they have acquired such unreasonable amounts in some way other than the moral equivalent of theft.

Today Congress is hearing testimony from the Securities and Exchange Commission employee who attempted several times to alert the SEC to the Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff. Unfortunately his warnings fell on deaf ears for 10 years. No doubt the members of the SEC were too busy raking in their own loot. You may remember that they prosecuted Martha Stewart, spending millions to put her in jail. Regardless of the merits of that case it was an important diversion, creating a false sense of regulatory oversight while the real crooks were raking in the big bucks.

So don't be diverted when people propose that craft training is only for the lower classes. The values inherent in craftsmanship and the expression of hands-on learning and skill can be important to ALL children.

Learning, more than just a head-trip?

Yesterday's report of research at Purdue was very interesting and you will find the link below. But in the world of the hands, it is very old news. Educators in 1904 and before had noted that students learned faster in less time and retained the knowledge longer when they learned through their hands. But we have made a mockery of education, attempting to increase class sizes and cut costs at the expense of our children's future.

When we know someone is all blown up with self-importance losing touch with reality, we say they are on a "head trip." I have a very strong sense of purpose in writing this blog. It is a "hand trip." It will take us places. Join me. All you need to do is take greater notice of the things dangling at the ends of your arms. Watch how they make you smarter, more creative, and even wise about physical reality. Then join me in pushing for hands-on learning in schools.

In the meantime, we are in our ninth day without power. The man at the power company estimates 3 to 5 more days.

Hands-on makes better learning, duh

Hands make better learning, but you would have to be utterly brain dead to not be able to get a grip on the concept. Sam, a reader in Indiana alerted me to a report on a study at Perdue University, adding new statistical evidence of the value of Hands-on learning. Read about it here! Some of us are skilled and empowered by our activities to understand the value of hands-on learning as proven by our own experience. For others, there is university research, and I am grateful that there are those willing to take time to provide evidence. Those who just don't get it have made a mess of American education.

"The findings suggest that hands-on, problem-solving learning may have advantages over traditional lecture- and textbook-based methods of teaching students about engineering and technology, said Melissa Dark, a Purdue professor of computer and information technology.

It's not just the hands-on work -- it's exploring science through the application of technology and exploring technology through the application of scientific principles," said Dark, who worked on the study. "Those two things build on each other."

In the study, eighth-graders who were assigned to build a water purification device -- and spent hours designing and building their systems -- scored an average of 20 points higher on a science test than students taught through traditional means."

The first and second grade students started work on their totem pole. It was kind a a frustrating morning with the kids having just returned to school from a week off due to the ice storm. But we made progress.

8th day, no power but back to school

I spent hours yesterday using the Kubota to attempt to remove ice from the road up to pre-school and moving brush down from the storm. We still have no power in our home and are getting frustrated by the inconvenience.

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the first and second grade students will begin work on a totem-pole. Each student has been thinking of their own totem animal they will want to represent, and they have done a lot of work in preparation for this class.

The seventh and eight grade students will finish their walnut cutting boards and begin making book holders. I will spend additional time working on a walnut bench. Since my home shop continues to be without power and since I am somewhat addicted to the creative process and my wife is disapproving of my littering the floor of the house any more than necessary with wood chips and shavings, I'll restore my sensibility and emotional balance in the school wood shop. For those who haven't tried it. I encourage you to buy a tool or a knife, find a stick and make shavings.

When I moved to northwest Arkansas over thirty years ago, whittling was in fashion amongst the older men. They would sit on benches outside the hardware, clothing, lumber and grocery stores in small groups in idle conversation. Each would have a stick and a knife. They weren't carving anything in particular. There was no object to it but the making of thin shavings, the passing of time and the release of aroma from the wood. Cedar or Sassafras were perfect for this. For those who doubt that woodworking can have soothing, meditative qualities, a knife and a stick can be the perfect test of a proven concept.

Felix Adler on will, 1892

Felix Adler was the founder of the Society for Ethical Culture and of the Workingman's School, now one of the most prestigious independent schools in the US. The following may help to explain the concept of will:

"...let us distinguish between feeling, desiring, and willing. A person who is without food feels hunger. A person who, being hungry, calls up in his mind images of food, will experience a desire. A person who adopts means to obtain food performs an act of the will. ... will is characterized at its birth by the intellectual factor which enters into it; for the calculation of means to ends is an intellectual process, and every conscious act of volition involves such a process. If the will is thus characterized at its birth, we can at once anticipate the conclusion that any will will be strong in proportion as the intellectual factor in it predominates."

There is of course a lot more that the laptop has no power to sustain. But as you can see, learning is best accompanied by physical expression. It is in the physical expression of learning, not its presentation by teaching staff, that the intellect and will are nourished by the educational process. I don't know if this helps my readers at all, but for me, it adds to the understanding of why kids need to be actively engaged in learning, and reveals additional rationale for restoring crafts to the education of our children at all age levels. (Including university!)

On a more personal note, power has been restored to the library, so Jean is back to work. She checked out hundreds of books by flashlight on Saturday. Here on the home front, we are facing our 7th day and nigth without power. But we have confidence that our connection to the power grid and somewhat normal American life will be restored soon.

Will and willfulness

There are two fundamental branches in the theory of education. One group believes that education is something you put in the child. Facts, concepts, relationships, moral precepts and experience. The other group believes that education requires that something be drawn forth from the child, innate predispositions and powers that lie dormant and ready to be awakened at various points in the development of the child. This is a generalization for the purpose of examining aspects of educational theory, and no single educator will be completely one-sided in view.

The educators who believe that the purpose of education is to draw forth and awaken innate qualities in the child tend to be "progressive educators" in the lineage of Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Salomon, Montessori, Dewey, Steiner, and Howard Gardner.

This is where the idea of will fits in. Most parents are concerned about willfulness, or willful behavior in which children refuse to do what they are told. And if you spend some time with google, you will find that willfulness is a major concern. Children, it is believed, need to be taught to do what they are told.

It is interesting when you work with real tools and materials, that willfulness doesn't work. You can get angry with the wood or the tools, and they form a firm boundary. You can't make them do what they don't want to do. Go against the grain and you get poor results. And no amount of arguing with the wood and tools will change the situation.

But parents tend to want to make things easy for their children and to yield when there are complaints. Whining works wonders for a child hoping to gets his or her way.

But will is something else. It is an enthusiasm and motivation that arises in a child, providing energy for endless hours of exploration and practice. You see it in children on the basket ball court trying for hundreds of shots to perfect the free throw. You see it in children who become driven to master the piano, or the dovetail joint.

The matter of will vs. willfulness is a matter of encouragement, example and parental confidence. Will is developed when children are pushed out the door, beyond their comfort level to accomplish real things. When a child has parents that set an example of service, that helps. And schools can make the development of will a positive tool to propel children into the future as life-long learners.

I will try to focus more on this in the next few days. In the meantime, we are on our 6th day without power due to the ice storm. I've been practicing on my Kubota, removing snow and ice from our drive, then the Clear Spring School drive and parking lot, and then my neighbor's. It is what I do to keep busy when I can't do what would be more normal, and it helps in keeping my sense of calm in challenging circumstances.

When do we learn the most?

This is the start of our 5th day without power resulting from the ice storm. Experts say we haven't had a storm like this with such widespread damages in over 35 years, but that doesn't mean we are out of the hot seat on global warming. In years past, in a storm of this kind we would have had heavy snow with less destructive effect on the forests. Over 900 utility poles in the region were broken by the storm and it will take some time to put things back. During the storm we saw blue flashes from the transformers burning out. Between poles and transformers the work facing our utility providers is daunting. Power is supposed to be restored to the city of Eureka Springs by Sunday night, but here in the woods outside the city limits, we know things may take longer.

We missed 4 days of school last week, but with the knowledge that we learn the most from difficulties, not when things are made easy for us. Going without power and making do with a simpler life is a challenge. We learn so much more about ourselves when we can no longer hide in the latest attention grabbing gizmo, when the shop, too is without power, and when the simple things of keeping clean, warm and fed require much greater effort.

To make things easy for our children is a natural parental inclination that must be fought in order to raise healthy and competent children. Lately I've been reading about "Will", an educational concept that was more commonly used in the late 19th century and is still used today in Waldorf education. I will try to offer some suggestions on the concept of will later when I have a more reliable internet connection. But for now, I can tell you that will is the thing that suffers when things are made easy and children are led to believe that taking the easy way out is acceptable for them. In order to build a meaningful life, will is the thing that drives effort, and meaning is what arises when we have worked hard for something. It is tragic when children due to laziness and lack of vision and challenge fail to deliver meaningful service to the lives of others and harvest its wealth for themselves.

A warming spell

One of the great things about Arkansas is that we often get real winters, snow and ice, but instead of snow staying on the ground all winter, we also get periods of relative warmth and very sunny days. Tomorrow the temperature will climb almost to 60 degrees. And the sun will accomplish more in one day than I've been able in the last three to remove the ice from our long drive.

I spent 3 sessions today chipping away at the ice on the Carnegie Library steps. Steps were an architectural feature of almost all Carnegie Libraries, as Andrew Carnegie believed that climbing steps was symbolic of the efforts required for self-improvement and education.

Tell that to the elderly and the Americans with Disabilities Act. About 20 years ago, as my wife was pregnant with my daughter, Lucy, she spearheaded a drive to put in an elevator, which required over a month of jack-hammering from the solid limestone bluff to make room for it.

Tomorrow the library will be open for limited hours since the power is still not on in most of Eureka Springs. We are on our 4th night without power and as yet have no idea how long it will take for power to be restored.

a couple quick pics

I have just a few minutes before the laptop runs out of juice again. I can recharge a bit when I go out in the car. The top photo is looking south toward town and the lower is of damage to a redbud tree. Almost all of Eureka Springs remains without power. But thanks to our wood stove, an abundant supply of firewood, and good friends in the same boat, we are doing quite well. Friends in town are helping each other, and it seems we see the best of human nature come to the surface when times are challenging. It kind of tells the process that allowed Americans to weather the great depression, and tells how strong we will be as we work through the world-wide economic challenges.