small jewelry chests

Last night I was honored at a spaghetti dinner for my work as an arts educator. I was selected through an online nominating and voting process among community members, sponsored by Main Street Eureka Springs. The spaghetti dinner was held in the street and it was a friendly event with live music.

Yesterday I glued small maple jewelry chests together from carefully shaped and sanded parts. I only have four of the perfect clamps for this operation, so I glue one, wait long enough for the glue to set, then glue another.

Einstein had said that his pencil and he were smarter than he was, and the same can be said about each tool. Every tool can be an instrument that increases human potential and intelligence. Each is an embodiment of human experience and thought.

Tools shape the way we see the world, and our places within it. They convey the potential of mastery, and invite us to think in new ways about the world and about ourselves. 

Tools can also be used mindlessly, or destructively, and to be entrusted with the use of a tool carries a responsibility. Shouldering the weight of responsible tool use is an opportunity that we must offer to all kids. It unleashes their potential to be smart, caring and responsible.

Today  I have two committee meetings at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. One is to plan campus facilities development, and the other to plan fall and winter programs.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.

untitled...

I spent much of the day yesterday and the day before at my desk, writing bits and pieces of the Wisdom of the Hands Guide to woodworking with kids. I need to remember to keep more balance into my life. Concrete to balance the abstract.

Last night my cousin Mary Lou Taylor was featured on the CBS News program 48 hours as they explored her work to discover the truth about her brother's death in Vietnam. You can read about it here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-ncis-agents-vow-to-solve-unsolvable-cold-case-and-restore-a-sailors-honor/

We are so proud of Mary Lou and her courage in leading a quest for the truth and for restoring her brother's honor. In 2001 Jean, Lucy and I were privileged to be among the guests at Arlington Cemetery when Andy Muns received (posthumously and at long last) the honors that had been denied him. We met the folks from NCIS that worked on the case. It is a remarkable story in which she had to confront her brother's killer after having watched him re-enact the murder during his confession.

Today in the wood shop I'll be working on jewelry chests. They are ready for assembly, and for me to begin the careful fitting of drawers.

Larry Copas did an experiment drilling through a  maple dowel with a gun drill to gauge its effect. The variance as about 1/16 in. over a length of 13 inches. This would be perfect for making flutes. Drill first, then rechuck so that the centers are in the holes at each end. A tool is an expression of human knowledge and the culmination of experience. Each tools carries the potential for an expansion of human creativity.

Make, fix, and create.

a social experiment

It might surprise some that the Clear Spring School wood shop is such a social experience. The students praise each other. They share. They compete. They inspire each other. They collaborate. And while early day manual arts classes had students assigned to individual benches, that would not work well at the Clear Spring School. My first grade students like to sit very close to each other and work together, their ideas blending into a single form.

I ran across an interesting title and description for a lecture in Norway, by Nora Sternfeld entitled: "Give her the tools, she will know what to do with them!” Sternfeld offers the following:

Some Thoughts about Learning Together
How can we learn something that doesn't exist yet? On the one hand this sounds paradoxical. But isn't it on the other hand exactly what radical education is all about? Learning as a political and emancipatory practice has always been understood as a process towards another possibility: as a way to understand the social relations in order to change them; to understand them as they might only be understandable in another world. And maybe by doing so this one might change… As this process of self-transformation is a collective practice we can only learn it together.

If anyone wants to know what goes on in the CSS woodshop, it is surely a process of social and political transformation.

On Saturday Larry Copas showed me a new tool to use at the lathe, and as Nora suggests a single tool can open doors of possibility. Some of my students had been wanting to make blow guns to shoot darts, and the gun drill on the lathe would be the perfect tool for that, allowing us to use the lathe to drill perfect straight holes from one end of a piece of wood to the other.

I spent much of the say yesterday, writing about tools and safety, and the safe introduction of tools in school, according to the principles of Educational Sloyd. I hope these chapters and sidebars will become the basis for a reintroduction of wood working in schools, not just to push us back in the direction of being a manufacturing nation, but to restore a process of social, personal and collaborative transformation, available to all students. The theory of Educational Sloyd can be applied as a guide to all learning endeavors.

I have been reviewing Scott Bultman's 75 minute long pitch video on Kindergarten and captured a screen image from it to share with you. It is one of many shots taken in the CSS wood shop of my students at work. The pitch video is intended to bring investors and collaborators on board with the project.

Make, fix, create, and insist that others be permitted to learn likewise.

industrious play.

What students do in the Clear Spring School wood shop could be called "Industrious Play." It is not play with no purpose in mind, but rather, play with a direct intention and tangible result. The objective is only partially to make things and develop skill. It is also to reinforce an "industrious disposition" in the child.

Conventional education may rob a child of his or her industrial disposition.

Yesterday, I, my wife and board members from our local community center used our pressure washer and wire brushes to clean glass bricks that will be given as rewards to founding members of the new Eureka Springs Community Center.

The photo shows two Froebel Gifts that were developed by an American follower of Froebel, Minnie Maud Glidden of Pratt Institute. These were given to me by Scott Bultman who is developing a documentary film series on Kindergarten. Yesterday he sent me a  link to a promotional video that I wish I could share. The time  for you to see it will come later. Gift D is the divided cylinder, and C are curvilinear building forms. Both sets fit neatly back into their boxes when you are finished with industrious play.

A college professor of education in the video says, "learning starts with impulse. By the time many of my students arrive in my class, impulse has been trained out of them." The "sit still and learn" approach is not working.

Today I will be at work on another chapter of my woodworking guide for teachers.

Make, fix and create.

Woodturning at ESSA

I failed to count the number of Woodturners at ESSA yesterday, but I counted over 20 cars in the lot, not counting my own. One gave a demonstration on cutting parts for segmented turning. Larry Copas gave a demonstration of a gun drill to create hollow forms.

The gun drill is a device my students at school would have loved for its capacity to drill very long, very straight holes into wood. You connect it to an to an air compressor, the air of which helps to remove the chips that gather inside. The stream of air also cools the tip so that it does not overheat. It would be useful for making long hollow tubes like one might use to make a flute. Can that be yet another project to add to my creative horizon? I thank Larry for showing me something new.

One thing should be noted about wood. It is easily bio-degradable.  Cared for, it lasts for centuries. Even used daily, it can last for a hundred years. The world is now drowning in plastic, and the latest National Geographic magazine tells the story. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/the-journey-of-plastic-around-the-globe/

When wood is no longer in service, it decays in a relatively short time into biodegradable bits that are natural to every biological system on the planet. Plastic does not. It decays into bits and molecular chains that were never a part of life on earth. Is it not time now for us to think about a few things?

I am beginning to prepare for my summer classes and taking time to work in my own shop.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn lifewise.

strummin

One last thing was requested by Woodcraft Magazine for an article we're doing about making a box guitar. They wanted a picture of me playing it. So here goes. With this photo, my submitted article is complete. But do not assume from this photo that I actually know how to play. I learned as a young man that my own fingers and hands were better equipped for steady work, not the fancy finger play required for guitar.

Today at ESSA the Stateline Woodturner's Guild will meet for a general turning session. Visitors are welcome. Come and learn why wood turning is such a popular and engaging craft.

Make, fix, create, and adjust schooling so that all can learn by doing real things.

Out for summer

Yesterday, with the "celebration of the child," I am now out for the summer, but for a few planning meetings with my fellow staff at the Clear Spring School.

Being out for the summer is not what you think it might mean. I will be teaching adults at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, and at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. I will continue writing, and working in my own shop.

I will miss the kids. Perhaps they will also miss me. Where else can they work with real tools and develop real skills? I hope some are inspired to carry on through the summer months.

It is somewhat odd that folks in academia and government hold illusions of self-superiority over those who fix things and make things. Those who journey on through abstract learning and "higher" education are rewarded and advanced over those who have little patience with such things.  Their encounters with the real world would surely inform them of their ineptitude, which should in turn generate a reverence and respect for those who are endowed with skill and experience in the real world.  But it seems that is not always the case. If it were, folks would insist that learning be hands-on and that students be afforded the opportunity to be of real service to their families and communities.

National Geographic this month has an article about the proliferation of plastics and what they are doing to  our planet.  We are drowning in disposable plastic stuff. The Wisdom of the Hands presents an alternative. What if we were to revise our ways, and inhabit our lives with beautifully crafted  lastingly meaningful objects we had made for ourselves or that had been crafted for us by those we love? Think wood. It grows on trees, which are themselves beautiful to behold.

My thanks to Pam Greenway for the lovely photo of one of my students at work.

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

the celebration of the child.

This is the last day of the 2017-18 school year at the Clear Spring School. The kids are a bit sad to have the school year end. When you are having fun learning with friends, you feel strongly about school, in the good way.

I spent much of the day yesterday clearing and cleaning, and sending things home, but not before launching a new middle school project for next year, and helping students make a few more wooden skates.

The annual end of year program at the Clear Spring School is called "the Celebration of the Child." There will be skits and musical performances, and the presentation of awards of special recognition. Each and every child receives an award based on the special qualities of character they've demonstrated during the year.

The items shown are one student's woodwork from the last few weeks of school, ready to take home. The items include a bluebird house, a cane, a piece of turned wood and a sling shot.

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

reading buddies

I keep telling folks that the best time to visit the Clear Spring School is either the 10:15 morning recess or at the 12:15 lunch recess. At either of these times you'll find our students engaged in play... and for sure, play is the most effective way of learning. You will also find that when  the kids are arriving for the day at 8:15, there is joyfulness afoot. Our kids, grades 1-12, play with each other, and there is so much joy expressed that you'll envy staff members who witness it every day.

In the early days of manual arts training, it was argued by those against it that the time invested in hands-on learning would detract from academic studies. It was soon proven that was not the case. The manual arts refreshed the attitude toward learning to the degree that academic pursuits were accomplished in less time.

Of course there is more going on at Clear Spring School than play.  If you are not here at recess you'll find learning taking place with an equal amount of enthusiasm. Reading is an example. Just as our student play together, regardless of age, they buddy up for reading, too.  Our students pair up to read to each other. The process leads to growth on both ends.

Allow me to suggest that manual arts can lead the way, both in kids making stuff, and in providing a philosophy of teaching. For teachers, the less they do, the more students learn. The more students are driven by internal compulsion, the better they are directed toward lifelong learning.

I should explain that. If I prepare parts for students to assemble like a kit rather than supplying tools and materials, inspiration  and encouragement, I would be busy making parts and my students would not be learning how to do things for themselves. If I was telling the kids what to do rather than allowing them to learn from their own internal guidance, they would develop less self-reliance and intrinsic motivation.

Make, fix and create...

slingshots...

Yesterday at the Clear Spring School we made sling shots. The project began when one boy started making one last week. It was obvious that there were some things about sling shots, based on what I saw him making that he did not understand how they worked or what parts would be required. I asked him where he learned about sling shots and he said, "a video game." I learned that he had never seen a sling shot in real life. He did not know that it required a pouch to hold the object that's to be shot.

I helped him with making a leather pouch, and then helped him to get the rubber bands he had wrapped uselessly on the wood into a useful arrangement. That of course led to the other boys (and some girls) wanting sling shots of their own.

What will we be as a culture when most of our information about life comes in digital doses of meaningless abstraction? Are you folks worried about that?

I am busy writing end of year reports for my students and classes. Today I will begin cleaning the wood shop at the Clear Spring School so that I can turn my attention toward summer classes at ESSA, The Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, and Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

There are still spaces available in these schools for your participation.

Make, fix, and create. Allow for others to learn likewise.

The King Arthur Flour Bakery: Artisans at Work

Yesterday at Books in Bloom, Martin Phillip, author, banjo player and baker with King Arthur Flour was with us to give readings from his book, Breaking Bread. https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Bread-Bakers-Journey-Recipes/dp/0062447920/ We had other fine authors as well, but meeting Martin Phillip was a special treat. A video of Martin and fellow bakers at work can be found here: https://youtu.be/wlpp5Xmslb8

Martin is a big believer in the hands.  As Martin says, "It is the human that comes in and makes it something special." The wisdom of the hands is not just about wood working. It comes in many forms and "literally" touches all of human life.

Make, fix, create, and adjust education so that we all learn lifewise.

no need for a bogus quote...

Yesterday evening I heard a radio program announcer use the following quote in his rapturous support of the arts in school: “When Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort, he simply replied, ‘Then what are we fighting for?’” Churchill, according to extensive research never said such a thing, but the bogus quote once launched circles round and could come back and bite. Who needs made up stuff?

He did actually say, “The arts are essen­tial to any com­plete national life. The State owes it to itself to sus­tain and encour­age them…Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the rev­er­ence and delight which are their due.” Churchill was in fact a painter.

But do we need to rely upon the expertise of others to see that which is actually at hand? Are educational policy makers dumb or what? Can we not see and bear witness to the power of our hands and the arts and meaning they create? And then make the adjustments necessary to place the arts and science at the center of education?

I was not held captive by the royal wedding yesterday, but I did take time to listen and watch the young American cellist playing at the end of the ceremony. Are we to be given such beauty in life if we do not take time and invest in such things as music, wood shop, and the other arts?

The drawing is one I did to show the immature hammer grip of a child. As he or she learns, grows and gains strength, the hand will move down the shaft to give greater force.

Make, fix, create, and adjust schooling so that others learn lifewise.

scaffolding

I had a successful White St. Art Walk, selling boxes and visiting with friends.

Yesterday my high school students painted more on the Bevin's Skiff, bringing them nearly to a point of completion.  The students have taken great pride in them and their work as you can see.

Jerome Bruner and others have talked about education as being a process of scaffolding. Bruner's concept of scaffolding comes from his recognition that the development of human intellect is sustained by an external skeleton as described below:

“(a) Human’s use of mind is dependent upon her/his ability to develop and use tools or instruments or technologies that make it possible for him to express and amplify her/his powers”

Scaffolds in the building trades are constructed of light weight components that allow workers to safely reach heights beyond the safety of ladders. The idea of scaffolding is an apt metaphor for what we would like to happen in schools.

Of what is the educational scaffold made? Here is an idea. Experience, what the child already knows, forms the foundation from which inquiry takes place. Technology plays a part, as Einstein said, "My pencil and I are smarter than I am." You can think of the computer as the pencil on steroids. The teacher plays his or her part as a pry bar, attempting to inspire, challenge and steady the child's climb. A fourth component has to do with the school culture. Does it support an atmosphere of inquiry, of creativity and creative expression for teachers and students alike? If we had the fundamental materials of scaffold building on site, what wonders would we behold in American education! Can you see it from where you are? Use scaffolding to get a better view.

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

white st.

I have set up a display of my work at the Lux Weaving Studio for the White St. Art Walk. It is one of the premier art events of the May Festival of the Arts. Join us this evening from 4-10 PM

This is a busy weekend. I am trying to help my students finish projects at school. My wife is getting ready for the Books in Bloom Literary Festival at the Crescent Hotel on Sunday. I will be there directing traffic.

The toy tank is one that I made as an example, based on similar toys my students have made in the past. Having seen it as an example, some of my students now want to make them. It works that way. What they see they want to make. The physical object tells them what they need that with experience tells them what to do next. What they make may not end up looking like mine after their own creativity is launched. Attention to the relationship between the concrete and the abstract is a useful tool in planning lessons and learning. When kids do real things in school, no test is required as the real learning is self evident in what they've done.

It is a lovely day today to finish painting our Bevins Skiffs. We will do that.

Make, fix, create, and adjust learning so that all students have the opportunity to learn likewise.

pride and sadness.

The elaborate home arrangement shown in the photo took two weeks of twice a week wood shop to complete. I cannot tell you what everything is, but I can tell that it was well thought out and carefully decorated and arranged.

Today I continue arranging my work at the Lux Weaving Studio in preparation for the White St. Art Walk on Friday May 18 from 4 PM until 10 o'clock.

Yesterday my middle school students finished their birdhouses. They were not perfect, but as the kids noted, "the birds won't mind."

Yesterday we had a new student in wood shop whose parents have enrolled him for the coming year. His little brother was along when his mother came to pick him up. I could hear the little brother screaming from across the playground, "I didn't get to make anything!" The tears were real.

Would you not also be sad if your brother had gotten to make something and you had not? I invited the boy to come into the shop and select from some items that had been left unclaimed and unwanted by other students. The boy left happy. If all works out well, he will be in the Clear Spring School wood shop in a couple years making things for himself.

How do we impress upon parents the need their children have to create?  The pride they have in what they've made might have some effect.

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

how to avoid whacking your thumb.

A friend of mine showed up at the gym with his thumb bandaged having been hit by a hammer hard enough that he might lose his nail. That can happen to anyone. My illustration tells how to avoid it. The captions read "Hold nail at point, hammer miss smashes thumb."  "Hold nail at the top, hammer miss brushes thumb aside before striking wood." In the one case, depending on how hard the thumb is whacked, the nail could be bruised or bloodied and left in great pain. In the other case, no harm is done.

Please heed this simple advice.

The interesting thing is that out of fear we would typically try to keep our fingers away from where the hammer will strike, thus putting them at greater risk.

I have been going through mountains of information I've compiled about woodworking with kids, trying to distill it to an essence that will help parents and teachers feel confident allowing children to create beautiful and lasting things from real wood.

Today in the wood shop at the Clear Spring School, my students and I will be cleaning, organizing shop, and finishing projects that must not be left over the summer months.

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

Winding down...

We are winding down the school year at the Clear Spring School with this being the last full week of classes. Students are working on end of year presentations and performances, and it always seems to come quickly to this point. Yesterday in wood shop, one of my youngest students announced that he wanted to make a train. I invited him to study an engine that had been left hanging about, and asked him to tell me what he needed first. With me supplying the materials, he left the wood shop happy, indeed.

I have been making rings on the lathe to use as rewards for extra effort in cleaning the wood shop. I used most of those yesterday with my students grade 4-8 pitching it to help.

One of the big challenges in box making with kids is to get them to make square cuts. If the cuts are not square, the box will not be. If the box is not square, the lids and bottoms will be hard to fit, and the box will not sit on a table flat. Square cuts are why we have miter boxes.

Yesterday I got a new miter saw for use in the wood shop at school and as an illustration of what is available to others wanting to introduce wood working to kids. This one is made by Stanley, and was delivered to my door for $38.00 through Amazon. To prepare it for actual use, I'll add a board on the bottom that will then allow it to be clamped to the bench or table, so that students can put their attention into powering the saw, rather than in holding the miter box still during the cut. The saw is large, but the teeth are small and hardened for long life.

I purchased this saw to test because it has those little yellow clamps, that twist tight against the stock. While large adult hands may have enough strength to hold the stock in position while a cut is made, a child's hands do not. I'll be testing it with kids later in the week.

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

moving toward crunch time.

This week I have the White St. Art Walk at which I'll sell work and next week is the end of the school year with high school graduation and our annual program, the celebration of the child. This Sunday, the literary festival my wife created and co-directs is happening, also. This is a busy time.

I spent the weekend reviewing photos, taking a few new ones and writing portions of chapters of a Wisdom of the Hands guide for teachers, parents and friends wanting to help children learn woodworking. It is all a lot to get my head around.

I have been reading Pestalozzi's book, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children which is basically an account of how Pestalozzi developed his teaching methods. It provides insight into his character and his goals which was in large part to make education accessible to all and to do so through the senses.

"You are as a physical living being nothing but your five senses; consequently the clearness or mistiness of your ideas must absolutely and essentially rest. upon the nearness or distance with which all external objects touch these five senses,—that is, yourself, the centre, because your ideas converge in you.

"You, yourself, are the centre of all your sense-impressions; you are also yourself an object for your sense-impressions. It is easier to make all that is within you clear and plain than all that is without you. All that you feel of yourself is in itself a definite sense impression; only that which is without can be a con fused sense-impression for you.

"It follows that the course of your knowledge, in so far as it touches your self, is a step shorter than when it comes from some thing outside yourself. All that you know of yourself, you know clearly; all that you yourself know is in you, and in itself clear through you.

"It follows that this road to clear ideas is easier and safer in this direction than in any other; and among all that is clear nothing can be clearer than this principle: man’s knowledge of truth comes from his knowledge of himself." –Pestalozzi

Pestalozzi was one of the building blocks of progressive education. Building things and making things is one of the ways we use the formation of sense impressions in schooling. Squirming in your seat is not but may be what you remember most.

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

commence learning.

We know that the human body is a sensory mechanism and it is that even before the moment of birth. Senses are not just for our amusement. They are the means through which we learn about our environment and our culture. The baby immediately learns that by crying out, attention to needs will come.

Pestalozzi recognized that learning began  began early, that the engagement of the senses was required, and he recognized too, the importance of the mother's role as the child's first teacher. The point was that children be led actively to name, observe, and measure with all their senses before being led to read and well before being tested upon that which they've read. The following is from How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.

Truth that springs from sense-impression may make tiresome talk and tedious arguments superfluous (these have almost as much effect against error and prejudice as bell-ringing against a storm), because truth so acquired generates a power in the man that makes his soul proof against prejudice and error; and even when through the continual chatter of our race they come to his ears, they become so isolated in him that they cannot have the same effect as upon the common-place men of our time, on whom truth and error alike, without sense impression, with mere cabalistic words, are thrown as through a magic lantern upon the imagination.

The train in the photo was one made in the Clear Spring School wood shop inspired by a boy who loved trains and wanted to make one. Who would not want to make such a thing?  We have gone off the deep end in artificiality of education, pushed there by policy makers who show little or no interest in the individual child. Students are measured through standardized tests that are strange and irrelevant to their own lives and interests. What's the point? Must we manipulate them to meet our own interests of management? Or can we recognize that learning and growing are the innate qualities of the child, and that we share those same learning impulses into great age if we are encouraged to do so?

 I offer a simple test. Ask yourself how you learn best and to deepest effect. Is it not by doing real things? If that is your best learning means, what would lead you to assume the same does not apply to kids? And if the same applies to kids, why would we offer a  substandard means of schooling that actually damages many of our children by sequestering them in boredom and disinterest for long periods of each day?

Making a simple train is an example of starting with the interest of the child.

Make, fix, create and allow others to learn likewise.

How Gertrude Teaches Her Children

Last night I was thinking about the true spirit of education, and in doing so, could not wander far from the teachings of Pestalozzi. I have written before in my blog, Wisdom of the Hands, about Pestalozzi and his wonderful old book Leonard and Gertrude that had become a best seller in Europe after being published in 1801. http://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/search?q=gertrude You can find Leonard and Gertrude online as a free download. Read it and join me in visualizing a new day in American education.

For helping our new ESSA wood and metals studio coordinator  build a better understanding of safety requirements,  I found a powerpoint presentation that featured the image above as an example of table saw safety. So let's play the game,  "what's dangerous about this?" The powerpoint is offered to teachers by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Test your own understanding of physics and tell me what happens next.

Make, fix and create.