All Hands on Deck

Initially, I was to write on the subject of working with one's hands weeks ago. I had two reason to do so. The first reason is that working with one's hands and vocational skills in general are devalued in the U.S. , I think. Each time I hear someone promoting the idea that everyone should go to college I become annoyed. The truth is everyone shouldn't go to college. The reason everyone shouldn't go is not due to lack of brain power as some authors are making a living out of promoting. I attempt to read a book by one of these authors recently and couldn't get pass the introduction because of the veiled class and race bias arguments. I think for many people college is not the best learning environment.

Also, just because someone doesn't to college, but does gain valuable skills in other venues, that person shouldn't be devalued. Hence, I much rather a plumber who received on-the-job training fix my drain than someone who graduated college with a degree in water management.

Somewhere along the line we started placing more value on thinking than doing, in my opinion. With all the schooling I have, none of it gives me as much pleasure as designing and construction learning toys, particularly out of wood, even though I also work in metal, textile, and plastic. Mind you my skill level in woodworking is nothing to brag about, but I get the job done--at least to my satisfaction.

This brings me to the second reason for wanting to write about working with one's hands. Weeks ago I read a New York Times Magazine essay titled The Case for Working With One's Hand by Matthew B. Crawford. Crawford wrote about finding joy in working with his hands and managing a motorcycle shop while having a Ph.D. He also had expanded these ideas in his book Shop Class as Soulcraft. The essay was great, but I procrastinated writing about his essay and my views about working with one's hands. Then this morning watched Crawford on the Steven Colbert show. And later in the day I stumbled upon an article about Crawford's book on the Financial Times website after reading a Tom Friedman's article concerning America's need to invent its way to a better future--note the previous post.

So, I finally felt compelled to write this post. I'm sure I'll have more to say about our cultural view that graduating college is evidence of intelligence.

How to Get to There From Here

When people indicate that education is the key to success, would those same people buy into the idea of not allowing kids to having driving license if they didn't complete high school? Well, that the idea of tying receipt of a driver's license to completion of high school is that of Craig Barrett, former head of Intel according to New York Times' Tom Friedman in an Op-ed titled Invent, Invent, Invent.

Disappearing Newspapers

I'm working on a project with newspapers for 3-6 year olds, so I started collecting newspapers available in NW Florida. This idea eas developed from a ritual I started in NY when I live there years ago, on Sundays I purchase the NY Times along with the local papers for a quiet day of reading. I wanted to include papers in addition to those papers for the project: the Atlantic Constitution, the Tallahassee Democrat, and the Financial Times, etc.

Therefore, I went to Books-a-Million and Barnes and Noble, and supermarkets for these papers. To my surprise none of these other papers are available. Years ago I realized that the Tallahassee Democrat from the state capitol would be difficult to find in NW Florida. Now many other non-local papers have been curtailed. A worker at Barnes and Noble informed me that the person who used to manage out-of-town papers for the area died several months ago, and no one has replaced him. Could the death of one person cause the demise of sale of some out-of-town papers in my region of the state?

In any case, I'm not on the bandwagon with other people who are ready for the demise of print papers for on-line news. I'm finding the difference to be stark. Daily I read many national papers on line as well as a wide range of blogs. I'm finding that those sources are extremely similar to each other in what is reported. What is missing to me is the visceral effect of having a printed paper with stories that are below the radar of the wire services.

Moreover, there is my personal history with newspapers that is in jeopardy of being lost. Part of my reason for developing the newspaper project for kids was to share stories about newspapers in my life. Although neither of my parents completed high school--my father only completed the 2nd grade before being forced to work on a farm; and my mother completed the 11th grade before being forced to get a job to help the family--we always had a newspaper subscription. I want to show the children how we made transfers of the "funny papers" on Saturdays using soap and a clean sheet of paper. Also, I want to explain to kids how selling the Grit paper proved to be a poor idea for me when I was 13. Of course, I want to tell the students about my travails in trying to outsmarting bullies when I had a paper route.

This history is important, I think. Children want to hear these stories as well. Weaving the value of newspapers to the public and establishing the foundation for reading, e.g., reading left to right, top to bottom, letters form words, words form sentences; as an overview for future learning are also important.

Well, my project may take longer than I anticipated, but I'll find the papers I need to show show variety in format. The good part is that the rush of dopamine in my brain when I have all the parts for the project completed will probably knock me down.