It should run in families

WISDOM OF THE HANDS Blog

It should run in families…
By Doug Stowe
October 5, 2011

Craft In America has a new segment premiering in October that makes the connection between families and creativity. Just as computer gaming has now become a common family activity with children, creative engagement of the hands once was. The difference is that one of these likely leads to something and the other not likely. The Craft in America Family Episode will air on PBS October 17, so we are in range for you to put this on your viewing calendar. The episode will include four families who are wood turners, potters, glass blowers and the makers of cowboy boots. Of particular interest to woodworkers in this episode, President Jimmie Carter shares stories of learning woodturning techniques from Ed Moulthrop, father and grandfather to a dynasty of woodturners, and considered by many to be “the father of modern woodturning.”

As the son of a Kindergarten teacher, who was herself the daughter of an Iowa farmer, the inclination for hands-on learning and creativity was always present in our home. It tends to run in families. And for that I am eternally grateful.

The curious thing is that we for the first time, live in an age in which we can choose not to do those things that the hands within families have always done. We need not cook. We need not sew. We need not fix. We need not plant, nor harvest, nor tend, nor nourish. We need make neither things nor music to share with others. Nor need we take the traditional pleasures in these things. We can play computer games in our parents’ basement apartments until they die and we are evicted and thrown into the streets.

Share creativity within your own family. The quality of your children’s lives depends upon it.

The CSS students, grades 1 through 6 and 7 through 9 will be camping tonight on the annual Clear Spring School fall campout. I will be joining the students grades 1-6 for whittling and a hike, so this morning I am preparing basswood for spoon carving.

Make, fix and create…