This post is part of a blog series revealing the table of contents of upcoming Issue Seventeen. As is our custom, we’ll be discussing one article per weekday in order to give you a taste of what is to come.
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Edward Bouvier – “Handcraft as Part of a Holistic Education for Life”
“Let the youth once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick level in its mortar, and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him.” - John Ruskin, “Time and Tide,” 1883.
In centuries past, training in hand skills began at a young age, when learning comes with ease and enthusiasm. An apprentice grew in skill and confidence until fully prepared for a vocation in adulthood. Fast forward to today, when the vast majority of people get involved in creative woodworking as older adults. And if we’re honest, no matter how good our skillset, we may lack the confident enthusiasm in our finished product that was once possessed by the young apprentice.
In Issue Seventeen, author, teacher, and woodworker Edward Bouvier (who hangs out his shingle on the outskirts of Chicago as “The Village Woodwright”) shares his insight and experience in teaching woodworking to kids. He takes a holistic approach to education, seeing it not just as an imparting of knowledge or skill but of building into the whole character of each student. Drawing from the revolutionary 19th-century methods of Swedish Educational Slöjd and British educator Charlotte Mason, Bouvier shares his methods for engaging a shopful of students with the joys of manual woodwork.
“Older woodworkers have been instrumental in my life,” he writes. “They’ve given instruction, encouragement, and tools to me as a way to pass on their legacy to the next generation.” Recognizing that it is the responsibility of each generation to pass down the legacy of this craft, rather than just enjoying a personal, private hobby, he challenges and encourages each one of us to make a difference in the lives of the young people around us.
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