Youth in Woodworking
“…Education is a process of opening creative doors and allowing those doors to open to everyone.”–Reverend J. Lynwood Smith, founder of The Shelbourne Craft School (now the Shelbourne Art Center)
There’s been a fair amount of press lately about how difficult it is to pass the craft of woodworking down to a younger generation. Traditional high school woodworking programs are being cut in the interest of saving money. And our high-tech society doesn’t lend itself to hobbies and crafts like woodworking.
I think it’s up to us woodworkers to get kids involved and interested in our craft. Let your kids hang out in the shop. Invite the neighbor kids into your shop while you’re working on projects. Let them make some cuts on a band saw. Or make some shavings on a lathe. Watch their eyes light up. They’ll soon be begging you to help them make something. What better way to pass on the legacy of woodworking. Invest some time in the younger generation.
Adam Wilde in Canada is a 19-year old that got sawdust in his pants cuffs watching his Dad work on a lathe. Now he’s making custom pens on his own to help pay for college.
And the former Shelbourne Craft School in Vermont (now known as the Shelbourne Art Center) is continuing a tradition of teaching youngsters the craft of woodworking. It was started in 1938 in the basement of a church rectory by Rev. J. Lynwood Smith. His goal was to have local youth learn the fundamentals of woodworking and the joys of creating from wood “articles both useful and pleasing to the eye.” Here’s an article that talks about the history of the center and how it reaches the youth.
Let us know how you got started in woodworking. Do you involve your children in your craft? If so, how? We’d be interested in reading your comments.
Jack McKee said,
In response to your article about youth and woodworking here are two stories I wrote. The first one is about about the first time I did woodworking with a group of kids other than my own and the second one is about a set of noticed boards I built so kids could construct their own playhouse.
WOODWORKING WITH KIDS
The excitement and interest of my own kids about using tools, about building, and about woodworking taught me how competent kids could be and inspired me to do volunteer woodworking at my sons’ school. My plan was for the children to arrive with an idea of something to build and I would help them build it. From woodworking with my own kids I knew enough to collect a workbench, kid-sized tools, and some scrap wood.
Not suprisingly it was a bit more complicated. Six kids arrived. Two had some idea about what to build and I was able to help them get started, even though I had to demonstrate a tool or help with a design problem. Some didn’t know where to begin and I didn’t know how to get them started. I tried to create, with words, an image of a project that would capture their interest. I asked, “Would you like to build a boat, (candle holder, key ring)?” The answer came back something like, “maybe” or “let me think about it.” Other kids had an idea about what to build but no clue how to begin, so I had to figure out construction details off the top of my head and communicate those details to the child in a way they could understand. No one got hurt. I didn’t get mad or upset and make anyone hate woodworking, but the class was confusing for the kids and hectic for me. And not much was built. I went home to evaluate.
I had expected too much. Perhaps I made unconscious and unfair comparisons with my own children who had been around tools since birth. I had assumed kids could use a vice. They couldn’t. I assumed they knew enough to keep their fingers away from the saw teeth. They didn’t. Later I asked and none of the kids had ever used any tools before. How could they be expected to know what to do?
I needed to review the way I used tools to see if I could break down actions that I did automatically into steps kids could understand. I started with a safety demonstration: how to carry the saw, how to put a piece of wood in the vice, and how to use a saw. This was a step in the right direction and gave kids enough background to begin using tools without getting hurt. I became intrigued by the details of how to use tools at a beginning level. Over time, I refined this introductory demonstration and developed short lessons for each tool.
I was also expecting children who had never picked up a tool to be able to figure out what they wanted to make when the whole idea of making something was foreign. I decided to take a boat and a candle holder my son had built to the second class to see if this would help the children visualize a project. When I showed the boat and candle holder, the kids reacted with excitement and enthusiasm. Everyone wanted to build both a boat and a candleholder. The class was still hectic, but it was amazing to me that a few tool lessons and a couple of projects could change the class tone from hectic and lost to interested and excited. Everyone went home with a project. The kids’ enthusiasm was contagious and I went home and thought up more projects.
I had so much fun I approached the local Park Department with the idea of a summer shop class for children. Even though I didn’t have much teaching experience, they were enthusiastic. I, however, was more than a little unsure about how things would go. Could I duplicate the playful atmosphere that prevailed at home with my own boys? Would other kids respond? Could I keep them from hurting themselves? Would they be interested in the projects I had created?
I need not have worried. That first year, half of the projects I developed were too complicated, but the other half worked surprisingly well. Other children responded much like my own. They appreciated real tools and engaging projects. They worked hard to be safe. The kids got a taste of the magic of building and I got a taste of the magic of kids. It was the most meaningful, fun, and interesting woodworking I’d ever done.
Jack McKee 1994
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Jack McKee teaches woodworking to kids and does woodworking workshops for teachers.
BUILDER BOARDS
A Playhouse Kids build themselves
As a builder and newly minted preschool teacher I found children loved activities I was able to create from the world of tools, building and fixing. We took apart VCR’s, patched bike tires, put faucets, flashlights and locks together and made things from wood. One day during this “shop” class I was watching kids play with Lincoln Logs and, for no apparent reason, thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if kids could build their own playhouse, like big Lincoln Logs?”
It seemed like such a good idea (even if I do say so myself) I went home to my workshop and began experimenting. Logs were too heavy. Cardboard tubes and plastic plumbing were too awkward and ugly. What about notched plywood boards? I worked out the details of board length and notch spacing and made a some test pieces. Encouraged, I went ahead. Ninety-nine boards later, viola! A playhouse!
I took the playhouse to class and, made a mistake a more experienced teacher wouldn’t have, by asking, “who wants to help build a playhouse?” Naturally enough, everyone did. Chaos ensued. Kids bumped into each other, walked on boards and no one could see which board to put on next. I discovered eight preschoolers were too many for one playhouse. But once we got down to three or so they were able to work together and plan their creation.
Eventually the kids got the walls up and were ready for the roof. In my excitement to test the playhouse I hadn’t built the roof yet, so I got out a blanket. Big disappointment. The kids looked as if to say, “after we went to all this work to make this wonderful house you get out a blanket? We want a real roof.” I had to promise to bring the “real” roof next week.
Although I was pleased with my creation, during the next two years, children taught me that it could be more than a playhouse. Using their imaginations, children hardly ever built the standard playhouse, instead building a house with two doors, and windows everywhere and a house with no doors or windows at all. Once they built a house with a tunnel entrance and a flat roof. After that came caves, castles, forts, towers, a reptile museum and a hot dog stand. The idea of building a playhouse gave way to the idea of building from a child’s imagination.
Since then (1994) Builder Boards have undergone rigorous use in classrooms, at a summer camp for disabled children, and at Children’s Museums. They always attract a crowd of eager young builders. Teachers and parents seem to like them as much as the kids. My current fantasy is to build a truck load of pieces, enough so a whole classroom of kids could build at the same time.
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About the author
Jack McKee has worked as a mechanic, remodeled houses, built small boats and designed equipment used by children’s museums, schools and preschools. He has worked at a Montessori school teaching “shop” to 3-6 year olds and for the parks department teaching summer woodworking classes for kids. His articles have appeared in Home Education, Tech Directions, Early childhood Today and Wooden Boat. He has written two books, Woodshop for Kids and Builder Boards. You can see more of Jack’s creations for kids in the do-it-yourself section of his web page at: home.earthlink.net/~mchkee
(posted on January 19th, 2008 at 11:26 pm)