Handprint Press

  • About Hand Print Press
  • Art
    • spoons & wood
    • stories: building, earth, arts
    • oven stories
    • music & more
    • Kiko’s gallery
    • food
  • Tech
    • oventek
    • stovetek
  • Bookstore
  • Workshops

Learning by Doing

May 19, 2011

This is an exerpt from The Best of Making Things – A Handbook for Creative Discovery by Ann Sayre Wiseman.

The phenomenon of of learning belongs to the child, not to the teacher. We do not teach a child to walk – one of many skill potentials in all beginners. At best, we stimulate discovery, desire, and curiosity; encourage and whet the appetite; provide space; and anticipate readiness to exercise the inevitable.

Learning by experience is profound knowledge, more deeply recorded in the memory than theory or speculation. The most direct, immediate, and satisfying path to knowledge is visual and manual experience linked with the urgency of interest.
Learning by doing connects products with ideas and history. It breeds creative thinking, self-expression, and originality, the confidence to experiment, and the courage to make mistakes, learn control, and perfect skills.

This collection of discoveries and resources is a careful selection of simple and important concepts that have shaped the cultures of the world. These activities should help to seed and develop natural curiosity and self-esteem.  The projects are explained in pictures so that children just starting out and grown-ups who have missed out can quickly grasp the ideas.

Parents and teachers hold the success of children in their tone of voice and generosity of understanding.  By encouraging self-discovery, by respecting originality and individualism, we avoid the preoccupation with competition, allowing students to progress at their own pace.  Creativity is the birthright of all children. Let us foster it rather than cramp or nip it in its most eager time for learning.

Leave a Comment · music & more, the work of art

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Categories

  • announcements, classes, opportunities (11)
  • Books (2)
  • Documents (3)
  • Tech (52)
    • building tech (13)
    • oventek (27)
    • stovetek (16)
  • the work of art (61)
    • food (5)
    • Kiko's gallery (8)
    • music & more (13)
    • oven stories (15)
    • spoons & wood (8)
    • stories: building, earth, arts (19)
  • Uncategorized (1)

recent comments

  • Kiko Denzer on Increasing wood-stove efficiency
  • Michael on Increasing wood-stove efficiency
  • Kiko Denzer on About Hand Print Press
  • Heather on About Hand Print Press
  • Kiko Denzer on Earth Oven builders in Ecuador (Manuel (10), Juan Carlos (6))

Search our site

from the publisher

Hand Print Press began in the early 90s, when I self-published Build Your Own Earth Oven. I was thinking of myself as a capital A  Artist. However, as I learned from the garden and other teachers, art just means “to fit together” — it’s how the world works — flora, fauna, humans — all must fit themselves together, with each other, with the landscape, with wind and weather. In addition to the bookstore (which now includes a few other authors), the site contains stories and updates on ovens, heat, baking, beauty, agriculture, fire, community, culture, (spoon) carving, etc. It’s all art! Thanks for visiting. You can contact me at handprint at cmug dot com, or thru instagram.
— Kiko Denzer

Copyright © 2023 Handprint Press