Get Connected

When I first went into teaching, it was because I believed I could make a difference to the world.  At that time, I was particularly concerned about discrimination and I believed that I could help to prevent that by opening children's awareness to the depth and variety of human experience.  I felt that, through this, they could more easily connect to and empathise with people of different races, backgrounds and beliefs.

In today's materialistic society, I worry that there is more than just a lack of connection to other people.  We have lost our connection to the earth, to nature and to ourselves.  I believe that handwork can help in all these areas.  Through working with and understanding raw materials, we come to value the earth from which they come and in valuing this, we will want to protect it.  In working through the various processes involved in creating, we come to value the skills of the crafts men and women from all around the earth and we become interested in paying them a fair price for that which they create.  Finally, in working through our ideas and developing our skills we come to value ourselves as creative and productive beings.

For me, these ideas are at the heart of handwork teaching and I hope to keep them alive in the classroom so that the children will learn to value and respect themselves, others and our world.