Mister of your Craft

Hacked

What's the matter? No one interested in your little blogs?

Don't answer just go away.

In his fabulous book, 'Oak: The Frame of Civilization,' author William Bryant Logan tells us... "The honorific title 'Mister' is a pure and vanishing formality. Few people are aware of its derivation. But in the age of oak, Mister denoted the master of a craft. It was a powerful honorific, and existed specifically to distinguish from the other current honorifics: Lord So and So, Sir Somebody, the Honorable Diddledee, Most Reverend Rubbadub... Mister meant that a person had mastered a complex task and could do it reliably and well. It signified a high level of coordination between hand, eye, and brain." "These were the people, argued Thomas Jefferson, out of whom the great democracies were to be made. The Misters were men who had trained their intelligences to a high level by encountering and transforming resistant materials." In my opinion, the patriots of our nation are the Misters...not the masters... Today, we have technology. Modern machines require modern materials, but wood is unruly, coming in random widths and random lengths with all the defects that nature can endow. But, isn't that the beauty of wood? No two pieces are ever alike. "If the craftsman will submit himself to the material, rather than trying to impose his own will upon it, the material will ultimate speak to him and supply all the answers..." As a woodcarver, I found this to be true. If I was carving a molding into a string of beads, I could impose perfect dimension, but if I followed the grain, the wood gave me perfect pearls for my string of beads. We all know the value of pearls... What are the pearls of your craft?

LivingTrade.org http:/groups.google.com/group/senior-apprentice

deadwood chopped

Go away!

Y-A-W-W-W-N !!!!!

Your apprenticships would work well with the re-introduction of buggy whip production......

Just not reality these days.

Apprenticeship needs to evolve into an academic environment with a cognitive approach that is centered upon the material, rather than an employer's job of work. Industry is the snowball...

daclark wrote in article ...

People I used to work with in education spoke that way.....

THEY didn't have a clue, either.

If you have a clue that you would like to purport that could resolve the issues of our failing educational system, (one of the minds that created the problems) I would like to discuss it. If you have not read my essay 'Apprenticeship for our Future,' you can find it at:

LivingTrade.org http:/groups.google.com/group/senior-apprentice Simply bashing my assertions only puts you on the side of the clueless. I would like to win you over to my train of thought.

daclark wrote in article ...

Geez....I haven't read "Buggywhips for Our Future" either, but I have enough day-to-day business presence to understand that they - like apprenticeships - are a thing of the past.

There is absolutely no loyalty between employer and employee these days - and there is not likely to be in the foreseeable future.

The employee MUST commit to the employer as the employer MUST commit to the employee.

Fix that little problem, and you might have a chance convincing people that apprenticeships have a place in today's business.

Go peddle your antiquated theories somewhere else.

Your e-mail address explains your mis-guided passions.

Union apprenticeship is OJT. There is no valid or relevent union apprenticeship today. Ten years ago, I worked as a union cabinetmaker. I was assigned to build two projects that by union standard took twelve man-weeks of labor; I accomplished the task in two weeks, and was fired because I did not fit in... You have me completely wrong.

And changing my headings, doesn't win the argument.

Mr. Clark is hardly a Union shill.

Gunner

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,

Applying yourself to trade, making a living for your family, and finding purpose in your life, doesn't compare to your statement...it does, however, apply to our government.

"He who has learned a trade has surely made an investment in his future."

Far far too many dont want to apply themselves to a trade etc etc..and want the government to bail them out. OUr welfare rolls, and council housing in the UK are filled with those types.

Gunner

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,