RS
The premise is very simple. Human beings are form makers,
and as such seek a sense o f closure, or what others would call
wholeness. Craftwork, in developmental terms, enacts that impulse
with physical objects, satisfying a psychological desire for closure
and tangible results. There is no real full human development with-
out this process. That is partly what I mean when I say “there is a
craftsman in everyone.” I don’t think the quest for good work only
applies to [the maker of] a Stradivarius. I think it is a capacity that
exists in most human beings.
For a long time we have known that this is how people develop
language and cognitive powers, but we haven’t appreciated that
this same developmental path occurs in our dealings with the physi-
cal environment. The lack of research on the mental activity in-
volved in making physical things has important social repercussions.
People who are competent in verbal symbols are thought to be
more gifted than those whose development occurs through physical
or manual experience. There is a terrible blindness in modern soci-
ety to people who work with their hands, and this leads to class
differentiation and even contempt for manual work.
sr
T o u tie cra ftsm a n sh ip to a nu m b er o f o th er b eh a viors, p r in -
cip les a n d v a lu es in c lu d in g com m itm en t, p r id e , d isc ip lin e a n d
upholding objective standards. P rid e seem s to b e a n especially p oten t
rew a rd o f cra ftw ork.
RS
I don’t use the term pride in the sense o f trumpeting oneself.
It is more a sense of self-respect. We usually get incomplete rewards
from other people, particularly if one is low in the social pecking
order. So we have to look for other available sources of self-worth.
Enacting this process of completion, of making something that is
founded on a basic principle of cognition, which is the inverse rela-
tionship between speed and quality. Self-critical faculties decrease
with speed, and the brain does a better job of processing when it
goes slowly than rapidly. The way the capitalist economy is designed
sacrifices the logic of craft, which results in poorly made objects
and a degraded physical environment. This capitalist model of pro-
ductivity then feeds back into the schools, so the very training of
people becomes industrialized. The craft model of education—slow,
concentrated, repetitive—
is seen as something dysfunctional and
irrelevant in the modern world.
sr
T h is trickle-d o w n effect in to ed u ca tion is c ru cia l a n d connects
to th e qu estion o f o rg a n izin g a tten tion a n d th e a b ility to fo cu s.
R s
That is a very important issue. Pedagogically, we teach people
that the moment they learn to do something, they can move on to
something else rather than continue to dwell on that lesson. When
musicians practice something over and over again, they get deeper
into the music, expanding it from within, exploring problems, and
so forth. Our pedagogy doesn’t tend to that. We go by the notion
that once you’ve solved something, the actual experience of doing
it is secondary. And that whittles down attention. This is a terrible
problem in the teaching of music in schools, where the length of time
that children can practice becomes reduced. We disable the actual
experience of repetition, and that eventually cuts down on our ca-
pacity to concentrate.
In the beginning, when someone is learning a manual skill like
playing the piano, teachers try hard to entice students because they
think they’ll get bored. But after a while students come to concen-
trate on the process of learning through doing a thing again and
The way the capitalist economy is designed sacrifices the logic
of craft, which results in poorly made objedts and a degraded
physical environment.
separate from us and stands on its own like an object, is a way of
saying, “ I made this. I exist.”
s
r
IV e co u ld tw ist D esca rtes ’ w ell-k n o w n p h ra se fr o m
“/
th in k
th erefore I am ” to
“I m ake th erefore I am . ”
r s
Absolutely. And there is a great emotional reward in such
physical production. It gives you a sense of place in the world and
that it matters that you’re here.
sr
A n o th e r rew a rd o f th e cra ft experien ce th a t y o u id en tify is the
a n ch o rin g in ta n g ib le rea lity . T o d a y , m ore th a n ev er, w e n eed
su ch ta n g ib le anchors.
r s
Our modern economy privileges pure profit, momentary
transactions and rapid fluidity. Part of craft’s anchoring role is that
it helps to objectify experience and also to slow down labor. It is
not about quick transactions or easy victories. That slow tempo of
craftwork, of taking the time you need to do something well, is pro-
foundly stabilizing to individuals. When people are forced to do
things quickly it becomes a type of triage. In the process of working
very fast, we don’t have the time for reflection and being self-criti-
cal. We tend to go into autopilot and mistakes increase. This is
again. They become interested in the actual skill development.
The real pedagogical challenge is getting people to that point where
they’ll do it without having the carrot of outside motivation.
sr
I fo u n d i t in terestin g th a t
The Craftsman
en ds on a dow n
note, w ith y o u r suggesting th a t a cra ftsm a n ’s life is often m a rked by
‘b ittern ess a n d regret. ” Is th a t because ou r cu ltu re h a s sca n t regard
f o r c r a ft v a lu es a n d p ra ctice ?
R S
Hopefully, people who do good work and take pride in the
thing itself can sustain hardships, even though they aren’t given
much social or economic recognition. Some can, and others still
want that external reward. We tend to think that self-respect within
our work is a garnish on top of economic reward. Although that
notion doesn’t agree with much social science, it is ingrained within
American culture, which holds that first and foremost people be-
lieve the most important tiling about work is making as much money
as possible.
s r
IV h ic h is ca p ita lism . A n d th is lea d s to th e cla sh b etw een
a cra ftsp er so n ’s v a lu es a n d c a p ita list v a lu es. In y o u r book
The Culture o f the New Capitalism
(2 0 0 5 )y o u cla im th a t
048 ainerican craft oct/novo9
www.freedowns.net & www.journal-plaiza.net
