Eaglecast: The Value of Traditional Crafting - A Journey of Learning, Expression, and Connection

These days, we go shopping to get the stuff we want or need, but our ancestors used their hands to turn natural materials into what they needed for safety and comfort. Today we use computers and televisions to learn and disseminate knowledge. But our ancestors used their hands to engineer technologies for learning and disseminating information. They made paper and string from shrubs and grasses. They wove this string into fabric for protective garments and sewed up the paper into books. They used soot to make ink, and reeds to make pens. Our ancestors possessed keen material intelligence, creativity, and engineering skills. Traditional crafts like weaving, bookbinding, and making ink are an art form infused with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts, and they are engaging, motivating, and tangibly related to everyday life. Making things also helps us feel in control, express ourselves, and it can give us a sense of purpose. Making things encourages us to think, helps us process emotions, and can even lower our heart and breathing rates. Scientists figured out 75 years ago that a very large part of your neocortex, that thin, most recently evolved outer layer of your brain, is devoted to your hands. What do you use your hands for nowadays? What do your children and grandchildren do with their hands all day?