Max Gordon

🧠🙌🏻 ACTIVATING THE WILL

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🧠🙌🏻 Activating the will
How can the Will, a term often used in Waldorf education to describe the inner drive and determination, be activated and harnessed through sustainable tool making?

I’m a busy man. I have to intentionally set aside time to work on survival projects. I do this to stay consistently accountable and grow with my skills. If I practice a craft, every day for 1 hour, 5fivedays a week, for 52 weeks a year, that’s 5 hours *52 or 260 hours of work each year. For me, that’s enough to complete a certain amount of projects. How many? We can explore below.

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🧠🙌🏻 ACTIVATING THE WILL

History and Use

“Unfinished projects are a crime.” - George, from Sunbridge Institute.

George, a respected figure in the field of Waldorf education and one of my professors when I went through the Elementary Educator certification program at Sunbridge Institute, once said, "Unfinished projects are a crime." In Waldorf Schools (and certainly Waldorf teacher programs), we often discuss the concept of the Will and how it is utilized in handwork projects.
As a survival skills teacher, I also consider myself a handwork teacher; therefore, the Will is important to me and my students.

When starting a new project with students, such as crafting a wooden hammer, I need them to finish it. The finished hammer lies within the piece of wood picked up initially off of the forest floor, and when they search within the wood, I ask them to see it. The Will is what connects us to the project, making it more than just a piece of wood. 
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🧠🙌🏻 ACTIVATING THE WILL

Understanding the Process

The journey itself is an important process. The students are utilizing their fine and gross motor skills, smoothing out any rough patches, chopping and making grooves. It takes all of their Willingness to participate in this beautiful project. And when it’s done (teacher and student have to both agree), then Wow, that’s a special moment. The sense of accomplishment in completing a project is truly inspiring.

Like many of my students, I also have unfinished projects around my workshop, from arrowheads to arrow shafts and buckskin pouches. I, too, try to finish one project at a time. The natural world is always beckoning me to try new things. Is five hours a week enough to complete all that I need to? This is a question I often ponder.

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🧠🙌🏻 ACTIVATING THE WILL

Gratitude and Appreciation

I remember when I finished building my hickory longbow. This primitive bow took me nearly a year to create. After several trips to work with my mentor in western Maine, I built it over the year. The day he gave me the finished project, my hands felt electric, and I felt on top of the world. It was a feeling of general self-reliance, and that is what I’m going for in my teachings.

For me, as long as I’m consistent every day, I can tolerate being airy-fairy with different projects because I know that eventually, all of this will be completed, and I can’t wait! "Wow," this is what the students must be feeling…

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🧠🙌🏻 ACTIVATING THE WILL 

Learn to Activate the Will:

Join us for our 16-week semester ReWilding courses and receive hands-on, in-person lessons. Children learn from our professional nature-based instructors about tools making, problem solving, and activating their internal Will. Join us today!

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