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I Broke a Woodworking School, Help Me Fix It

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10 years ago
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Wortheffort StudentsLast week I ventured out of the comfortable and friendly confines of my own shop and entered the scary world of classroom woodworking instruction. I felt I was prepared to tackle this task because I have been teaching virtually for 4 years now and one on one in a museum setting for almost 5 years. It seemed a logical next step…and I’m so glad I was able to take it. The lessons I learned in teaching this class of 11 woodworkers are numerous and will allow me to better my virtual efforts in many ways. I’m excited to do this again soon and hope to have the opportunity to do so. Classroom instruction is clearly an entirely different ball game and rewarding as anything I have done.

Shawn Graham

Shawn building a saw bench and making us all look bad

Based on the student feedback I think the class was a success but I can’t help but be concerned. You see after my class ended, the Wortheffort Woodworking School closed it’s doors.

Leave it to an internet woodworker to break a brick and mortar school!

This is a real crime because Shawn Graham, the owner of Wortheffort is a truly gifted teacher and a fine woodworker to boot. I admit to feeling overwhelmed by my class size of 11 woodworkers all with various learning styles and working speeds. I remember saying this to Shawn and he laughed it off stating that he was so used to running classes of 30-40 during his public school days that he couldn’t imagine teaching a class any smaller than his customary 12.

sharpening island

I love this sharpening island. No frills and always close at hand.

I learned a lot from Shawn about keeping a class on pace and engaging every student and adapting to their style. He even taught me a few woodworking tricks that I was able to adapt to the more engineering mindset students in my class.

Shawn is an experienced teacher with an incredible passion to teach kids. His school offers a variety of classes but the overwhelming theme is teaching kids and blending academic subjects into the craft of woodworking. It is really powerful stuff! It is a crime to think that this school is closing its doors and yet another opportunity to get kids excited about making stuff is going away.

wortheffort student at work

Awesome workbenches and a great work space for learning

It doesn’t have to be this way!

We have the power to ensure it doesn’t happen. Shawn has recognized the limitations of teaching out of his small town of San Marcos, and is actively searching for space in Austin, TX. In addition to being a larger (and more expensive) market, Austin’s artsy and “weird” culture is perfect for the message Shawn is pushing. I have no doubt he will do well in that community…but he has to get there.

Wortheffort Woodworking SchoolDespite multiple efforts to procure funding the traditional ways, Shawn is coming up short for his relocation and this is why he has to close the doors on the school. Where you can help is by supporting Shawn on his Indie GoGo campaign to save the school and speed along his relocation to a better market.

I admit freely that I was dubious about this plan and as an internet guy I obviously tend to ignore things like location in the success equation. After meeting Shawn face to face and working side by side with him for 3 days I strongly feel that the woodworking craft will suffer without his school in the world. There is too much talent and passion in what he does to let it die. So after wrapping up my last day of class, I logged in via my hotel WiFi and pledged $200 towards the campaign.

Wortheffort Indie Go Go PerksDid I mention that Shawn has all kinds of rewards available to supporters. From woodworking tools to beautiful turned gifts that he and his dad have made. I saw all of these items and got to work with several of the tools and can personally vouch for the quality. The wooden coping saw is brilliant and the grooving planes are the model of efficiency for the box maker and frequent drawer builder. The turned stuff makes me feel bad about my own turning ability!

Let’s just say that any contribution you can make will help and you will end up with something worth more than your contribution in return.

I have already told Shawn that I would be back to teach again once the school gets set up in its new digs as I have to believe he will make it happen no matter what. It would be really nice if that “no matter what” was made a lot easier with our help.

Are you concerned about the future of woodworking? As long as there are guys like Shawn around I don’t think we need to be.
wortheffort woodworking school

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Shawn Graham

Thanks Shannon for the endorsement.

And for all you wondering what “The Renaissance Woodworker” is like at the front of a classroom let me tell you he earned his teaching credentials this weekend.

In the teaching realm I’ve observed a real divide. You have teachers and you have instructors. There are those that can expertly lead people through a step by step process to accomplish a task. And in the end that leaders students will be able to accomplish that specific task expertly. That person is a living breathing instruction sheet thus s/he’s an instructor.

Then you have teachers whose students in the end have learned knowledge that they can apply elsewhere thus their efforts in the classroom can be leveraged.

The difference I see is that a teacher can always instruct when needed but an instructor can rarely teach.

The students here learned this weekend. It’s always rewarding to see those light bulbs click and you could just see the thoughts behind these students eyes. “Oh Sh!T, this is awesome…. I can do _____________ now.” Yes they all made paring hooks, sloyd hooks, a workbench and learned the steps to build a box. But what was fun was listening to them talk and explain to back to me how they’ll be applying the skills they were introduced to when they get back home. To hear of the new projects that were springing to their minds.

Shannon Rogers is a teacher. If you have a chance in the coming years to take a class with him I’d jump before it fills. Because I can confidently make this promise to you. You will learn much more than just the steps to complete the classes project.

    Jim

    Shawn – best of luck! BTW I just found my sharpening station … it’s going to be made from Doug Fir construction lumber. Thanks for the photo Shannon!!!

    Sloyd hook … gonna have to look that one up.

    Shannon

    aww shucks, I might choke on all this feel good

Josh O'Quin

I was in this class, so I think I can offer a perspective of both Shannon’s skills in instruction, and the excellent learning environment that Shawn offered the students.

I went into this class with almost no hand tools skills, just lots of theory that I’d read on various internet blogs and seen on videos. I suspected that there was a huge difference between knowledge and application, and I was proved right. I hoped that I would get a huge boost in my comfort level with the saw, plane and chisel, and that hope was realized in a huge way. Through the various projects, Shannon added skill after skill, explaining the theory then circling the class while we sawed and planed and chiseled, offering feedback and answering questions that we asked.

Over three days I experienced a series of epiphanies, the lightbulb moments that Shawn referred to. I’d be sawing and suddenly realize that my form was improved and the saw was effortlessly following the line instead of replicating a winding riverbed. I’d be frustrated trying to square up a face with the plane and Shawn or Shannon would swoop in and offer a suggestion like wax that sole, sharpen that iron, adjust your cut. And the next pass would be like night and day. My plane was so well tuned by the end of the class that Shannon had to tell me to stop playing with the shavings and hog away material instead. 🙂 And they didn’t lose the teachable moment by doing it for us, they had each student do every step to maximize the learning.

At the end of the last day I had a finished paring hook, a mostly finished saw bench, some roughed out sloyd hooks, wood laid out for a nice box, and a whole bag of new tricks. And that’s a sucess because the projects were the method to teach the skills, which they did in spades.

And the Wortheffort work space was one of the primary tools they used. A broad selection of tools in the tool nook were available to students that didn’t have the right tool, or wanted to try another tool. Hefty Roubo workbenches were the surfaces we practiced on, each with holdfasts, bench hooks and paring hooks stored below to assist in building our own. Blessed air conditioning kept the students focused on the projects, not the Texas summer weather.

I plan on taking many classes from Shawn and from outside instructors in his space. It expect it will continue to be an asset to the Central Texas woodworking community. And while I may never be a hand tool guru, I’ll be much more likely to add it to my workflow in my shop, which is a win in my eyes.