New publication: “The Big Book of Crafts. With Hand, Heart, and Mind”
12.12.2022 - As a long-standing crafts teacher and lecturer at Alanus University, Helmut Hinrichsen provides an overview of the craft offerings at Waldorf schools from grades 5 to 12: from woodworking and textile design (spinning and weaving) to pottery, basket weaving, and copper repoussé, all the way to blacksmithing, carpentry, and bookbinding, all techniques are represented in this 316-page book.
As a long-standing crafts teacher and lecturer at Alanus University, Helmut Hinrichsen provides an overview of the craft offerings at Waldorf schools from grades 5 to 12: from woodworking and textile design (spinning and weaving) to pottery, basket weaving, and copper repoussé, all the way to blacksmithing, carpentry, and bookbinding, all techniques are represented in this 316-page book.
Helmut Hinrichsen draws on his entire practical knowledge gained from more than 30 years of school experience. Readers will find in this book a practical companion and source of ideas, as all the work suggestions are provided with detailed instructions and supplemented by photographs, drawings, and lists of tools. Using numerous examples, Helmut Hinrichsen shows how craft-based creative work can be implemented with children and young people in diverse and imaginative ways.
The approach of crafts lessons at Waldorf schools pursues many goals: developing a feel for materials, building planning skills, solution- and results-oriented action, fostering gross and fine motor skills, perseverance, patience, and an experience of self-efficacy with a realistic assessment of one’s own capabilities. For all these aspects, Helmut Hinrichsen makes concrete suggestions and thus illustrates “how extraordinarily versatile the creativity of children and young people is stimulated through craft instruction. The author is also concerned with showing new possibilities. Particularly groundbreaking in this context is the project presented in this book, which Helmut Hinrichsen carried out with great success for the 8th grade level using mechanical inventions. […] The book offers [readers] diverse inspiration and detailed instructions, but above all it sees itself as an encouragement for one’s own imagination and creativity” (Christian Boettger, Pedagogical Research Center at the Association of Independent Waldorf Schools, Stuttgart 2022).
Hinrichsen, Helmut: The Big Book of Crafts. With Hand, Heart, and Mind. Freies Geistesleben Stuttgart 2022, 316 pages. ISBN: 978-3-7725-2804-0.
