75-04-B1
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Work Ethic
TranscriptAs usual, the French have a saying for it: The more things change, the more they stay the same. I'll be right back. The 1960s were a time of discontent for many American young people. Many seemed disillusioned and critical of a society they thought was too mechanized, industrial and material. Some of them sought a simpler life by turning the clock backwards and trying their hand at ranching or farming. An outgrowth of this was a great interest in hand craftsmanship. We see the results today in our larger cities where small shops and sidewalk stalls offer handmade goods of simple but honest quality. Human nature being what it is there are always some mass producers who try to capitalize on movement such as this but some recent developments they can't imitate. For example, in the San Francisco area where restoration of old carpenter, gothic homes is very popular there has sprung up a whole new cottage industry of young carpenters and woodworkers who will make replicas of missing moldings, doors, cabinets and paneling otherwise unavailable to the homeowner of a victorian home. The work is exacting and most of these craftsmen are entrepreneurs and ironically most come from the so-called counter culture. This new interest in craftsmanship and the values and history that go with it are filtering down to much younger people too. In Georgia in the community of Rabun Gap, a young journalism teacher Eliot Wigginton has become something of a celebrity for stimulating the interest of his 10th graders in observing, recording and preserving a record of the Appalachian folk crafts, arts and lore. Now rather than wring his hands over the apparently vanishing custom of the hills, Wigginton began taking his students out to watch the artists and craftsmen at work, everything from hewing poplar logs to constructing dulcimers. The result has been a contagiously enthusiastic response by the teenagers who now write and edit a quarterly magazine called Foxfire which documents the folk arts and crafts. The pent up interest nationwide in the dignity and value of craftsmanship led to a national book club publishing an anthology from Foxfire which is now in its third edition. Teacher Wigginton has exported his idea to schools across the country and he notes that some of his earlier students, though now college graduates, are returning to their rural hometown to find their fortune. That French saying I quoted earlier may seem ironic but it's true that in the search for change one often rediscovers what is best in the earlier ways and values. In the light of that it may seem less puzzling then that a college student of the sixties who may have scoffed at the work ethic at the time now finds rich satisfaction in turning out a beautifully made and intricate molding or door. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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