Children begin working with wood actively in preschool and kindergarten. But beginning in 5th grade they take that up in a new way. All students, boys and girls, learn to use gouges, saws, chisels, rasps, and many other woodworking tools to sculpt and build with wood. Woodworking class is held in the woodshop building once a week for an hour and a half. In 8th grade, many students are also introduced to power tools when they delve into furniture making.
Why then, has the artistic element such a special effect on the development of the will? Because, in the first place, practice depends on repetition; but secondly because what a child acquires artistically gives him fresh joy each time. The artistic is enjoyed every time, not only on the first occasion. Art has something in its nature which does not stir a person once but gives fresh joy repeatedly. Hence it is that what we have to do in education is intimately bound up with the artistic element. Rudolf Steiner
