86. Children Should Work With Their Hands
Throughout primary and secondary education, students should be required to work with their hands and make things using materials other than the conventional paper and cardboard crafts. They should be required to use all kinds of other material, especially wood, stone, glass and metal. Students could be allowed a fair degree of flexibility in terms of what materials and projects they choose to do according to their own likes and skill levels. Though age-appropriate precautions should be taken, all students should be required to get a functional understanding of how to work with and take care of all such materials by the time they finish their secondary education. The students could get their raw materials through donations (especially scrap materials) from area businesses or residents or through the gathering of scrap from recycling or waste management companies. Though students could construct any items they wish as long as they meet the assigned criteria, some examples may include bird or bat houses, pet houses, toys, models, etc. The school could even have a little school store open to the public on campus to sell some of the items made for school fund raising efforts.