The White Paper, Education and the Crafts: An Assessment of Values

A parallel of instrumentally direct thinking can be drawn between the Alberta Government's White Paper on industry and science, and the Industrial Education curriculum for schools. This reveals a philosophy which focuses on "means" to the detriment of the inherent qualitative dimensions of work and learning. An analysis of "craft" testifies to the central, creative role of the craftworker, and shows how craft in its traditional "making" sense forms an interrelated whole of means, ends, and values. On this account craft can, and in some industrialized counties does, play an important part in education, industry and the quality of life generally.