Saginaw Valley State University

Why People Work With Their Hands

Ryan Libera
English 111
November 26, 2014

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Ryan Libera
Professor Vagnetti
English111
November 26, 2014
Francis of Assisi once quoted, He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works
with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his
heart is an artist. I am sharing this information because the handicraft skill and working with the
hands is disappearing. I care because the work I do with my hands is based on experiential
learning. I like to work with my hands tell us why it is important because that way I use my
hands is the way I am hardwired, my cognitive makeup. Through experiential learning a person
learns through their head, heart and hands. Above all mechanical, but also manufacturing, the
crisis of many traditional industrial corporations like the car, which had stimulated enormous
handicraft satellite industries and small enterprises has undermined handicraft skills. With the
loose of handcraft and hand labor, a very special way of being in the world, is lost and the
consequences of not working with the head, heart and hands impacts not only the way we learn,
but the way we think and who we are as human-beings: creativity. We are losing the very think
that makes us human. I want to change peoples thinking to thinking that is not complex. If
people would use all the steps to learning then they would be able to be think and be creative.
Working with the hands isnt only undergoing manual labor with the hands but there are
different way of working with the hands is used for the better. I got to write this research paper
by writing a paper that involved me having a relationship with an object, my truck. After writing
the relationship paper I came to realize that I am a skilled tradesman and I like to work with my
hands. Subsequently, I found my hidden dynamic that is working with my hands and from there I

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took my hidden dynamic and explored it deeper. I explored the concept of the hidden dynamic
through a quote from Francis of Assisi that I stated in my intro. The quote explained a broad
concepts of a laborer, a craftsman, and an artist. From there, I researched what each meant and
what each of them do and their view of the tasks they are given. Following the concepts, there
will be an analysis of the articles, Brain Scientists Offer Medical Educators Tips on
Neurobiology of Learning, written by Michael J. Friedlander and Cross-Disciplinary Faculty
Perspectives on Experiential Learning, wrote Alvin Rosenstein, Catherine Sweeney, and Rakesh
Gupta. These essays will explore the causes or reasons why people like to work with their hands.
In conclusion, manual labor is not the only way to use the hands but there are ways to better a
person through the hands. Meanwhile, I found my hidden dynamic through my first paper in
particular, my relationship essay.
To almost every person on the face of the earth that owns a vehicle, to them the vehicle is
a means of transportation. But my truck to me is a means of transportation but also means
something different to me. Like everyone else in the world, I unlock my door and open it, turn
my truck on and drive to where I need to go. My truck is not mundane vehicle that gets me from
point A to point B, it is a reflection of my personality.
My relationship with my truck is way more different than the normal person has with
their vehicle. Almost every vehicle on the road is a stock vehicle, which means the car is how it
came from the factory. Mine on the other hand, is different then everyone elses in the world. It
is different because I add my personal touch and personality into the truck. I add my personal
touch to my truck by building the truck or putting my money into it on aftermarket parts such as
a lift kit, new rims and tires, after market headlights, and more. My truck is a pewter 2007 Chevy
Silverado 1500. I put a 5 inch lift kit with a set of 20x10in Fuel dune rims with a -24mm offset

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and are wrapped in 385/55r20 Nitto Trail Grapplers. Also, my truck has 30 percent tint all the
way around and HD towing mirrors.
All of the upgraded aftermarket parts I put on my truck is my personality because no one
else in the world is the same as me so my what I like and do to my truck isnt the same as
everyone elses. Me adding a certain amount of lift to my truck is showing my personality off
because there are all different inches of lift that is available to be put on a truck and I chose the 5
inch for specific reasons on the stance it gives and the lift doesnt kill my gas mileage. That also,
shows my personality because many guys want a big lift kit and dont care about the gas mileage
but I care about gas mileage and found the right amount of lift that makes me happy and I dont
get horrible gas mileage. The rims and tires I put on my truck flash my personality also because
they are what I like. Not everyone has the same personality and like the same way certain parts
look on trucks, so every truck will be different than any other truck and the truck will show the
owners personality by the different parts the owner puts on the truck.
My truck identifies me as a dedicated hard working and determined guy. The aftermarket
parts for trucks are not cheap. I dont have the money just lying around or the money given to
me. I have to get up every day and go to work to make money to be able to buy these parts. A
nice lift kit is easily 1,000 dollars and earning that kind of cash takes a while but it takes a while
and my dedication to have a nice truck keeps me working. I have been taught in life that you
have to work for what you want nothing is given to you. That is defiantly the case with me
because my parents dont give me the money to buy all these expensive aftermarket parts; they
make me work for it. For example, I wanted a nice truck so bad that a week after I turned 16 year
old, I went out looking for a job right away. I was successful and the second week after I turned
16 I got my first job at Menards as a carry out to earn the money so I can have that nice truck.

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Also, this whole summer I worked two jobs just so I could keep upgrading and adding to my
truck.
Many people ask me why I put so much money and time into my truck when all it is
going to do is get old and start to have mechanical problems and I will have to get another one. I
tell them that I would rather spend my time and money on something that I enjoy and learn fromwhich is working with my hands. Me installing those parts teaches me mechanic skills, hard
work, and patients because installing some aftermarket parts are difficult to install and take a
long period of time. I dont worry about the mechanical problems because I take really good care
of my truck so it will last. I always do my retinue oil change and I always make sure all my
fluids are topped off. Also if something goes wrong I fix the problem right away so the problem
doesnt lead to another. The bad parts about having a truck I spend money on is I never have any
money.
Truck parts are so expensive and it kills to spend money. I am always broke because all
my money I earn goes into my truck accessories right away because I want the accessories so
bad. Then I regret buying the accessories because I barely have any money for gas and to go out
with my friends. When I get the accessories and my next paycheck, I feel like it was the best
decision I have made in a while and thats before I even get them on my truck. When I get the
accessories installed on my truck and see how good it looks it makes me feel even better about
my decision. Even though I dont have a lot of money because of my truck I am happy with what
my money goes into. People know who I am when I am coming down the road because my truck
isnt like any other truck. I love it when I see people looking at my truck when I am driving
down the road or when people approach me and say how cool my truck looks. My truck is a
symbol of who I am, where I come from, my personality, and what I like to do: work with my

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hands. On the other hand, there is a difference between people and how they use their hands:
laborers, craftsman, and artists.
Francis of Assisi once quoted, He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works
with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his
heart is an artist. But what does all this means and what one explains who I am?
What does it mean to be a laborer? A laborer is someone who is doing unskilled manual
work for wages (Merriam-Webster). A laborer is doing a job just to do it. They are not connected
or compassionate to what they are doing. A laborer has no drive to do something they just do it
because they are told to and to earn money. A laborers job is a union worker. A union worker
will do hands on labor but it will not be easy or clean work. For example, working for General
Motors is a union job. In GM, union workers work on an assembly line. The workers do the
same thing all day every day. Most of the union workers are miserable and hate their job. In that
case, that means they arent connected to or compassionate in what they do.
What does it mean to be a Craftsman? A craftsman is a person who crates or performs
with skill or dexterity especially in manual labor (Merriam-Webster). A craftsman doesnt just
do something because they are told to, but a craftsman takes pride in what they do. Work for a
craftsman isnt work but it is a skill that is needed to be practiced and mastered, unlike a laborer
whose work is hard manual work. The skill has to be practiced because it isnt something
anyone can jump right into and be good at it. That is why it is a skill. An example of a craftsman
is a welder. Welding is hard and is a skill. In the article, What is A Welder by Mary
McMahon, which can be found on wisegeek.com, Marry says, Welding is a craft in which two
pieces or metal are bonded together. Welding isnt easy to pick up but takes many years of

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practice to become good at it. Welders arent laborers because laborers dont have any
compassion in what they do but to practice a skill to master takes patients and compassion.
Mastering a skill takes patients because a skill is hard to master. The skill wont come
right away thats why it is a skill but it will come over time with practice. When you first start
practicing a skill you are probably bad at it and it will get frustrating when you cant pick up how
to do it quick. This is where the compassion comes into play. The compassion is the reason why
you want to keep practicing even though the skill is hard to learn because you feel like the skill
even though frustrates you, you keep wanting to learn it.
What does it mean to be an artist then? An artist is someone who is skilled,
compassionate, and creates art (Merriam-Webster). An artist puts their heart and soul into what
they do or create. Other people may not see what an artist made as art but to the artist what they
created is art. Art explains more than what the eye can see. There is a deeper hidden meaning to
it. To an artist, they will never work a day in their lives because an artist puts their heart and soul
into everything and they enjoy doing it. An artist is different from a craftsman because a
craftsman masters a skill while an artist creates art and puts their heart and soul into what they
create.
I feel like I am an artist when I work with my hands. When I work with my hands, I am
working on my truck. With my truck, every upgrade I put on it means something more than how
better it makes the truck look. Every aftermarket part I put on shows my personality. It shows off
my personality because no one has the same personality or taste in what they like, so no ones
truck will ever be the same. Some people will think something on my truck is ugly because they
dont like what I did with a certain aftermarket part and others will like what I did with that
aftermarket part. I dont care what other people think because it is my truck and I get to build it

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the way I want it to be built. Also, I take a long time planning and deciding what aftermarket
parts I should buy to put on my truck. I want to make sure that I am for sure that I like the way a
certain part will look on my truck. Thats why I think Im an artist when it comes to my truck
because it shows of my personality and isnt the same as anyone elses. Also I am compassionate
about my truck, because I take a long time and make mind racking decisions on what kind and
style of aftermarket parts I want to put on my truck so I know my truck is exactly how I want it.
My heart and soul goes into the building of my truck thats why it is my master piece.
Many people may not have known there was a difference between a laborer, a craftsman,
and an artist. A laborer does unskilled work for money. A craftsman masters a skill and enjoys
what they do. An artist puts their heart and soul into what they do and dont care what other
people think about their master piece. For me my master piece was my truck. I put my heart and
soul into building it and I dont care what other people say about it because it was built how I
like it. There are different ways people work with their hands, laborer, craftsman, and an artist.
Each is distinctly different from each other. The relationship with my truck shows my
personality and no one has the same personality and my truck means more to me then a means of
transportation. Now that you know how people us their hands differently, lets explore why
people use their hands for learning.
In the newspaper article, Brain Scientists Offer Medical Educators Tips on
Neurobiology of Learning, Michael J. Friedlander conducted a research and found that
repetition, reward, and visualization, is the best technique of learning. This is because the way
the technique is used the brain will remember the material better. The article says the brain learns
best by going over a topic over and over and over again. Then, if the brain gets a reward, the
brain will remember the material because of the reward feeling. In their article, Cross-

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Disciplinary Faculty Perspectives on Experiential Learning, Alvin Rosenstein, Catherine
Sweeney, and Rakesh Gupta ran an experiment on college students and staff and showed that
experimental learning through statistics is very beneficial to the learning experience. The faculty
said it was the best way for them to learn, followed by the students who said it was most
beneficial in their junior and senior years. These articles, then, seem to overlap each other:
Michael J. Friedlander, states active engagement and active involvement in the topic you are
learning is the best way of learning and Alvin Rosenstein, Catherine Sweeney, and Rakesh
Guptas explanation of experiential learning showed that experiential learning is hands on
learning.
As Friedlander explains, the best way to learn is by repetition and reward. This to me is
different from how I understand learning but sounds to me like the steps of memorization.
Learning for me is getting involved hands on with what Im learning. I cant just be showed what
to do. If I dont actually do it for myself and make mistakes then fix the mistakes, I wont be able
to learn it and remember it. It sounds like memorization because when you want to memorize
something, you go over it over and over and over again until you can finally remember it. For
example in my article, Something About a Truck, I talked about how I work with my hands on
my trucks. When I work on my truck I learn something new about myself every time. Like when
I add another part on my truck it teaches me more about my personality and my taste. By
repetition it seems like there isnt any true engagement in the subject trying to be learned but just
going over it. Later down the road, you will try to remember the subject you kept going over but
didnt actually engage in it so your brain most likely wont be able to remember the subject. For
many people the best way for them maybe being able to see what they are learning or maybe its
something else. Even though both articles talk about experiential learning or engagement/hands

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on learning, it still raises the question: Why do some people learn material better through
different learning methods? What about the other twenty-two percent of the students that didnt
find experiential learning to be beneficial?
The general argument made by Michael J. Friedlander in Brain Scientists Offer Medical

Educators Tips on Neurobiology of Learning, is that the way the brain learns best is through
engaging in the learning style of repetition and reward. Specifically, he argues when the brain
goes over material that is going to be learned then the brain will learn by going over the material
over and over. Then, once the material is learned the person feels happy and good about
themselves so the brain will remember that feeling and that is the reward. He writes, With
repetition, many components of the neural processes become more efficient, requiring less
energy and leaving higher-order pathways available for additional cognitive processing. An
important factor is the realization that accomplishing an immediate goal and a successful step
toward a future goal can be equally rewarding. Friedlander is suggesting that repetition with
will make the brain work at a higher proficiency and cause for a deeper level of thinking of the
material and the reward will make the learner realize how much they have learned and make then
set harder goals for the future. In conclusion, Friedlanders belief is that repetition and reward
are the best learning style because the material is gone over so much it is easier to understand
and when the material is understood the reward causes a good feeling of success in the brain.
In my view, Friedlander is wrong, because repetition and reward is more on the means of
memorization not learning. More specifically, I feel if you go over and over and over material
yes you can learn it but you are doing more of memorization because you will remember the
material for a little while but if you want to recall to the material a while later you would not
remember it as well as if you learned the material actually engaging with it hands on. For

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example, when I study for a test, I go over the material over and over and over until I know what
it is I am going over but when the final exam comes, I have to go back and refresh or relearn the
material. But if I was learning through hands on and engaging in the material I am able to
remember the material because I actually worked through the material and took more
information away from it because I was engaging in the material deeper then repetition.
Although, Friedlander might object that this is not true, I maintain that it has more to do with the
way each individual learns the best. Therefore, I conclude that everyone learns best a different
way than everyone else because everyone is different.

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Works Cited
"Artist." Merriam-Webster.
Merriam-Webster. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/artist
Assisi, of ,Francis. GoodReads.
Web.2014. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/75455-he-who-works-with-his-hands-is-alaborer-he.
"Craftsman." Merriam-Webster.
Merriam-Webster. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/craftsman.
Friedlander, Micheal."BRAIN SCIENTISTS OFFER MEDICAL EDUCATORS TIPS ON
NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING." US Fed News Service, Including US State News Mar
31 2011. ProQuest. Web.
1 Oct. 2014.
"Laborer." Merriam-Webster.
Merriam-Webster. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/laborer.
McMahon, Mary, and Bronwyn Harris. WiseGeek.
Conjecture, 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-awelder.htm.
Rosenstein, Alvin, Catherine Sweeney, and Rakesh Gupta. "Cross-Disciplinary Faculty
Perspectives on Experiential Learning." Contemporary Issues in Education Research (Online)
5.3 (2012): 139,n/a. ProQuest. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.

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