Easy Woodworking for Preschoolers

How young is too young to begin woodworking? Some in DuBois, Pennsylvania, say beginning at three to five years old is. Easy woodworking activities for preschoolers  at an elementary school in DuBois has drawn the ire of parents and a teacher’s aide but school officials claim that the work is safe and part of the approved curriculum.

The activity in which the preschool kids were engaged involved working with a hammer and fourteen-inch handsaw. The handsaw was kept in a miter box, which is a plastic box that keeps the saw and wood in place.

The chief concern of the parents is that they were not told of the program or given permission slips to sign beforehand. One of the parents, Scot Moldenhauer, found out about the program and visited the school, which has an open door policy for parents. He brought a camera and was concerned when he found a nail lying accessible to the children. He says that he considers the children too young to be exposed to woodworking and that the tools are a hazard to them.

 The program also alarmed a teacher’s aide at the school named Mary Doloroso. She  voiced her concern that the parents had not been notified of the presence of the  woodworking tools beforehand to school officials. She was told not to notify the parents  and that if she did it would be insubordination. She was so upset by this that she resigned  her position.

 Cen-Clear Child Services, the administrator of the preschool program, pulled the tools  from the classroom when they learned of the parents’ concerns but defended the  program. Amy Weible, a child development specialist with Cen-Clear, cites that it follows a  nationally approved and recognized curriculum. She also says that the easy woodworking  activities for preschoolers were age-appropriate and that the children were always supervised. She defends not having permission slips by saying that the woodworking was not a special activity but part of the approved curriculum and that they plan to reintroduce the tools to the children in the 2009-10 school year, but with prior notification to the parents.

These woodworking tools that were being used by three to five year-old children alarmed parents and a teacher’s aide and were pulled from the classroom. Apparently some people believe that sharp tools and toddlers just don’t mix.

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