I have been building all my life: treehouses, sailboats, motorboats. My brothers and I even made a hang glider out of an old army surplus parachute and bamboo we got from a carpet shop. I was the only one who actually got airborne, being towed behind a car – we weren’t ready to jump off a cliff with it.

I’ve also always loved history – my mother was a history major at Oxford. So when it came time to pick a vocation, it was a tough choice between construction and teaching history. As it turns out, I now do both here at the Mount Academy.

I teach Global Studies and Construction Tech during the school day as well as timber framing in the after-school program. Timber framing is large timber construction using pegged mortise and tenon joinery. It’s an old method; nothing has really advanced since 1295 when it comes to joint strength. But it’s a very fluid method as well. For the students, I’ve been developing it on historical lines. If such a house can last for a thousand years, it must work. That’s why Notre-Dame is being rebuilt using medieval methods.

Using hand tools to make the components, we craft the mortises and tenons with saws, chisels, hammers, hand planes, and slicks. After the initial planning, we make the pieces in winter, and then assemble them in summer.

Students in the Mount Academy’s woodworking class assemble a traditionally crafted Adirondack lean-to. Photograph courtesy of the Mount Academy. 

When people use their hands to create something of value and longevity, the work is its own reward. You don’t need to praise these kids. They’re creating something that hopefully their grandchildren will be coming to look at.

For the students to learn a skill, they have to do enough of it. And it’s far more rewarding if they can learn the skill while making something real. Habitat for Humanity also combines those two aspects using conventional construction techniques. The teens learn skills, create something of value, and are proud when they meet the people whose house they’ve just built.

Prefabricating these houses on school property, the students then finish them off at the final site. For the last one we added a timber-framed entry. People want something that’s a little more individual, more aesthetically pleasing.

There’s never a dull moment when working with teens. Every generation has to rediscover their faith as well as their skills, which fleshes out in natural pushback, natural questioning. While the job site can be a lot of fun, the product still has to work.

Teaching history in a hands-on way gives teens a sense of its depth. But it’s great for other subjects too. If you teach physics and math in this way, everything becomes more interesting. A decimal point simply cannot be put in the wrong place; if your truss is a foot too short, it’s not going to work. You don’t get partial credit if a house falls down because you almost got it right. No, you only get credit if people can use and enjoy it, long after you’re gone.