So I think you both are right. We can encourage access while we advocate the value of expertise.
This is a passage from one of my favorite books; The Wheelwright’s Shop. I think it may illustrate what Weldon’s feeling, how a lot of us feel about our craft, about any craft for that matter, and the time in grade that it takes to become proficient. It also reminds me of the old adage, “It is a poor workman that blames his tools.” It’s not the tools … it’s who is using them.
First published in 1923, it’s the true story of an untrained man who took over his father’s wheel making business in 1884 and the “education” it took to become a Master Wheelwright. Overall it’s a great read on “profession”, “making”, and human understanding. I actually think it should be part of formal design education.
The Wheelwright’s Shop
George Sturt
Pg. 69, Chapter XIV, Waggon-LockingA pleasant story lingered in the shop, and was now and then told again, about an estate carpenter employed by Bishop Sumner at > Farnham Castle> . This man had built a new wagon in a workshop there, only to find that it was too wide to be got out of the door. And when the wagon, having been taken to pieces in the shop, was put together again in the yard, there proved to be too little room in the yard for turning it around, and it had to be got into Farnham Park for more room.
This story, I will admit, had probably been invented by a wheelwright to pour contempt upon the craft of carpenters. Certainly an idea prevailed – not wholly without justification perhaps – that while any man able to make a wheel knew enough to be a carpenter, on the other hand, a carpenter could not do wheelwright’s work, for lack of apprenticeship. In this connection a strong prejudice was felt against any causal who claimed to be a wheelwright and carpenter both. Such a pretension was almost enough in itself to prevent the wretched tramp from getting a job in my shop – would he not prove to be a Jack of all trades and Master of none? Unshapely cart-work by carpenters sometimes forced its way under my notice, and served as a warning against the employment of such men.
To return to the story of the wagon at Farnham Castle – it illustrates a difficulty that an inexperienced man would hardly fail to meet with. To build a farm wagon that would turn round in reasonable space – something less than Farnham Park – was a problem that needed attention even in the marking out the main timbers for sawing. The trouble was that the front wheel would not ”lock” (that is turn) full circle under the wagon. For reasons no to be discussed just here the said wheels were too high, so that about half-way round the upper edges of them clashed into the body and were stopped…
How to prepare for this no carpenter could be expected to know; only by faithfully following a certain tradition could the wheelwright partially meet the difficulty.