ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces practical skills, the second field of Ruskin Mill Trust's method of Practical Skills Therapeutic Education, through a visit to Glasshouse College in Stourbridge, West Midlands, a revitalised glass factory where young people with learning differences and difficulties now learn the craft of glassmaking as a form of therapeutic education. The chapter argues that enjoyment of practical activity is far more common than generally recognised in society. Ruskin Mill uses practical skills as a method for developing physical, cognitive and emotional capacities (hands, head and heart), in particular the three-dimensional requirements of specific tasks. In producing socially meaningful items, the material itself becomes the teacher. A conversation with the Trust's founder Aonghus Gordon discusses how this curriculum emerged in response to the specific needs of particular groups of young people and the practical challenges of renovating a mill. The chapter also discusses the inspiration Ruskin Mill draws from John Ruskin's vision of human integration.
