Genesis Center

We find that certain specific skills are universally beneficial at allowing a student to manipulate the physical world. Many “Maker Spaces” seem to overemphasize technologically advanced equipment, but we believe that “mundane” tools offer at least as much benefit to the student. For instance, a student’s ability to measure and mark accurately will always remain important, even if that student is cutting with a laser. We also find that the primary manner in which students gain competency is repetition. Consequently, we strive to balance our approach between unique projects and repetitive exercises in such a way that students leave our program having attained general competencies with both traditional and cutting edge equipment.

Since the Enlightenment, much of the Western World has been guilty of devaluing the industrial and mechanical arts. An individual who grows up to become a plumber is often thought to be somehow achieving less than one who grows up to become an English professor. At FRCS, we consider this to be untrue and ultimately harmful for society. Instead, we believe that the industrial and mechanical arts involves at least as much problem solving and critical thought as many other academic endeavors, and physical tasks sometimes demand a great deal more creativity to solve than the abstract — in fact, it often requires a merging of the abstract with the physical or tangible. Many times, there are multiple, varying solutions to deal with physical problems, and students must often work collaboratively to arrive at solutions, many of which require incorporating knowledge from multiple disciplines. Consequently, we strive to teach in such a way that allows students the time and space to attempt creative problem solving. Certainly this method is slow, riddled with failure, and often frustrating to students, but we believe that students who are given time, space, and encouragement through problem solving will ultimately become masterful controllers of the physical world.

It is a demanding task in and of itself for a student to attentively read another’s plans for a project (say a dining table), and then to successfully build it, but we strive for a loftier goal yet still. We aim to cultivate in students the ability to design. Design, perhaps, is the place where a student’s artistic thought meets their understanding of a functional need. We aim to teach students to design their own projects, built upon their own plans, born from their own ideas. The Genesis Center is intended to be a place where a student might take an idea from a concept to a prototype and ultimately to a finished project.

Although “shop class” has been steadily dying over the last several decades, some schools continue to hold shop class as a means of vocational preparation. We find this lacking.

Various faith traditions understand the nature of humanity in quite different terms. As Christians, we firmly believe that God has uniquely set humanity over all the rest of creation. He has appointed us as stewards over all else. He has given us the task to “rule” and to “subdue” (Genesis 1:28). He has placed in us the ability to give form to that which is formless and function to that which is purposeless and order to that which is chaos. Sadly, some individuals will go through their entire lives never learning that they possess these abilities. We call these people “consumers.” However, we believe that the more that students learn to manipulate the physical world around them, the more they become fully human as God intended. Such students will become creators of culture instead of mere consumers.

Perhaps this idea could best be captured with another question: why ought Hamlet be taught in school? Is it useful to study Hamlet only for those students who would go on to study Shakespearean literature or to teach in a literature department? Such a thought is lacking in so many ways. Hamlet ought to be studied because it makes the reader a better human being to read it. Similarly, we would resolutely refute the idea that the Genesis Center is designed as a means to vocationally equip those students who might pursue a trade. No, in quite a different line of thought, we believe that one should learn to weld and operate a laser and turn wood because it will make that person a better human being, closer to the Image of God.