Bill Bailey is one of the UK’s best-loved comedians. With his hilarious blend of comedy and music, he has audiences in stitches on stage and television. Aside from comedy, he wowed us by taking home the Strictly Glitterball in 2020 and regularly writes for national publications.
Should we teach crafts in schools?
Bill has recently written for the Radio Times on his fear that craft skills will be lost if we don’t act soon to preserve people’s knowledge of making things by hand. As examples, he looks at Scottish kilts and traditional leather cricket balls. Both of these items have traditionally been made by hand by people with years of experience in perfecting their craft. Nowadays, with an increase in a ‘buy it and receive it straight away’ culture, people typically turn to the internet to simply buy what they need, rather than having a go at making something themselves.
Because of this, Bill is concerned that our ability to make items like these and many others will simply fade away, so he’s calling for schools to include craft lessons in their curriculum. By teaching children the importance of making things from a young age, he argues, they will carry this skill with them for life and these traditional crafts won’t be lost to history.
Craft kits are an easy way to get started making things by hand. Crochet blanket kits, for example, make it simple to create your own handmade blanket. visit The Wool Couture Company or another specialist supplier to see a range of options.
The Role of AI
AI may be new to our world, but it is certainly finding its feet quickly. Bill’s concern with AI is that, in time, it will take over certain jobs and make others obsolete. The joy of crafts, he says, is that they require not only the know-how, but the manual dexterity to actually create certain items, whether that be knitted, sewn, painted or baked, thereby future-proofing a huge industry of jobs against AI, not to mention the satisfaction of creating something from scratch.