My philosophy student and I made a garden bench by salvaging a long pallet from the trash on campus.

We got a bench out of it, but he also learned how to use tools he hadn’t used before, and he got a lesson in tinkering, and in upcycling.

We throw away a lot of pallets, and lots of other things that could find second uses.

And too often in our quest for efficiency in education we discard opportunities.

I’m glad to have participated in this twenty minutes of salvaging both the wood and the learning.

Hand-drawn sketch of a bench made of pallet wood, with a diagram of a pallet and notes for building the benchA wooden bench made from pallets is situated in a garden area with plants and a building in the background.