Lee's primary goal in teaching is to instill the "joy of making" because fulfillment gained from creating with one's hands leads to curiosity and the desire to employ one's mind.

The act of making art results from and influences our thought processes rationally and subconsciously. As in Lee's education, concepts from art making were extended to the sciences, math, English, and other subjects in school as well as to the evaluation of values and principles encountered in his life. More importantly, the act of making art allows the human mind to be freed from it's reliance on logical thinking and lets the imagination shine through. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand," said Albert Einstein, a genius with both analytical and imaginative faculties. The act of making allows for another way to comprehend abstract ideas in addition to that gained through text book exercises alone. Learning from exploration with one's senses is a method that should not be dismissed lightly.