The Perfect Education Model for Our Times - Forest Schools

Charlotte's beautiful eagle, after storytelling in the woods

I seem to do at least one nifty thing every summer that I want to share with you here. I've told you about my nature daycamps and growing wheat with my students and my community's Fall Fair Young People's Agriculture division. Well, this year it's the Forest School Educator training program I attended last week. 

Forest School Canada's Maureen Power and Jon Cree from the UK's Forest School Association spent a week with us, pretty much all in the woods (on an urban university campus, so it doesn't have to be in the wilderness), including two rainy days in the middle of the week. 

The magic of the program came partly from the wonderful synergy of the 18 participants, partly from the lovely wooded site that was chosen for the training, partly because the instructors work (and play) and teach so well together, partly from the great food, and partly because I was so ready for this. 

Forest School is as close to our species' original education "model" as you can get. It's based on regular and repeated access to the same natural space, whether for half a day per week or every school day. Children and adults spend their time in "their" woods or other natural setting in every sort of weather, year round. 

The kids play (play is a child's learning work) and the role of their teachers is to supply "loose parts" like tools and art supplies, and to keep the children safe while observing their growth and development. 

All the things we were learning and developing

It's not the same as outdoor education or environmental education where there is a pre-determined learning goal. In Forest School, the "curriculum" is emergent, which is to say that the children choose what they want to do next and so that's what they'll learn next. The learning is experiential, inquiry-based, play-based and place-based. 

Making a mallet (woodcraft and safety)

It might be climbing a rock or a tree (they'll learn courage and strategy, gross motor skills and pride of accomplishment) or sitting quietly in their magic spot with a journal (where they'll develop self-regulation skills, the gift of contemplation, and perhaps their writing skills and artistic side). 

Our week of training was a rich, warm, powerful, loving and learningful experience.

Here's what I know, for sure, in the depth of my heart. If our training course was a taste of what we can create in our own educational settings, then it's what I want for my students ... and for all the
human children in the world!

(For a history of this movement, check out Forest and Nature School in Canada: A Head, Heart, Hands Approach to Outdoor Learning.)

Ecological Literacy versus Environmental Intelligence

I keep getting updates from the Alliance for Earth Observations, about their 14 June 2011 Forum on Earth Observations (TM). They're meeting, with lots of big names, in Washington, DC to discuss "Creating a National Strategy for Environmental Intelligence." I'll admit, I would have more faith in their conference if their links worked better, but I'll put that aside for the moment....

Here are the highlights of the day's program:

• The Need for Improved Environmental Intelligence
• Environmental Intelligence Roundtable: Three Perspectives on U.S. Needs
• The Role of Observations in Food Security
• Linking Environmental and Business Intelligence
• U.S. Earth Observations, Contributing Beyond Our Borders
• Measuring to Manage
• Innovative Solutions for Environmental Intelligence

So, I'm reading along, and it finally twigs. Hold on, wait just a minute! They're not talking about environmental intelligence as a synonym for ecological literacy (as I thought they were). So I click on What is Environmental Intelligence? (a link that works), and this is what I find out.

"Simply put, environmental intelligence is the most accurate and timely information available about our planet that enables governments, communities, companies and individuals to make sound decisions – decisions that save lives; protect and grow the economy; strengthen national security; and improve quality of life. Environmental intelligence is a result of a critical supply chain that begins with science and observations – ground sensors, ocean buoys, stream gauges, satellites, etc. – and ends with actionable information that allows decision-makers to better respond and adapt to a changing planet."

Darn, I thought I'd finally found a group of big shots (after all, this event is sponsored by the likes of NASA and, oops, Lockheed Martin) who understood the importance of people learning about how the Earth works. Ah, no.

Let's play a game, these folks said many decades ago. Let's screw up the planet with our growth-at-all-costs economic system and our imperialistic military view of the world. Then, once the world is screwed up, let's pretend we're interested in solutions by sugarcoating our growth-at-all-costs economics and our imperialistic militarism and we'll call it, let's see ... hey, how about environmental intelligence?

So, instead of environmental intelligence meaning information + knowledge + understanding + wisdom (with some important skills and attitudes thrown in), it has been turned into a military term meaning we're gonna use the scientists to collect data and then we're gonna use the data to stay alive as long as we can in our country while we keep making more and more money off the rest of the world.

I'd like to suggest to the organizers (in case their intelligence leads them to this lowly blog post), that they infuse their notion of environmental intelligence with a little compassion for the most climate change vulnerable in the world, especially the children, of all species. Give me heart over brain any day ... look where intelligence — of both sorts — has gotten us.