Ecological Education

As the nature around us unfolds to reveal levels of complexity, we are coming to see that we inhabit a densely connected universe of patterns that are intricately connected to the natures within us, and that culture is the form that these patterns take.  We believe that the purpose of education is to create an analogical connection between self and world that expands in ever-widening ripples of meaning, participation, and engagement.

As teachers and students, we become field scientists of sorts—environmental detectives, integrating Earth-specific knowledge and perspectives into our social, emotional, and sensual lives.  The many forms that these ecological selves can take have broad implications for who we understand children to be, and for the schools we design.

Children possess a very sensuous relation to their worlds—they delight in the touch of a cat’s fur and reach out to pet passing dogs; bugs and plants attract their curious attentions; trees and hollows elicit their imaginations.  If we see children as inextricably connected to and animated by all living things and the earth itself, then the conception of children we adults have must expand and become more animated.

Secondly, we are convinced that integrating earth sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities can become a means of critical intervention in the lives of children who experience overwhelming stress and trauma.   If the necessary connection children have with their environments is threatened or endangered, children will undergo a crisis in their responses to the world that undermines their sense of security and safety.  This environmental crisis results in a kind of anesthetic—a shutting down of feeling and creativity, or alternatively, shielding them in anger and indifference.

Learning to think ecologically—to see patterns and design in the world—can restore in children the notion that the environments they inhabit are places of inspiration and purpose.  Similarly, environmental field work can reconfirm a sense of community and belonging, a tolerance for diversity, and renewed personal dignity.

In practice, this requires experiencing the world cognitively as well as sensually and kinesthetically.  These ecological sensibilities can be developed through an integrated studies plan with specific attention to visual decoding.  Classrooms become the school garden and the neighborhood water system; there is an active pedagogy of place and bioregional relationships are intentionally explored.  Emotional bonds with nature and landscapes are sought and nourished.

Transforming Schools

Traditional schools have over time adopted fast practices that result in quantities of unassimilated facts, fail to connect those facts into meaningful patterns or pictures, and consequently confuse the trivial with the important.  Reconnecting these fragmented parts of our educations will take time and require patience.

Deliberately slowing down what happens in schools allows us to reclaim the important truth that authentic education is a slower process, and reminds us that moving more slowly is not necessarily a sign of inactivity or indifference.  Rather, slowing down allows us to listen and watch more mindfully, to practice and follow through more thoroughly, and to nourish our imaginations and our senses with greater care.

We recognize that it is essential to design speed bumps into daily rhythms by deliberately planning times and spaces for storytelling, walking and gardening, conversation and shared problem-solving, enjoying music, meals and moments of quiet privacy.  We recognize the importance of fast technologies and occasional needs for fast knowledge, but also approach acceleration as a question of appropriate scale and purpose.

Therefore, at The Blue Adobe Project we plan to:

• Arrange the built environment and the surrounding landscape to maximize opportunities for exploration, artful creativity, and thoughtful reflection;

• Provide opportunities for hands-on environmental activities, such as organic gardens, greenhouses, restoring fragile surface ecosystems, providing solar power, taking part in alternative building—straw bale, rammed earth;

• Integrate GIS mapping and computer-assisted programs with local narratives, histories, and archeological activities;

• Support practices of visual decoding through studies in design, photography, and architecture;

• Develop an environmentally green school site, and incorporate knowledge about ecological footprints.