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From WildWiki
"The "I - Thou" Relationship, Place-Based Education, and Aldo Leopold" - Excerpt
Place-Based Education Characteristics
“…Smith (2002, pp, 587-593) reviewed the literature on place-based education and identified five thematic patterns existing in current educational settings. First, he described cultural studies in which students use local cultural or historical phenomena as the guiding focus. Collecting community oral histories and written stories are only two examples of this approach, (These activities also have been labeled cultural journalism, experiential or outdoor education,) Second, he described nature investigations in which students observe wildlife, conduct water-quality tests, or restore riparian areas, (These activities also have been labeled nature study, conservation, outdoor, or environmental education,) Third, he described real-world problem-solving in which students and teachers identify community issues and problems, study them, and propose possible solutions. Sometimes they even follow up their research by implementing the needed changes, (Tbese activities also have been called conservation or environmental education.) Fourth, he described internships and entrepreneurial opportunities in which students explore local career opportunities and partner with businesses to expand their knowledge of economics and become more involved in community life. (These activities also have been labeled service-learning, experiential or outdoor education.) Fifth, he described a more complete immersion into community life in which students were drawn into several decision-making activities.
They assumed active roles as participants at town meetings, chambers of commerce, city councils, or environmental protection agencies. They might also conduct community surveys and make public announcements based on those findings, (These activities also have been labeled service learning, environmental, or experiential education.) In fact, all five patterns form a conceptual umbrella commonly called experiential learning, because they are situated in the context of community life and involve active student engagement.
Smith recognized that although place-based education took different forms, some common elements could be identified (2002, p. 593). These common elements include: (a) surrounding phenomena are the foundation for curriculum development, (b) an emphasis on students becoming the creators of knowledge rather than only consumers of knowledge created by others, (c) students' questions and concerns play central roles in determining what is studied, (d) teachers act primarily as co-learners and "brokers" of community resources and learning possibilities, (e) the walls between the community and school buildings are crossed frequently, and (f) student work is assessed based on its contributions to community wellbeing and sustainability.
In addition, Woodhouse and Knapp (2002, pp. 1- 2) identified the following characteristics: (a) the curriculum content is multidisciplinary; (b) the curriculum goals are broader than just "learn to earn;" and (c) the curriculum integrates self, others, and place and includes ecological, economic, multigenerational, and multicultural dimensions. It is clear from this combined list that place-based education involves both curricular content and instructional methodologies.
Leopold and Place-Based Education A sense of place is developed through making meaningful personal connections to the land. In order to discover how Aldo Leopold related to nature, one piece of his writings was selected. Leopold exemplified a person who conveyed deep understandings of the places he explored. As his writings were analyzed, 10 themes or "ways of knowing nature" emerged, which are described later in the article. Although Leopold used the terms conservation education and ecological education, he employed many key characteristics of place-based education.
His family was intimately connected to the land along the Wisconsin River near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Illustrating how he valued the educational potential of direct contact with nature, he wrote: "Every farm woodland, in addition to yielding lumber, fuel, and posts, should provide its owner a liberal education" (Leopold, 1949, p. 73). He knew that a broad and interdisciplinary education could he obtained by reading the local landscape.
Leopold acquired the necessary knowledge to enable him to read the "book of nature and culture" written on the landscape. If students and educators could develop more of this kind of literacy, he believed they would come to know, respect, and love their places. Experiential educators can use Leopold's ideas as a checklist in planning and conducting place-based programs. The following list of "ten ways of knowing nature," along with the associated text references from A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There, illustrate Leopold's approach to a "pedagogy" of place (Leopold, 1949):
1. Wondering and Questioning "I wonder what he [the skunk] has on his mind; what got him out of bed? I turn homeward, still wondering" (p. 5). "There is time not only to see who has done what, but to speculate why" (p, 4). "If I could understand the thunderous [goose] debates that precede and follow these daily excursions to corn, I might soon learn the reason for the prairie-bias. But I cannot, and I am well content that it should remain a mystery. What a dull world if we knew all about geese" (p. 20). Questioning what is observed outdoors, and wondering about how that which is observed relates to the surrounding elements, can expand awareness.
2. Knowing Local History "Thus, he who owns a veteran bur oak owns more than a tree. He owns a historical library, and a reserved seat in the theater of evolution" (p, 30). "It may have heen the wash and wear of the emigrant traffic that bared this roadbank, and thus enabled this particular acorn to spread its first leaves to the sun" (p. 7). "We cut [wood formed in] 1906, when the first state forester took office, and fires burned 17,000 acres in these sand counties" (p. 11). The evidence of past and current human uses of the land can be examined and clues to local history can be uncovered.
3. Observing Seasonal Changes "During every week from April to September there are, on the average, ten wild plants coming into first bloom" (p. 44). "One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring" (p. 18). "He who searches for spring with his knees in the mud finds it in abundance" (p. 26). By being conscious of the seasons and the accompany changes that they bring, observers can discover what is happening at the moment.
4. Listening Intently "On April nights when it has become warm enough to sit outdoors, we love to listen to the proceedings of the convention in the marsh" (p. 22). "To arrive too early in the marsh is an adventure in pure listening; the ear roams at will among the noises of the night, without let or hindrance from hand or eye" (p. 61). "No naturalist has even seen the choral act, for the covey [of quail] is still on its invisible roost in he grass, and any attempt to approach automatically induces silence" (p. 53). By stopping periodically along the trail, one can make more connections to the elements of the ecosystem.
5. Counting and Measuring "It was found by mathematical analysis that flocks [of geese] of six or multiples of six were far more frequent than chance alone would dictate" (p. 22). "Jackpines tell tall tales to the unwary, for they put on several whorls of branches each year, instead of only one" (p. 57). "The stump, which I measvured upon felling the tree, has a diameter of 30 inches. It shows 80 growing rings, hence the seedling from which it originated must have laid its first ring of wood in 1865, at the end of the Civil War" (p. 6). Simple counting and measuring exercises can result in fascinating revelations in the surroundings.
6. Empathizing with and Personifying Nature "It is warm behind the driftwood now, for the wind has gone with the geese. So would I—if I were the wind" (p. 67). "It is at this moment of each year that I wish I were a muskrat, eye-deep in the marsh" (p. 19). "What would a self-respecting trout do in such weather? Just what we did: go up [stream]" (p. 37). One way of relating to living and nonliving elements of the environment is to creatively envision them as "persons" worthy of empathy.
7. Connecting Elements in Cycles "Those ashes, come spring, I will return to the orchard at the foot of the sand hill. They will come back to me again, perhaps as red apples, or perhaps as a spirit of enterprise in some fat October squirrel, who, for reasons unknown to himself, is bent on planting acorns" (pp. 17-18). "These oak windfalls are, of course, diseased trees. Without disease, few oaks would break off, and hence few grouse would have down tops to hide in" (p. 74). "Had there been no fires, these fine prairies, so marked a feature of the country, would have been covered by the heaviest forest" (p. 29). When nature and culture are viewed as interconnected circles or cycles, and their makeup and structure are carefully considered, new discoveries often result.
8. Finding Beauty "But when I see the silt ribbon turning green with Eleocharis, I watch closely thereafter, for this is the sign that the river is in a painting mood" (p. 51). "Such an October gentian, dusted with tamarack gold, is worth a full stop and a long look, even when the dog signals grouse ahead" (p. 57). "Whoever invented the word 'grace' must have seen the wing-folding of the plover" (pp. 34-35). In order for beauty to be "in the eye of the beholder," time must be set aside to look for and find it.
9. Seeking Solitude for Reflection "There are degrees and kinds of solitude. An island in a lake has one kind; but lakes have boats, and there is always the chance that one might land to pay you a visit" (p. 25). "Here, come October, I sit in the solitude of my tamaracks and hear the hunters' cars roaring up the highway, hell-bent for the crowded counties to the north" (p. 56). "I sit in happy meditation on my rock, pondering, while my line dries again, upon the ways of trout and men" (p. 39). Time alone, away from others in the group, can provide reflection opportunities to absorb the meanings of the place and consider humanity's role in the process of life.
10. Improving Land Health "To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel" (p. 81). "Without this clear view of treetops, one cannot be sure which tree, if any, needs felling for the good of fhe land" (p. 68). "I next planted Silphium seeds, which are large, meaty, and taste like sunflower seeds" (p. 49). Action projects can be physically, intellectually, and emotionally satisfying and help the land and local community. By learning from Leopold, experiential educators can lead others closer to a holistic sense of place. These 10 ways of relating to the land could be integrated into the total outdoor adventure experience at appropriate moments. Each technique used by Leopold suggests a multitude of activities for adventure educators to incorporate into the program. For example, the group could create "powerful" questions about natural and cultural items to help others expand their awareness, make inferences about historical events from the evidence left by humans and other animals, identify signs of the season through writing and reading poetry, cup their ears to listen to the sounds, count geese flying overhead to see if Leopold's theory that they grouped in multiples of six is still valid, personify animals observed and role play what they might be "thinking," locate objects and arrange them in sequence according to how they relate to each other as part of the cycles of life, find beauty in nature by collecting pigments transferred to sandpaper, take time for journal writing at various locations, or do a project to improve the land along the trail.
Using the technique of analyzing nature writings, leaders and participants could find wisdom and guidance in the words of other great naturalists such as John Muir, John Burroughs, Henry D. Thoreau, Gilbert White, Edwin Way Teale, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, Sally Carrighar, Virginia Eifert, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Reading excerpts from journals and other writings, while being in those settings, provide powerful lessons in place-based education.
Summary Many believe that Aldo Leopold was a visionary. If he were alive, he would be speaking, writing, and teaching about place-based education. He believed in the power of learning about the land fhrough concrete experiences by applying interdisciplinary content. He had the prerequisite, ecological knowledge for examining the various human and other-than human interactions in local communities. He exemplified Buber's (1958) "I - Thou" relationship with the land. He was sensitive toward nature and understood the aesthetic and the ethical implications of human activities. He capitalized on his students' interests and used Socratic questioning to satisfy their curiosities. He was critical of how society defined progress in terms of roads built, forests cut, and drainage ditches dug. He challenged how the schools and other governmental agencies made feeble attempts to educate people about conservation and sustainable practices. Writing in 1948, Leopold saw what few people see today: "Perhaps such a shift of values can be achieved by reappraising things unnatural, tame, and confined in terms of things natural, wild, and free" (p. ix). Will place-based education lead the way to this goal that Leopold could never fully realize? Maybe experiential educators will take up Leopold's challenge to incorporate a sense of "love, respect, and admiration for the land" to add to their repertoire of hard and soft skills, and their knowledge of outdoor adventure activities.”
By Clifford Knapp, Journal of Experiential Education • 2005, Volume 27, No. 3 pp. 277-285
