Move 4
Teaching people to love the wilderness is much easier to do when they are young. Young people are the future in so many ways, but I believe young people's exploitability is one of their best attributes. If we can teach young kids to love nature at a stage in their life when they are at their peak of impressionability, then we can develop a more aware world. It could be as simple as setting up community nature hikes and clean ups that encourage youth support. Taking young people out into nature, and helping them cultivate a love for nature is important so we can transition into adulthood with that same love.
Teaching people how to learn is probably one of the best keys that a human can possess. Learning by doing as an incredibly powerful ethic, and idea that experiential education can change how we learn and changes our ability to effect the world. J. W Roberts also talks a lot about “eliminating framing.” J.W Roberts served as the Director of the Ridge Experiential Learning Center at the University of Virginia and is currently Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Education and Environmental Studies at Earlham College. He has a Ph.D. in Curriculum Theory and is a leading expert in this field of research. One of the biggest problems he talks about is “shallow learning”. The two major contributors to this is problem are teachers over estimating their students drive towards what their doing, or setting up activities with predetermined outcomes. Its wrong to demand full interests from students, and ignoring the fact that they have their own unique interests. The goal is to bring in each one of their unique interests and views on things to enrich the learning experience even more. Setting up framed assignments with already determined outcomes, especially for social science classes is not good.
Eliminating the framework and leaving things more open ended gives students a broader spectrum to investigate and to decide what he or she thinks. It gives the student the ability to pursue what he/she wants one whatever level they desire. Eliminating framing also encourages more problem solving to take place. Peer problem solving and discussion based classes that have little framework, are a lot better than strict regimented learning (sounds a lot like what i'm doing right now). The “Feminism, Philosophy, and Education: Imagining Public Spaces” highlights the effectiveness of eliminating orthodox thinking, and embracing experiential learning.
“ We need to rethink, to think differently: to use our imagination again... metaphorical thinking [is] a way of rethinking and questioning orthodox thinking. A metaphor is what it does. A metaphor, because of the way it brings together things that are unlike, reorients consciousness.”(pg85)
I think that what J.W Roberts was getting at with this quote is that we need to find ways to reorient the way that we teach and think so that we can understand things better. A metaphor highlights similarities and brings out new ways of thinking about things. If we are learning in a way that is metaphorical, students like myself will be able to understand things at a greater depth and recall them more easily.
Learning by Doing
Here's How We Fix it.
The Big Problem
