How can we help our children explore and integrate the ethics and thinking tools of permaculture into the learning landscape? Think edges.
Who else has children who are currently interested in Halloween? In the PERMIE KIDs Podcast today I model how we might in a sense catch and capture our children’s energy that springs from this spontaneous interest might become a tool for learning in a way that can extend beyond where we traditionally take Halloween learning with young children. Go beyond learning focused on activities and deepen learning by thinking about whole systems experiential education.
To do this I’m going to share some thoughts about how to bring together the parts of the Learning Landscapes Zones of Brilliance model using the spontaneous interest of Halloween and scarecrows. Not your typically permaculture or classroom Halloween lesson, but this way of thinking pulls the edges into our children’s edge-ucation.
Learning Zonesv2The Learning Landscapes Zones of Brilliance has for me become an Educational Design tool that was inspired by the work of Javan Bernakevitch from permaculturebc.com. He created the Zones of Brilliance which helps people design their life. Learning about this tool caused me to start thinking about how this model might be adjusted slightly to help young learners, their families, and educational mentors.
I found that when it comes to experiential education by design that helps children move from the “me” to the “we,” it is important to create space in the learning landscape just as we would in the physical world that allows for creativity, exploration, and reflection… all of which can be gloriously messy.
Learning is play and play is learning, but to really embrace this way of designing the learning landscape we (and our children) need to allow for the messiness that can come with the complexity of playful learning. This means that we want to help our children create spaces in our children’s learning landscape that will cultivate questions that may not (ever) be answered, as well as experiment and experience failure in addition to success. The Learning Landscapes Zones of Brilliance are intended to be a framework that enriches not only academic learning, but also expands our children’s understanding of their authentic self.
Scarecrow by Tim Green (CC-BY 2.0)
Scarecrow by Tim Green (CC-BY 2.0)
In the PERMIE KIDs Podcast today, I talk about not only the Learning Landscapes Zones of Brilliance but also provide a tangible example of how a spontaneous interest in scarecrows and Halloween might integrate into multiple academic subject areas and feed into a deepening understanding of the ethics and thinking tools of permaculture.
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In this show we cover:
Spontaneous passions: Integrating the scarecrow into the learning landscape
Cultural history of the scarecrow
Learning Landscapes Zones of Brilliance
Expanding children’s understanding of not what to think, but how to think using the framework of permaculture
References and Additional Resources
Scarecrows: An Autumn Icon Rich in History
Wikipedia: Scarecrows
History of Scarecrows
Educational Design
Thank you dun_deagh for the featured image titled Scarecrows on Iona (CC-BY-SA 2.0)