Mother Earth's Curriculum

The lovely and talented Yellow House wrote a post that made me fretful and itchy - especially the idea that some people view the natural world as "recreational."

I began trying to articulate the reasons why the foundation of my unschooling approach has been to let my small creatures (left) run wild outside as much as possible . . . although it's never as much as I would like.

I couldn't agree more with Nicolas Boileau, quoted by Yellow House as saying "Let Nature be your only study."

Or with one of my lifelong inspirations, Thoreau, who wrote "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."

Hang on, that's not the right one, although I wholeheartedly agree . . . uh . . .

"In the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean. No amount of gold or respectability would in the least redeem it, not dining with the Governor or a member of Congress. But alone in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer. I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful."

Fortunate enough to spend almost a decade of my childhood rambling with my dog through rural Ontario, I know the experience laid the very foundation of who I am. The natural world has been my constant companion and friend, and like Thoreau, I have never known loneliness, where I've had open spaces to wander in.

On the other hand, I have experienced profound loneliness in big cities, along with a sort of primal desperation to escape the myriad shallow amusements and distractions that bombard the senses and consume the lives of the inmates, er . . . populace.

I tried to list the things revealed or learned from years in the woods and fields, and on the farm, but got tangled, so I've settled for a few broad categories, with some examples in each:

1. Philosophy

Life & death, cycles, seasons, youth and age, impermanence, suffering, awe, joy in the face of the awareness of impermanence (we love the real rose more than the artificial rose because it dies, etc.) understanding of dependence, inter-connectedness, concepts of time, of ancestors

2. Character Development

Honest respect, humility, self-worth, self-reliance, inner strength, independence, competence, critical thought and analysis, decision making, sense of belonging, sense of personal responsibility, cause and effect, consequences, compassion, patience, risk-assessment, sense of perspective, the joys of solitude

3. Art

Appreciation of beauty, of sometimes savage truths, of geometry, of landscape, of colour, of changeability, light and shadow, symmetry, sense of wonder

4. Physical Health

Stamina, competence, sense of personal achievement, the experience of the body as a vital and valuable tool, an understanding of how little material wealth each person really requires to live...

"...in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? " Sterling Hayden

5. Appreciation of History

In addition to becoming fascinated with natural history, I found myself frequently thinking about how people used to live - I taught myself what wild-growing foods the local Iroquois natives used to gather, and sought them out. I would eat the juicy roots of wild grasses, wild blueberries, wild mouth-puckeringly sour grapes and apples, and not bother going home for meals. I would daydream about the early European farmers, and how they chipped a living from the rocky ground and lived amongst the Natives. Later at home or school, I would seek out their stories in books.

6. Curiosity, lifelong love of learning

I suppose this could go under 'character development' but as this is one of the most important things I wish to nurture and protect in my kids, I thought I'd pull it out. You could spend your whole life studying one small plant or animal or rock and die never knowing everything there was to know about it. I have grown up incredulous that anyone could ever be bored, and unable to tolerate the company of people who frequently are. I consider this an asset.

7. Practical skills

Camping skills, species identification, identifying constellations, simple first aid, the skill of quiet observation, how to avoid getting shot by hunters, how to nurse birds back to life after your dog mauls them etc.

8. Psychological Health

Fundamental sense of belonging, of being part of the universe, as important, and as unimportant, as every other part. Sense of shared destiny with other life on Earth, of privilege at being alive and able to witness the beauties of the world, sense of comfort and companionship when wandering around in the natural world, deep feelings of satisfaction and contentment just from spending time observing natural phenomena.

I'm sure as soon as I post this, eight other things will occur to me, but those are the first things that jostled for expression.

HW