We all thrive on good news!
Outdoor learning can be a "thing" - a beautiful thing that nurtures a generation of compassionate, connected and inspired kids to feel AWE and do AWESOME
Outdoor learning has so much to offer our whole earth. When kids grow to feel their deepest connection with nature and to feel wonder, awe and compassion for all life, they will grow up to be the kinds of human beings who honor Mother Gaia, playing, loving and thriving in harmony with her countless ecosystems instead of exploiting her and feeling separate from her body. We won’t mine for raw materials at the expense of her rivers or at the expense of our children. We will hug trees and help forests regrow by understanding how to plant islands of regeneration that can then link up to create greater wholeness. The same with our humanity. We will create islands of regeneration where we nurture seeds of wholeness, freedom, kindness, curiosity and ways of living that inspire our best selves - and hopefully are full of laughter and joy and time to peacefully appreciate life and one another. These islands will also link up to create greater wholeness. More humans gardening their inner and outer worlds starts in Kindergarten, or even earlier by mom taking walks in nature during pregnancy and bringing baby to places filled with trees, birds and wonder and by nursery schools and day cares spending more time outside on curiosity hunts and putting seeds in the earth and watching them grow!
Did you know that according to the Greater Good folks over at UC Berkeley researchers have found that Awe leads kids to be kinder and more generous? Spending time in nature is foundational for wellbeing. Nature itself rebels against concrete. I have counseled more than one person struggling with institutional inhumanity to be like the dandelions that break through the concrete without becoming hard.
I have a friend whose little girl, last year, at least, liked to run into the streets. We talked about how we dream someday we won’t have concrete roads…we’ll teleport or take a gondola or an antigrav bicycle…we certainly won’t be driving a Tesla OR a gas guzzler. One of the conversations I had with my son the other day was about so often there isn’t just choice A or B. There is choice C and DE and there might even be another letter. from another alphabet in addition to Z. A sense of wonder allows us to consider that we just don’t know….like pretty much everything. It’s a hunch or a belief, really. And that doesn’t make it without clarity or truth or purpose. We can live in alignment to our own highest truths, all of which hopefully ever lead us closer to Truth. Yet that Truth is often found in it’s most unadulturated form outside language, even if you are open to letters beyond the 26 letters in English, the 28 basic ones in Arabic (give or take for variations, such as Farsi the more complex combination of phonemes that make up Sanskrit, which, I just learned, has 13 basic vowels and 33 basic consonant, plus a lot of other nuances. The greatest connection to Truth, which also translates into greater compassion to our fellow beings, comes from awe, and from a sense of heart connection to all life. Sharon Danks writes about living school grounds:
"Living school grounds are richly layered outdoor environments that strengthen local ecological systems while providing place-based, hands-on learning resources for children and youth of all ages. They are child-centered places that foster empathy, exploration, adventure and a wide range of play and social opportunities, while enhancing health and well-being and engaging the community.
Well-designed living school grounds model the ecologically-rich cities we would like to inhabit, at a smaller scale, and teach the next generation how to live more lightly on the Earth—shaping places where urbanization and nature coexist and natural systems are prominent and visible, for all to enjoy. When implemented comprehensively and citywide, living school ground programs have the potential to become effective components of urban ecological infrastructure, helping their cities address many of the key environmental issues of our time."
– Sharon Danks, CEO, Green Schoolyards America
https://www.greenschoolyards.org/
From their website:
Green Schoolyards America
Green Schoolyards America seeks to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into park-like green spaces that improve children’s well-being, learning, and play while contributing to their communities' ecological health and climate resilience.
We are working to change the paradigm for school ground design, use, and management so all students will have access to the natural world in the places they already visit on a daily basis.
Here is an example of one school that is moving in the direction of it’s dreams in a significant way that works with building it as you raise the funds for each new piece:
“The green schoolyard project at Rosa Parks School began in 2006 with a participatory design process led by environmental planner Sharon Danks. The resulting concept plan expressed this public school community’s vision for the future of their school grounds.
“Designed to be implemented in manageable phases as funds are raised, the plan is being realized project by project, with work accomplished each year by the talented school community.”
Since the green schoolyard has a very modest PTA-funded budget, the labor is accomplished by volunteers from the school community who have a broad range of professional skills that they generously contribute. The school holds work parties each semester to build or plant new elements and to maintain the growing number of features already onsite. Parents and teachers also collaborate to write grant proposals to fund individual projects each year.”
Every situation can inspire our greatest creativity and light, our love and our capacity to innovate. Instead of waiting for then next mass disaster, what if we learn to love learning outside, so that no matter what happens to infrastructure, we can not only be prepared to serve our kids, but to help them shift to a more evolved way of being human, even through the atrocities we know are likely to take place in at least some places in the coming days until we humans fully wake up to both our oneness and our sovereign divine love in ways that both liberate and enhance compassion for all life?
Hostas, by the way, are edible. One way to support the food supply is the plant stuff that you can eat that also looks lovely. And they give off light. We are all light, mattering. Let your light matter by shining, through this earthen vessel!
How could your local community support more nature for children, and set itself up to be able to learn outdoors all year long?
More Resources:
https://certified.natureexplore.org/certified-nature-explore-classrooms/
Pictures are either from Green School Yards America, my laptop or duck duck go images search “Green Outdoor Schools”