“The soul having been often born, or, as the Hindus say, ‘travelling the path of existence through thousands of births’…there is nothing of which she has not gained the knowledge; no wonder that she is able to recollect…what formerly she knew…For learning and inquiry is reminiscence all.”
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Through my years as an educator and teacher the natural world has been my greatest guide. The following principles of learning have grown intrinsically out of many years of wandering the mountains, forests, streams, towns and cities of this glorious earth. The countless growth rings of the tree that have grown inside me, with many branches spiraling out of the trunk of time, represent old and new pith alive within the bark of memory of so many plants, animals, stones, stars, guides and teachers that have inspired me in so many diverse ways. These learning and living principles are born out of observation, hard work, meaningful thought, loving human contact and relationship.
Dedicated educators are determined to grow universal leaders from the grassroots up. There is no single method to accomplish this awesome task. Therefore, we as teachers must constantly challenge assumptions and habitual programming to carry our students toward this ideal goal, and ultimately, to a place of compassion and love for all.
I remember when I first consciously entered the woods as a child. What seemed like a great forest was simply an empty block soon to be filled by split level homes, driveways and manicured lawns. We were crossing the street to bury our pet bird that had died that morning. The sycamore tree in front of the house was just large enough to support the weight of a child. As I held the small bird in my hands I realized sadly that I would never hear its lovely song again or marvel at its bright green and yellow plumage. Soon the earth would swallow that small body whole and turn it into soil. Weeks later the area would be excavated and our bird’s grave become nothing but driveway, macadam and tar.
But the memory of that small creature lives on. As I observe the downy woodpeckers, cardinals, chickadees, catbirds and robins from my front porch in Illinois, the miracle of flight and birdsong carries with it the memory of a childhood buoyed by lightness and the mellifluous tone of a small bird. In what now seems in the memory like an angelic apparition, something beyond a mere earthly existence, flight and song trickle in to the senses and leave us in awe, if we would only slow down and see what we are looking at, hear what we are listening to.
Through my many years as a teacher I have witnessed countless people of all ages marvel at the majestic flight of birds, their sometimes sweet, sometimes raucous songs and melodies, their diversity of brilliant color. How many memories might surface for us? Will we learn to take our observations to new heights of understanding and conceptualization? We have all been witness to, and been touched and retouched, by the animals and plants and stones at some exotic and magic moment in our lives. It is an education worthy of us all.
The educational methodologies depicted here make available to us an environment of learning that will ultimately lead to putting our highest ideals into practice: truth, beauty, goodness and unity in all that surround us and dwells in the deepest places of the human landscape. How can we make our precious revelatory moments of observation and realization true for ourselves and future generations? It will take conscious work and determination to make the necessary changes and to find the discipline and perseverance to follow through. Because we “never step in the same river twice”, we know that change in life is inevitable, that it is the status quo, that life and death are always present and in constant motion everywhere. Why hold onto old and weary, methods of learning, instruction and ways of “seeing” the world? Let us learn to penetrate into the nature and essence of this existence of flowing and metamorphosing form. Let us dig deeply enough to discern what it is or who it is that continues to create and take apart, ceaselessly, this mountain of existential mystery that appears afresh in every micro-millisecond of our lives, in all that lives and dies.