Experiencing Education

I was reflecting on the readings in this learning module, trying to think of an analogy for environmental education that reflected how I try to teach my children and I remembered a the park bench scene in the movie Good Will Hunting:

Will: So what's this? A Taster's Choice moment between guys? This is really nice. You got a thing for swans? Is this like a fetish? It's something, like, maybe we need to devote some time to?

Sean: I thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me and I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep and haven't thought about you since. You know what occurred to me?

Will: No.

Sean: You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about.

Will: Why, thank you.

Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston.

Will: Nope.

Sean: So if I asked you about art you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written...Michelangelo?  You know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientation, the whole works, right? But I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seen that.....If I asked you about women you'd probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, and you'd probably--uh--throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath, looking to you for help. And if I asked you about love y'probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone could level you with her eyes. Feeling like! God put an angel on earth just for you...who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it’s like to be her angel and to have that love for her to be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. You wouldn't know about sleeping sittin’ up in a hospital room for two months holding her hand because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term visiting hours don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. I look at you; I don't see an intelligent, confident man; I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius, Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine and you ripped my XXXXXX' life apart. You're an orphan right? (Will nods) Do you think I'd know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally, I don't give a XXXX about all that, because you know what? I can't learn anything from you I can't read in some XXXXXX' book. Unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't wanna do that, do you, sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief. (Sean stands and walks away.)”

I apologize for the long post, but Robin William’s monologue in this film captures the true essence of environmental education and the goals we should all have for students.  It is one thing to look at art in books and an entirely different experience to enter a museum and be in the midst of masterpieces by artists like Monet. This is why we took our son to the Orsay Museum when we visited family in Paris when he was only five.  We can talk about modern art and how it is different from impressionism, or we can visit the The Centre Pompidou and sit under the crazy mushrooms.  The experience imparts a sense of appreciation and wonder even in young children.  With some simple preparation, we spent several hours playing I Spy looking for hidden objects listed on a home made treasure map.  Students don’t have to go to Europe for this experience and even young learners can enjoy “grown up” museums when the material is presented in an age appropriate way.  We recently took our preschool class to an art museum and spent the day playing a game of I Spy shapes to keep them engaged while appreciating some amazing artists and masterpieces!

I love Tessa’s pin this week about Hill School where they believe “If you want to learn, go where the lesson is happening.”  The school teaches students on a 137 acre campus with a focus on learning about thing in their natural environment instead of dusty old books.  “It’s great to study facts about birds in a textbook, but birds are outside. So to really understand something about birds, you need to go where they are”.  They even teach math in a hands on way learning geometry by investigating the raised garden beds.  I think more schools need to find ways to connect book learning to life experiences.  How can we expect children to be passionate about abstract ideas they are expected to memorize in stuffy classrooms?  Wouldn’t you be more excited to learn about birds while outside observing them in their natural habitat?  Do you think a picture of a tadpole in a science book will capture the imagination of an 8 year old boy the same way seeing as real ones swimming around a pond (or even a fishbowl if getting to a pond is cost prohibitive)?  Which experience do you think they will remember longer? 

I think the easiest way to understand how knowledge disconnected from experience leads to an unfulfilling learning experience is to consider trying to teach someone what love is by reading them a book and showing them a picture of a heart.  A person cannot understand the overwhelming emotion of loving someone without having the experience.  Any attempt to teach love through books or Power Point presentations would fail to convey the depth of the experience of actually loving someone.  The same is true about all learning.  The more connected we are and the stronger our emotional response is to the learning the more vividly it will be remembered.  Experiencing concepts instead of just reading about them will inspire students and drive them to learn more about subjects that fascinate them.  Passionate students will actually take control of their learning and teach themselves because they want to learn!

Children need to be invested in education, see how it relates to them and actually experience things to fully synthesize what we are teaching them.  If we want to raise students to care about nature and all of the creatures that inhabit this unique planet we share, they have to first grow to love the earth and her inhabitants.  How can we expect children to grow up to protect people and places that they see as foreign and disconnected from themselves?  As Robin Williams’ says, “You don't know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself”.  Children need to see how they are connected to the human race and nature if we want them to grow to love these people, animals and places enough to protect them and feel true loss when they are not treated with respect.