Learning in Communion with Place

I have a passion to help families live healthy lives rooted in the principles of ecoliteracy, especially living in communion with the place they call home. In my adult life, I have learned that the more connected I am to the places I call “home” or “work” I naturally make decisions that show mutual respect for myself, my environment, and other members of my cosmic community. I choose to see my community with a cosmic worldview to raise awareness around the interconnectedness of living systems that stretches beyond my immediate place. I sense that guiding children under the age of six in a prepared environment rooted in bioregional philosophies, traditional ecological knowledge, exploration, and inquiry could lay a concrete foundation to the development they will face the rest of their lives. 

Place-based learning has been a part of my life from an early age. Whether it was when I was very young going fishing and hunting and camping with my family or even just getting on my bicycle and riding around my town for hours, finding new ways to get to the same old places. I knew what types of fish we could catch in different areas and the limits on how many of each we were allowed to keep. My interest in the outdoors and the Land I inhabit grew as I matured. I remember when I was in the fourth grade, my class would take monthly trips to the historic site in my hometown. Each month all of the fourth graders from my school district would gather together to experience either large-scale reenactments or individual presentations of skills and stories from our town’s past. While I no longer live in the same town many of those experiences guided major decisions I made later on in life and built a healthy respect for the knowledge and wisdom that comes from a place. Yet much of the curriculum that was offered came from a post-colonialism perspective and what little attention that was given to the indigenous people of the region was presented in a way that separated the indigenous way of life and modern society.