Who inspires you? Maybe you’ve met them, maybe you haven’t…yet. And maybe you’ve been the one to inspire others. My professor shared with us the people who have inspired her life, personally and professionally. Open your mind, watch, and be inspired!

Frijov Capra – The Systems View of Life

Satish Kuman – Keynote to the Bioneers Conference, 2011

Jane Goodall’s TED Talk

Thomas Berry – The Dream of the Earth

Joanna Macy – Keynote to the Bioneers Conference, 2009

Read my reaction to these inspiring people and the work they’ve undertaken.

 

If you have ever heard the terms “Nature Deficit Disorder” or “No Child Left Inside”, then you have heard of the initiatives that Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods” inspired. His latest book, “The Nature Principle” takes these initiatives a step further, from issues to solutions. “The Nature Principle” has inspired “The New Nature Movement”. I am glad I chose this book to review this fall, it has inspired me to explore this new nature movement, and consider how might I incorporate some of these principles into my life.

Here is an exert from my review:

…As Parker Palmer states, “We teach who we are”. If we’re not connected to nature, if we as adults are experiencing nature-deficit-disorder, then how can we strive to connect our children with nature? How can we stop this cycle of an increasing disconnection with nature? The Nature Principle is an guidebook of sorts for bringing more nature into your life now. Through inspiring stories, research, and visionary looks into the future, this book presents the reasons and the paths for incorporating nature into all aspects of your life. If we have hopes and dreams of our youngest generation re-connecting with nature, then they are going to need adult mentors, teachers, leaders, and parents to guide them there. We need to step up…

Read my entire Review of The Nature Principle.

It has been really enlightening and a bit disturbing discovering my ignorance as we have been exploring global environmental issues this fall. But something big has been left lingering…yes, these issues exist…but now what? How does change happen to stop the downward spiral of many global issues? And even on a smaller scale, how does one approach making systemic change within a system you are a part of? And on a personal level, how can you change your perspective to enable change?

Here are a few articles:

• Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups – maybe 2 heads are better than one?!
• Why We Need New Ways of Thinking - how the simple practice of mindfulness can enable change
• Leadership for Learning: An Action Theory of School Change - an older, but still innovative look at teacher professional development.

*I was totally inspired by Tony Wagner and immediately looked up some of his more recent work. Turns out he’s really interested in the Finnish education model and has produced a documentary, The Finnish Phenomenon!

Through the experiences of Nature Journaling I have discovered my inner artist. Check out an ETL Alum’s art commemorating the lost life in a watershed. And consider, do artists have a role in changing our culture’s perception of nature?

And to totally immerse yourself in a new way of thinking…about how we really do think, watch Jill Bolte Taylor’s exceptional TED talk in which she shares her experience having a stroke and challenges each of us to look anew at our world and the choices we make.

Here’s my take on change.

 

 

Can you imagine a better weekend…17 people you truly enjoy being with, abundant amounts of local food, a cozy hunting camp that could double as an “Animals of New England” museum, views of the white mountains, lots of laughs, and meaningful discussions.

The only thing that would have made it better were the 8 folks who couldn’t make it. I’m LOVING grad school!!

I stumbled upon Zoe Weil’s TED Talk, The World Becomes What you Teach, in the spring and was totally sold, immediately devoured her organization (Institute for Humane Education)’s website, was amazed that she/it is based in Surry, Maine, and added 2 of her books (Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind) to my amazon wish list…they are now waiting for me on my bookshelf for when I have some time (haha!) to read them.

I think what attracted me so quickly to Zoe’s vision for education, for our next generation, for parents, and for kids, is a similar thing that attracted me to my masters program. They both envision a better future and give me the power to create change (through education) that may lead us there. They both have simple, obvious messages to share, that we need to be considerate, caring people making conscious decisions about the actions we make everyday. Sounds easy right? The more I learn, the more complicated it becomes to make conscious, knowledgeable decisions, and decisions that reflect my caring and compassion. Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power!

To dig deeper into human education we watched Dyan deNapoli’s TED Talk, The Great Penguin Rescue and read Jacquie E Lewis’s research article, Humane Educators Significant Life Experiences and Apes with Language by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Stuart Shanker, and Talbot J. Taylor. (Let me know if you’d like to read these articles). I found these interesting, but compared to Zoe Weil, they were quite dry. I think that Humane Education is a huge, new, inspiring way of considering an approach to education, and that there is much research that has been done, and needs to be done here. It’s definitely something worth exploring more.

For my take, you can read my essay, written in response to the above resources. Each week I also get to ready the essays of my peers and draw inspiration from them to dig deeper into these topics. I sometimes find myself liking these second essay‘s much better than my first, which was the case for this topic. Enjoy!

 

 

So I have a pretty long commute (50 miles – 45 min) and although it does awful things for my carbon footprint, it does do great things by giving me “thinking” time. Here’s my idea from yesterday’s commute home:

Countless times I’ve asked 5th and 6th graders to define hypothesis for me. Collectively they come up with an educated guess…I usually take it a step further for them by giving it a format: “I think…because…” Somehow this combined with my 3 year old’s constant questioning of “why” (which part of me wants to really encourage, and the other part of me wants to answer with a “just because!”…I need to work on my mindfulness here!!). So, thinking about a hypothesis and my daughter’s why questions…I came up with my Because Challenge. What if I needed to back up all of my decisions and actions with a because statement? For example:

• I am purchasing (this) because…
• I am eating (this) because…
• I am throwing (this) away because…
• I am doing (this ) because…

Will it change some of my decisions, actions, or behaviors? Will it reinforce others? Will I become more mindful? I know spending my day questioning everything will be quite time consuming and may lead to indecisiveness…so I think I’ll start with trying to do this 3 times a day and go from there.

Oh, if only I could journal while driving…

Sustainability has become a hot-topic trendy word that is loosing its meaning as it is used with increasing frequency. Is it buying organic foods, going to the farmers market, using re-usable shopping bags, letting it “mellow” if its “yellow”, recycling, being “green”, etc? Not really. But all of these acts can lead towards sustainable living.

Eric Zencey explores the many definitions of sustainability in the Theses on Sustainability. Sustainability (for me) is best described by a native Mi’kmaq word, netukulimk. “Netukulimk is the use of the natural bounty provided by the Creator for the self-support and well-being of the individual and the community. Netukulimk is achieving adequate standards of community nutrition and economic well-being without jeopardizing the integrity, diversity, or productivity of our environment.”

Yet can we achieve netukulimk or sustainability by just living “green” lives? I don’t think so, and neither does Derik Jensen. He challenges all of the individual “green” choices we make in his article, Forget Shorter Showers. Alex Stephen’s TED Talk, A Sustainable Future challenges us to think about what “green” and sustainable really mean, and how we can re-envision growth to get there. Rick Heller challenges you to make more mindful decisions in his article, Slowing Down the Consumer Treadmill, and makes a compelling case for living more mindfully. Michael Pollan offers you a new way to perceive our lives on this planet in his TED Talk, A Plants Eye View.

For my 2 cents on sustainability, you can check out my essay.

**If you’re interested in reading Heller’s Slowing Down the Consumer Treadmill just let me know and I’ll email it to you.

 

So these past 2 weeks we have been reading, reflecting, and writing about globalization. I’ve been putting off posting about this topic, because honestly I haven’t known what to write. I consider myself to be an educated person, to be able to make informed decisions, to be able to know the right questions to ask and where to find the answers…and although the word “globalization” doesn’t sound unfamiliar…it really is. Yes I know that McDonalds, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and many others are found on street corners, in towns, and cities world-wide. But what does that really mean. What does this mean for the cultures of these places? For the millions, billions of dollars spent there? Who does it support? Who does the work? What impacts does this have on families, communities, the environment? And who really profits? What influences do they have? There are so many unknowns in this complex system of globalization. A system that seems to have been designed with the best intentions for creating an open global market that gives everyone the opportunity to succeed. But has really turned into a system controlled by only a few and has resulted in increasing inequality across the globe.

I think why I have had such a hard time sharing, writing, and personally reflecting upon this is now that I am becoming educated, awakened to the ecological impacts of globalization…what does that mean to me? Will I still shop at Target weekly? Will I still purchase unseasonal food? Will I shop locally and at farmers markets? Will I still continue on, as is, with blind ignorance to the impact and statement my decisions make when I spend a dollar? I don’t know yet. My professor offered good advice of dealing with the emotional guilt that comes with knowledge. Understand where your dollar goes. Make the best decisions for you when possible. And acknowledge and give thanks for the people and resources that have made what I’m purchasing possible.

I guess I’m looking forward to how this knowledge will influence my decisions moving forward. I don’t think there will be an immediate drastic change, it may be gradual, and some changes may only be temporary. But I hope to be conscious about my choices and my growth as a globally aware person.

Here are a few resources and readings to learn more about globalization:

Globalization, an Overview

www.globalization101.org

And I have an article titled: Globalization, Poverty, and the North-South divide. The author has requested that it not be posted to websites, but could be emailed. If you’re curious to read it, just let me know.

Here are a few TED Talks that aren’t so heavy. They are success stories, of people working outside and within the system to do amazing things and to make a difference:

http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_harmon_how_the_market_can_keep_streams_flowing.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/auret_van_heerden_making_global_labor_fair.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_jackley_poverty_money_and_love.html

After reading/viewing these resources, I was really intrigued by the theme of inequality, and especially within the American culture. I watched Jamie Johnson’s documentary, The One Percent (available to watch instantly on Netflix).

And if you’d like to read more about my personal ideas about globalization, here is my essay: Globalization: Reflection Essay

I feel like this topic will be a continuing theme throughout my grad course, and really throughout my life. I’m anxious to learn and understand more, to see how it influences my life, and to hear stories about how this knowledge has impacted others. There are many who are “awakened” and making a difference everyday, today. My hopes and thoughts go out to the crowd of people on Wall Street: Occupy Wall Street, September 17.

 

 

My fall semester course, Foundations of Ecological Learning, officially started at 12:01am this morning, and already, what I’m learning is reaching beyond me. Our first topic is globalization (more posts about that later) and one of the videos we were assigned to watch was Jessica Jackley’s TED talk, “Poverty, Money…and Love.” She ended her talk in tears and so did I. Her talk (and life) is a true demonstration of the impacts passion, experience, creativity, and story can have on a person.

Jessica co-founded Kiva, an organization that connects entrepreneurs in developing countries seeking small loans with a (caring) community of investors. Today I invested $25 in Rosalie Paradilla, a young mother who raises pigs for market. My $25 will help her to purchase piglets and feed. And within 7 months she will repay my loan, which I can then receive a check for, invest in another entrepreneur, or donate to a non-profit. I am looking forward to making this $25 grow over the years, and continuing to invest it in small family businesses that provide essential goods to others.

This gives me a different perspective of what $25 really is…how big can your dollar be?

 

In reflecting upon my experiences at Cobscook Bay, I keep coming back to my children, to the way they view the world around them, how they explore new things, the questions they have, their sense of wonder. And how I want to ensure that they have experiences throughout their childhood, throughout their lives that enable them to deepen that wonder. As Rachel Carson writes in The Sense of Wonder (1956):

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength. If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

This really inspired me to write my synthesis paper, What it Means to have a Sense of Wonder and Why it Matters.

Enjoy!