If there is no sensory experience there is no knowledge, only accumulated data.
Humans are born of the earth into a body of senses. What we experience from birth to death is conceived by a sense, and sense births experience. It is here that learning begins.
But I'm confused. Education is defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school.
And instruction is -the giving of an order, or directions... telling how something should be done.
So I'm asking if how society defines education is correctly instructing us about learning? Or actually about being told?
Oddly, more and more, we are being told what is what by intelligent devices with no sensory experience, only accumulated data. And curiously, we are instructed by this method to believe from the outside in.
But sensory experience validates a truth from the inside outward. Something smells fishy, or leaves a bad taste in our mouth because of our internal organs networking with and navigateng around the outside playgound. We interface experiences of human relationship with our senses.
So, back in the day it was my purpose to offer experiential education opportunities. We of course have these opportunities daily from the moments we open our eyes, and mouths, ears, and hearts during the course of a day. But my purpose was to set the stage and direct the focus specifically toward nature, toward each other, to interaction, and exchanges with our sensory organs of perception.
I cannot give you the knowledge I have gained over the years from actively engaging with my senses. Nor can anyone. We can however offer a taste of our individual experiences, share our insights, listen, lean in and glean intelligence from human relation. These are powers of the living.
Nature invites experience. NEW experiences. Shake yourself up. Get out of the old patterns. Do The Thing You Think You Can Not Do. Climb the Mountain. Plunge into cold waters, grow flowers. Experience what happens.
This is what we did in Yosemite National Park, in California, In the latter 1990's. A pack of homeschoolers teamed up with the Mono Lake Committee outdoor education guides for some hands on, schooling off, peak experiences.
Somehow I managed to get approval from our county office of education to take this group of kids and three staff members on this first of many great adventures. This homeschool program was, back then, supported by the county office of education. We were part of the newly created charter schools which also allowed home schoolers to come together with support of the institution and actually benefit from some of the tax dollars we paid. Of course, the course of education strayed from this unique and successful learning plan, and homeschoolers among others were left behind.
I think there were 12 or 13 kids, ages 10 to 15 years . This was our first trip to Mono Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just on the east side of the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite. We took kids four of five more times after this trip and had different experiences each time. But the first time is the peak moment, individually.
The Mono Lake Committee -MLC- was already offering experiential education programs for youth, so we teamed up with them. This area has a big history surrounding the watershed and water usage in California. The book Cadillac Desert was our grounding theme, and the experiences were the real learning. We were Nor Cal schoolers and the book Cadillac Desert is the story of building up Southern California- So Cal as the locals say. Water was/ is a dividing force in this region with two states of mind. A state where farmers feed the health and well being of populations, and entertainment feeds the fantasy.
Anyway, The trips were always about learning and understanding by getting outside, beyond the books, away from the desk, outside the institution. If we teach our kids to experience, love and appreciate the beauty and power of Nature, this enduring experience can be rooted in values that exceed dollars. When we reach our children with our hearts, there is no necessity to preach to them about causes. Same with adults.
Getting different perspectives of ourselves and each other was always a group outcome. Beauty is always their whether we see it or not. Nature simply opens our eyes to it.
This particular trip had 5 annual re-runs and was always a five day adventure exploring the landscapes of lakes, mountains, valleys and our human relationships to these. Our base was at the feet of the Sierra Nevada Majestic Mountains, at a small house with kitchen and bathrooms. We slept outside under the stars in tents.
This first trip was to culminate with a hike up the rock face side of Lembert Dome in Yosemite. Everyday there was talk of the big hike to come.
Always on hikes we had the adult leaders in front, back and meandering the middle paces of hikers. On this particular hike I was more group than leader . I was the planner, yes, but I was experiencer as one of the group.
It was not exactly a straight up path but it surely feels that way. The path on the face of the dome is very narrow, disappearing at points, slippery rock slopes and high exhilarating altitudes that take the breath away -literally. Here I learned the term lung burner. It seems so very high because it is. And you feel so very alive because each breath is work, but work that gets easier step by step. The top of the mountain is earned and no one had to be told that, we knew it personally. And we ALL LOVED IT. We all made it in our own time, our own effort, with our guides and guardians.
High places are hard climbs for most, at least the first few times. But as the experience teaches physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually what a mountain is, what strength a challenge builds, what air feels like at ascending atmospheres, it is understood, realized. It is known that no technology replace this, no curriculum can teach this, no institution can standardize this, no catch phrase can imply this. It is the YES, surpassing the all those No's.
When we hiked our mountains, no child was left behind. We experienced together and learned individually what we needed to grow.
Generally I hesitate at heights.
We set out on the climb and right away learned the ways of mountain goats. One step at a time, look up, look down, mostly just focus forward, and climb. Of course some of the 'kids' we quite adept and move along easily.
I am a fan of granite boulders for sitting, napping, grounding.... and climbing.
