If there is no experience there is no knowledge, only accumulated data.
We are born of the earth into a body of senses. What we experience from beginning to end is conceived by a sense, and sense births experience. And from here learning begins.
But I'm confused. Everyone tells us that -education is the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school.
And instruction apparently is -the giving of an order, or directions... telling how something should be done.
So I'm asking if how we define education correctly instructs us about learning?
Or only about being told?
Oddly, more and more, we are being told what is by intelligent devices with no sensory experience, only accumulated data. And curiously, we are instructed 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, our mouths, ears, and hearts during the course of a day. But my job was to set the stage and direct the focus specifically to nature, to each other, to interaction, and to our sensory 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.
We are encouraged by Nature to have experiences. And also to have NEW experiences. Shake yourself up. Get out of the old patterns. Do The Thing You Think You Can Not Do. Climb the Mountain. 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 guides for some hands on, schooling off, peak experiences.
Somehow I managed to get approval from the county office of education to take this group of kids and three staff members on this first of many great adventures. 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.
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. 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, but the experiences were the real learning. 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 Love and Appreciate the beauty and power of Nature, we reach our children with our hearts, and have no necessity to preach to them.
Getting different perspectives of ourselves and each other was always a group outcome. Beauty is always their whether we sense it or not.
This particular trip had a 5 year run and was always a five day adventure exploring the landscapes of lakes, mountains, valleys and our 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. I can’t say I was a leader on this hike. I was the planner, yes, but I was one of the group. It was not 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 and high, it seemed so very high. I generally hesitate at heights. Our guide from the MLC (Mono Lake Committee) clearly saw my hesitation at the bottom of the dome.
We set out on the climb and right away learned the adventures of mountain goats. One step at a time, look up, look down, mostly just focus forward, and climb. But also feel the exhilaration. Feel the fear. Feel feel feel the ultra blue sky, the huge granite dome, the thinning air in your lungs, the burn of the breath as you climb.
