Learning With Nature psychology tools enable you to improve well being, relationships and job opportunities.

 

Project NatureConnect
Institute of Global Education
Special NGO consultant to United Nations Economic and Social Council

 

 

Learning in Natural Area Natural System Tools

 

To: Hardi Phillips, Ph.D.
Martin Valley Counseling Center

Dear Dr. Phillips,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the secret behind the success of my learning with natural area classes that help people enjoy better health and responsible relationships. Please permit me to respond to you with the following example:

I often ask my nature-connecting classes to go outside and find the most attractive, nearby natural area or thing where they can be relatively alone. The group of 35 adult learning people I describe on this page did just that. They spent seven thoughtful minutes enjoying an attractive natural place next to their school, and the additional attractions they discovered while they visited this natural area

When the adult learning class returned I asked them to share their experiences with a few people and then find single words or phrases that conveyed what things of value they had discovered in this home learning. Here is what they reported:

beauty light strength community joy trust safe learning freedom

belonging friendship peace wisdom equilibrium, spirit, mental health pleasure quietude

exhilaration participation God challenge love play thankfulness fairness art

sense of place sharing humility appreciation difference in time relaxation aliveness curiosity intelligence

In our discussion the class strongly agreed that these qualities were very important to know or learn. For the betterment of our lives, they felt these attributes had to be an integral part of each citizen's education.

I then asked these questions of the class; you might try to answer them for yourself as an adult or home learner.:

If you were to teach these values and topics in a classroom how long would it take to accomplish this goal?

What would the curriculum be, do and look like?

What methods and materials would you use in a classroom?

If these values can be found this easily in a natural area, why do you think in the name of "excellence in education" we support laws that insist we spend 24,000 hours of our developmental years in K-16, classroom-confined, indoor learning to be eligible for a college diploma? Why do we ignore that we obviously can discover and learn about these qualities in nature?

Why do you think this type of nature-connected educating is often demeaned as "recreation" rather that applauded as re-creation?

As an adult learner, do you think there is a relationship between our excessive indoor education and the exploitive stress, abuse and violence we suffer in our society on personal, social and environmental levels?

After some discussion, the home learning class concluded that it would be very difficult or impossible to design or establish an indoor class that could teach what they had just discovered in nature. So we made going outside part of our learning process.

 

More Tools Online for Mentors and Interns

Here are some activities from the online entry course Psychological Elements of Global Citizenship that you can use and teach to become more connected with natural systems within and around you. Most people say they learn more when they teach others to use these tools after they have learned them. Do you find this to be true for you?

 

Entrance Articles you can refer people to:

Natural Attractions
If you have not already done so, read this short article if you feel you want further knowledge about the how and why of Friends of Natural Systems.

Experiences in Natural Areas
Complete the online Holistic Personal Experience Inventory and share your results with a few people who may have done the inventory.

Thinking With All Nine Legs. Complete the online Secrets of Natural Attraction Trail and share your results with a few people who may do the activity with you.

Building Consensual Relationships
Complete the online activity In Balance With Earth and share your results with a few people who may do the activity with you.

We are Natural Systems and Attractions
Complete the online activity Earthday Activity for You and share your results with a few people who may do the activity with you.

To Explain Nine-Leg Thinking visit the Nineleg page

For People and Earth in Balance,

Michael J. Cohen

Director,
Institute of Global Education

INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION Special NGO consultant United Nations Economic and Social Council PROJECT NATURECONNECT . Alternative holistic jobs and home learning tools online to sustain the well-being of person, planet and spirit P.O. Box 1605, Friday Harbor, WA 98250 360-378-6313 <email> www.ecopsych.com ORGANIC ADVANCED ECOPSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION The Natural Systems Thinking Process social theory resource Dr. Michael J. Cohen, Director send email All programs start with the Orientation Course contained in the book The Web of Life Imperative. .

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