Woolman Blog

The following piece is another response to the Peace Studies teacher, Emily Zionts' chapter on education practices that do/don't support youth:

When I first read this paper, I found it personally, completely relate-able! The first thing that I found really interesting is when Emily mentioned on page one in the second paragraph that much of Public Education is teaching to the test and not to the student. In my school back at home, we have to take a test called TCAP. It’s a standard test that everyone has to take up until ninth grade. Because my school is a lot smaller and has different philosophies other than teaching to the test, we were facing a really big pressure to raise our test scores or be shut down. Jeffco Open (my school at home) feels like a safe place to me, and if it didn't exist I wouldn't have the resources that I have now.

We felt so much pressure in the past year to take classes that weren't exactly fun for the student or the teacher, just so we could prepare for the test. There is more to education than this! My school at home teaches us how to prepare ourselves for the real world outside of high school, and how to make a change in what we’re doing. I found a line in this article that said, “the pressure of meeting goals of high stakes testing has left little room for learning about civic responsibility, social action, environmental sustainability...” which I feel like my school has always been about… until the past few years. We have started to give up our specialized teaching just to prove that the students are learning the things that the government feels necessary. 

The next thing I found interesting was that on page 6, in the first paragraph was that “for youth…boredom can be a major factor leading to bad behaviors...” I grew up in a very small town just outside of Denver. Because it was so small, it didn't offer many opportunities for teens to have jobs, hang out somewhere safe, or be heard. As a lot of the kids started to reach high school, they turned to doing drugs and having parties to have fun. If you were not academically focused in high school, you most likely were doing drugs. I feel that a lot of small towns also feel this pressure of how to positively use teens and youths voices.  I think it should really be important to have more opportunities for the youth to step forward in the community, and be active. If there was a place where youth thought they were important, fewer would fall into peer pressure and cause negative actions.

I think that education is a really important aspect of life and it can help you do wonderful things, but if it is not being taught the right way, it will not be able to.

The food intensive is aptly named because it is very intense. There is no down time in the middle of the day, and every hour that we weren't driving we were being bombarded with information from people with all different perspectives on the American food system. One day we would visit someone who wholeheartedly believes that GMOs will save the world from all of its woes, and the next we would talk to someone who thought GMOs are pure evil. We were left to try to decide what we did and didn’t believe. Rather than telling us what was right and wrong, the trip presented up with lots of information that we had to decipher to develop our own opinions.

Full-Belly Farm is both a business and a site of experimentation. Students from UC Davis and UC Berkeley use the farm to do agricultural research, and the farm has done some research of its own. One of these research projects was to see how many native pollinators were living in the farm area. They found so many pollinators that they decided not to get beehives. Instead, they planted flowering hedgerows among the their crops to attract the native pollinators to the farm. I admire this innovation and their willingness to try new tactics in sustainability.

The destinations that stood out to me were The Regenerative Design Institute and Full-Belly Farm. The Regenerative Design Institute was so striking because it was so similar to the idea that I have had for a intentional community on California’s north coast. I found the institute very inspiring because it has achieved a working permaculture system with several different types of agriculture. They also teach permaculture in the summer, and since I live in the bay area I could easily attend their classes. The Regenerative Design Institute is a great jump-off point into the world of permaculture for me.

What does it mean to be a citizen?

In our traditional public schools, many of us are taught that to be a citizen means to vote, volunteer, and give to charity. Of course, those acts are crucial to our society, but many believe that this is not enough. Those people argue that we should be empowering young people today with the skills to challenge injustices through political literacy. Political literacy means understanding the system of how decisions are made and ALSO understanding what you personally can do to influence and change those decisions.  Again, while volunteer work is absolutely an important way of giving to those in need--many people believe that those first types of citizenry only work to maintain the status quo--or keep the system in place.

Who does the "status quo" benefit? Who has the power to create change? Who should have the power?

Many think that by:

• Teaching methods of activism
• Teaching about current events that are relevant to our lives
• Teaching young people to think critically about our culture, our government and or societal institutions and...
• By including youth in our decision making processes

…we will ultimately give the power back to the people (vs. having the power lie only in the hands of the the politicians, the corporations, the privileged, etc.). Some people believe that when students are taught that citizen participation is purely about charity and volunteerism, the emphasis is shifted away from teaching skills that allow people to create real change. Others believe that the government should be working harder to do the things that charities work for—i.e. feeding the homeless. Do you agree?

What is the purpose of education?

Some believe that the purpose of education is to prepare the youth for a job. Others believe that the purpose of education is to "become more human" or in other words to help us to reach our full potential. By strengthening our multiple gifts (vs. only our academic skills), we can be more whole, and more able to contribute to the world in a way that makes us happy.

What do you believe?  

What do you think is the purpose of the education that you have received thus far in your life?

Paolo Freire was a very influential figure in educational theory. He worked with peasants in South America and wrote a lot about the power of education to lift people from oppression. He wrote:

"A humanizing education is the path through which men and women can become conscious about their presence in the world. The way they act and think when they develop all of their capacities, taking into consideration their needs, but also the needs and aspirations of others." (Freire and Frei Betto, 1985, 14-15)

In other words, he believed that education should encourage students to ask questions such as:

• What sort of society do we live in?
• What would it take for me to develop all of my talents and what would I use them for?
• What kind of society and world do we want to live in for the future?
• What can I and others do to change things and create that just future?

Paolo believed that students should, "come to see the world not as a static reality but as a reality in the process of transformation" (Freire, 1990:71).

This means that education is about questioning existing knowledge---in other words, learning to question answers instead of just answering questions. There are also four very important key points to the type of education that Freire promoted. They include:

• Power Awareness- Knowing that society and history can be made and re-made by human action and by organized groups.
• Critical Literacy: This is "questioning answers" bit. It means not always taking for truth what you read in a book, in the news, what you hear from your teacher or parents or politicians! Truth is complicated and it takes Critical Literacy skills to learn how to draw it out from multiple sources and multiple perspectives.
• De-socialization: This is similar to "questioning your assumptions." It means challenging the values, attitudes, behaviors and beliefs of mass culture/society.
• Self-Organization:  Taking part in AND initiating social change projects.

Did your education include any of those skills/lessons? Do you think it should have? What would our schools and countries look like if this was what school was about? What would be the negative effects?

Freire also believed very strongly that no true learning could occur unless the students were actively involved. He spoke a lot about what he called the "banking" method of education, which he believed stifled creativity and critical thought. In banking style classrooms, Freire wrote that:

"Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are depositories (bank) and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher lectures--intending to depositinformation into what is thought of as an empty account--by which the students are supposed to patiently receive, memorize, and repeat..."

In the banking style of education knowledge is thought to only be held by those who consider themselves knowledgeable (the so-called expert, the teacher) to those whom they consider to know nothing.

In a Freire-based classroom, students are thought to walk into the school with wisdom and knowledge that is unique and to be respected by all-including the teacher.  He coined the phrase "teacher/learner" because of his belief that because we are all living individual lives and have different ways of understanding-we all have something to teach each other.

I believe... that we are all teacher/learners. Of course, there is a hierarchy present, but your participation in our class activities and discussion are absolutely crucial to the learning community for a successful education experience at Woolman.

I see myself... as a skilled facilitator--opening doors for young people to new possibilities for action, new visions for the future, and new understandings of the current world order.

I see you... as an inherently wise and experienced individual with a unique worldview that every single person in the classroom has the honor and the right to learn from.

I believe that the purpose of education is to make us more human and that means education that:

a.draws out our best attributes through learning new skills and new perspectives of the world

b. uses those skills and characteristics to create positive change for a more socially and environmentally just future

I believe that a side effect of “becoming more human” is that it puts us on a path towards finding a "right livelihood", work that is satisfying and is aligned with your moral convictions and vision for the world.

I agree wholly that ALL education is political, my classroom included. As Paolo Freire  (1987) once wrote:

"This is a great discovery, education is politics! When a teacher discovers that he or she is a politician too, the teacher has to ask, What kind of politics am I doing in the classroom? That is, in favor of whom am I being a teacher? All teachers work in favor of something and against something."

I believe that ALL education is biased. If a teacher is presenting something to you and they say it is "objective", I believe there is a hidden agenda. Even in the presentation of multiple perspectives on a single topic, there is bias in the fact that this topic was chosen over so many others.

In my classroom, I aim to be upfront with my agenda. This agenda is to both offer multiple sides to issues and also to present a perspective that I believe is missing from most mainstream classrooms. I want to empower you to respectfully disagree with this perspective at any point.  I will also push you to find facts/sources that support your opinions so that you can more strongly articulate yourself and either you will shift my perspective or we can agree to see things differently.

I believe that many education practices (NOT ALL) alienate students and promote an unhealthy level of competition with far less emphasis on skills for cooperation. This methodology is a cause and effect of our greater national and global systems which I believe are at the root of many of the social, political and environmental crises that we face today.

I also believe that some education practices are a form of "structural violence" and promote racism, sexism, militarism, and ethnocentrism.

I have great optimism for the future. I believe that if our education systems (both formal and informal) can empower people with the practical skills and self confidence for creating positive change from the inside out, then we can create a just and sustainable future where both natural and human worlds will not only SURVIVE, but THRIVE.

And the good news is that  the journey towards that future will BE CREATIVE, QUIRKY, BRilliaNT AND FUN!!!!

Dear Trees , Birds, and Meadows, 

            You are my home. You hold my spirit in your heartwood, springy dirt, and in the soft melodious notes of a blackbird, as it casts its song into the wind. This is where I go to sleep, to rest my eyes from the ragged edges of life. You don’ t simply occupy the love in my heart, you embody it.  Like the simple welcoming spirit of a hug. 

            The geese call over head, like everyday at around 7:15, I look up to see them straining to stay in strict formation. This is reliable, constant. Everyday I here their squawking calls from over head at sunrise and sunset. Like a simple reminder that there are always new beginnings to be had. No matter what time of day. I can recall the very first time I noticed these geese. 

            It was within our first weeks at Woolman and I lay quietly in my damp sleeping bag. The rain come to a silent stillness. They woke me from my slumber, on my solo. Their curios noise making my ears perk up. I peek my head out of the opening of my bag, my warmth. I see them, only three, but I watch as they cross the sky from one horizon to the other. As if they trailed the very day behind them. I lay their for a while longer watching the clouds mold themselves into new fashions longing to see their dark outlines once more. They are the makers of day and night. Of change. 

            My time here at Woolman is that of change. Occasionally it slowly ebbs its way to my feet like the frigid waters of Yuba, while other times it simply washes over me. Filling my mind with contradiction and uncertainty. But I always greet it with a sense of hope, that what is to come can only get better. This is meant to be. 

            So trees, birds, and meadows, I would like to thank you for your consistent reliability. To know that know matter how topsy turvy my world may seem you are always their in your worlds of peaceful work. Waiting calmly and patiently for me to state my case then simply patting me on the shoulder or embracing me in your loving energies. I will always carry you with me in my heart, you will be there in every tender seed I plant, every towering pine I admire, and every cool raindrop that kisses my cheek. 

            Woolman you are my home. You hold my spirit in your lively voices, warm hugs, and smiling faces. This is were I go to sleep, to rest my eyes from the ragged edges of life. You don’t simply occupy the love in my heart, you embody it. Like the simple welcoming spirit of a warm hug.

Love, Ariel

This morning as Doug and I sat with our tea (me) and coffee (Doug) in our living room, a cow strolled into our front yard. Amelia was out again. She roamed a bit, looked like she might take a nibble of hose that was curled on the ground (Doug was frowning on that endeavor) and then strolled on. The beginning of another summer day at Woolman...with summer already feeling like it is drawing to a close.

This is my last year as the Head of School and my last time to look forward to fall, to the new beginning that always takes place. This place is bustling over the summer with campers and visitors but when August is just around the corner, the excitement begins to build. In one week eight new interns will arrive and begin their week of orientation.  Then comes a week of getting the campus ready, cleaning everywhere, making welcome signs for the cabins, filling vases with flowers…and then Saturday, August 18^th is finally here and we find ourselves waiting for the first students to arrive. I have welcomed 18 semesters of Woolman students and it is still a thrill. It is not possible to feel pessimistic about the state of the world when living and working at Woolman. There is just too much good will and strong energy and hard work and deep thinking and honest caring to have any doubts that this life is worth living and we can make the world a better place for all.

I finished my tea, Doug called Jerome to come and get Amelia, and we began our day. Blessings abound.

The Woolman Farm is becoming more and more of an active “heart” of campus with our two main goals coming to fruition; growing a large of amount of the produce for all the people who live or visit here to enjoy, and becoming an educational center. We are also making some headway on a third goal of generating income from produce, herbs and seeds that we don’t have immediate use for on campus.

We now have a full acre of land cultivated with vegetables. Last fall, for the first time we produced 98% of all the produce used for the fall semester and grew enough carrots and beets to store some for the winter. Now our challenge is to grow enough for the spring semester. To that end, we just received a grant for a 30x80 hoop house where we will cultivate fall, winter and spring vegetables to extend our growing season.

On the education side, we have had lots of activity lately. During the school year, we had classes for both the Woolman students and for the community interns. In addition we had a Waldorf home study group in the garden 2 days a week. We also partnered with Yuba River Charter to host farm field trips for their 1^st-8^th grade classes throughout the year. This summer we have had both Sierra Friends and teen campers join us for activities and look forward to more of that in the coming years. This fall we will be the farm partner for a local school through a collaboration with Live Healthy Nevada County.

In terms of income generation, we are just entering our second year of our Woolman Farm CSA. It has been a fun challenge to come up with diverse delicious boxes of produce each week for our members. This year we also sold a small amount of our saved seed to a local seed cooperative and sold our first dried herbs to another local business.

With our garden fully planted now, including our new edible forest garden, we are looking forward to doing each element of our production and education even better this coming year, from our biodynamic compost, to seed saving, to hoop house production and garden classes.

As always, the garden is in need of a few crucial tools! Here’s what’s at the top of our Garden Wish List:  Eye hoe, manure pitch fork (2), kids gloves (15 pair), sturdy trowels (15), a broad fork, Spear & Jackson digging fork (spade), solar energizer for the electric chicken fence, Glaser wheel hoe, Compostex 72x12ft, overhead sprinkler system

Twenty-five excited, enthusiastic youngsters are living, learning and playing at the Woolman School for two weeks at a time, led by an equally enthusiastic group of counselors.  I sat down with Brian Loo and Gavin Edgarton, two of the nine counselors, to get a sense of what the program was like.  Once they got started, they couldn’t say enough about it. The kids live in the cabins on campus and get an early start on the day after being awakened by the counselors serenading them with songs like “Good Morning  Sunshine”, which they admitted was quite a bit off key.  Every day is full of activities, from hiking to swimming, to working to playing. 

They went hiking and camping at the Sierra Buttes near Downieville for three days and two nights.  They had a “Theme Day” where the theme was “Time Travel”, and everyone had to stay in character all day, either as a cave man or a samurai.  They went swimming in the pond and then covered themselves with mud like elephants for the walk back to campus.  They went to the “Independence Trail” on the Yuba River (the first wheel-chair accessible trail in the United States) and hacked away at the brush that was encroaching on the trail. 

I sat with Woolman campers Gabe, Nina and Didi at lunch and asked them what they liked about camp.  Their replies:  “The food is Awesome.”  “I love the counselors.”  “We learned how to swing dance.”  “We got to see tadpoles in the pond in every stage of development.”  “I’ve made six new, wonderful friends.” Mark Runyan, another counselor, who came to Woolman with his parents to a work camp at the ripe old age of two, was a camper for two summers, and a semester student in 2009, told me being a camp counselor wasn’t really a job, it was more like playing. 

All in all camp has been a rousing success and a lot of fun for both campers and counselors.   All of them have acquired memories that will be with them for a lifetime.

A new baby boy! In May, Elizabeth and Coleman Watts-De Sa gave birth to Calum, making him the youngest community member on campus. ‘Calum’ is an Irish name meaning ‘Little Dove’, which is ironic because Elizabeth says he is quite big and heavy. He loves songs and funny noises. He and Althea are very sweet together!

Brylie is heading to Evergreen! For almost three years, Brylie Oxley has been at Woolman as a technology specialist and more recently as a Friend in Residence. He has made countless contributions to the campus and community, not only with his knowledge and skills in technology, but in music, media, philosophy, and his love of nature, people and animals. Brylie will be studying Ecology and Media at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He will be missed greatly and can be reached at brylie@gnumedia.org. We wish you well, Brylie! 

Lynne turned 90! On July 7^th, our beloved campus elder, Lynne Henderson, celebrated her birthday in the company of many Woolman friends and family with a potluck dinner, singing, a gorgeous cake made by Amy Cooke, Manzanita tree climbing (by the youngsters), and general merriment from all. Thank you Sandy and Don Kewman for hosting this fabulous party!

We are surrounded by natural, only it doesn’t always look like kale and wildflowers. Instead, the word “natural” has become commodified: it’s printed on boxes of makeup, stamped on casings of food products, and designed on bottles of cleaning supplies. As nature has become linked to products, the distance between the human and the natural has become greater and greater. On the food intensive I, a self-professed lover of definitions, set out to define natural once and for all, if only to puzzle out whether or not there was still a natural world to define. Tired of vagueness and uncertainty, I was determined to clarify for myself this term that seems to have inundated all modern industries. Armed with my trusty notebook and pen, I was ready to take on the challenge.

Kent Bradford, a GMO expert, was quick to dismiss the definition of natural, condemning it “vague.” Genetic engineering may not be “natural” by some definitions, he countered, but neither are any other domesticated crops, for that matter.

At the Regenerative Design Institute, our host was James, a permaculture expert who defined “natural” as life sustaining; in other words, anything that is life-positive, or prolongs and promotes life, is natural.

Bear at the Swanton Berry Farm defined “natural” as “what nature would do by itself,” claiming that the organic movement was devoted to natural agriculture—in effect, organic means farming as nature would farm if it could farm itself.

And then it happened: my “Eureka Moment.” It was hardly Archimedean, but it awarded me an important thought.

“Naturalness is contingent on how we see ourselves and our relationship to nature,” I scribbled in my journal at the Swanton Berry Farm. “When we see ourselves as inherently wedded to the natural world, everything we do is unavoidably natural: after all, if we are nature, anything and everything we do is what nature would do. On the other hand, if we see ourselves as tangential to nature, everything we do alters nature’s ‘natural’ composition. The human race functions as an alien species that limits the ‘natural’ world.”

Moreover, when we see ourselves as divorced from the natural complex of systems, we are in danger of making choices, from our safe distance, that harm both the natural world and ourselves. In other words, when we disconnect, everything we do is disconnected and disjointed: people who embrace the “natural” are though to sacrifice their hygiene and social standing. On the other hand, people who put themselves first are though to exploit nature, stripping the land of resources in the name of human comfort.

When we see ourselves as connected to nature, though, we make choices that benefit nature and us. Harmony prevails. A motive to nourish nature emerges when to protect nature is to protect humankind. Perhaps in defining “natural” as a separate entity I was embodying the problem with the world: in seeing “natural” as a thing to be defined, an area with borders and a neat meaning, I was subconsciously separating myself from the bees and the grass. Just as the world boxes nature up into tidy packages, maybe so had I. I resolved to change my ways, placed my pen in my notebook, and took a look around.