A Beginners Guide to Agile Learning on Evia Island
Introducing Nature Play — a game-shifting educational startup in rural Greece.
Hello, I’m Marcus.
I’m a co-founder of Nature Play — an education startup based on the Aegean island of Evia — and an Agile Learning Facilitator in the making.
Wait…what’s an Agile Learning Facilitator? This article is my attempt to answer this question by exploring the four underlying assumptions of Agile Learning Facilitation through the unique lens of Nature Play.
Before we dive into the deep-end…
Let’s start with some backstory. In late 2016 I moved here from the green and pleasant land of England with my young family, in order to pursue the adventure of a lifetime. My wife Emily and I like to think we’re intrinsically motivated, and we also have 4 and 1 year old boys to keep us focused! You can learn more about us — or even reach out to say hello! — via our Facebook page, by exploring this Medium blog, or by following Emily on Instagram.
Nature Play is our education startup. Deeply inspired by the strength and courage of our collaborators — both local and global — we intend to cultivate a vibrant social movement of Self-Directed Education (SDE) initiatives like Nature Play, all over Greece.
Our story — and this article — is about holding coherence amidst bold experimentation. It’s an exploration of the underlying assumptions of the work we do here on Evia. And it’s an attempt to identify Nature Play in the wider collective imagination as prophetic — that is, a pioneering initiative which speaks life into a tidal wave of change to come.
In a single sentence…
“Agile Learning Centers restore the joy of learning by creating intentional cultures that support self-directed education.”
Above and beyond this cute but complex elevator pitch, there’s a whole Agile Learning ecosystem to be discovered. ALC is a rapidly growing global network of micro schools, homeschooling collectives and individual Agile Learning Facilitators who share tools, practices, and resources. We seek to create a new educational paradigm that is adaptive to the people and places it serves. This complex and curious community is underpinned by a single metaphor, the Agile Tree. This Agile Tree identifies five key elements of
Soil (the world we want to create, which is grounded in trust)
Roots (our underlying assumptions)
Trunk (the community that allows us to grow up and into the world)
Branches (the principles we design our spaces and actions from)
Leaves (the tools and practices we use day to day).
And so — without further ado — to unpack the Roots through the Nature Play perspective.
Assumption #1 — Learning is always happening.
Life is a learning journey.
Or in other words , the school is everywhere. Everywhere we humans go, rippling through everything we do, learning is always happening. Nature Play embraces this philosophy as we intend to abundantly overflow the conventional definition of school. We’re set up as an early stage multi-space Agile Learning Community, which connects mountains and beaches, yoga studios and permaculture projects, globe-trotting design thinkers, ascetic eco village pioneers and nature-deprived Athenian hipsters.
We are establishing Nature Play as an education startup with relevance to learners of all ages. Over the last nine months we’ve discovered first hand during monthly ALF Weekends that our learning and growth as parents and educators has at times overshadowed that of our children. Simply because we’re hungry to go deeper and make this process our de facto way of being. We can’t get enough of this stuff, and — you know what? — we think that’s probably a good thing. We’re choosing to trust in our convictions and go with the flow. We’re choosing to believe that if we first make self-directed learning and intentional culture creation the pattern and rhythm of our own lives, then our children will, in turn, be empowered to grow and thrive in the overflow of this well-spring.
Nature Play is taking aim at school unlimited. We believe that in tomorrow’s world, people will place more value on the things we have access to, rather than the stockpiling of things we own. Setting up as an agile network of informal learning environments, identifying primarily as a non-formal education collective which lives lightly on the land, investing primarily in the quality of our relationships with each other, our wider community, and the land on which we live — this is our organisational DNA.
Rediscovering the unique value of our locality is a priority for humans earnestly seeking lifestyles of health and sustainability all over the world. So let’s be pioneers once more. Let’s get out there into our local wildernesses — both environmentally and socially — and explore. Let’s limit the character and composition of our learning culture and environments only by our imaginations. Because, by doing so, the door is flung open to unbounded possibility. If we’re emboldened to take moonshots like these, then who knows where our Agile Learning adventure will lead us? As long as we’re able to lean back upon common assumptions, relationships, principles and tools — our roots, trunk, branches and leaves — then we remain in our integrity as Agile Learning Facilitators, experimenting liberally while staying anchored in a powerful shared identity that connects us with fellow innovators the world over.
Assumption #2 — People learn best when they make their own decisions.
Humans are designed to be free.
Truly, this work is social experimentation on a grand scale. Every time we hold a “scrum” to organise our day ahead, we see how co-creativity can get messy. It can be uneven, unfair and it often spills over into down right conflict. This can feel painful in the moment, but we’re intentionally choosing a long term upwards curve to outrageous personal and collective growth. We choose empathy, compassion and grace over short term self-gratification that’s safe in the confines of our comfort zones, but perhaps deceptively so. We’ve come to understand how extraordinary mistakes happen in service of extraordinary learning. This is a trustworthy saying. We therefore request high permission levels — relying on one another to show up with strength and courage, determined to become who we were born to be — in spaces held wide open for visceral encounters with our highest hopes and deepest fears.
Oh, yes, our deepest fears. Lamentably in Greece — as in much of Southern Europe — Self-Directed Education is effectively illegal. In truth, nothing and nobody can deny our freedom to choose for ourselves how to learn and grow. This exercise of choice — the activity of the human will — is inalienably ours, and always will be. With humility and grace — seeking love, in faith and hope — we have committed to make a stand for this right to free choice in education. Our intention is not to undermine or overturn the social order, but rather to serve our society with the fullness of our gifts and talents. Our goal is not to reject authority but rather to grow in authenticity by gently testing it’s boundaries, so that we might call forth greater order from the chaos of our 21st century society
We’ve come to a fork in the road. We can take the easy way — the 10 lane super highway. Or we can take the hard way — the rocky mountain path which challenges each and every step we take, but leads, ultimately, to the Promised Land. It’s 2018 — welcome, fellow pilgrims, to the Valley of Decision. Let’s choose life.
Assumption #3 — We learn more from our culture and environment than we ever could from content.
The medium is the message.
Marshall McLuhan’s famous words “the medium is the message” have confounded many, but his insight, while cryptic, is a powerful one. Changes in the medium of education — that is, the culture and environment of a school — will likely have far more impact than any changes in the messages — or curriculum — delivered by that medium. Why? Because the culture and environment we inhabit influences the way we experience the world and interpret it. These are the big lessons and the true teachers.
Just how important is our culture and environment? Well, take a glance at Silicon Valley. Ditto Hollywood. These are highly specialised and hugely impactful ecosystems purposely designed to accelerate the development of technology startups and film productions, respectively. Their influence on global culture creation is unprecedented in the history of the world . On face value it kind of sucks — right? — but what can we learn from this case study of intentionality oriented culture and environment? This is precisely the line of thinking that inspired my wife and I to relocate to rural Greece in the first place. Transform Evia’s “bioregional scale design challenge” revolves around this core question:
How do we learn to place greater emphasis on the medium — our culture and environment — in order to intentionally build ecosystems optimising for the regeneration of people and place?
The grim truth of our time is that we’re rapidly accelerating into a mass extinction event which could — and the scientific data is now emphatic — wipe out all vertebrates by the time our children’s children inherit the Earth. How do we raise the next generation, knowing fully well how humanity, as a project, is failing? We believe now is the time to muster up our strength and be very courageous. Now is the time to choose a story which leads towards the better world our hearts know is possible.
So let’s face up to this bittersweet reality of our time and step forward decisively to tell a new story — hand in hand with the next generation. We know individual and collective transformation is a difficult pill to swallow. We know that achieving the change we seek will be the greatest challenge of our lives — perhaps even the greatest adventure of our whole human history. We know we may be called to sacrifice everything along the way, and that the success we achieve may be marginal. Nevertheless, we say yes — emphatically and unequivocally — to the restoration of all things. We choose to believe, unerringly, in a happy ending that is accessible to all who those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Because everything short of this triumphant overcoming is — by definition — a tragedy.
Assumption #4 — Learning happens through cycles of exploration, intention, creation, reflection and sharing / celebration.
The creative process through which we learn and grow is a simple one.
Let’s get real — the future of work and play is agile. Our businesses, our governments, our communities, even our families — all are being transformed before our eyes by breakthrough technology. So then, the question is begged — how might we reorder our everyday lives to wholeheartedly embrace this unprecedented social change? However we choose to respond, time is of the essence. Technological advance is fast outpacing our cognitive ability to hold coherence, and there is no longer any security in traditional safe bets like a pension scheme or a college degree. The job market that our outmoded education system is preparing our children for will no longer exist by the time they graduate. By every measure, the warning lights are flashing.
So let’s clue in to what really matters in tomorrow’s world, today. It’s no longer about what you know, who you know, or even what you know about who you know. In tomorrow’s world, it’s about how you know and what knowledge serves. What matters most in a fast changing, ecologically unstable world is our agility as learners — our capacity to hone our cognitive faculties and tune them into whatever arouses our passion and curiosity, moment by moment. If mastery of the learning process itself is our true North, perhaps we can release ourselves from the entropic cycle of accomplishment for accomplishments sake, and turn our attention towards more essential things. Things like exploring how we hold space, rediscovery of our individual and collective identities, reconnection with our sense of purpose, and authentic relationship with our neighbours, our land, perhaps even our Creator.
Remembering how we learn — and in the process, rediscovering who we are — will be the greatest challenge of our lives. But it is also the greatest opportunity, and the greatest gift we can give to our children and our world. Therefore, it is the exponential learning curve — and ever-receding horizon — of Agile Learning Facilitation that we choose to place front and centre here on Evia island. We know one thing for sure — Agile Learning Facilitation is not an end in itself. But by golly, it sure is a richly rewarding and hyper-productive means.
Calling all Self-Directed Learners and Innovative Educators — Nature Play ALC is Crowdfunding!
On Wednesday May 2nd we’re launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise €3,000 in pledges. This Impact Fund will support accessible / sponsored places on a series of catalytic trainings in Agile Learning Facilitation, as well as accelerate the startup of a critical non-profit umbrella network for an emerging grassroots social movement.
The goal is simple — to kick-start the Self-Directed Education ecosystem in Greece.
This article is part #1 of a mini series that I — Nature Play ALC co-founder and Agile Learning Facilitator-in-embryo Marcus Letts — am preparing to help convene our community and clue in a wider and deeper crowd of supporters. Curious to learn more? Discover part #2 here —Rebooting Learning in the Cradle of Civilisation.
Ready to pledge on our crowdfunding campaign?
Dive deeper into our story, select your perk, and give the gift of Self-Directed Education today! https://igg.me/at/natureplay
