Education is Connection & Relationship
Education is Connection and Relationship. With Nature, with Self, with Others.
— Kenny Peavy
At Green Camp in Bali, we have 3 overarching values that we communicate and demonstrate to every group that visits.
Respect yourself. Respect others. Respect your environment.
Could it be true? Is that all there is to it?
Is it really as simple as understanding and respecting the natural world we live in, knowing and respecting who we truly are while figuring out how to interact respectfully with the other 8 billion souls we share this planet with?
Could that be all we truly need to learn about and what all the edujargon, clamor, ruckus, and rumpus about Education and Learning boils down to?
Connecting and Understanding our Relationship with Nature
As far as I can tell, everything we do is somehow connected to Nature.
Every time we inhale a lung full of oxygen, every chip of chocolate we chomp, every single taco and pizza slice we slurp, gobble and gulp rely on photosynthesis and the process of converting sunlight to sugar.
This can only be accomplished by plants and organisms that contain a dollop of chlorophyll held fast in their chloroplasts. Those unknown and uncelebrated tiny sack-like organelles encapsulate the green chemical that translates the language of light into the many carboned sugars that fuel our bodies and minds.
Through the most basic and primal acts of breathing and eating we are intrinsically and inextricably connected to and reliant on Nature.
There is no escaping it.
Photosynthesis truly is an underrated miracle that few understand and even fewer pay attention to. A crying shame, really.
Not only that but every job we perform and task we complete is somehow traced back to resources extracted from the Natural world. I can’t think of any exceptions.
All of the traditional scholarly subjects we teach and study in the realm of math, physics, biology, chemistry, and various and sundry other -ologies find their origins in Nature and Natural Philosophy.
Way back when in days of yore, it was the observation and curiosity about Nature and natural phenomena that lead to all the fuss about learning Nature’s secrets. Soon thereafter, all the hubbub and noise about Nature gave birth to the original study and disciplines of Natural Philosophy, Natural History, and the Natural Sciences.
And what about art and music?
Surely there is some connection between witnessing the sheer beauty of sunrise or staring at the cosmos on a clear night that stirs us to express ourselves through art and creative expression.
And could it be that our circadian rhythm is roused by the gibbous moon dancing in secret conspiracy with the tides that motivates us to make music?
By my reckoning, it seems experiencing, understanding, and seeing our myriad of undeniable connections with Nature while truly comprehending and honoring our relationship with the Natural World is of utmost importance to us as individuals and collectively as a Global Society.
Every.
Single.
Thing.
We have.
See.
Or Do.
Comes from Nature.
So it pretty much makes sense to me that education and learning in, about, and for Nature is vital.
Connecting and Understanding our Relationship with Self
The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.
— Joseph Campbell
The eternal question.
Who am I?
A question as old as cognition itself.
I can’t claim to know an answer or the answer but I do believe that questioning our values both individually and as a society takes us down a path of self-discovery.
Knowing what we know and what we don’t know while being brutally and genuinely honest with ourselves about both is key to introspection and self-awareness.
Knowing what we believe is another piece of the philosophical pie.
Experience is the ice cream on top which, when coupled with knowledge and understanding leads to wisdom and insight.
Knowing oneself may well be the most complicated and difficult thing a person can do. But it is necessary. It is our task. Our dharma.
All of this is studied in a multitude of different psychologies ranging from emotional psychology and cognitive psychology to neuropsychology, and psychiatry.
Art also provides insight into self-awareness and understanding one's self as does literature.
For I believe that we write to understand who we are and we read to know we are not alone.
Mindfulness and meditation are also popular these days for connecting with self and introspection.
Health, Well-being, Nutrition, Anatomy, Physiology, and Exercise Science are all variations on the study and understanding of self.
Social Emotional Learning and understanding what we feel, why we feel it, and how to deal with our feelings in a healthy manner are also at the forefront of new and trendy subjects nowadays.
And rightly so, considering how many folks have dealt with personal health issues, emotional issues, financial issues, physical health problems, and a heap of stress that is being expressed in numerous and novel ways as we find ourselves reeling from the immense impacts of the pandemic.
All of these should be explored when trying to figure out and answer that age-old question ‘Who am I?’. It is something we must all wrestle with at some point or another if we are to become actualized and reach our full potential.
Understanding who you are is arduous and challenging but exceptionally worthwhile, rewarding, and necessary.
While self-discovery is mostly a journey completed in solitude, I personally take comfort in knowing that we are all together in our aloneness.
As with connecting and learning about Nature, it seems obvious to me that introspection and delving deep into one’s own self is another incredibly essential part of Education and Learning.
Connecting and Understanding our Relationship with Others
I am pretty certain we all have some sort of intrinsic fear of The Other.
Unless we grew up and were raised in a vacuum then we’ve all been exposed and imparted some sort of hesitancy towards others through our culture, our media, our family, or our friends.
Whether that fear manifests as racism, classism, tribal identity or just plain old distrust depends on you and your personal history.
Once in a great while, fear serves a purpose as a survival mechanism but those situations seem to be highly contextual and very rare.
While fear may be a useful advisor it is a poor master.
As a Global Society, I believe we do indeed need to acknowledge and face our fear in order to understand, connect and have relationship with the other 8 billion souls we share the planet with.
Relationships are what define us. Relationships make our lives richer.
Understanding and knowing how to relate to others is and will increasingly be a valuable skill as the population continues to clamber up the slippery slope of the J-curve.
Learning more about the humanities, anthropology, social sciences, politics, and history will certainly play a role in how we form and develop relationships with others. Studies in International Relations and Communications won’t hurt either.
Since it seems like the planet will most likely get more crowded with a lot less elbow room then connecting and understanding our relationship with others seems paramount.
As I ponder these three basic domains I wonder if all of Education and Learning is ultimately about Connection and Relationship with Nature, with Ourselves, and with Others?
It seems all of the scholarly disciplines, non-academic pursuits, pragmatic training, and vocational endeavors that Education and Learning should entail all lead back to Nature, Self, and Others.
What do you think?
What else is there? There may be more.
I am not sure. I am still seeking.
As it turns out, keeping an open mind and developing a mindset for persistent questioning and genuine seeking may well be the path to the answers and solutions we seek.
