Teaching As If Your Life Depends on It

Teaching As If Your Life Depends On It

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AS A VEHICLE FOR SOCIETAL AND EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Project Demonstrating Excellence in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Union Institute College of Graduate Studies EarthWeaver, Seattle, WA

Please contact the author for permission to use, publish, and distribute this work. [email protected]

this work is dedicated to Eve Athey Ray, ma, mfcc,

a woman of great insight, power, grace, and compassion who has been my guide through the complex web of my transitions and transformations. Thank you Eve, for being there, for staying there, and for showing me the importance of knowing and loving myself. Thank you, Eve

and to

Justin Forrest Giuliano

My darling son, a sweet, shinning ray of beautiful light that lights up any soul that comes within his reach. I love you, my sweetie pie. Table of Contents

Abstract...... 6 Preface...... 7 Acknowledgments...... 8 Introduction, Purpose and Scope...... 9 Why Environmental Studies?...... 10 What Is Environmental Studies?...... 10 Statement of the Research Problem...... 11 How To Use This Book...... 16 Where Does This Book Fit In?...... 17 What This Book Is Not...... 17 The Use of Visuals in this Work...... 18

Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning...... 22 I Foundations of My Approach to Teaching...... 23 n t

One: The approach to teaching the physical sciences embraced by the developed world is, in general, a r failure at showing the intricate connections that exist between systems...... 24 o d

Two: It is vital that people understand that constant change is not something to be feared. In fact, the u

systems of our Earth and the Universe as we currently understand them are constantly in a state of c t

flux...... 26 i o

Three: “We have a terrible confusion about our place in nature.”...... 27 n Four: The basic assumptions that we have built our lives around need modification...... 36 Five: The absence of full representation of women and people of color in the development of our science and technology (and the world) have had a devastating impact on our culture and way of life...... 44 Six: Redefining and including spirituality in our lives and all fields of study is vital to our survival. We must learn to call the fruits and resources of the Earth “sacred.”...... 49 Seven: We must understand what our obstacles are to living in community with each other and resist the urge to isolate and protect ourselves from our neighbors. We must understand the importance of developing a relationship with our “Place,” the region of the planet in which we live...... 58

Chapter 2 - A Model for An Approach to Teaching Connectedness...... 71 Shallow or Deep...... 72 Betrayal...... 74 Obstacles...... 79 Something is Missing...... 81

Chapter 3 - Deep Teaching - The Process of Teaching Connections...... 85 Responsibility...... 86 Recognize...... 86 Scholarship...... 86

Page 4 Doing Work - Meaningful Assignments...... 87 Critical Thinking...... 87 Awareness...... 87 Sense of Place...... 87 Experience...... 87 Activism...... 87 Creativity...... 88 Reflection...... 88 Reassessment...... 88 Change...... 88 The Educator as Facilitator...... 90 Critical Thinking as a Mode For Learning...... 92 Myths and Fears of Learning...... 93

Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process...... 98 Despairwork...... 98 Ecopsychology...... 102 I

Ecofeminism...... 104 n A Feminist Critique of the Physical Sciences...... 106 t r

Confusion about Our Place in Nature...... 107 o d

Deep and Spiritual Ecology...... 108 u

A Return to the Goddess...... 108 c t

Native American Awareness...... 109 i o

Astronomy and Cosmology...... 111 n

Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning...... 114 Physical Settings for the Exercises...... 121 Dealing with the Feelings that will Surface...... 122 Categories of Experiences...... 123 Experiential Learning Activities for the Deep Teaching Process...... 129

Appendix...... 178 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness...... 178 Appendix 2 - Course Workbooks...... 184

Bibliography...... 186

Page 5 Abstract

This work presents a process for teaching environmental studies that is based on active engagement and participation with the world around us. In particular, the importance of recognizing our intimate connection to the natural world is stressed as an effective tool to learn about humans’ role in the environment. Understanding our place in the natural world may be a pivotal awareness that must be developed if we are to heal the many wounds we are experiencing today. This work contains approaches to teaching that are based on critical thinking, problem solving, and nonlin-

ear, non-patriarchal approaches to thinking, reasoning, and learning. With I these tools, a learner is challenged to think and to understand diverse n t cultural, social, and intellectual perspectives and to perceive the natural r o world as an intimate and integral part of our lives. To develop this Deep d u Teaching Process principles were drawn from many elements including deep c ecology, ecofeminism, despairwork, spiritual ecology, bioregionalism, critical t i o

thinking, movement therapy, and the author’s own teaching experience n with learners of all ages. The need for a deep teaching process is demonstrated through a discussion of a number of the environmental challenges we face today and how they affect a learner’s perceptions. Two key items are vital to this process. First, 54 experiential learning experiences are presented that the author has developed or adapted to enhance the teaching of our relationship to the natural world. These experiences move the body and activate the creative impulses. Secondly, the author has developed workbooks for each class he has designed that provide foundational notes for each course. These workbooks insure that the student is present for the experience and not immersed in taking notes. The deep teaching process is a process to reawaken our senses. A reawakening of the senses and an intimate awareness of our connections to the natural world and the web of life may be the primary goal of any deep environmental studies educator.

Page 6 Preface

It took me many months to begin to put ink to paper for this project and four years to bring it to fruition. Something was blocking me. It was as if I was resisting something, but I didn’t know what it was I was resisting. The first of a series of answers came to me as I was sitting in my car, at 7:50 pm on April 15, 1994, waiting to participate in something very new and frightening for me: a movement therapy workshop conducted by my therapist, Eve Athey Ray. Eve has developed a program she calls “Movement Expression” that integrates mind and body through dance and movement. It is not surprising that I gained some clarity on my writing block while waiting for this transformative evening to begin. I realized that I had been assuming I would do my PDE much like I did my Master’s thesis. For that project, I was very pragmatic, utilizing my computer to its fullest, filling a large database with carefully categorized and sorted information. This assumption was the source of my block. Something deep inside me wanted to do this project differently. It became clear to me that I feared that if I used those old methods that so represented my linear, narrow-visioned past, my new, transformed and expanded values would somehow be tainted. My doctoral project must reflect my personal as well as professional transformation. I have learned much from my study of feminist scholarship, including the need to reexamine old values and adjust, adapt, and blend linear models of thinking with nonlinear approaches. Also, my former I n

research style does not take advantage of my new skills from the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Program, t r

which I now teach. I can read at nearly 3,000 words per minute and the old way of slow reading and o tedious data entry into my computer would no longer work. The relief I experienced from these realizations d u was profound. I knew then that I could shed another old layer, another linear mode, in favor of new c t methods of research and expression. i o

But my blocks lingered and over the next three years, emotional upheavals impeded my progress. n After leaving a long standing relationship, I was learning how to be with myself for the first time in my life. All aspects of my being were in a state of rebirth – typing was out of the question! It is clear to me now that it was vitally important that I wait to do this project until some important pieces of my transformation were in place. It feels like those pieces have led me to this place and time. I have realized that my academic journey has resulted in a common theme in all my teaching. I teach people about the complex connections that exist in our world. I have synthesized many teaching modalities over the last few years into a comprehensive way of showing people of all ages and backgrounds the challenges and struggles we face. The teaching methods I have developed have come from my studies of feminism, environmental studies, the goddess movement, art therapy, ecofeminism, ecopsychology, critical thinking, and many educational

Page 7 strategies such as Howard Gardener’s seven multiple intelligences. I have applied all these practices to my environmental studies teaching and this has resulted in a way of presenting subjects from a place of compassion and heart, and with a depth that is not possible from traditional linear teaching modalities. It has become clear to me that teaching in our troubled times has little to do with facts and statistics. We all have been brought up with assumptions and ways to live that are no longer (if they ever were) viable and sustainable. It feels like I have developed a style that facilitates a learner to embark upon a new way of “being” in the world. This way of being is about noticing ourselves in connection with each other and our planet. My PDE will describe my environmental studies teaching strategies and present a number of pieces that will provide educators a suite of tools to enhance their teaching.

Acknowledgments

My thanks go to many people who have contributed to the creation of this work. Every encounter I have had over the last six years with friends, family, and students has enriched my life and contributed to my awareness. Bethe Hagens has offered such outstanding guidance and assistance. She has had a way of I

telling me exactly what I needed to hear. I could not have completed this without her constant support. n t

Thanks also to the rest of my patient doctoral committee. r

I am greatful for all that I have learned from the interactions with my many students over the o d

years. Thanks also to the students whose artwork appears on these pages including Phillip Kono, Michelle u c

Miglin, Lisa Deeb, Kenya Spencer and Pat Edwards. Thanks to Kah Ying and her baby son who’s first t i

expedition into nature provided the endearing photograph found on the front cover. o There are many poems and verses presented in this work. Many are my own, but others are from n gifted thinkers and poets. Unless otherwise referenced, all poems came from one of two companion vol- umes edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon entitled Earth Prayers from Around the World (1991) and Life Prayers (1996), both published by Harper Collins. Microsoft Publisher ‘97 clipart cartoon images are used on pages 14, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 156, and 163.

Page 8 Introduction, Purpose and Scope

You can hold yourself back from the suffering of the world: this is something you are free to do . . . but perhaps precisely this holding back is the only suffering you might be able to avoid. Franz Kafka

Students and nonstudents everywhere need help to awaken to what Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn calls “ the miracle of mindfulness.” We must awaken to the wonder, the beauty, the awe, and the suffering of the world around us. When students get over the initial shock and fear of this reawakening, and it is frightening to awaken to what Thich Nhat Hahn calls “the sound of the Earth crying,1“ once the suffering has been acknowledged and we have developed the compassion within us, a great inner peace is possible and a space is created to appreciate the awe of our universe. To be mindful of our actions, our surroundings and ourselves, to reclassify the earth, the air, the water and all the planet’s contents as sacred, and to realize the importance of appreciation of the present moment will help reinte- grate our lives with the universe around us. For the last five hundred years, our educational system has evolved into a mass producing, creativity stifling, awe-dampening process that educators must reform and I

restructure to bring the human (and nonhuman) spirit back for ourselves and our children. n

The training of environmental professionals has mirrored the technological approach to environ- t r mental management taken by the dominant world cultures. In fact, our very definition of what it means to o d

care for the “environment” mirrors the separation and isolation we have created between the natural world u and us. Even environmental professionals with a love and a passion for the “outdoors” will eat factory- c t i

farmed meat that requires 10,000 gallons of water for every o pound of meat produced for consumption, meat that is n loaded with growth hormones and antibiotics and is harvested from the pain and suffering of fellow inhabitants of this world.2 Our reliance on technological solutions produces another dilemma. Technology can provide only a partial solution to the complex environmental management issues before humans today, yet Western culture has attempted to convince the world that answers to our pressing concerns can come only from the world of “science.” Emphasis has been placed on building a better machine or passing a better law as the source for solutions. Yet the thing we practice today known as “science and technology” was birthed during the Scientific Revolution and now has come to mean a perception that we are separate from the Earth. With this perception, the sacredness of the natural world and its intimate connection to each one of us, is eliminated and the “outside world” is relegated to the world of machines, everything moving and working like from Maps of the Heavens (1984), Abbeville Press, N.Y. Page 9 the mechanism of a finely tuned watch. The training of environmental professionals has reflected this attitude. Throughout time, however, many have believed that the technological solution is destined to fail unless it supported by an ethic that emphasizes the importance of the continuance of the Earth’s delicate balances and recognizes the interconnectedness of all life. This work will present approaches to teaching that are based on critical thinking, problem solving, and nonlinear, non-patriarchal approaches to thinking, reasoning, and learning. With these tools, the learner is challenged to think and to understand diverse cultural, social, and intellectual perspectives and to perceive the natural world as an intimate and integral part of our lives. In addition, environmental studies courses that support these values are presented. Why Environmental Studies?

If a sane planetary caretaking ethic is to have lasting impact, it must become part of the educational process. An environmental studies program is a natural place for the emergence of this ethic because of the inherent interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum. It is one of the few disciplines where the alliance of science, philosophy, sociology, and other fields is gaining acceptance and can be readily justified. I

It is already a field that is expected to produce environmental management professionals and I believe it to n t

be an achievable step to attempt to infuse such programs with an approach to teaching that produces r “planetary caretaking” professionals. Our culture is very efficient at producing people who are equipped to o d do a water, air, or soil quality analysis, but we are quite deficient at producing people who can conduct a u c

“quality of life” analysis. t i o

What Is Environmental Studies? n

What constitutes the field of environmental studies is quite varied today. Donald Kaufman and Cecilia Franz, in their textbook Biosphere 2000, call environmental studies “an interdisciplinary field that attempts to understand and to solve the problems caused by the interaction of the natural and cultural systems.”3 They point out that both scientists and nonscientists contribute to the field and that values play an important role in this collection of disciplines. Most definitions are similar to this. To me, the field is this and more. Environmental studies is also a field of study that is well suited to teach the connections that exist in our world between natural, cultural, and human systems. To do this, the field must include the study and teaching of modes of self examination, since it is virtually impossible to see the connections between natural and human systems if you are living in a body that is not connected to itself. Being connected to oneself means living as an engaged and involved observer and participant in life with an open heart and an open mind. To me, environmental studies includes the fields of ecopsychology, ecofeminism, and many more. It is the field of environmental studies that this document contributes to and in which I am seeking my degree. In a field so interdisciplinary and varied, the literature is rich and diverse. I have collected and studied nearly 600 books since my entry to the Union Institute and it could be argued that the vast majority of them relate to environmental studies, since they speak of the intersection between self, culture, and the natural world. This volume is heavily influenced by them and many authors have contributed to my own synthesis.

Page 10 The wonderful diversity of this field allows one to draw associations between Malidoma Patrice Some’s book Ritual - Power, Healing and Community and David Orr’s classics Earth in Mind and Ecological Literacy. Orr’s statement that a “broader conception of science and a more inclusive rationality that joins empirical knowledge with the same emotions that make us love and sometimes fight4” relates beautifully to Some’s claim that “Western Machine technology is the spirit of death made to look like life. It makes life seem easier, comfortable, cozy, but the price we pay includes the dehumanization of the self.5” Orr and Some could have quite a conversation together, yet it is probably unlikely that the two books would be seen together in an environmental studies professional’s library. Yet when the two are aligned in many ways. Orr says that Cartesian science rejects passion and personality but ironically can escape neither. . .Descartes and his heirs simply had it wrong. There is no way to separate feeling from knowledge . . .Science without passion and love can give us no reason to appreciate the sunset, nor can it give us any purely objective reason to value life. These must come from deeper sources.6 Some’s says that Western technology has made the natural way of living look primitive, full of famine, disease, ignorance and poverty so that we can appreciate our enslavement to the Machine and, further, make those who are not enslaved by it feel 7 sorry for themselves. I n

Joanna Macy has created an invaluable tool for psychologists, environmental activists, and environ- t mental studies educators with her transformative book, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age. r o

She provides a comprehensive series of exercises to take anyone from a place of despair and anguish about d u

our planetary crisis and transform that despair into a sense of personal empowerment. I discovered this book c t

nearly 7 years ago after I had been teaching environmental studies for about a year. I was desperate for some i o

set of tools to help students process the strong emotions that would come up as I shared the dark results of n our lifestyle and culture. I devoured Joanna’s book and the very next class session, I conducted “despairwork” with my students, with remarkable results. I have been using her techniques ever since. This volume is the result of the integration and synthesis of my personal experience and journey with many points of view from many authors. My bibliography will illustrate the diverse collection of thoughts, all seeming to converge on the challenge of coming from the darkness into the light. Statement of the Research Problem From the Darkness Into the Light My fundamental premise in the approach to teaching that I present is that we must acknowledge the darkness in the world before we can move into the light. This classic theme throughout history, the basis for the celebration of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, is pivotal in a healing process. Joanna Macy tells us that the first step in this healing work is to get rid of the notion that grief for our world is morbid. This is difficult for most of us who have been brought up in a culture where “negative thinking” is shunned in favor of attempts at constant happiness. Any deviation from the happy face is considered a problem. But to experience pain and anguish and anxiety in the face of horrific events and practices that are threatening our very lives is a natural, healthy reaction. This pain only becomes morbid and masochistic when we assume personal guilt for all of it or personal responsibility for its solution. This leads to the “burnout” associated with so many environmental and social activists.8

Page 11 Who took the dream of the land

who staked down “private property” through the soul of the deer

who diverted streams cleared forests burned fields

i seek to know my own name

i seek to know

why I n t

after all that i have done r to her o d

does the Mother continue u

to embrace me c t

Charlie Mehrhoff i o n There is much darkness reported in this document. But it is vital to our reintegration and healing that we acknowledge it. We have a great fear of “falling apart” and “going to pieces.” Contrary to what our society has suggested, this is not a bad thing. In fact, it is essential for evolutionary and psychic transformations.9 My therapist, Eve Athey Ray, calls the process “falling together.” Polish psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski refers to the process as “positive disintegration.”10 We need to permit ourselves to feel. Richard Heckler says Within us are deep responses to what is happening to our world, responses of fear and sorrow and anger. Given the flows of information circling our globe, they inhere in us already by virtue of our nature as open systems, interdependent with the rest of life. We need only to open our consciousness to these profound apprehensions. We cannot experience them without pain, but it is a healthy pain - like the kind we feel when we walk on a leg that has gone asleep and the circulation starts to move again. It gives us evidence that the tissue is still alive.11

I have developed an approach to teaching that assumes that we must face and embrace the bad news in order to fully appreciate the beauty in our world and to be motivated to preserve that beauty. This approach also involves improving our personal health and connection with our body. How can we appreciate that changing our consumption behaviors will result in improved health from fewer toxic substances in our world if we are used to not feeling all that great anyway? Yule, The Winter Solstice (December 21 or 22), that time of year when the Sun is the farthest

Page 12 south in the sky that it gets during the year, provides an illustration of this concept. On Yule, the day is very short and the beginning of Winter is upon us. In an age not so long passed, when we were intimately aware of our connections to this planet and our dependence upon the Sun for light and life, this time of year was recognized for its power. How many of us notice that between the Summer Solstice on June 21 and Yule, the Sun has, each day, risen a little farther to the south of east and has remained in the sky a few minutes less? The days get shorter and shorter until on Yule, the Winter Solstice, we experience the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Recognition of this time of year can be a powerful healing tool for us. Imagine how the ancient peoples of the Earth felt as they observed that the Sun, the orb that gives us heat and light, kept getting lower and lower in the sky and the days kept getting shorter and shorter. The fear must have arisen that the night would get longer and longer and that the Sun would eventually disappear completely. What could they do but surrender to this fear and prepare themselves for the Winter. They gathered food, they made their families as safe and warm as they possibly could, and reflected on the bounty of the past harvest and the joys that might be taken away. These people must have felt that they were receiving the incredible gift of life when the Sun began I journeying higher and higher and the days got longer and longer as Winter faded. Eventually, this time of n t year became a part of the Wheel of the Year, the earthly representation of the cycle of life, a time to slow r o

down, reflect, appreciate the bounty of the harvest, and to appreciate the need for death – the darkness - as d well as life. u c

In the classroom, after presenting the darkness, through a t i variety of visuals and exercises I help students find the light o n again. The darkness still remains, but it is not so hopeless anymore. In an environmental science class in early 1998 at the University Phoenix Southern California Campus in Fountain Valley, California, I spent the first three weeks of this five week class carefully bringing the students into the darkness they had forced out of their awareness through the needs for mortgage payments and career advancement. The From the Animal Rights Resource third week was punctuated Archive at www.envirolink.org with graphic video footage of slaughterhouse practices and images from the fur industry. But in our class in the fourth week, we spoke of activism, of values, and did exercises that helped the student examine what was important to them. Later in the evening, I showed them over 100 slides I had taken of wondrously beautiful waterfalls and other natural wonders around the country. We came into the light, but with an awareness of the darkness.

Page 13 dear goddess what are we to do?

there is so much so much so much And the answer to feel, is really Blowin’ in the Wind! to learn Go outside to fear Feel the wind to fear Feel the air to fear Feel the cool of the season Feel i am afraid. Feel Do not lament, Feel. My child,

For you are mine That’s all I and I am yours. That’s all you need n t

I am the Earth r

And you are the Earth Just Feel. Please o d Jackie Giuliano u c t i o n

Environmental Studies Education The training of environmental educators and professionals has mirrored the technological approach to environmental management taken by the dominant world cultures. Technological considerations provide only a partial solution to the complex environmental management issues before humans today, yet Western culture has attempted to convince the world that answers to our pressing concerns can come only from the world of science, economics, or politics. Emphasis has been placed on building a better machine or passing a better law as the source for solutions. The training of environmental professionals has reflected this attitude. This document will attempt to contribute to the position that the technological solution is destined to fail unless it supported by an ethic that emphasizes the importance of the continuance of the Earth’s delicate balances and recognizes the interconnectedness and sacredness of all life. The concept of connectedness is not one that can be taught with only words or lectures. It can be framed contextually with traditional modes of communication, but it must be

Page 14 experienced and felt in the body in order to be actualized. I have lectured extensively to students and teachers on this topic, and although heads may nod in agreement in class and exam questions may be answered correctly, until we get out in the field and see images of connectedness, it is not truly experienced. If we accept the premise that it is the job of an environmental studies educator to help students embrace the concept of the web of life and the interdependence of all things, then we also have to accept that our students who have been schooled in the West come to us at a considerable disadvantage. John Taylor Gatto, a former New York State Teacher of the Year, wrote a powerful book condemn- ing the mass-production, mind-numbing schooling that most of us receive in the U.S. He says that the lessons he teaches children every day, mandated by the system of institutional schooling, create young people who are indifferent to the adult world and to the future, indifferent to almost everything except the diversion of toys and violence. Rich or poor, school children who face the twenty-first century cannot concentrate on anything for very long; they have a poor sense of time past and time to come. They are mistrustful of intimacy (for we have divorced them from significant parental attention); they hate solitude, are cruel, materialistic, dependent, passive, violent, timid in the face of the unexpected, addicted to distraction.(p.12) I n

I feel the reverberation of my own schooling, where I learned, as Gatto says he is encouraged to t r

teach, confusion, class position, indifference, o d

emotional and intellectual dependency, conditional u self-esteem, and that I am constantly under surveil- c t 9 lance. I see a disturbing number of these traits i o surface in the behaviors of my university and adult n students as well. These are among the filters and blinders that have aided in our disconnection from the natural world. It can be argued that our economic-based culture and societal values not only supports these traits but, as Gatto points out, want schooling as designed to continue “as an essential support system for a model of social engineering that condemns most people to be subordinate stones in a pyramid that narrows as it ascents to a terminal of control.”10 This volume provides some offerings of ideas and tools to break through the indifference. The situation is nowhere near hopeless. Near Los Angeles in the Angeles National Forest is a half-mile hike down a meandering streambed that ends in a lovely waterfall. I always take my environmental studies classes on this simple hike, and it is during this one hour walk that people really experi-

Page 15 ence what we have been talking about in class. They see the colors, they smell the aromas, their feet get wet in the stream, and the realization hits: “I am a part of this.” I want an educator (or anyone for that matter), to look through this work and say “I get it, I am a part of this and I can teach (or experience) this.” That is my goal.

How To Use This Book Chapter 1 is an essay that will set the stage for my approach. It will contain a review of the work that has influenced my studies as well as a presentation of the philosophical underpinnings of my theories. Chapter 2 explores the failure of mass education and the importance of teaching critical thinking. It proposes “deep” rather than “shallow” teaching. Chapter 3 is a presentation of the model I have developed for teaching connectedness. Chapter 4 discusses the detailed components of my approach to teaching. These program enhance- ments include such elements as: redefining the role of the teacher to one of facilitator; fostering awe and critical awareness; exploring the impact of environmental awareness on our psyches through ecopsychology; re-embracing the female perspective through ecofeminism; redefining nature as sacred through deep and spiritual ecology; seeing the Earth as a planet in a universe; and other aspects that foster social responsibil- I n

ity, awareness, and spirituality. t r

Chapter 5 contains specific experiential activities to accompany each part of the deep teaching o d

process described in Chapter 3. The power of the field experience is discussed along with the importance of u creative arts as part of any learning experience. c t

Appendix 1 contains descriptions for the courses that I have developed during my program. Each of i o these courses are part of what I consider to be core courses for any environmental studies program. They are n all are 10-week classes unless otherwise indicated:

The Earth in Space: The Solar System and Space Exploration The Earth’s Moon in Culture, Literature, Mythology, and Science Environmental Science: The Human Impact The Environment and Human Health Ecopsychology: The Environment and Mental Health The Human Impact on the Environment: An Experience in the Field Community Action and Social Responsibility Despair and Empowerment in the Nuclear Age Oases in the Urban Desert - the Last Stands of the Natural World (1-day workshop) Water for a Dry Desert - How L.A. Quenches Its Thirst(1-day workshop) The Universe Story (1-3 day workshop) Ecological Feminism and the Spritual Dimension of the Environmental Crisis [also known as “Ecofeminism”] (1-3 day workshop) Gender and Science: The Impact of the Absence of a Feminismt Voice (1-3 day workshop) The History of Science: Coming of Age in the Milky Way

Page 16 Each is a “foundational” course intended to build an awareness of the natural world and our connections to it. Subsequent courses taken by a learner can then be placed in a holistic context through these courses. For each of the courses I have designed and developed what I call “student centered learning materials.” These take the form of a “course workbook,” some as large as 250 pages that contain the course syllabus, a collection of notes for each class session, additional reading materials, and additional reading bibliographies. They enable the student to be present for the experience rather than be worried about taking notes. Students are still encouraged to take notes, but about what is important to them. Two of the 10-week class workbooks and one of the one day workshops workbooks are presented along with this document as Appendix 2. I n t r

Where Does This Book Fit In? o d

The techniques and methods described in this volume could enhance any existing environmental u c

studies program. Most of my experiences have been at the undergraduate level, but these techniques have t i been used successfully with many grade levels. It is my contention that this approach is applicable to any o grade level. n

What This Book Is Not This presentation is not intended to be a rigorous environmental studies curriculum nor is it attempting to apply traditional and accepted practices to teaching environmental studies. This document offers an approach to teaching environmental studies which will result in learning that is based on an understanding of the connections that exist between humans and the natural world. Any educator can use elements of this approach NOW. This document does not present approaches that can always be assessed by traditional means such as surveys or standardized testing. New assessment tools will need to be developed by educators to measure the effectiveness of new teaching techniques. In any case, this document will not focus on assessment strategies. Some national educational standards may be satisfied by these discussions. I contend, based on teaching this way to hundreds of students and training many hundreds more teachers, that learners trained in this way come away with a heightened sense of self awareness, planetary awareness, and feel they are better able to consider the complex decisions that we all must make every day.

Page 17 The Use of Visuals in this Work I believe very strongly that stimulation of the senses is vital to the learning experience. This is discussed in depth in Chapter 5. If the technology were better, I would probably have created “scratch-and- sniff” pages to take the reader outside of their intellectual conditioning! The photographs presented throughout this document have been carefully chosen to help the reader on their journey through these ideas. All photographs and artwork are by me unless otherwise indicated. I n t r o d u c t i o n

Page 18 Notes for Introduction

1 Nhat Hahn, Thich. The Miracle of Mindfulness. Trans. Ho, Mobi. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1975. 2 Robbins, John. Diet for a New America. New Hampshire: Stillpoint Publishing, 1987. 3 Kaufman, Donald G., and Cecilia M. Franz. Biosphere 2000: Protecting our Global Environment. Dubuqe, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1996, p. 32. 4 Orr, David W. Earth In Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1994. p. 31 5 Some, Malidoma Patrice. Ritual: Power, Healing and Community. Portland, Oregon: Swan Raven and Company, 1993. p. 85. 6 Orr, op. cit.

7 I

Some, op. cit. n

8 t

Macy, Joanna. World as Lover, World as Self, Berkeley: Parallax Press. 1991. p. 21. r 9 Ibid., p. 22. o d

10 Ibid. u c

11 Ibid., p. 23. t i 12 o Gatto, John Taylor. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. Phila- n delphia: New Society Publishers, 1992. p. 18. 13 Ibid., p. 17. 14 Ibid., p. 14.

Page 19 I n t r o d u c t i o n

Page 20 The sign in the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Facility (Playa del Rey, California) visitor lobby.

Page 21 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning

Chapter 1 The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning

A lot of things have happened in this century and most of them plug into walls . . . Father John Culkin, Fordham University1

Disconnection, separation, division, detachment, disassociation - these are all words that describe the way we view our world and ourselves. We are disconnected from the Earth herself, separated from the delicate web she has woven, divided from each other by arbitrary encumbrances, detached from the very meaning of our existence, and disassociated from the awe and mystery of the world and the universe. Our daily lives are filled with more events than our elaborate datebooks can contain, we live by the litany “oh, that there were only more hours in the day,” and we bemoan our lot in life. We are scared to death of spiders and cockroaches, consider the natural world as wild, untamed and therefore dangerous, and resist awareness into the intricacies of our world for fear of having to take on one more responsibility. We in the

Western world have tried so hard for so long to disconnect C from the Web of Life but try as we might, we have not and h a

cannot succeed. The embrace of Mother Earth is too strong. p

We cannot walk away from the planet of our birth and even t e when we try to cut those bonds by traveling into space, our r bones and bodies wither.2 Those few human beings (all men, 1 by the way) who have walked on another world, who have come as close as anyone to breaking the bonds of our Mother (still embraced, however, by the long arms of her gravity), came back so changed, so transformed, that their lives were irrevocably altered. These astronaut/pilot/scientists all became teachers, artists, mystics, healers, farmers, or theologians (except one who became a beer distributor and another who Figure 1 - The Earth from the Moon (NASA) became a defense consultant), but few may have reasoned why they were so transformed.3 We can learn so much from these men who tried to cut their bonds with Mother Earth and failed, who experienced her awesome power from 250,000 miles away in space, who felt the intense power of the place of our birth, who, while standing on an airless, lifeless Moon, felt the great gift of our existence. Yet they were so unprepared for the experience, so trained in the disconnected approach of Western science, so confused about their place in the universe, that the great gifts of awareness, awe, truth, and beauty that were revealed to them as they stood on the surface of the Moon and looked back at their home turned to dysfunction, trauma, and fear. What a challenge we Earth-bound people have to embrace awareness, experience the awe, see the truth, and feel the beauty of our world if men trained and educated by our culture had such difficulty from 250,000 miles away, seeing the interconnected ball that is the Earth hanging in their sky. Yet in spite of the insensitivity of their training and the attempts of their trainers to teach disassociation and denial, all of these men were transformed in one way or another. We can break the bonds of our cultural, intellectual,

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and emotional imprisonment. We can open our eyes to see our connections and realize our true place in nature, a place that is beside other species, not above them. We can do all these things, but we need help. By carefully teaching each other to re-member, re-integrate, and re-associate, the embrace of our Mother Earth can be felt again. There are many tools created by many individuals that can aid in this task. All of the tools are simple and can be applied in any situation, whether it be personal, professional, or spiritual. They all have at their foundation one basic tenant: that “the beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right name.”4 This we must do as we begin our long journey of re-learning. The white, class-privilaged patriarchal culture that has been the dominant world culture for many centuries has affected not only what we know, but also how we know and how we learn. Our very ability to see the world as it really is has been clouded by a long legacy of distraction. Foundations of My Approach to Teaching

The approach I have taken towards teaching environmental studies has as its foundation seven fundamental principles. Behind these principles is the assumption, as explored by C.A. Bowers in his book on the importance of environmental education, that the condition of our Earthly habitats is the prime C concern that should frame how we think about all reform efforts.5 My foundational principles are: h

1. The approach to teaching the physical sciences embraced by the developed world is, in general, a a failure at showing the intricate connections that exist between systems. p t 2. It is vital that people understand that constant change is not something to be feared. In fact, the e r

systems of our Earth and the Universe as we currently understand them are constantly in a state of flux. 1 3. “We have a terrible confusion about our place in nature.”6 4. The basic assumptions that we have built our lives around need modification. 5. The absence of full representation of women and people of color in the development of our science and technology (and the world) has had a devastating impact on our culture and way of life. 6. Redefining and including spirituality in our lives and all fields of study is vital to our survival. We must learn to call the fruits and resources of the Earth “sacred.” 7. We must understand what our obstacles are to living in community with each other and resist the urge to isolate and protect ourselves from our neighbors. We must understand the importance of developing a relationship with our “Place,” the region of the planet in which we live. I want to say a little about each of these guiding principles, as they have shaped my own priorities.

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One: The approach to teaching the physical sciences embraced by the developed world is, in general, a failure at showing the intricate connections that exist between systems.

The practice of science in the West has typically been one of breaking things down into their smallest components and then trying to rebuild the original from the pieces. For example, a scientist trained in Western science practice would analyze a lawn of grass by breaking down the grass blades into their smallest molecular component. All the chemicals would be listed and the structure mapped. The lawn would then be “reassembled” and a model for its existence offered. But the result of that analysis would not be a “lawn.” The model would represent the grass pretty well, but the complex, interconnected web of life in the soil, in the air, and in the space between the blades of grass would be ignored. The practice of clear-cutting and subsequent replanting of a forest by the lumber industry is another example of this phenomenon. Lumber companies worldwide proudly offer their statistics of the amount of replanting they have done after denuding a forest. They happily report the amount of trees planted and how nothing was lost in the process. But they have not created a forest, they have created a tree-farm. This farm of trees, usually all of the same type, looks nothing like the complex, interdependent life zone that was destroyed. I believe that the most serious part of this scenario is the lack of awareness on C the part of many of the foresters, environmental analysts, politicians, public, and educators about the h a

difference. In fact, today’s broadcast and print media coverage of the frequent environmental disasters and p t

catastrophes are becoming so frequent that the very words are losing their power to hold the public’s e 7 r

attention. 1 Most of us who have been educated in schools of the Western world believe that our world, and our very lives, are governed by laws of physics and the laws of physics alone. Fritjof Capra suggests that we have learned much about these laws, but we have learned very little about the laws of sustainability.8 Most of us have an inherent understanding that if we disregard the laws of gravity and step off of a cliff we will surely die. Not many, though, will claim to have an intuitive understanding that if we defy the existence of a web of life and the importance of living in a sustainable community, death will also result. How Western history unfolded provides a powerful clue as to the origins of the practices and beliefs that are undermining our planetary security. Our cultural beliefs and practices were formed during a period of our history when natural resources seemed unlimited. Few believed that it was possible to ever run out of trees or fish or air. This Myth of Superabundance held the promise that economic expansion and social progress could be unlimited. The cultural beliefs in rationalism, progress, and individualism became firmly entrenched in Western society and began the upward spiral toward overuse of all the Earth’s systems.9 Our Western belief system, which places high priority on the rights of the individual, creates insidious difficulty in the classroom. The individual is considered the basic social unit of our society and it can be argued that all disciplines have been affected by this mindset. David Orr sums up the problem, claiming that “education in our modern world was designed to further the conquest of nature and the industrialization of the planet.” 10 He says that education today must be “designed to heal, connect, liberate, empower, create, and celebrate.” Education, and science education in particular, must be life centered, not person centered. This is our challenge. Orr sums up the failure of our science in teaching connections by pointing out that when educators

Page 24 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning have noticed that their teaching must include environmental issues, they typically regard the field as a set of problems. These problems are addressed as if they are (1) solvable using (2) the analytic tools and methods of linear, reductionist science which (3) create “value-neutral, technological remedies that will not create even worse side effects.” (89) These solutions, by this line of reasoning, come from the “top” of our society from governments and large corporations in the form of laws, policies, and technological advances. In this model, the citizenry are passive, waiting for solutions to be handed to them by those that are assigned the job of taking care of them. We become separated from our heart and loose touch with our common sense. Fears take the place of reasoned responses and tension builds in the psyche as the choices are made by those assigned the caretaking duty make less and less sense to us. We give away our power and become dependent upon faceless entities with whom we have no contact. Disconnection becomes a way of life. We must rethink the way we educate across all disciplines, not only in environmental studies. Orr’s six elements that are required to help people transform, in Aldo Leopold’s words, from “conqueror of the land community to plain member and citizen of it”11 state the direction toward the solution. They match precisely my own thoughts on the directions that education must take. 1. Recognize that all education is environmental education. We must end the conventional educa-

tional principle that all that is human is independent of the natural world. C

2. Environmental issues are complex and cannot be understood through a single discipline or h department. Courses must be designed that truly expand the a p

boundaries of the fields. For example, biology courses must be t e

taught from a holistic point of view, recognizing the human- r

centered bias of the field. 1 3. Education must be a conversation, not a monologue. The language we use must be altered to reduce the distance between us and the natural world. Use of words such as manage, produce, waste, and resource reduce nature to a “thing” to be used. To have a conversation, you must recognize the presence and value of the other. 4. The way education occurs is as important as content. Environmental education must change the way people live, not student building spacecraft model (Photo: JPL) just the way they talk. 5. Direct experience with the natural world is vital for a true understanding of the environment to develop. The power of the direct experience is enormous. In my role as Educational Outreach Manager for a series of space exploration missions for NASA, I once supervised an undergraduate aerospace engineering student in the building of a full-sized model of a robotic spacecraft designed to journey to the planet Pluto. While he was assembling the model prior to display at a science teacher’s convention, I noticed that he was hesitating mounting the dish antenna on the body of the craft. When I asked him why he was waiting, he said that he calculated that the vector forces were such that the antenna would not hang on the spacecraft. I said to him “it doesn’t work on paper, but it does in the real world.” I took the three-foot in diameter dish and simply hung it on the screws on the side of the craft by some piano wire. He was in- credulous. He would have never just tried it. His Caltech12 education had taught him much theory, but he rarely got out into the light of day. A few hours before, an engineer who had volunteered to help load the

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spacecraft model into the van for transport to the convention, was using a tape measure to carefully determine if it would fit. She was measuring every possible angle and concluded that we needed a larger van. I asked to just help me load it in. I could tell just by looking at it that it would fit. It did fit and she was amazed. Once again, this very brilliant person’s education taught her to devalue the real-life experience in favor of the paper journey. 6. An emphasis on building a sustainable society will enhance a learner’s competency with the natural world and its life support systems.13

There are many obstacles in our thinking to making the shift from a linear, exclusionary mode of teaching and learning to one in which the connections in the natural world can be appreciated. Students must be taught the origins of the disconnected thinking that has taken us in the direction of domination over the natural world. The very language of objectification and domination of the natural world has permeated our culture with phrases such as “we must enter virgin territory” to “rape the land.” The words of Francis Bacon, so influential in the crafting of the way we practice science in the West, are a great window into this mindset. Bacon was, as were many scientists of the day, influenced heavily by the witch 14

hunts and inquisitions. He said that nature had to be “hounded in her wanderings . . .bound into service” C

and made a “slave.” He said she was to be “put in constraint” and that it was the job of the scientist to h

“torture nature’s secrets from her.”15 These powerful phrases have not only influenced the way we practice a p

science, but provided the continued rationalization for the unconscionable treatment of women that exists t e

even today. The field of “ecofeminism” has developed in response to these words and is addressed below. r

Two: It is vital that people understand that constant change is not something to be feared. In fact, the systems of our Earth and the Universe as we currently understand them are constantly in a state of flux.

Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it.16 Max Frisch Education in the West suffers from the issues and assumptions that plague the culture at large. One of the major obstacles to learning about the connections on our planet is the way we perceive the concept of “change.” Our language is filled with examples of how we fear change. We use phrases like “mid-life crisis,” we try to keep the “status quo,” we are terrified of changing jobs, and for women, menopause is often perceived as the end of their useful life. Yet the universe around us is a dynamic place where constant change is the fundamental principle around which all life is based. This perception that we live in a universe in which change is to be feared and is contrary to a desired “stable” existence interferes with not only the educational process, but with our ability to connect to the Earth as well. If you belief change is to be feared and that only information which can be classified as “absolute” is worth learning, then you cannot be open to the dynamic, ever changing modes of the Earth. The scientific revolution codified a perception of the universe that dramatically altered our relationship with the Earth. Since the 16th century, when the term “science” took on a new, narrow meaning with the dawn of the Scientific Revolution, the universe ceased to be the enchanted world where, as

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Morris Berman says, The cosmos, in short, was a place of belonging. A member of this cosmos was not an alienated observer of it but a direct participant in its drama17. The Scientific Revolution solidified a different perception. Kirkpatrick Sale describes it with sobering clarity. The new perception held – better than that, it proved – that the Earth, the universe beyond it, and all within it operated according to certain clear, calculable, and unchanging laws, not by the whims of any living, sentient being. It showed that these laws were, far from being divinely created or spiritually inspired, capable of mundane scientific measurement, prediction, and replication, even scientific manipulation and control. It demonstrated that the objects of the universe, from the smallest stone to the earth’s orb itself and the planets beyond, were not animate or purposeful, with individual souls and wills and spirits, but were nothing more than the combinations of certain chemical and mechanical properties. It established beyond all doubt that there are not one but two worlds, the mechanical and inert one out there, made up of a random collection of insensate atoms, and the human one within, where thought and purpose and consciousness reside.18 It is important to reflect on this shift in mindset because the style of education that is generally practiced today, and the very way we practice our daily lives, has evolved from this powerful way of think- C ing. If you insist on classifying the universe and the natural world as based on “clear, calculable, and h unchanging laws,” then you cannot be sensitive to the subtleties of ecosystem dynamics and the impor- a p

tance of removing all pesticides from the food chain. If you acknowledge only that which can be proven by t e

modern scientific techniques, then you will ignore the consequences of continuing to manufacture DDT in r

the U.S, banned in this country, for export to countries with less strict environmental laws. 1

Three: “We have a terrible confusion about our place in nature.”

I believe that we are summoned now to awaken from a spell. The spell we must shake off is a case of mistaken identity, a millennia-long amnesia as to who we really are. We have imagined that we are separate and competitive beings, limited to the grasp of our conscious egos, hence essentially fragile, endlessly needy. This delusion has brought us some high adventures, but also much suffering, and it will destroy us and our world if we don’t wake up in time.19 Joanna Macy Our concept of “self” has increased our separation from the natural world. Most of us believe that to be The Goddess Nut (papayrus art piece; artist unknown) healthy, we must have a solid sense of our boundaries. Our language is filled with phrases that we are taught to utter in order to proclaim our independence. We are supposed to be self-reliant, be able to take care of ourselves, and not need anyone. Classical biology and anthropology teaches us that we are the most intelligent creatures on the planet. The dominant worldview that most cultures in the developed world are

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based on assumes that the resources of the Earth are here for our use and that everything that is not human is classified as “other” and is somehow less important. Our sense of self is so very small, separate, and fragile that it must be constantly defended. Joanna Macy says that our self is so “small and needy that we must endlessly acquire and endlessly consume.”20 We create a powerful sense of aloofness that has made it “ok” to market drugs that will only kill 1% of the people who use them or allow unsafe aircraft to fly because it will be cheaper to pay the wrongful death lawsuits than to fix the airplanes.21 Children begin life with a natural urge to explore. They naturally behave as if there were no boundaries between them and their surroundings. Their connection to the natural world appears quite direct. But the system of education, acculturation, and indoctrination into our culture surely changes the natural urges of the child from a larger identity that includes the natural world to an identity of an “individual.” The individual is separate from everything. Chellis Glendinning describes our modern day definition of our personal boundaries as a “fence, a national boarder, a property line, a suit of armor or a Giorgio Armani suit, a well-fed ego, a psychological defense mechanism.”22 Our concept of psychological boundaries mirrors our political and economic systems – the Earth is viewed as a thing to be acquired, divided,

used, and defended just as our psychological boundary is to enclose, protect, armor, and, ultimately, alien- C

ate. h

Fritjof Capra speculates that between 1500 and 1700, there was a dramatic shift in the way people a p 23

perceived their “place” in the world. Prior to that time, the purpose and nature of science was very t e

different. There was very little desire to predict and control, the hallmark desires of modern science. r

Rather, medieval science was based on both reason and faith and scientists were looking more for the 1 purpose underlying the phenomena they observed. They were focused on questions of God, the soul, and ethics. The view of the world as a machine replaced the more organic worldview and the era of the Scientific Revolution began. The shift that took place was dramatic. The human senses that had been the prime investigative tools of the scientist were replaced with objective observation. Galileo contributed to this by suggesting that scientists should restrict themselves to studying the shapes, numbers, and movements of the The material world that could be measured. Color, taste, sound, Voyager and smell should be ignored – they are merely mental Spacecraft projections.24 Psychiatrist R. D. Laing characterized the era (NASA) well: Out go sight, sound, taste, touch and smell and along with them has since gone aesthetics and ethical sensibility, values, quality, form; all feelings, motives, intentions, soul, consciousness, spirit. Experience as such is cast out of the realm of scientific discourse.25 The Space Program

I have observed this phenomenon during my 20 years of association with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in my work with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Here, cutting edge science is practiced as missions are designed and robotic spacecraft are built to explore the Solar System.

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The people that do this work are generally one of two types: highly creative, emotionally open or linear in their thinking and closed-off emotionally. The former category consists mainly of people who changed careers and became interested in science and engineering during their adult life. They can often be found playing music or practicing Tai Chi during the lunch hour. The latter category is usually made up of those who have formally studied science and engineering, often beginning in their undergraduate training. It is a strange world at JPL – and at other high tech facilities. There is a surreal quality and contradictory atmosphere to them. At JPL, there are 6,000 people who are working on what could be argued is among the most challenging, dramatic, and awe-inspiring endeavors in human history – the exploration of outer space. Through this effort, we are

attempting to connect with the universe that C

seems so out of our reach. Using robotic h explorers, we are learning of the dynamics of The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,California (JPL photo) a p

other worlds and getting clues about how and why the Earth formed the way it did. The space program has t e

given lovers of the Earth the most powerful framework they need to justify caring for our world – we have r

discovered that you can go from one end of the Solar System to the other and not find a single drop of 1 available, fresh water or a breath of fresh air. The Earth is truly a marvel among the planets. Yet the people who are part of this journey try their best to be “good scientists” by removing all acknowledgement of their feelings and by denying their senses. Of course, being human beings, they cannot deny that which is a fundamental part of our beings without paying a high price. Depression is rampant among the workforce, particularly in these modern times of “downsizing” and descoping of the work in light of decreasing budgets. Looking into the workings of this organization that is at the front of technological development can provide some interesting clues about the confusion we have about our place in nature. From these clues, it may be possible to develop behaviors that restore some balance in technological applications. At 9:57am on Friday, July 4, 1997, a spacecraft containing a small

Pathfinder Spacecraft on Mars wheeled “rover” landed on the surface of the planet Mars. The Sagan (NASA photo) Memorial Landing Site, as it is now called, was under study. This was a remarkable achievement, an amazing use of technology. But why do we do it? Should we continue to explore space? How do these otherworldly events affect our own Earth and our priorities towards its environmental crisis? How strange and wonderful is our home, our Earth, With its swirling vaporous atmosphere, Its flowing and frozen climbing creatures, The croaking things with wings that hang on rocks

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And soar through fog, the furry grass, the scaly seas . . . How utterly rich and wild . . . Yet some among us have the nerve, The insolence, the brass, the gall to whine About the limitations of our earthbound fate And yearn for some more perfect world beyond the sky. We are none of us good enough For the world we have. Edward Abbey

JPL is responsible for the “un-personed” (they would say “un-manned”) exploration of the Solar System using robotic explorers. I began my journey with NASA as a “mission planner,” a person whose job it is to understand what the spacecraft being built for a planetary rendezvous can do. I was among the group of people for the Voyager and Galileo missions who met with the scientists who built the various science instruments that

collect information (like the camera, the infra-red detector, etc.). The job of my team was to develop C

conflict-free, time-ordered sequences of events, computer programs that would be transmitted to the h

spacecraft. These sequences would tell the robot – really a computer flying in space – when to take pic- a p

tures, when to turn and point in a different direction, t e

and when to transmit data to the Earth. I did this for r

14 years. 1 My Reconnection with the Earth

For many years (since the age of 5), I concerned myself with the affairs of every other planet except the one of my birth. But in the early 1980’s, I rediscovered the Earth – I came home after many years in space. I realized one day, while standing in Yosemite National Park, surrounded by unparalleled beauty, that you can go from one end of the Solar System to the other and not find fresh, available water or a breath of fresh air. You will not find any sounds of birds, no cries of babies. This Earth is, and always has been, our home. I left the engineering behind a few years ago to devote my life to teaching. I am still associated with JPL, but as an educator. I manage the Educational Outreach Program for the Ice and Fire Preprojects, a series of space missions that propose to visit the planet Pluto, never before visited by our robotic explorers, Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, now believed to possibly have twice the water of the Earth, but locked up in ice-covered oceans, and the Sun, our nearest star. And I still believe in

Page 30 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning exploring space, but with qualifications. In the Summer of 1997, I saw a television program chronicling the life of Carl Sagan. I was reminded of the career of that man who was a passionate teacher. He brought the universe to over 400 million people around the world with his TV series, COSMOS. He, like me, turned to the Earth and until he died in the Fall of 1996, devoted himself to exposing the greed and short-sightedness that is bringing our planet to the brink of disaster. He protested nuclear weapons (and got arrested at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site), warned of global warming, and spoke of the importance of the Earth. He saw the Earth as a wondrous planet that should be cherished. And the scientific community shunned him. I witnessed this shunning of Carl Sagan personally while I was working on the Voyager project, a mission that launched two spacecraft in 1977 to explore to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He was laughed at and made fun of by the teams of scientists and engineers, particularly the camera team (they said NASA forced them to have him as a member because of his popularity). It was here that I first saw that the disconnection that infects science in general was an inescapable epidemic. People in the scientific community shunned Sagan because he was popular, because he was on TV, and because he was making money sharing what he knew. They were jealous and envious and resentful. Those people could have

chosen to be grateful for the exposure he had given their programs and happy for his success. C

But they really couldn’t. The system of science and technology education is not set up to foster h positive emotions. Our patriarchal system of education, especially for scientists and engineers, is built on a a p

long legacy of competition and, sadly, closed-mindedness. The ivory tower of academia is still one of the t e

tallest in the land. r

Many scientists and researchers of all kinds live in six-month increments, making proposals for 1 projects to funding sources, competing for small allocations of research monies, and guarding their results so that they can make a splash at a press conference or scientific meeting. This system does not foster cooperation and openness nor a concern for the future. Creativity is stifled in most science and engineering training programs. You are taught the scientific method, you are taught that objectivity is the rule and emotions ruin the results, and you are taught, basically, to not color outside the lines. In other words, you are taught to deny your humanity and to behave like something you are not – a dispassionate “observer.” Try as we might, pretend as we do, we cannot – and should not – remove our emotional beings from our “work.” But scientists do just that – and pay a powerful price. In order to convince yourself that you can remove your emotions from your work, you must develop the skill of rationalization, you must disconnect from your own emotions, and you must protect yourself from sources in the outside world that could shatter this precarious position. Hence, people who practice science will often appear somewhat socially inept, awkward in their bodies, and fearful of the creative world. I know this intimately for I was just like that for much of my early life. I was stiff in my body – afraid to move for fear of upsetting some precarious balanc- ing act I was in the middle of. Of course, like anything, this does not apply to everyone who practices science. There are many balanced professionals out there who are compassionate, reasonable, enlightened, and connected to themselves and the natural world. They, however, are rarely in positions of power or making science policy decisions. The most glaring example I ever saw of the stiffness and fear present in many scientists and engi-

Page 31 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning neers came in 1987, the tenth anniversary of the launching of the Voyager missions. The Planetary Soci- ety, a support organization for space exploration started by Carl Sagan and Bruce Murry, former director of JPL, gave a party at JPL for all Voyager participants over the years. The entire laboratory community was invited. That evening, there were at least a thousand people on the mall at JPL. People were milling around, sipping drinks and chatting (a typical engineer party!) when all of a sudden music began and none other than Chuck Berry came out and started playing on the steps to the main engineering building. [Chuck Berry has a connection to Voyager – on the record that Carl Sagan put together with his loving wife, Ann Druyan, Chuck Berry is one of the “Voices of Earth” that was digitally encoded so that any extraterrestrials that find the spacecraft could get a taste of our culture!] So on this beautiful summer night outside, with thousands of people around, and Chuck Berry is fifty feet in front of you playing his heart out –only 2 people were dancing! Everyone else was smiling and kind of moving

their head – including me. I was amazed. C

Fear. It paralyzes so many of us and keeps us from h achieving our dreams. How differently we would all work if a p

we didn’t have fear of : t e r

losing our jobs 1 not paying the rent our bosses of standing out in the crowd of someone else stealing our work and getting credit of not being powerful and on and on and on.

Fear keeps you from acting, from challenging assumptions, and from calling things by their right name. The people who are in charge of exploring space are humans, humans trained by the same system that rationalizes away many of the ills of our culture, trained by a system that lives by cost benefit analyses and tradeoffs. So should we continue to explore space? Will such exploration simply continue the confusion we experience about our place in nature? 1.We must not look at space exploration and space colonization as a justification for continuing to exploit the Earth. Some believe that we will eventually leave this Earth and our mess behind. Not true. I don’t believe that it will ever be true. We will not find any greener pastures in the Solar System (or probably anything green at all) and we are farther away from discovering “warp speed” than the abacus is from becoming a laptop computer. We should not take our bad habits and greed-based ethics into space. The Earth will always be our home.

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2.We should not classify other bodies in our Solar System as “resources” to satisfy our lust for minerals and profit. It is disturbing to see artists’ concep- tions (deceptions?) of a lunar or Martian base with a strip mine in the background or hearing talk of bringing an asteroid back to the Earth to pillage. We need to change our consumer-based lifestyles and reassess our priorities. Our space program is A Lunar Strip Mine (from “NASA, The First 25 Years . . . A Resource for already firmly entrenched in the Teachers”, NASA publication EP-182, 1983) “throwaway mentality.” Our rocket launches dump many pieces of debris into Earth orbit, causing a real hazard to our space efforts. A chip

of paint, traveling at speeds of 2,000 miles an hour in orbit, chipped a Space Shuttle window a few C

years ago and could have caused a catastrophic accident. h a p

3.The space program needs a more focused set of questions to ask. Scientists have debated about what we t e

should be looking for in our explorations. Some, such as James Lovelock, creator of the “Gain Hypoth- r

esis,” where the Earth is perceived as a holistic, living system, thought the criteria we use in our 1 biological experiments in space are all wrong. In his book Ages of Gaia, Lovelock tells the story about how he used to work at JPL, on the team for the Viking landers, trying to come up with the procedures for searching for life on Mars. He left when it was clear to him that no one was asking the right questions. Sure enough, Viking’s measurements came up “inconclusive” and some believe that if the probe landed in the middle of a rain forest on Earth, the results would have been the same. Deciding what you want to find out is vital to any investigation in any field. With the space program, we have a great opportunity to re-make our Western, patriarchal, distorted values and revitalize our human spirit. We have the chance to decide what footprint we want to leave behind that says “humans from Planet Earth have been here.” Our actions in space can set a powerful example for a new way to care for our Earth or they can promote the same wasteful, greedy values that have damaged our planetary life- support systems and disconnected us from the sacred natural world. It can contribute to Mining an Asteroid on Phobos, a moon of Mars (by Robert McCall) from “Pioneering the Space Fronteer,”A Report by the clarifying or intensifying our confusion about National Commission on Space, Bantam Books,1986. our place in nature.

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Our relationship to “wilderness” may give us more clues. Rene Dubos spoke often on this. Our constant obsession of reducing all of nature to a more human scale causes us problems with our perception of our place in nature. He said that human- ized environments feel safe and give us confidence because everything is remade in a human scale. When we experience wilderness, though, it provides the opportunity to measure ourselves against the cosmos. It invites us to explore the realms of eternity and infinity.27 Living lives inside of modern dwellings in brightly lit cities may contribute to this dilemma as well. In the Stone Age, the land and its features determined our mental and physical conditioning: the relief of the land; the rocks, stones, rivers; the weather. Natural phenomena were experienced directly and even body responses become conditioned by environmental

stimulii. Dubos says that this direct contact with the natural C

world resulted in an h

empirical knowledge that was more holistic than analytic but so precise and so well fitted to their local a p

environment that it enabled them to cope effectively with the various aspects of the wildnerness in which t e 28

they lived, much as wild animals do in their native habitats. r

Of course, not all practices of all nature-based communities are sound. But studies by 1 Glenndinning and others in the bibliography of this work show that a clearer, more defined connection to the natural world has a significant impact on one’s daily existence. Locked inside our dwellings and vehicles, our universe becomes our car, our office, our homes. Our place in nature becomes one of lonely superiority. We must guard our dwellings and ourselves, to protect against the “elements,” to keep germ and insect-free. How can we possibly experience our place in nature from behind multiple panes of glass? We are afraid of wilderness. In fact, even the definition of the term reveals our discomfort and fear. The word wilderness is usually used to denote something that is devoid of life and is useless to human beings. Of course, ecologically wilderness refers to an area that has not been disturbed by human incursions. Interestingly enough, the word wilderness appears about 300 times in the Bible and all its meanings are derogatory!29

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Ynestra King tells us that There is at the root of Western Society a deep ambivalence about life itself, about our own fertility and that of nonhuman nature, and a terrible confusion about our place in nature.30 The obstacles facing the educator are many. Clearly, redefining our relationship to the natural world cannot take place solely within a classroom. To heal our confusion, we must relearn our most fundamental of relationships. Environ- mental studies education must work to eliminate that ambivalence and help restore a deep respect for life. The traditional hierarchical view of the world that has humans at the top must be reexam- ined. Silently a flower blooms,

In silence it falls away; C

Yet here now, at this moment, at this place, h

The world of the flower, the whole of a p

the world is blooming. t e

This is the talk of the flower, the truth r

of the blossom; 1 The glory of eternal life is fully shining here. Zenkei Shibayama

We ate no flesh in Eden, but afterwards, when things got hard, we forgot the peaceful kinship of that ancient kingdom. As our teeth sank into their flesh we had to deny them. So we said they had no souls, no reason, no thumbs, no speech. We were so different. We made a chain of things to protect us – fire, medicine, our locking houses, many kinds of clothes. And we renamed them – farm product, fur crop, renewable resource. Pray that we will see their faces again in the mirror of creation, the miracle of animals, their clear eyes meaning more than profit to our own!

Jean Pearson31

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Four: The basic assumptions that we have built our lives around need modification.

The cultural beliefs and practices that are passed on through ) x o

schooling and family relate to the deepening ecological crisis. The F w e h

way we perceive ethnic, race, gender, and class distinctions may t t a

strengthen the cultural orientation that is undermining our Earth’s M

32 b

natural systems. s n

th o i

We live in a world in which Hildegard of Bingen, the 10 t a n century abbes, philosopher, musician, and scientist, said is so awe- i m u l

33 l some that we need allegory to comprehend it. She said we need I

m o

the artist to interpret the world for us, to present it in manageable r f (

terms. Yet our technological society sees the world often as little d r a g more than a collection of machines that need periodic tending. e d l i H

No matter what culture we were born in, we have the y b

challenge of being born into a symbolic as well as physical world. ” a i C h

We are surrounded by symbols defined in our families, culture, and p o h S relationships that affect the way we see the world. We have an “ a arbitrary definition of “truth” that has been shaped by the symbol- p 34 t making institutions of our home tribe. e r

Many of the most powerful assumptions of our lives come from the world of science. Early in the 1 16th and 17th centuries, the last vestiges of thinking of the cosmos as alive and of identifying the Earth with human beings in spirit and body was considered naive, barbaric, and childish.35 The image of the universe was far from alive any longer – it was, as Newton spoke of it, a giant clock, a machine. Kirkpatrick Sale says this time marked the demotion of god and goddess to little more than clock-winders. Slowly and powerfully, the science we embrace today was formed and this paradigm transformed the attitudes of Western society toward nature and the universe. Sale goes on to recount Europe’s treatment of the “New World” that was opened up about the same time as the scientific paradigm was being formed and, in fact, was fueled by it. He reminds us that Two continents, pristine jewels of unimagined glories, were perceived as nothing but empty spaces for unwanted populations, repositories of wanted ores, tracts of trees to fell and fields to plow, virgin territories with no other purpose but to be worked. Those who inhabited those spaces could be honorably and properly displaced, for they were only hunters and foragers who did nothing to “improve” the land and thus had no standing in the eyes of European law.36 Over the next century and a half, the New World was ravaged and plundered with the aid of forced labor of over 100,000 slaves per year, says Sale. Perceptions changed and the result was that a new relationship with nature became firmly entrenched in our culture. Nature became the provider of resources, the wild land to be tamed, and the prize to be owned. The reference to slavery is of particular importance, since the way we have chosen to use technology reflects the greed which has often been at the root of technological advances. The steam engine is an interesting example of this suggestion, since a working steam engine was created around the time of the birth of Christ (eighteen centuries before James Watt, the

Page 36 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning recognized inventor of the steam engine), by Hero of Alexandria. No one was very interested, though, since slaves were already doing the job. It wasn’t until slavery was outlawed in England in the 18th century did the need for such a device attract investors.37 Let’s look at some of the assumptions that are the “truths” that many people carry around with them as foundations of their thinking. These can be inferred from much of the discussion above and are obstacles that have to be overcome if we are to experience the connections that exist between the natural world and us. Assumptions We Make The natural world is a storehouse of resources for the use of humans. “Wild” lands are useless and need to be tamed in order to be of value. There isn’t enough money to solve our problems. Technology will solve our problems. Technology isn’t a problem if you use it properly. Someone or something has to suffer if others are to have what they need (“only the strong survive,” or “it’s a dog-eat-dog world”) and the natural world is based on violence.

You must break things down into their smallest components in order to figure them out. C

“I feel fine so how can the air and water be as polluted as you claim?” h

The health of a people means economic health. a p

The huge population is the problem, particularly in the developing nations. t e

If I don’t use it, someone else will. r

Living a more connected life through choices in lifestyle, diet, and career, mean you have to make 1 extreme “sacrifices.” You have to eat meat and drink milk to be healthy. There is plenty of food – look at the shelves in the supermarkets. And on and on . . .

Each of the above assumptions has associated with them many spinoff assumptions that create a “mythology” in each of us about how the world works and our relationship to the natural world. Traditional teaching methods of “fact-packing” and testing rarely challenge these assumptions. Through the teaching of the connections in our world, people have the opportunity to defy these worldviews and create others. Leaving behind the assumptions that have been woven into the fabric of our lives may be the most difficult task we can undertake. It is an essential one, however, if we are to experience a connection to the natural world. An educator can facilitate and participate in this awakening.

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Hold on, hold on to yourselves, for this is gonna to hurt like hell. from “Hold On” by Sara McLachlan38

Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here. Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go. Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.

Nancy Wood39 C h

Sources and Consequences of Assumptions a p

Where do so many of our life assumptions come t e

from? Many come from our families of origin, to be sure. r

Yet many are supplied by the culture from the moment we 1 are conceived. Chellis Glendinning says we have a deep mindset, a mindset of imperialism and of domination. Virtually all of us have been touched by the disassociated and disconnected values of our culture.40 How else can we explain that in a single day, people of the United States:

throw out 200,000 tons of edible food use 313 million gallons of fuel - enough to drain 26 tractor-trailer trucks every minute take 18 million tons of raw materials from the Earth Use 6.8 billion gallons of drinking water to flush toilets Throw 1 million bushels of litter out of car windows Add 10,000 minks to their closets and coat racks Spend $200 million on advertising Saw up 100 million board feet of wood use 250,000 tons of steel use 187,000 tons of paper. 41

We waste huge amounts of energy and human resources in the arms race. There is one soldier for every 43 people in the world and only one doctor for every 1,030. Forty percent of our research and

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development expenditures and 60 percent of our physical scientists and engineers are devoted to developing weapons to kill everyone on Earth 67 times. One-quarter of the adults on this planet cannot read or write and

• 1 out of 5 is hungry, malnourished and does not have housing • 1 out of 5 lacks clean drinking water • 1 out of 3 lacks adequate health care • over one-half lack sanitary toilets.42

How did we get so out of touch? When did the assumption that earning money is more important than feeding babies take over? When did we give corporate leaders the right to make world-shattering decisions that affect us all? We have to work hard to get back in connection with our world and ourselves. What can an educator do? Here are some thoughts. First we have to acknowledge that we are contributing to the problems. We waste a lot of internal

energy by trying to believe that someone else is actually to blame. Taking responsibility is not so bad. C

Next, looking for and acknowledging some of the historical clues is helpful. This is an important h step in taking responsibility. Here are a few. They are oversimplifications, to be sure, but they are sugges- a p

tive. Many of our fundamental assumptions about life may have been born long ago. t e

1. A long time ago, when our connection to the natural world was more easily seen, people fed r

themselves mainly by subsistence farming, growing only enough to feed their families. 1 2. The size of the population was kept down by high infant mortality and spacing of births caused by the suppression of ovulation during the 3 to 4 years a woman would breast-feed their children. Look at how technology and the way the world treats women has had an effect on population. The worldwide use of infant formula not only results in many infant deaths, but contributes to increasing the population as well! 3. Around 5000 BC, the invention of the metal plow literally changed the face of the Earth for all time. Crop productivity increased, irrigation- assisted agriculture began, and families began producing more food than they needed. The excess food had to be stored and sold. 4. The population began to increase because of the larger supply of food. 5. People cleared increasingly larger areas of land and began to control and shape the surface of the Earth to suit their needs. 6. The domestication of animals changed forever our relationship with the other life forms on this planet. Chellis Glendinning says that the relationship with the natural world changed from one of “respect for and participation in its elliptical wholeness to one of detachment, management, control, and finally domination.” She feels that the domestication of animals and the transformation of our earthly neighbors

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into food resources created a condition where the human psyche maintains itself in a “state of chronic traumatic stress.” 7. Urbanization began as people began to settle around the large farms they could not create. Specialized occupations and long-distance trade developed. 8. The trade in food and manufactured goods made possible by agricultural-based urban societies created wealth and the need for a managerial class to regulate the distribution of goods, services and land. 9. As ownership of land and water rights became a valuable economic resource, conflict increased. Armies and war leaders rose to power and took over large areas of land. A new class of powerless people, the slaves, minorities, and landless peasants, were forced to the hard, disagreeable work of producing food. 10. Forests were cut down and grasslands were plowed to provide vast areas of cropland and grazing

land to feed the growing population of these emerging civilizations and to provide wood for fuel and for C

buildings. h

11. The massive land clearing altered many habitats and hastened many species to their extinc- a p

tion. t e

12. Machines that could harness energy derived from the burning of r

fossil fuels, greatly increasing the average energy resource use per person. 1 The number of people needed to produce food was greatly decreased, so our connection to the land through the growing of food was eliminated.43

Our eating habits, our living habits, the way we treat animals, the way we let technology into our lives, and the way we take in our information about the world dramatically affects our connection to the planet. Common Threads

I am surrounded often by many types of people – activists, engineers, adult students, scientists, teachers, grocery clerks – yet the common threads of sadness, fear, and disconnection from the natural world bind them all together. I marvel as I conduct a class on our connection to the natural world, filled with adults who have chosen to return to school to get their bachelors degree, and hear a familiar litany of concerns and assumptions: “I can’t give up my caffeine.” “I have to drive 60 miles to work every day.” “I can’t carpool, my schedule is too irregular.” “I was too busy to do the assignment.” “Life is short – I don’t want to give up the ‘good things.” “I have to take care of my own children. I can’t afford to feed the poor.” “Besides, those that are poor and unfortunate have chosen that . . .”

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Trying to plan a field trip with my busy, hard-working adults is an experience in frustration. Every- one is so “busy” that no day is ever good. The idea of stopping the relentless madness of their lives to take a hike to a lovely waterfall is unthinkable. In a meeting room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory filled with highly educated scientists and engineers working in the space program, I am often surrounded with a similar, but more articulate, litany. In a meeting in August, 1997, after the project manager had shown many charts in preparation for a presentation to a high ranking boss the following week, he came to a chart that tried to boil down the often confusing array of technical information. The chart was in clear language, had no technical jargon, and conveyed a good summary message. A number of the engineers in the room said the chart was “offen- sive” and should be removed. Their assumption was that a non-technical chart would be misunderstood. A couple of months ago, I encountered a young man whom I had met while I was helping plan conferences on environmental activism. He is a dedicated activist who, just recently, had his picture on the front page of a local paper because he had chained himself to a bulldozer that was going to be used to destroy the last important wetland in Southern California. I greeted him warmly and reached out to shake his hand. He pulled back, saying he is not “doing that anymore” because there are so many germs on our

hands. C

Sources of Information h a Why are senseless deaths and environmental destruc- p t tion viewed as just another sad story in the newspaper that we e r

can’t do anything about? One of the most powerful assumption- 1 generators in our culture that keeps us separated from each other, the natural world, and ourselves is the nature of our information sources, television being a major contributor. One of the issues is that the quality of information we take in about what is going on in the world is low and the way we process it is suspect. Over 40 million people watch a major network television news program each evening and countless more watch the uncountable number of local news programs on each day. TV news programs are the “cash crops” of today’s networks. TV news programs are designed to keep you watching closely, in a state of fear and denial, desperately hoping for some relief.44 The relief is often promised in the form of a “human interest” story, always at the end of the program. In between the fear-generating vignettes, the program will supply you with a way to overcome your fears and rising panic – many carefully placed opportunities to buy things. Advertisers know that TV news programs are the places to get their message across. They know that viewers tend to be better educated and have more money to spend than other audiences. The com- mercial spots they design are often longer than the news stories themselves! Postman and Powers say “the commercials are fast-paced and exciting and, as a result, influence the way the news stories around them are produced.” 45 Developers of “interactive” television are very excited because they are working on ways to send viewer-specific commercials into your homes. They will use not only geographic information, but personal

Page 41 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning information about your household such as your publicly available mail-order spending patterns, to target you. Prescription drug commercials will litter the airwaves going to senior citizen’s homes while Nike sneaker commercials will invade the homes of families of children who play organized sports in school. So, Postman and Powers ask, who is watching whom? You may think that you are just using the TV to pick and choose your information, but this is really not true. You are being presented with a carefully designed program of assumptions that is constructed to influence you in every way. As you watch the TV, you are being “statistically watched, and very carefully, by managers, accountants, and business people . . . [who] argue that they must know who you are to mirror your interests and give you what you want” says Postman and Powers. Television (and print media) news gives us other burdens as well. It teaches us to be satisfied with 30 second soundbites of information. It teaches us to not be concerned with depth and precision. It teaches us to overlook the details and make global, far-reaching conclusions after hearing only a few seconds about a situation. And, doing the most damage, it teaches us that after 30 seconds to a minute, the story is “over” and we don’t have to concern ourselves with it any more. How can we? We are not given any tools to act. How many of us can really say that these habits have not infiltrated into the way we learn and communi-

cate in our personal lives? C

What becomes news in our lives is based on the narrow definitions that we see presented in h programs such as these. In a 60-minute broadcast, or in the morning paper, not all the news is covered. Yet a p

it is easy to go about your day thinking you have caught up on the news. I tell people that I do not read t e

the daily paper or watch the evening news. I continue by saying that I have a copy of the Los Angeles r

Times from February 5, 1972, and I take it out once per week to catch up on the news. A joke, to be sure, 1 but with a powerful, depressing seed of truth. What you see on the news is only one tiny piece of the puzzle. You are not really learning anything. Postman and Powers point out that on the day Marilyn Monroe committed suicide, many other people did as well whose reasons may have been even more significant than Miss Monroe’s. We shall never know of these people or their reasons – those who decide what is news at CBS or NBC or The New York Times simply took no notice of them. On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was tragically killed in an auto accident while being pursued by five photographers on motorcycles, trying to get photographs that would be bought for up to a million dollars by tabloid newspapers. The world press focused on this event, an event that the courts may decide they caused, and we will not learn of the many thousands of others who died tragically that day. Who decides what is important? Who decides what we need to know? This is about “judgement,” a very subjective thing. What is important to one person concerned with human suffering and the beauty of nature will not be as important to a person who has been taught to define health as the state of the economic elements of their life. So how do we use our powerful intellect we have been given to make rational choices? How do we define rational? An educator, skilled in teaching skills that promote clear, reasoned thinking can be of

Page 42 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning enormous benefit. Some suggested approaches will be presented in Chapter 2 of this work. I sometimes visualize what should be the headline of a newspaper that might be a more representative daily story of people in our world:

Los Angeles Times Mary and John Jones Have a Pretty Good Day Today, Mary and John Jones lingered in bed a while, enjoying each other’s touch and presence. They then walked their dogs, had a fun breakfast outside in their backyard, and got ready for work. They worked hard today, then returned home, greeting each other warmly, playing with the dogs, and began to cook dinner. They watched a little TV (not the news!) did some arts and crafts, and settled into bed, falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Rise up, child of earth let life rise up in you, full-term, new-born. Time enough in wondrous darkness, Echoed sounds of voices, stirrings,

splashings of new life. C

Relinquish to memory this one mystery h a

we yearn to know and will again p

in after-death. t e

So much latent r

still to rise 1 Until our rising lifts us to a depth that questions every truth we’ve ever known.

Mud-stirred of first-clay. Plaything of a potter who fell in love with her hands’ work. Blessed be her handiwork. Blessed be the work of her hands. Blessed be. Pat Kozak

“The weight of this sad time we must obey. Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” William Shakespeare, King Lear

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Five: The absence of full representation of women and people of color in the development of our science and technology (and the world) have had a devastating impact on our culture and way of life.

The ecological crisis is related to the systems of hatred of all that is natural and female by the white, male, Western formulators of philosophy, technology, and death inventions. Ynestra King46

These powerful, radical words suggest something that must be considered. King proposes that the systematic denigration of so many people in the world including working-class people, people of color, women, and animals is the result of the basic dualism that lies at the root of Western culture. Is this too extreme a view? History can be interpreted to support this contention. Our separation from nature is clear and easily observable. The dualism between nature and culture is the foundation of the Western world. It is not too great a leap to suggest that this dualism has as its model the domination of men over women and other oppressed peoples.47 Modern science represents itself as universal, value-free and able to arrive at objective conclusions about life.48 Yet how can any endeavor be free of judgement and completely objective? Studies have shown that a researcher will nearly always observe data and draw conclusions that fit within the boundaries of her C or his expectations. After all, humans are thinking, feeling, subjective beings. h

Vandana Shiva, a theoretical physicist and feminist scholar from India, observes that modern a science claims to be a liberating force for humanity as a whole. Yet world-wide experiences do not support p t

this claim. Science and technology are used throughout the globe as a political and economic force to e r

bring “third-world” countries up to North American “standards.” In these lesser-developed countries, in 1 order to support this new set of values brought about by these supposed improvements, the separation from the natural world must, sadly, increase. Healthy, productive land is cleared for cattle ranches, the consumption of meat increases, and the production of local foods ceases as production efforts are deflected to exportable goods. Cancers that have been unknown until now in the lesser-developed countries are on the rise as people’s lifestyles shift towards high animal protein diets and substance abuse (caffeine and tobacco). The increase in stress that accompanies a more consumer-oriented lifestyle, the quest for the American Dream, results in higher blood pressure and an increase in circulatory diseases such as heart attacks and strokes49 which, together, kill 15.3 million people a year.50 In a report released on May 2, 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms that shifts in the lifestyles of the industrialized world, made possible by scientific and technological advances, have dramatically impacted the health of the world. Dr. Nakajima, Director-General of the WHO, said during the press conference releasing the 1997 report that People in poorer countries are now acquiring many of the unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors of the industrialized world: sedentary occupations, inadequate physical activity, unsatisfactory diets, tobacco, alcohol and drugs.”51 Diseases of affluence are now rampant in developing countries, as they are in the West, and WHO estimates that cancers from these diseases will rise a remarkable 40% by the year 2020.52 Is science as practiced today the liberator or the subjugator, or is it a “Western, male-oriented and patriarchal projection that necessarily entailed the subjugation of both nature and women?53 These are important questions to ask and they must be considered if learning about our world, in or out of the

Page 44 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning classroom, is to be conducted in a connected and inclusive manner. Have Women Been Excluded? Have the fields of science been dominated by men and has the male or patriarchal mindset influenced our culture and our connection to the natural world? The answer is clearly “yes.” The U.S. National Science Foundation’s collection of data on the presence of women in science says so much, just in the title. The volume is called “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering.” Women continued to be classified as “other” along with the numerous disenfranchised groups of our society. The numbers below (from the 1994 report) are very revealing.54

• Males are three times more likely to pursue a C career in science, math, or engineering than females. h a

(xxxi) p

• 40% of females questioned said they did not t e like math and 35 percent said they did not like science r while only 27% and 22% respectively of males claimed a similar dislike. (xxxi) 1 • Although women constitute 51.2% of the population and about 46% of the workforce in all occupations, only 22% are in science and engineering occupations. (95) • Women earned 29% of the science and engineering doctorates, yet the majority were in positions that have been traditionally accepted as “appropriate” for women (such as nursing and education). Fifty nine percent were awarded in psychology, 38% in biological sciences, 35% in social sciences, 19% in mathematics, and 9% in engineering. (75) Why? • Higher percentages of females than males reported having been advised not to take senior mathematics in high school.55 (23) • Faculty who teach undergraduates are overwhelmingly male in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, and sociology, geology, and physics. Sociology has the highest proportion of women (30%) and mechanical engineering the lowest (4%). Female students find very few role models. (53) • Math and science teachers treat girls and boys differently in the classroom. Boys get more eye contact and attention from teachers than girls. When boys give the wrong answers, teachers challenge them to find the correct one. Girls get sympathy. When there are lab experiments, boys tend to operate the equipment and girls take data and write reports. (21) • Loss of self-confidence in girls seems to begin around the 7th grade and continue through high school. Although males and females performed comparably in science and math courses, females tended to underestimate their abilities. This lack of confidence accelerates and females begin taking fewer and fewer math and science courses. (21)

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It is evident that women have not had a full role either in participating in the practice of science or, as history shows, in the development of its methods and ideologies. The worldview that provides the basis for science as it is practiced today is a white male one. How science might have evolved if there had been full participation by women and people of color is unknown. However, it is vital to realize that science, and our view of the natural world, has been formed with a male perspective and is based on the male experience. In fact we can narrow the argument further by specifying that our view of the universe has been shaped by a white class-privileged male persepective. In order to teach about the complex connections that exist on the planet between the human and non-human world, environmental studies and other educators must accept the responsibility to invite female students to tell of their experience in the world. We all have to learn of the female experience and create a new experience that includes women. And the male experience must be redefined as well. Inclu- sive programs must be developed that invite women to participate and that heal the breach that has been created. Whether or not the dominance of a male perspective in science has been a negative influence is

more difficult to “prove,” at least by traditional, patriarchal methodologies. Certain factors do suggest that C

the disconnected worldview may have come from the patriarchal influence. h a

Can We Really Be “Objective” p t

Speculation abounds about the effect that the lack of participation of women in the development e and practice of science has had. Since so many of our behaviors have evolved in an atmosphere of cultural r influences, it is difficult to say what is really male and what is really female. This is an important context 1 to understand, since our subjugation of nature and the parallel to the treatment of women can illuminate the path toward healing. The challenge may be to demonstrate that the way we treat nature and women are really acts of systematic subordination and not just the results of coincidental misfortune.56 If one assumes that the experiences of women are different from the experiences of men and that the major systems of thought in our culture are based on men’s experiences, then the fundamental assumptions that have been made about how the world works should be challenged. In general, modern culture assumes that males possess natural intelligence, are logical, objective, active, independent, forceful, and courageous. Women have been assumed to be emotionally responsive, obedient, kind, dependent, timid, self-sacrificing, and incapable of abstract thought.57 These assumptions are so ingrained in our culture that it is difficult for any child and their parents to escape the subtle and insidious indoctrination from film, literature, television, advertising, and the very language we use every day. Yet these descriptions do not accurately describe either sex. Neither men nor women can be identified with these traits exclusively, yet for reasons that are beyond the scope of this work, the traits that have been traditionally assumed to be “female” are considered less than, weaker, and undesirable. This view of what is “feminine” is being challenged, just as the view of the world, created with patriarchal views, attitudes, and imagery, is being challenged. Modern science was founded on these gender assumptions. Women have been denied participation in scientific endeavors from early times, yet it is also women who have traditionally been closer to the land than men. Women have been the healers, midwives, herbalists, and keepers of wisdom from the land for eons.58 Modern science claims to be dispassionate and objective, yet it was not always so.

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While those who practice today’s form of science see “objectivity” as admirable, others feel that objectification is a root cause of our disconnection from the natural world and each other. Descriptions of scientific research and discoveries rarely contain reference to the observer. The researcher does not say “I have shown that ...” but rather says “The facts have shown that ...” This is very different. Denise Frechet, in an essay about objectivity and male dominance in science, reflects on French sociologist Edgard Morin. Morin said that this belief that the observer can remove him or herself is a masquerade. Frechet says that “the subject who pretends to be absent from his discourse is in fact in its center, identifying himself with ‘absolute objectivity.’”59 Shiva classifies modern science as “fragmented” and “reductionist” because it allows us to know nature only by excluding other “knowers and other ways of knowing” and it removes nature’s capacity for creative regeneration and renewal by speaking of it only in terms of fragmented and inert matter.60 As was discussed earlier, the very terminology we use to speak of our “use” of the natural world is revealing and Bacon’s claim that nature had to be “hounded in her wanderings” and “bound into service” and made a “slave” is important to acknowledge. Even today, we believe that nature should be “put in constraint” and we still “torture nature’s secrets from her.”61

This field of study is enormous and beyond the scope of this work, but the presentation of some C

key principles will help this analysis and provide clues as to how environmental education must be adjusted h to take these biases into account. No one idea is probably the cause for the oppression of either women or a p

nature, but provocative insights can come from an examination t e

of these thoughts. Below are some of these key principles. r

1 Women are often identified with nature. Feminists who believe that the fundamental cause of oppression is the biologically based domination of women by men feel that men have sought to enlist women and nature in the service of “male projects designed to make men safe from feared nature and mortality.”62 There is also fear within this “radical” feminist movement that the connection made between women and nature can result in the continued subordination of women. The “women’s spirituality” movement embraces the concept of the Earth as a living system where cooperation was a stronger force in evolution than competition.63 This is a very different view of the world than that offered by mainstream “modern” biology. Competition for resources is usually the main theme in discussions of the evolution of life. Virtually all species are discussed in terms of the “survival of the fittest.” Our language is filled with references to this belief, such as “only the strong survive” and “it’s a dog-eat-dog world.” Nature films on the Public Broadcasting Service, a very popular form of entertainment in the 1990’s, invariably will show animals fighting, eating each other, or suffering from lack of resources. Rarely do they show the cooperation and compassion that takes place in the system. Here are some examples: • The many forms of plants whose seeds cannot germinate unless they first pass through the

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digestive tract of an animal who eats them, • The powerful social forces at work in an elephant herd, including the way that the young are cared for and the concern for the individual. Entire herds of elephants will slow down for an ailing young- ster and they will all grieve for a dead comrade. • The anguished cry of a female harp seal that watches as her baby is clubbed by a fur hunter with a spiked stick and skinned alive on the ice flows of the Arctic. The mother will grieve over the skinned carcass for hours. Ecological feminism calls for a dynamic theory of the person, both for males and females, where the self is a larger entity that includes the non-human and natural world. If one defines one’s self as being part of the non-human world as well as the human one, then the thought of harming an ecosystem or a river or even a tree would be as unthinkable as cutting off one’s own limb. Women have been at the forefront of virtually every political and social movement to reclaim the Earth.64 Women will often feel the effects of degradation of the Earth before men. This connection is seen most dramatically in the lesser-developed countries, but the phenomenon exists worldwide. • Women do almost all of the world’s domestic work and child care, mostly without pay.

• Women do more than half the work associated with growing food, gathering fuelwood, and hauling C

water. h

• Women provide more health care with little or no pay than all the world’s organized health services a p

combined (they also do 60% of the world’s work in general, yet own only 10% of the world’s property t

65 e

and earn 1% of the world’s income). r

The worldwide economic value of women’s domestic work is estimated at $4 trillion annually, an 1 amount which is not figured into any country’s gross national product. Since the daily work of most women (gathering fuelwood, food, child care) in the world brings them in closer contact with the land than men, women are, therefore, most likely to come into contact with toxins in the form of pesticides and toxic wastes than men.66 Even in Southern California, I have witnessed this spectacle unfold. In Beverly Hills and Sherman Oaks, two very affluent areas, a veritable “army” of nannies, usually always Hispanic females, take the rich, white babies out for walks in their strollers. At the same time, hundreds of gardeners, usually always Hispanic (or sometimes Asian) males, are gardening using gasoline-powered leaf- blowers, cutting lawns with gas-powered lawn mowers, and spraying pesticides on lawns. These women, and the children in their care, are exposed to this onslaught of toxic pollution every day. These are important considerations for the environmental studies educator. Teaching about the connections in our world means that students will be given an implied view of how the world is designed and how it works. If the instructor teaches about the carbon cycle, the hydrologic cycle, and the sulfur cycle as separate, independent systems, then the student will not be challenged to see how they interrelate. If the instructor teaches about the relationships between species in terms that emphasize competition, then the dominant patriarchal worldview will be reinforced. If the instructor speaks in terms of “mankind’s” quest for dispassionate, objective views of the universe that remove all sensory expression, then the world will continue to appear as a separate, isolated place. Neither men nor women will feel wholly included in the discussion or the analysis. History proves that educators must make extra efforts to include women in discussions from which they have been excluded for far too long.

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Six: Redefining and including spirituality in our lives and all fields of study is vital to our survival. We must learn to call the fruits and resources of the Earth “sacred.”

“What are you? What am I? Intersecting cycles of water, earth, air, and fire, that’s what I am, that’s what you are. . .Come back with me into a story we all share, a story whose rhythm beats in us still. The story belongs to each of us and to all of us, like the beat of this drum, like the heartbeat of our living universe...” Gaia Meditations, John Seed and Joanna Macy, Thinking Like a Mountain, 1988.

There is really no great mystery to it. If you look into the past (or present), archeologists have discovered just about every society has among their central deities the Earth. In fact, in many cases, the Earth Goddess or God was worshiped before all others.67 This is no real surprise. When one’s connection to nature is strong and technology is not the crutch, the Earth is usually seen as a life-giving force that you have to understand if you are to survive. When your very existence depends upon knowing the Earth’s seasonal cycles so that you can plant or harvest your food, when you must understand animals and their habits in order to hunt them for food and clothing, then respect and appreciation for the natural world and the land itself as a sacred entity is surely inevitable.68 But somewhere we went astray. Somewhere along the C journey, as bioregionalist Kirkpatrick Sale says, we became more concerned with “exploitation and domina- h a

tion than nurturance and sustainability, with the riches of ores rather than the riches of the soil, with p preserving bureaucracy and hierarchy rather than ecosystems and habitats.”69 Redefining our relationship t e with the natural world may need to be the underlying theme of all disciplines of learning if we are to heal. r

Our reliance on numerical data keeps us at a distance from the natural world. Has anyone ever 1 really been motivated by a number, a quantity, or a unit of measure? Isn’t it really a feeling that truly motivates us? Isn’t it only our heart and soul that can really awaken us and move us to action? We need help reconnecting with our own bodies, where feelings lie. We need help to redefine the concept of spirituality. We have been taught that learning takes place only in a classroom, with our bodies rigid and our minds tuned to the thoughts of a teacher. We move only when we get to leave, to go home, to play. Richard Heckler in a powerful book called “The Anatomy of Change,” speaks of the schism we have between our minds and our bodies. He suggests that without integrating what is in your mind with the rich wisdom of feelings in your body, the information and data are hollow, lifeless. He says that:

when we place our attention in our body, we begin to feel, and our feeling connects us to our energy. Our energy then informs us of our direction and meaning in life. If we respond from our energy, we are responding from that part of ourselves that is least conditioned. If we act from our energy, and not from our ideas, social images, or what others expect, we feel enriched with genuine expression and life.70

We need to find ways around our social conditioning that has formed our ideas, images, and expectations. Using our bodies in a “dialog” is truly acting from energy and not ideas. In Los Angeles, I have personally experienced the work of someone who is working to overcome our conditioning. Eve Ray, MA, MFCC, conducts powerful workshops she calls “Movement Expression.” In these weekly two and one half-hour sessions, twenty to twenty-five people are led through exercises, some individual, some with partners, and some with groups, that explore various themes. I have taken her

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her nine-week class seven times. During one week, one particularly relevant theme centered on connecting and disconnecting. With music in the background, and Eve’s gentle directions guiding us through various body movements, deep and profound explorations took place. Before we began, with the group sitting in a circle, Eve spoke of using the dance studio as a safe place to explore ourselves though our bodies. She said we need to feel like we can come home to ourselves, to feel at home in our bodies. I have never really felt very at home in my body. And try as I might, I struggle to feel at home on our planet, the place from which all life as we know it sprang, the planet where we are intimately connected through a complex web of life that touches all of us

every moment of every day. Yet how many of us can C

say we feel “at home” on our Earth, let alone in our h

bodies? a p t

Mindful Movement e r

One of the exercises in Movement Expression 1 was about feeling what it is like to move from one dance partner to another, feeling the sensations of trying to connect with that person (whom we had met only an hour before) and then, without warning, being told to move on to another person - with a different type of music playing in the background. It was a challenging and enlightening experience. The process with each new partner was a fascinating metaphor for how we connect to our surroundings in life. Initially, I was quite nervous with the new partner. Would this one accept or reject me? Would I be judged? Would I “do it wrong?” As the dancing began, I would wonder what every gesture and movement of the other person meant. But always in the back of my mind, even during my discomfort, was the awareness that this connection would be temporary. I didn’t need to really know this person. It didn’t really matter if he or she didn’t like what I was doing. It didn’t really matter if we connected at all. I was going to move on soon anyway. I started thinking about how this was an interesting metaphor for my relationship with the natural world. Many of us don’t put down real roots and don’t stay very long in one place. And even if we stay in our homes for months or even years, we don’t really connect with our environments - we don’t develop a sense of “place.” How can we be expected to develop a relationship with the natural world if we don’t take the time to get to know the Earth beneath our feet? We travel so much. How can we get to know the land? One day a few months ago, I began the day doing some writing, then I shopped for a wedding present for a former student. That afternoon my fiancee and I went to the wedding at a pretty botanical garden about 40 miles from where I live. After the ceremony, we greeted the new bride and groom and then drove to Ojai, a town about 2 hours north of Los

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Angeles, to have dinner and pick up a Beatrice Wood drawing that Bonnie had purchased during a visit there a couple of months ago. We drove home that night. During that day, I visited many different environments, encountered many different people, but I didn’t really connect with anyone or anything. How could I? We never stayed in any one place long enough to get a sense of it. Richard Heckler speaks of the schism that exists between our minds and bodies and the disconnection in our lives that results. He says, “our culture has become imbalanced, leaning toward cognitive learning and has lost touch with the wisdom of the body.” He says that the, “body is a way of accessing people and their deeper urges and potentials. Through the body, we can learn how to embody the values and qualities we think important. Experiencing the life of the body brings us into contact with the quality of compassion.”71 I can really feel the meaning of these words when I am in Movement Expression class. Heckler says that when we pay attention to our bodies and act from our energy and not from our ideas, we are

acting with fullness and richness for life. He says C

that if we act from our energy, we are acting from h that part of ourselves that is “least conditioned.” a p

This feels true to me. I have felt it. t e

Our intellect-driven society places a pre- r

mium on “rational thought,” and on “logical thinking.” We are taught in classrooms where the seats lock 1 us in. We are directed more and more to passive forms of entertainment - sitting in front of the TV or our computers or even disappearing into a book. In fact, we should start right now reconnecting with our bodies and try to find that part of ourselves that is least conditioned. Push yourself away from this book right now. Whatever the time, wherever you are, just stop and stand up. Reach your arms up towards the sky, palms outstretched, underarms open, and stretch. If your body doesn’t allow this kind of movement, do whatever you can, even if it is just visualizing some movement. If you are able, stop right now and go outside. If you are “differently-abled,” just close your eyes and visualize the outside. That’s right, just leave your computer - it’s not going anywhere. Just go outside. Notice where you live or work. Feel. When we move, it is hard to not notice the world. When we get our students to move, it is hard for them not to feel engaged. When we begin to reconnect with our bodies, it is hard to ignore the responsibility we must take for our lives and the lives of those without voices all around us. . When we move, we feel the boundaries of our bodies, we feel our flesh - maybe there is too much or too little of it. When we move, we feel our presence on this Earth. If we try to take the time to stay in one place and notice our surroundings, then maybe we can feel the Earth beneath our feet, feel her support, feel her energy moving through our bodies. If we stay in one place for a while, maybe we can start to feel how sacred that Earth is beneath our feet. We may want to stop that building from being built or that wetland from being destroyed. If we try to take the time to stay in one place, then maybe we can feel the air moving around and through our bodies. The precious atmosphere, which is such a thin fragile shell around our Earth, gives us

Page 51 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning life. If we stop to feel it, move our bodies through it, maybe we can start to feel how sacred that air is. It is part of us and we are part of it. We may want to stop that factory from polluting it or tune up our car so it pollutes less. So much can come from mindful moving. Just take a moment. Raise your arms above your head. Move them around. Dance through life. Claim the space around you that you are in, experience it, appreciate it, and feel its importance. Declare the Earth, the air, the water, yourself, as sacred. Move through life. We have got to do something. Maybe it can begin with getting up and moving around. Redefining Perception

Another example of teaching students to redefine their perception of the natural world occurs in one of the environmental studies courses I teach called The Universe Story. In March 1997, I took 25 adult students from Antioch University, Los Angeles on this daylong journey (for 1-unit credit). The day was about using our senses to really notice the world around us, to try to get some feel C for what it may mean to be connected to the natural world, and to try to see what effect being discon- h nected from that world has had on our lives. a After some time at the beach introducing each other and p t sharing an experience of feeling connection to the natural world e r

and then an experience of feeling pain with the world, we went 1 inland to notice forest and stream. By the stream, people were instructed to wander off and find a place that felt special to them. They were to meditate in that spot and to let another “being” occur to them and choose them to speak through. It could be a plant or animal or geologic feature. This being would speak through them at a Council of All Beings72 later that evening. The being would speak of its concerns for the actions of humans and offer strength and gifts to help. It was a powerful experience, an experience that went far beyond anything that numbers could give. After about 20 minutes inviting in a being, a drum beat called the participants back to our campsite where I had set up all manner of art and craft supplies. For the next hour, all made masks to represent their beings. The creativity that was unleashed was powerful and amazing. A practice session in small groups followed where the participants practiced representing their being. The Council was a powerful hour around a raging campfire. Each “being” spoke from behind their mask, admonishing the humans for their shortsightedness. I spoke as the swarm of insects seen earlier in the day and scorned by the group. I told the humans to learn from the connectedness practiced by my

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fellows and I, to learn to work together as the swarm does. Many beings spoke including a rabbit, a bird of prey, a spider, a tree, a rock, and a fish. Even the sound of the stream and sensuality had a voice at the Coun- cil. It was an enriching experience for all, a chance to leave the powerful human ego for a while and see the world from the perspective of a being considered of less value that has no voice - at least a voice that most humans refuse to hear. The council ended as the full moon rose above the hills. We then observed the heavens, completing our experiences in connectedness with an awareness of the universe above. Reconnecting with the Heavens

It has always been my belief that part of our disconnection comes from being out of touch with the nighttime C skies. We don’t notice the Moon, the planets, or hardly h even the Sun. We have lost the connection that our a ancestors had (and that nature-based cultures today still have) with the universe. The awareness that we p t are on a planet in a vast universe is a powerful connecting influence. e r

While wondering what kind of new class I could create that might provide 1 an opportunity for students to notice the heavens above, I got the idea to do a class about the Earth’s moon. During the Spring 1997 academic quarter at Antioch University, Los Angeles, “The Earth’s Moon in Culture, Literature, Mythology, and Science” class was born. Students chose to take the class for either science or humanities credit. During the next 10 weeks, they explored the many faces of the Moon and how it has affected our world. But it was really just a thinly disguised attempt to get the students to notice the heavens and to see the connections. They got the opportunity to really notice the universe. Almost universally, the Moon has been considered to be associated with fertility through the ages. Many believed that the Moon could impregnate women and some believed that the Great Moon Mother sends the Moon Bird to bring babies to women (the origin of our stork image).73 The phases of the Moon have long been associated with a cycle of life on Earth. The new moon appears small, then it grows to a round fullness during the month, just like a pregnant woman. It is considered lucky to see a young moon - it is a time of new beginnings. The waxing crescent moon has been seen through the ages as a sign of increase of flocks and fields. Decrease follows as the Moon wanes. This phase also represents completion and matu- rity.74 Early people knew that they had to understand Nature’s cycles and work with them. They believed that the Moon governed Nature’s laws. The new moon heralded the

Page 53 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning sowing of seed or the harvesting of crops. During the waxing moon, all things that need to grow must be tended to. The ground had to be prepared ahead of time so that the seed could be sown during the first quarter or it would rot. Sheep must be sheared under the waxing moon so that the wool may grow quickly again. Trees must be felled during the waning moon or the wood will not mature well.75 Women have a powerful connection to the Moon. A woman’s menstrual cycle is actually a powerful force that intimately connects women to the Earth and the Moon. It is speculated that before the time of artificial light or chemical contraception, women may have ovulated and menstruated throughout the world at about the same time because of the Moon’s influence!76 Many women today have experienced the synchronization of menstrual cycles among women who are living or working together. Extensive studies have shown that the average menstrual cycle is 29.5 days, the same as that of the moon.77 For centuries, the phases of the moon were a

woman’s guide to her physical and creative power. The C

waxing moon represented the phase from the end of h a bleeding to around ovulation. The energies of this phase “Balance” from the World Wall by Judith F. p are that of the young maiden: generative, dynamic and Baca (SPARC, Venice, California) t e

inspirational. The withdrawal of light during the waning r

phases represented the withdrawal of physical energy from the time of ovulation to menstruation and the 1 increase in sexuality, creativity, magic, destructive inner energies, and awareness. In this Enchantress phase, as it was known, the creative energies, which would have gone into making a child, are released and given form in the world. The dark moon represented menstruation. The Hag Moon, as it was known as, represented the woman’s physical energies withdrawn from the outer world and the turning in of her awareness to the inner world of the spirit. What powerful and empowering metaphors! Yet today we still view the menstrual cycle as something that makes women “less than” and weak, rather than the empowering, life giving and life affirming gift that it is.78 But as our technology increased, as artificial light lit up the darkness, as our awareness of the heavens above faded, we lost our tie to this planet, each other, ourselves, and to life itself. We lost the knowledge and recognition of the interconnectedness of all life. We lost the awareness that everything is conscious and sacred, the empowerment of women and all oppressed peoples, world peace, social justice, environmental harmony, the activation of spiritual and psychic powers, and reverence for the Earth and the celebration of her seasons and cycles – and those natural cycles of our lives.79 Today, we have seen the effects of this folly. We have seen radioactive particles from a nuclear accident at Chernobyl contaminate milk in the Netherlands. We have seen how the destruction of rain forests in Brazil can change the atmosphere of our planet. One of the class sessions was conducted at night, under a full moon. Nearly everyone put up such barriers to doing this field trip that I considered canceling it a number of times. The excuses were everywhere – “I work that night” or “I have a wedding shower to go to” or “I am so busy with my other classes.” Right up until a few hours before the hike, while getting confirmations from people on the phone, people

Page 54 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning tried to make me feel guilty that I was requiring all this work. One student told me of the “expensive” shift she had to give up at work. Another told me she was looking forward to it, but asked me if it was really required. Bear in mind that it was not a far-away nature expedition I was planning – the location for the hike was 20 minutes from the campus and you get to park your car at the bottom of the trail! These are all good people, mind you, but they are all caught up in this frenzy in which we live, this frenzy that makes us feel that taking time to connect with nature is a waste and is taking away from our important commitments. I keep coming back to our misplaced connection with the natural world as a root cause of this – our “original trauma” as Chellis Glendinning says.80 How we consume our planet’s resources is a powerful window into the need to declare the Earth sacred. The U.S., with 4.8 percent of the world’s population, produces 21% of all goods and services, uses 33% of the world’s processed energy and mineral resources, and produces at least 33% of the world’s pollution. The average U.S. citizen, when compared to the average citizen of India, uses:

50 times more steel 56 times more energy

170 times more synthetic rubber and newsprint C

250 times more motor fuel h

300 times more plastic.81 a p t

A Connection is Made e r

I thought about all of this as I led the group up a fire road overlooking the ocean. The Sun had set 1 and we walked up the trail in twilight. People initially chatted among each other, but slowly, they started to get quiet. Their quiet was probably more out of concern that their instructor was taking them up a brush covered slope in the dark, but eventually, you could sense the calming that took place. Soon, all I could hear was my own breathing and the crunch of the brush underfoot. I was acutely aware of my senses. My eyes, adjusting to the twilight, were noticing the shadowy images of the plants all around. The ocean breezes mixed with the fragrant smells of the native plants all around us. Sage, rosemary, chemise, chaparral, all combined to make a perfume that touched a deep note of re-membering. This was what it means to live. This is what we should be doing for a living – being a part of the natural world.

Moon! Rising into a smog filled sky. Moon! How bright you are Illuminating the shadows of my shadows. I run into the darkness So that I cannot see - to be hidden. Yet under your light I still see soft shadows Copyright Wood River Gallery (Celestial Art CD) delicate flowers.

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My skin – smooth and creamy under your protective glow. I walk down the trail Branches crunching under my feet. I shouldn’t be here so much to do no time. But I belong here. I hear the flowers calling my true name my destiny. Jackie Alan Giuliano

As we turned left at the top of the ridge, we saw the full Moon rising above the ocean, partially obscured by clouds! It was

a sobering and remarkable sight. We continued until we could C

go no more. We reached the edge of the bluff and just stood and h

looked at the Moon. The ocean to our right, shadowy plant a p

forms all around, the presence of each other – it was simple and t e

powerful. We talked about the Moon. I asked questions. But r

mostly, we just stood and experienced the moment. 1 We began our walk back. It was 9:15 pm, but you could easily see your way in the bright moonlight. No flashlights or other forms of technology were necessary, just the memory of the path on the way up and the trust that we could make it back. Single file we walked, quiet, reflective. The trail ws brightly illuminated by the Moon. We could see our shadows. At the bottom of the trail where the fire road picks up, we encountered the first house. A spotlight was glaring from the top of the house, pointing at the back yard and at us. It was a powerful assault on our “nature-tuned” senses. It seemed overly bright, obtru- sive, intrusive, unwanted. Most of us moaned in disapproval. All were moved by that one and a half hour experience, a chance to stop for a while and notice. There was no complaining, no rush to get to their cars. We all felt the desire to remain peaceful, away from technology. Getting into the car was difficult. It felt harsh and cold – a sensory overload. I am convinced that this simple experience generated an enthusiasm and a sense of being connected to the material that enhanced the student’s learning. Papers written after this experience seemed richer and more thoughtful.

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Soil for legs Axe for hands Flower for eyes Bird for ears Mushroom for nose Smile for mouth Songs for lungs Sweat for skin Wind for mind Just enough. Nano Sakaki82

Go outside for a few nights in a row, or even during the day. The moon sometimes rises in the

middle of the day (check the weather section of your local paper). Notice the Moon. Notice the Sun. C

Where in the sky are they? Notice that they are moving. Glance up again in a few hours. We are spinning h in space, a ball of water, ice, land, and people, all connected, all the same, all created from the remains of a p

exploding stars. Just notice. Take a deep breath. Just notice. See how it feels. t e

We must listen to our body, the home of our heart, for that least conditioned response. We must r

tune back in to our “gut feelings.” We must notice the details of the natural world around us and revel in 1 the awesome beauty and connections. The teacher must be a facilitator to help the student feel - feel the pain, the sorrow, the responsibility, the beauty, and the need to act - now.

Baca, Judith F. Balance. The Center Panel from the “World Wall” Mural Project. Social and Public Art Resource Center Venice, California.

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Seven: We must understand what our obstacles are to living in community with each other and resist the urge to isolate and protect ourselves from our neighbors. We must understand the importance of developing a relationship with our “Place,” the region of the planet in which we live.

Fear is your friend . . . It is a basic instinct of human survival – physical, psychological, spiritual. We need to have an acute sense of what threatens our well-being. . . But fear’s danger signals get muffled when we develop a pattern of denying and suppressing our fears. By not paying attention to specific fear signals, that energy gets diffused into a generalized paranoia, a perennial low-grade alarm fever that pervades our lives.83 Gabrielle Roth In the experiences I have had in my personal and professional journey over the last few years, I am realizing that the events that have most challenged my perceptions and ways of thinking have been the workshops I have attended and presented that required a group of people to live together for a few days. Sometimes the setting was at a wilderness retreat center, miles from cities. But at other times, the group was housed at a hotel in or near a major metropolitan center and shared meals and work time. Part of me

hated each of these experiences. I felt my boundaries being invaded, my privacy challenged, and my C personal rights ignored. Each time I also realized that there is a part of me that is afraid – afraid to expose h myself, afraid to share, afraid to be seen. a p

Each of these experiences have led me to believe that, for the most part, we lead very isolated t e lives. We are isolated not only from the natural world, but from the richness of what we can offer each r

other as well. How many of us know the names of our neighbors? How many of us feel that we are trying 1 to live in community? I am feeling more and more that not living intentionally in a community setting, not being responsible for more lives than just our own, intensifies our fears and keeps us on a toxic treadmill. One of the field trips for my Environmental Science class from Antioch University, Los Angeles during Fall Quarter 1996 was to a part of Los Angeles where some people are exploring what it may mean to live in a community. They are trying to understand what it may mean to be responsible for themselves and, to a certain degree, each other, and to live sustainably. “Eco-Village,” founded by Lois Arkin in 1993, is one of many attempts at creating definitions for words we have either ignored or taken for granted such as community, sustainability, safety, security, responsibility, and commitment. The Communities Directory, A Guide To Cooperative Living, lists over 600 intentional communities world wide. These range from one or two familes struggling to figure out what it means to share a common space to large groups living communally. In most cases, they are composed of people trying to explore what it means to live. I suspected that this visit would be a challenge to all of our perceptions. I knew that we people of privilege with our homes, cars, extra money for toys and entertainment, and cultural legacy of growing up in relative isolation would feel our fears rise as our fundamental definitions were rocked. The discussion about the trip in our classroom confirmed my suspicions – dramatically. Eco-Village is a dream slowly becoming an embryonic reality. It is hardly a “village.” Rather, it is a group of six intentional neighbors who live in two four-plex dwellings across the street from each other in a “not-so-good” neighborhood about three miles west of downtown Los Angeles. They grow about 20% of their own food (in soil that has been analyzed and found to contain levels of lead) and attempt to get the rest of the neighborhood interested in intentional living. There are about 500 people representing 13

Page 58 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning ethnic groups from very low to moderate income levels in this two city block (about 11 acres) area. Most of them have very little to do with those folks who garden in their front yards and walk around the neighborhood being nice to each other. The non-profit organization that members of Ecovillage operate purchased a 40-unit apartment building in the neighborhood and are attempting to make it a permanently affordable cooperative housing project within 2 years and conduct an “eco-retrofit” of the building over the next 10 years. They are at the beginning stages of trying to understand how to make the inner city, which will continue to be the home to many many people, a sustainable urban community where people feel safe and at “home.” The Los Angeles Unified School District, the owners of the property, are constantly trying to get the school board to approve demolishing the building to make room for more classrooms. But we are so afraid. Half of my students were extremely upset when they heard that children are allowed to roam freely on the street and to be out playing into the evening. They said it was irresponsible and reckless. They spoke of kidnappings and fast moving cars, all realities in our world, to be sure. But the WAY they spoke of these things was of great interest to me. The outrage they were expressing seemed to be coming from a place of deep fear and reflected what I have observed in most of us who grew up getting our information from sensationalist media and post-war bred parents.

Fear of Clutter C h

Another interesting observation some of them made was of how uncomfortable they felt in the a Eco-Village “office.” It was “cluttered, dusty, and gave the impression of deep poverty,” one student pro- p t claimed in his post-tour paper. He said that people who saw this on tours would not want to aspire to live e r

in this kind of “squalor.” I found this very interesting and reflective of my own feelings that have lessened 1 over the years as I have explored alternative living styles. If your living space is not new looking and tidy and shiny clean, then our culture has taught us that it means you are poor – and poor is bad. Poor seems to be defined by our culture as meaning you can’t afford the shiny things that advertisements have to offer, things you need to survive (like new cars, furniture, and home electronics). We are taught that we must aspire to attain these things in order to feel successful and secure. Visiting a thrift store is considered by many as evidence that you are poor and can’t afford new items. We have a great fear of being poor. I have seen many people who don’t have anything new or anything electronic but are living in a close connection with the natural world. These poor people have lives so rich, a family commitment so deep, that it has brought tears to my eyes as I fear I can never shed my own culturally implanted fears. Of course, the cultural definition of what it means to be poor is a fleeting one. In post-World War II America, your were poor if you couldn’t afford wall to wall carpets. Today, in the closing years of the 20th century, you are considered impoverished if you cannot afford to remove your carpets and expose the hardwood floors! Another student observed that she was impressed by the courage shown by the Eco-Villagers, courage to take those baby steps toward community. One student said she had thought that her neighborhood was a community. After all, they have a block party twice a year. But, after the Eco-Village trip, she realized that she really didn’t know the names of her neighbors. Our lack of community-based living in the West impacts our ability to learn and to see the connections that exist in our world. In our culture, an individual’s rights seem to be the most important of all. We pride ourselves on being independent, on not needing anyone. Even traditional psychotherapy has a

Page 59 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning goal of developing a solid sense of “boundary” in an individual in order to heal them. We place a high value in our culture on the development of a strong “ego.” This perception of self may be one of the root causes of our separation from the natural world. The Concept of Self

How we relate to each other and the world around us may be defined by our concept of self. Many thinkers such as Joanna Macy, Chellis Glendinning, Matthew Fox, Starhawk, and Carolyn Merchant have examined how we perceive ourselves and this body of work has provided a rich and suggestive set of clues. The concept of a strong ego and set of boundaries, the “every man for himself” mentality that West- ern culture has created, may be a powerful obstacle to embracing the idea of community. A lack of appreciation for our “place” may be another key factor. How different would our lives and priorities be if C we all grew up, lived, worked, and played within 50 miles or h so of the place of our birth? Many would say that this is a impractical and unnecessary in our modern world. However, p t the point is that we rarely develop a relationship with the e r

land on which we live, rarely appreciate the seasonal cycles, 1 the local growing season, or dozens of other factors that could establish our connection with the natural world. When we go home, after a long day of work, we think of going to a house or an apartment or a condominium, not to a piece of earth that is part of a complex web of life. Using technology to the extent we do today actually changes our senses and our perceptions of the world around us. The fact that we travel such huge distances of space over short spans of time affects our perceptions of fundamental relationships such as those that exist between space, time, and distance. This, in turn, will affect our perceptions of our relationship to the natural world. Activist Jeremy Rifkin discusses this phenomenon in terms of how we are rarely satisfied with moving slowly any more.

We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient. We have become more organized but less joyful. We are better prepared to act on the future but less able to enjoy the present and reflect on the past. As the tempo of modern life has continued to accelerate, we have come to feel increasingly out of touch with the biological rhythms of the planet, unable to experience a close connection with the natural environment. The human time world is no longer joined to the incoming and outgoing tides, the rising and setting sun, and the changing seasons. Instead, humanity has created an artificial time environment punctuated by mechanical contrivances and electronic impulses.84

Some feel that this lack of awareness of our local “bioregions” may be responsible for the larger disconnection we feel from the Earth. Bioregionalism, says Peter Berg, is trying to address these issues by “saving the whole by saving the parts.” 85

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A Relationship with a Place

In a day-long workshop I lead entitled “Oases In The Urban Desert – The Last Stands of the Natural World, ” we explore the importance of having a relationship with a “place,” in particular the place where we live. We explore some of the green spaces in Los Angeles, both tamed and wild, that are vital to our survival as individuals and as a species. The class is more than a tour of open spaces, more than a nice series of short hikes. Our day is really an opportunity to “intentionally see,” in one case from a vantage point far above the city, the isolation and disconnection that plagues our lives. In the Summer of 1997, one of these workshops yielded powerful insights. We began the day in the classroom, talking about the importance of the Earth as a place and how distant we are from it. We reflected on the fact that since the first human beings walked this Earth, we have been in a relationship with the natural world. In almost every society that anthropologists have studied, one of the central deities (and in many cases the central deity) was the Earth.86 Animals and plants had souls then. Even our language speaks of our deep roots in the Earth. Among northern Germanic tribes, the Teutonic word for temple means “forest.”87 We knew what our place in nature was. In our hearts, I know we still do. As has been stated earlier in this work, Morris Berman described the transformation that took C place in us well when he said that we went from a universe of deep belonging and as direct participants in h a its drama to dispassioned observers. p t

An awareness of this change says so much. We became observers of our universe and ceased to be e r

participants. This may have been the modern beginning of our disconnection. Particularly since the 1 concept of “objectivity” evolved in the “West” to be a state of being in which you remove your senses from the interaction. In effect, you must deny your humanity to be a good “observer.” Galileo himself said that scientists should restrict themselves to studying the essential properties of material bodies such as shapes, numbers, and movement – only those things that could be measured and quantified should be studied. He said that color, sound, taste and smell were just subjective mental projections that should be excluded from the domain of science.88 This is the mindset upon which our modern world is based. Psychiatrist R. D. Laing summed it up well when he said “Out go sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell and along with them has since gone aesthetics and ethical sensibility, values, quality, form; all feelings, motives, intentions, soul, consciousness, spirit. Experience as such is cast out of the realm of scientific discourse.”89 My class then moved out into the neighborhood, to explore the “community” around Antioch University. This university is located in an expensive office building in Marina del Rey, home of the largest small boat harbor in the world – and home to some of the highest property values and rents in the city. We walked up the very nice, tree-lined street. There were many green lawns in front of the condominium complexes and apartment buildings – the land is much too “valuable” for single family dwellings (apart- ments cost $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom place here). It was very pretty. We even saw some nice courtyards with benches in some of the complexes for residents to gather. But during our walk, we saw no one either in the gathering places or walking on the street (except one Hispanic gentleman on his way back from McDonalds to continue gardening). No one was using these spaces. They were either locked up in their dwelling units or off somewhere recreating. The flowers and

Page 61 Chapter 1 - The Need For A New Approach to Living and Learning trees seemed to exist to keep the buildings looking nice to justify the high rent. We discussed the conflict here. In this neighborhood were lovely green spaces, but we started thinking about whether or not the residents were benefiting from the landscaping. Did they leave home in the morning in a rush, after a cup of coffee and a glance at the morning paper, to travel to their jobs great distances away? Do they return in the evening after a long and tiring day, parking in their garages behind the buildings in the alley, and entering their homes? Did they even experience their surroundings at all, even for only a few brief seconds, as they left their cars? Or did they avoid that contact with the natural world as well by opening their garage door automatically and entering their home from an inside entrance? We questioned whether these folks had any greater appreciation for their environment or were any less stress-ridden than people of lesser means with no flowers at all in front of their government-funded housing project. We shared lunch in Burton Chase County Park, a lovely little green space in the marina. The engraved

sign at the entrance proudly tells of the dedication of C The grounds of the Self Realization Fellowship in this park in 1973 and speaks with great pride at how the h West Los Angeles, Callifornia “mosquito infested mudflat” that was once in this spot a p

(translation: vital, healthy, important wetland) was t e

transformed into the successful marina and park it is r

today. What a powerful indication of how our culture 1 devalues that which is natural and calls all that is non- human “other.” We call land that has not been built upon “undeveloped,” a mark that indicates little or no value. After the former “mosquito-infested mudflats,” we visited a beautiful resource that is just blocks from the beach on Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway – the “Self-Realization Fellowship.” This unusual area is home to a large, human-made lake with waterfalls and fountains surrounded by a lovely trail with meditation alcoves along the way. It is a non-denomina- tional spiritual center. Many people visit it daily for some peace and quiet, but considering there are 9 million people in Los Angeles County, the place is virtually unknown. As pretty as it was, one of my students pointed out that we were still confined to narrow pathways with the true open space – the lake – being off-limits behind a fence. This is common in areas where nature has been confined, controlled, and manicured. “Wild” is considered dangerous. Is it really? “Un- marked paths” are considered confusing. Are they really? The lack of fences and warning signs invites abuse. Does it really? It is not part of a typical urban dweller’s life to recognize the importance of visiting a natural area regularly. It is something to do when you “have the time.” But we could feel the difference in our bodies and minds when we entered the peaceful surroundings of trees and flowers and water.

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I was surprised to see a wedding preparing to take place there. I didn’t know they allowed that there (we learned that for a fee, they do). There was one of the largest “stretch limousines” I have ever seen, even in L.A. waiting in the parking lot. I was startled to see that the wedding party was setting up on the small lawn overlooking the lake that has a crypt with some of Gandhi’s ashes in it! It is an area that has a sign saying “no reclining” on the grass to encourage respect. I wonder if the bride and groom knew of its significance. From what I saw (typical tuxedos and cumberbuns, traditional elaborate wedding gown, kids running around and the stretch limo!) we didn’t think so. Just down the street was the entrance to another little-known spot in the area – the Los Liones Trail of the Topanga State Park. I designed the day so that we would end with an experience in “wild” nature. Our hour and a half journey on this trail provided much wisdom for us all. You can feel the difference immediately. Once you enter through the gate, other than the fact that the trail is well maintained, you get the sense that you are C on your own – no guide rails, no fences, no gift shops, h a

no rest rooms. Just the natural landscape is there on all p t

sides. The shock for a city dweller is profound. It is also frightening. “We won’t see any rattlesnakes, will e r

we,” said one wary student (bear in mind that all these students are adults, from ages 30-50). “Maybe,” I 1 said. “Keep your eyes open, but remember that they don’t want to encounter you any more that you want to encounter them.” I asked everyone to be more mindful than they might usually be – to stop the constant chatter of our mouths and our minds. I asked them to try to take in the sensations, the smells, to try to feel the colors and see the smells. We are out of practice in experiencing our senses. Someone pointed out how different it was to walk on dirt than concrete. I told them to not forget to look up as well as down, to experience all directions. But I didn’t expect that it would be me who spotted the rattlesnake. Suddenly, as we rounded a turn, I saw it. The largest rattlesnake I had ever seen was 6 or 7 steps in front of me. I stopped in my tracks, students literally bumping into me from behind. I backed us up a couple of feet and we watched. It was hot that afternoon, and we were on an exposed part of the trail. The snake was, as reptiles will do, sunning on the trail. Reptiles get very sluggish while they are sunning (so do humans) and it was slow to move. It slowly began to move across the trail, without even a glance in our direction, down the slope to its home. It was nearly 5 feet long, easily 3 or 4 inches in diameter at its largest point, and had a rattle that was 3 inches tall. This creature had clearly been around the Earth a while.

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We were all struck dumb by the experience. Whenever city-folk encounter wildlife, awe is under- standable. But to encounter something as dreaded and vilified as a rattlesnake, and to have the chance to just experience its beauty and grace, is a rare moment indeed. I knew what was on everyone’s mind – because it was on my mind as well – will the snake attack us? I knew that the thought was preposterous, but our acculturation and media exposure is so thorough and complete that all I could picture in my mind was a scene from countless movies where the ferocious rattler rears up and leaps many feet through the air towards the helpless human. The snake took no notice of us – it did not even rattle. It slowly, sluggishly, and quite calmly slithered across the trail. It took a full 30 seconds or so to disappear from sight. We were all awed by this encounter, the opportunity to experience the relationship we can have with the natural world that is not combative, violent, or based on someone trying to eat someone else. The rest of the hike was filled with less dramatic, but just as meaningful, examples of our relationship to the world. We experienced feeling our bodies – you have to work a little harder when visiting wild nature than when you visit a manicured park. We felt our sweat, heard our hearts pounding, and experienced our breathing.

When we reached the top, we were faced with dramatic, expansive views of the ocean from Malibu C

to the South Bay and views inland all the way to downtown Los Angeles. We could see clearly the carving h away of the mountains for private, affluent developments and the haphazard way that the city is laid out. a p

We could see clearly that the affluent folk had their homes surrounded in more green than the poorer folk t e

that comprise most of the city. Yet even though r

those with more economic means were living 1 closer “geographically” to nature than others, we questioned whether they were really experiencing a sense of being closer. We concluded that they did not necessarily experience closeness just because they were closer physically to the wilderness than those living among concrete and despair in the poorer parts of L.A. The lifestyle we have adopted in major urban areas does not give us time to develop a relationship with the place where we live. We may have the means to afford a pretty, natural setting, but then we get into our cars and travel great distances in order to continue to make that money. Ironically, but not surprisingly, people who live in the “poorer” parts of town seem to work closer to where they live (because they cannot afford transportation) and have a much greater sense of community. In those parts of town, it is rare to not see people on the street, talking with neighbors, and children playing. In the affluent parts of town, rarely do you see anyone outside their homes, children are virtually non-existent on the lawns or sidewalks, and aside from occasional encounters while walking the dog, you will rarely see neighbors conversing. We have so many issues before us today. I am beginning to believe that our most serious issue may be our fear of taking full responsibility for our participation in the problems and exposing ourselves to the challenge of being vulnerable among our neighbors and seeing the importance of the place in which we live.

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To be powerful may not mean that for me to be strong, you have to be weak. To be safe and secure may not mean that my walls have to be higher than yours. To be powerful and safe and secure may mean that I have to share with you all that I have and that I have no walls or locks to keep you away. Maybe we just need to garden together, side by side.

We don’t have to fear fear itself. We need not be embarrassed or immobilized by our fears. We need to give them appropriate attention and expression as they arise. Then the energy of fear is properly released. . . Fear properly channeled yields wide-awake engagement.90 Gabrielle Roth

If you open it, close it. C

If you turn it on, turn it off. h

If you unlock it, lock it up. a If you break it, admit it. p t

If you can’t fix it, call in someone who can. e

If you borrow it, return it. r

If you value it, take care of it. 1 If you make a mess, clean it up. If you move it, put it back. If it belongs to someone else and you want to use it, get permission. If you don’t know how to operate it, leave it alone. If it’s none of your business, don’t ask questions. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If it will brighten someone’s day, say it! Anonymous

[I would add . . .] If you don’t really need something, don’t buy it. If you do really need something, live without it for a while. If someone is hurting, help them. If someone is hungry, feed them. If someone is down, help them up. If someone is having trouble dreaming, share your dreams.

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NOTES

1Postman, Neil, and Charles Weingartner. Teaching as a Subversive Activity. New York, NY: Dell Publishing Company, 1969. 2NASA, 1990. 3The Other Side of the Moon. NOVA,PBS VIDEO, 1993. 4Someone passed this quote on to me a few years ago. I do not know who originally said it, but it is one of the most powerful statements I have ever encountered. 5 Bowers, C.A. Education, Cultural Myths, and the Ecological Crisis. Albany, NY: SUNY, 1993. 6 King, Ynestra. “Healing the Wounds: Feminism, Ecology, and the Nature/Culture Dualism.” In Reweaving The World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, ed. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein. 106-121. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990. 7 Bowers, C.A.., op.cit. 8 Capra, Fritjof. Ecology and Community. Talk given at the Walker Creek Ranch, Mann County, California, April 23-24, 1994: found on the Internet at http://www.geocities.com/~combusem/ C CAPRA1.HTM. h 9 Bowers, C.A.., ob.cit. a 10 Orr, David W. Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World. New York: State p t

University of New York Press, 1992. e r 11 Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. New York: Oxford University Press, 1 1949, Introduction: 1987. 12 California Institute of Technology 13 Orr, op. cit., p.90. 14 During the witch hunts, which spanned a three hundred year period in history, at least 9 million women (and some men) were burned at the stake. Many of the tools used by the inquisitors for torture became the basis of the scientific instrumentation and investigation techniques we use today. 15 Capra, Fritjof. The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983. 16 Quoted in Postman, Neil. The End of Education. New York: Vintage Books, 1995, 10. 17 Berman, Morris. The Reenchantment of the World. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. 18 Sale, Kirkpatrick. Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision. Santa Cruz: New Society Publishers, 1991, p. 15. 19 Macy, Joanna. “Awakening to the Ecological Self.” Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism. Ed. Judith Plant. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1989. 201-211. 20 Ibid. 21 Schiavo, Mary, and Sabra Chartrand. Flying Blind, Flying Safe. New York: Avon Books, 1997. 22 Glendinning, Chellis. My Name is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization. Boston: Shambhala, 1994. 23 Capra, op.cit. 24 Ibid, p. 55. 25 Laing, R. D. The Voice of Experience. New York: Pantheon, 1982.

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26 Gable, Medard, and World Game Institute. “What The World Wants Project: What The World Wants And How To Pay For It.” Trans. . Philadelphia: World Game Institute, 1997. 27 Dubos, Rene. The Wooing of Earth: New Perspectives on Man’s Use of Nature. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980. 28 Ibid, p. 8. 29 Ibid, p. 10. 30 King, op.cit., p.107. 31 Roberts, Elizabeth, and Elias Amidon, eds. Earth Prayers From Around the World: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations for Honoring the Earth. San Francisco, Calif.: Harper, 1991. 32 Bowers, C.A., ibid. 33 Matthew Fox, ed., Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works (Sante Fe, NM: Bear and Company, 1987). 34 Postman, Neil, op.cit. 35 Sale, op. cit. 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid. 38

McLachlan, Sara. Fumbling Toward Ecstacy. CD. Arista Records, 1993. C 39

Roberts, Elizabeth, and Elias Amidon, op. cit. h

40 Glendinning, op. cit. a p 41

Kaufman, Donald G., and Cecilia M. Franz. Biosphere 2000: Protecting our Global Environment. Dubuqe, t e

Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1996. r

42 Ibid. 1 43 Glendinning, op. cit. 44 Postman, Neil, and Steve Powers. How To Watch TV News. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. 45 Ibid. 46 King, Ynestra. “Healing the Wounds: Feminism, Ecology, and the Nature/Culture Dualism.” Reweaving The World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. Ed. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990. p 106. 47 King, op. cit. 48 Shiva, Vandana. “Reductionism and Regeneration: A Crisis in Science.” Ecofeminsm. Ed. Vandana Shiva Maria Mies. New Jersey: Zed Books, 1993. 22. 49 Robbins, John. May All Be Fed: Diet for a New World. New York: Avon Books, 1992. 50 World Health Organization, “The World Health Report 1997: Conquering suffering, enriching humanity,” Geneva, Switzerland, 1997. 51 Press Release announcing the release of The World Health Report 1997, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Available at the WHO Internet site (www.who.ch/whr/1997/presse.htm). 52 World Health Organization, op. cit. 53 Harding, Sandra. The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986. 54 National Science Foundation. “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engi- neering.” Arlington, VA, 1994. (NSF 94-333) 55 34% females, 26% males 56 Jaggar, Alison M., and Paula S. Rothenberg. “Why Theory.” Feminist Frameworks: Alternative Theoretical

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Accounts of the Relations between Women and Men. Eds. Alison M. Jaggar and Paula S. Rothenberg. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993. 75-85. 57 Alic, Margaret. Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. 58 Ibid. 59 Frechet, Denise. “Toward a Post-Phallic Science.” (En) Gendering Knowledge: Feminists In Academe. Eds. Joan E. Hartman and Ellen Messer-Davidow. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 1991. 205-221. 60 Shiva, op. cit., p.23. 61 Capra, op. cit. 62 King, op.cit., p.111. 63 Lovelock, J.E. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. 64 King, op.cit. 65 Miller, G. Tyler, Jr. Living in the Environment. Sixth ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1996. 66 Orenstein, Gloria Feman, and Irene Diamond. “Introduction.” Reweaving the World, The Emergence of

Ecofeminism. Eds. Gloria Feman Orenstein and Irene Diamond. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, C

1990. ix-xv. h

67 Sale, op.cit. a p 68

Sale, Kirkpatrick, op. cit. t

69 e

Ibid. r

70 Heckler, Richard S. The Anatomy of Change. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1984. 1 71 Ibid. 72 Seed, op. cit. 73 Brueton, Diana. Many Moons - The Myth and Magic, Fact and Fantasy of our Nearest Heavenly Body. first ed. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1991. 74 Harding, M. Esther. Woman’s Mysteries Ancient and Modern. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1976. 75 Ibid. 76 Ibid. 77 Brueton, op. cit. 78 Gray, Miranda. Red Moon: Understanding and Using the Gifts of the Menstrual Cycle. Rockport, MA: Element, Inc., 1994. 79 Brueton, op. cit. 80 Glendinning, op. cit. 81 Miller, G. Tyler, Jr., op. cit. 82 Roberts, Elizabeth, and Elias Amidon, op. cit. 83 Roth, Gabrielle. Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman. Mill Valley: Nataraj Publishing, 1989. 84 Rifkin, Jeremy. Time Wars. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1987. 85 Mills, Stephanie. “Foreword.” Home! A Bioregional Reader. Ed. Christopher Plant Van Andruss, Judith Plant, Eleanor Wright. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1990. vii. 86 Sale, op. cit. 87 Ibid.

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88 Capra, Fritjof. The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1983. 89 Ibid. 90 Roth, ibid. C h a p t e r

Page 69 Printed by Boeing in the Los Angeles Times in September of 1997.

Page 70 Chapter 2 A Model for An Approach to Teaching Connectedness

Behold the grave beauty of this bloom! She teaches us to open with our hearts, To set aside fear and to risk being vulnerable. Only then can life regenerate. The Goddess stirs, and binds our hearts together. She plays the eternal spinning wheel, Weaving in beauty, diversity, variety and abundance. Zsuzanna Budapest

Looking For A Sign

I teach, I preach, I reach for Some sign that I am making a difference. While driving down the busy highway on the way to hear the activist speak of the injustices in the world and the poor use of resources. No one is untouched. On the way home, I declare that I am hungry. I drive to the market while thousands of babies die of diarrhea. Prepared veggie sushi, corn chips, warm bread. I feast while writing of the pain and inequity in the world. No one is untouched.

Jackie Giuliano both images on this page from Wood River Gallery Celestial Art CD Chapter 2 - A Model for an Approach to Teaching Connectedness

Shallow or Deep

orwegian philosopher Arne Naess in the early 1970s spoke of a distinction between a “shal Nlow” and a “deep” ecology. The view that humans are separate from and above the natural world is considered a shallow, human-centered view. Deep ecology recognizes humans as just one of many strands in the web of life and views the earth as a complex collection of interdependencies.1 Similarly, I define a “shallow” and a “deep” teaching. Shallow teaching is anthropocentric, striving to create in students a sense of superiority and control over the natural world. Teaching human power relationships as defined by modern Western culture is the foundational principle of shallow teaching. Shallow teaching also emphasizes the separation of fields of study, physical laws as the basis for all

life, the perception that there are unchanging truths in our C world, and that knowledge is gained by those who memorize h a

the most raw data. Shallow teaching emphasizes the impor- p t

tance of the individual and reinforces the concept of rigid e boundaries in the individual and in society. r

Deep teaching emphasizes the lack of clear boundaries 2 in the world, the interdependence of all life, the fleeting nature of scientific “truths,” the ever-changing character of our universe, and the importance of perception in our journey through life. Deep teaching is a style that recognizes the intrinsic sacredness and value of all living and non-living beings and sees humans, as Fritjof Capra says of deep ecology, “as just one particular strand in the web of life.” Deep teaching recognizes ecology as the central field from which all others must emanate. It redefines our notion of power, restructuring our relationship with the natural world by teaching that one gets the most power by sharing all that they have. Strength comes from sharing, not from taking. In this new paradigm, for me to be strong, you do not have to be weak; for me to have all that I need, someone else does not have to go without; for me to be safe, I do not have to build high walls; for me to be secure, I do not have to have large amounts of money. The notions of power, strength, safety, and security are redefined in terms of sustainability, not the attainment of personal isolation and wealth. The notion of freedom differs from the traditional Western definition when one is teaching deeply. English language dictionaries are a keen source of evidence of the subtle and not-so-subtle disconnections from the natural world that have been instilled in us by the Western educational process. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, all of which has been placed on the Microsoft Works CD-ROM, tells us about freedom:

Page 72 Chapter 2 - A Model for an Approach to Teaching Connectedness free·dom

free·dom (frê¹dem) noun 1. The condition of being free of restraints. 2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression. 3.a. Political independence. b. Possession of civil rights; immunity from the arbitrary exercise of authority. 4. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want. 5. The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon. 6. Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom. 7. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels. 8.a. The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities. b. The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.2

There are many telling phrases that give us strong clues about the deeply ingrained sources of our inability to relate to the natural world. Many of us have spent a lifetime learning that a prime objective of life is to obtain freedom. That freedom is defined as the state of being free of restraints, free from want, C

exempt from an unpleasant or onerous condition, and the ability to do as we please. With this definition, h how can one possibly consider oneself as a participant in the web of life. The most revealing part of that a p

dictionary definition is that freedom is the “right to unrestricted use.” Shallow teaching reinforces these t e

notions of individuality. Once again, the dictionary gives us powerful clues in it’s definition of an indi- r

3 vidual as “existing as a distinct entity; separate.” Yet there has always been an awareness of the folly of this 2 attitude. Australian critic and author Peter Conrad said “losing faith in your own singularity is the start of wisdom, I suppose; also the first announcement of death.”4 Shallow education alludes to the hardship faced by the isolated individual yet provides only negative reinforcement to the notion of being part of a community, suggesting that death will surely follow if we give up the right to do as we please. Deep teaching rejects these tenants. It is about teaching relationships. Modern science has never been very comfortable with relationships, either between people or between people and the natural world.5 Relationships are difficult to measure – they do not register on a meter or a gauge. To study relationships you need to look for patterns, some of which do not repeat themselves in a linear fashion. Arne Naess said that “the essence of deep ecology is to ask deeper questions.”6 This too is a foundational premise of deep teaching. Barriers can be broken with the simple question “why?” Yet this simple question can be a most difficult one to ask, particularly when the student doesn’t understand the need to know why. Subtle and insidious assumptions pervade our lives and every student brings their assumptions and perceptions about how their world functions into the classroom. A deep teacher’s first job is to challenge some the powerful myths about learning and how the world works. One of the most powerful ways to rewrite the programming that keeps us from understanding the need to know why is to tell our stories. There may be no better way to highlight some of the powerful assumptions that have been made about how our world works and about our relationship to that world than to just listen to each other. What follows are some stories that highlight the need for deep teaching. Each of these stories contain powerful awarenesses of the disconnections in our culture. The deep teacher can use these perspectives to illustrate the need for the student to look below the surface.

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BETRAYAL

It’s as safe as mother’s milk, they’ll say When wanting to assure you that it’s all O.K. But mother’s milk can be a deadly dish If mom, a downwinder, eats Columbia River’s fish, Or consumes white snow - garden salads on the spot Then mother’s milk can become a deadly lot.

So I fed poison to my nursing son With radioactive iodine-131. Just because we lived in the wrong place from the Nuclear Control Institute I maimed my babe for that nuclear race.

This was written by a woman who has lived all of her life in Eastern Washington State and remembers consuming local milk and produce around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Her husband

loved to fish the Columbia River downstream from Hanford. Her name withheld by request. She says: C h

“When [my youngest son] was seven—and again when he was eight years old—I had two surgeries for a p

thyroid cancers. I didn’t tell people because it would be hard on our children.... In 1985 my husband died t quite suddenly. Early in 1986 word got out that radioactive iodine-131 and other pollutants had been e r

released in large amounts by the government just to see what would happen to us downwinders from the 2 nuclear plant at Hanford, Washington. With the injuries from my thyroid cancers and the worry over my husband’s bladder and bone cancers, I was very angry and felt betrayed by my government. They used us as guinea pigs but we weren’t even that good because the government never followed up to see what did happen to us downwinders. I write poems, but they are all too mild for my anger at my government.” 7

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation – still the scene of America’s shame – is an obscenity that represents a complete disconnection from the natural world and the level of betrayal we can expect from our elected leaders and corporate giants. This atrocity against all people was once again in the news in the Summer of 1997. In an extraordinary but not surprising statement, the Department of Energy admitted that an explosion of a toxic radioactive waste container at the plant on May 14, 1997 exposed workers and released toxic materials into the atmosphere, including plutonium. This from the supposedly “closed” plant, the former flagship of the Department of War’s nuclear bomb plants (that’s what the Defense Department used to be called until the name was changed after World War II – it makes it easier to get money from the taxpayers when you are asking for a “defense” budget rather than a “war” budget). Hanford may now rival Chernobyl as the most toxic site on planet Earth, with cleanup costs (if cleanup is even possible for such a site) estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The site promises to be toxic for tens of thousands of years. The May 14th explosion and series of errors is just part of the legacy of this nightmarish place. We as human beings must be angry about that place and what it represents. We must learn what is going on there and use our power to get something done about it.

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Since 1943 when 600 square miles of land in Washington State was legally condemned and 1,500 residents of the towns of Richland, Hanford, and White Bluffs were ordered to leave their homes within 30 days, Hanford has released hundreds of thousands of curies of radioactive iodine-131 and other radioactive by-products into the atmosphere. k r Between 1944 and 1972, o w

t Hanford released as much as 740,000 curies of iodine-131 into the e N

air! (For comparison, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant n o i partial core meltdown in 1979 released 15 curies of radioactive t a

m iodine-131 into the air; the Chernobyl accident released 35 million r o f to 49 million curies of iodine-131 in 1986.) Thousands of lives n I

h have been adversely affected by this subtle, insidious, and mostly t l a e intentional radiation poisoning. Only today are some of these C H

d victims realizing what has given them cancer, killed their mates r h o f 8 a

n and children, and so horribly affected their lives. a p H

This information was kept secret until February 1986, t e e h t when public pressure resulted in the release of 19,000 pages of U.S.

r m

o Department of Energy documents under the Freedom of Informa- 2 r Location of Hanford along the Columbia River f

e tion Act. During the 30 years of Hanford’s operation, a staggering g a p

440 billion gallons of radioactive toxic wastes were dumped into s i h

t the ground! Underground nuclear waste tanks have leaked hundreds of thousands of gallons of waste. No n o complete records of the exact contents of these waste containers were kept, so the clean-up teams don’t s

o 9 t even know what they are dealing with most of the time. o h p We are taught today that the Cold War is over. Is l l a it really? Is there anything behind the talk we hear of peace from our leaders? Has much of anything changed? It doesn’t appear so. In fact, it could be argued that things are much worse. Things are different, but the building of our nuclear arsenal has not stopped. In 1990, the amount of plutonium in the civilian sector of the world was 654 metric tons and in the military was 257 metric tons. By the year 2010, the Unknown contents inside one of Hanford’s tanks amount of military plutonium is expected to remain the same while the civilian plutonium will grow to 2,100 metric tons! Civilian plutonium is plutonium produced in power generating nuclear reactors. Plutonium is a bi-product of these reactors and many countries are planning to use this deadly material to power other reactors. This plutonium could conceivably be used to make a nuclear bomb.10

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We still spend over a trillion dollars world-wide on the military.11 Countries all over the world are building nuclear weapons stockpiles. The U.S continues to test nuclear weapons (they call them “sub- critical tests” to get around the current moratorium on testing) because the military wants to build a new generation of smaller, more powerful nuclear bombs. Scotland, of all places, is estimated to have as many as 266 Trident submarine warheads (many purchased from the U.S.), each one a powerful nuclear weapon. It is estimated that Britain builds a new nuclear bomb every 8 days!12 Five countries have nuclear-powered naval vessels: Russia, the United States, Great Britain, France and China. Even India is currently building a nuclear sub! The submarines of the Western countries typically have only one reactor on board, whereas two reactors power most Russian submarines. Excluding Russia, these nations have 132 nuclear submarines. Russia has 109 nuclear subs in their fleet. Britain has 13 nuclear subs, France has 11, and China has 6. The United States, the country of “peace,” has a

staggering 101 nuclear submarines. There are two hundred C

and forty one nuclear subs in the world!13 Russian Nuclear Submarine h (from the Bellona Report) a

At least 20 nuclear bomb-carrying U.S. subs are at sea p

24 hours a day, each ready to fire on virtually any target in 15 t e

minutes. One U.S. Trident submarine carries the explosive power of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. The loca- r

tions of these subs is the most closely guarded of secrets. We are still building more! Nine nuclear subma- 2 rines are under construction in the U.S. alone. So much for the end of wartime.

“It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.” Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe and later President of the United States.14

The horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be remembered, two cities murdered by the U.S. But we had to do this to end the war, didn’t we? Well, diaries and documents released since then tell a different story. It seems that President Truman and his senior staff did not believe that we needed to drop the bomb on Japan to end the war. They believed that Japan would surrender without an invasion. In fact, diplomatic contacts and decoded Japanese wireless transmissions proved that surrender was imminent. So why was the bomb used?15 Records suggest that Truman and his advisors believed that if they showed the world that they were willing to use the bomb, it would aid them in negotiating with Stalin over the future of Eastern and Central Europe. There was also a pervasive, racist disregard for Japanese life. The bomb was used to literally burn a memory into the minds of communist and non-European nations of an image of scientific and technological superiority for the Allied countries. 16 So, for the sake of image and to test the effects of our new weapons, 200,000 human lives were horribly ended and since 1945, more than 680,000 people have died or have been affected by the radiation released in those blasts.17 These are sobering revelations. I wonder personally what to do with all this awareness. During an environmental science class one day, I was trying to share environmental awareness with people who had

Page 76 Chapter 2 - A Model for an Approach to Teaching Connectedness never considered these issues before. Three of my students were police officers who, in the course of their duties, have witnessed the aftermath of illegal toxic spills and see the effects of a disconnected world daily. They fight each day for personal survival, let alone have had the time for global thinking. I sometimes feel deflated at the daunting task of opening my fellow travelers’ eyes. But we must go on. We must love the beauty of this world and work towards stopping the folly. Traditional teaching methodologies do little to either help the student to deal with this knowledge or even encourage them to challenge the assumptions that created this situation. Shallow teaching does little to allay the fear that accompanies this knowledge. Awareness does not have to be feared. Your day can include walking around the block in the morning, loving your partner, going to work, taking time to see the trees at lunch (or wish there were some), writing an e-mail message to your senator, and having dinner. The tools exist to show people how to make the desire for change a daily part of our life from the Nuclear Control Institute C rather than a feared, unfulfilled dream. And those nuclear h a

subs will continue to sail – until we say STOP! p t Please, dear mother Earth, e r

Help me to stand firm on my own two feet 2 Drawing on the solid earth below me Help me to know the constancy of your strength the power that is you, oh dear mother earth Help me to walk with the blood of rivers in my veins and the dark crumbling soil of earth in my flesh let my muscles be strong as tree trunks that rise up out of your belly To dance in the sky and sing praises to the life all around Beating, pulsing, rich and full with your sweet energy. Oh dear mother earth live in this body today. Sing loudly in every breath I take Stretch wildly and flow freely with all the directions I move and come home with me, come home to my belly live deep in my soul oh mother earth, SING! Stephanie Kaza

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From Rags to Riches – But Not for You and Me

“Too many needy people were getting into the boxes and cleaning us out. They’d slide their 8- or 10-year olds in and take whatever they needed.” Art Mattson, finance director for Goodwill Industries in Orange County California while explaining why attendants are necessary at the Goodwill and Salvation Army donation Boxes in parking lots.18

“The Environmental Protection Agency reports that of the 5.1 million tons [that’s 10.2 billion pounds] of clothing and footwear thrown away with household garbage in 1995, only 660,000 tons, or 13%, was recycled.” “The American public is very generous” said Vahan Chamlian in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on July 28, 1997. The 71 year old Armenian immigrant owns a $78.6 million business that buys used clothing from charity collectors such as Goodwill Industries or the Salvation Army and sells it in poor countries. He will buy a piece of clothing for 10 cents and it winds up being sold for as much as $15 in a poor village in Nigeria, the equivalent of 3 weeks’ wages. So, if you have ever donated used clothing thinking it was going to a poor or needy person, think again. There is a really good chance that you have helped pay for Chamlian’s million dollar Fresno, Cali- C fornia home, his corporate jet, or his wife’s Rolls Royce car. Things are not what they appear to be. h a

How did we get to such a place where the poor are used as stepping stones for the rich? One could p argue that this has been the case throughout time and there is some truth to that. But I think that there is t e a level of disconnection we have reached that is unique to “modern times” in the last couple of hundred r years. I think that the way we educate people has a lot to do with the difficulty we seem to have making 2 reasoned decisions. Education today is in a crisis. Governments refuse to allocate enough money for textbooks, teachers are inadequately trained and few in number. Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner say that we are a society with “influential men at the head of important institutions who cannot afford to be found wrong, who find change inconvenient, perhaps intolerable, and who have financial or political interests they must conserve at any cost.” 19 These men (and some women, but not many) are threatened by the concept of a democratic society and an evolving, self-nurturing society. Those authors go on to say that there are also obscure people who do not head any important institutions who are equally threatened because they have identified themselves with ideas and institutions which they want to keep from changing. They fear criticism and critical analysis. We have all met people like this. Any arguments against their position angers them. It’s as if they believe that their values are so fragile that any information voiced to the contrary will topple them from their comfortable and familiar place. These people prefer that our schools not encourage our children to question, doubt, or challenge any part of our society. You will often hear the argument, say the authors mentioned above, voiced quite often these days as right wing conservatives take over our school boards, that “they are our schools and they ought to promote our interests. That is what democracy is all about.” But whose schools are they and what interests should they promote? Should they be teaching a “greater good” or responding to any corporate donor? A disturbing trend today is for corporations to “spon- sor” teaching modules and provide curriculum materials to classrooms throughout the nation. American

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Express has a slick curriculum module it supplies schools, desperate for any materials, which teach young children how to be good consumers. I have heard that one of their packets even contains an application for a child’s credit card! And in the Summer of 1997, the State of California approved the use of the books of controversial scientology leader, L. Ron Hubbard, after extensive lobbying from his publisher. Later in the year, after reading the books and discovering that they “misrepresent minorities and the disabled,” the school board rejected them. 20 Postman and Weingartner relate a story about an interview in the early 1960’s with Ernest Hemingway. The interviewer was trying to get Hemingway to tell what it took to be a great writer. Hemingway said, “in order to be a great writer a person must have a built-in, shockproof crap detector.” Post- man and Weingartner suggest that we should design our schools to produce experts at “crap detection.”21 These people would be able to spot the faulty assumptions,

misconceptions, greedy agendas, and bold-faced lies that C surround us. This is deep teaching. h a

And we are surrounded by crap. It was present p in May 1997 when the Department of Energy claimed t e that it makes economic sense to restart one of the r nuclear reactors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. 2 Explosion at Hanford from the Hanford And they revealed that they have been spending $31 Information Network million a year to maintain one of Hanford’s reactors in “hot standby” status. The same government refuses to take care of those who are sick and dying from being downwind from the plant over the last 50 years. It is present in the opening quote of this section, where the financial officer of Goodwill Industries bemoans the fact that needy people “steal” clothes that have been donated by people who assume that their old clothes are going to needy people. This “theft” gets in the way of this “charity” making a profit.

Obstacles We can forgive ourselves for this delay in fine-tuning our crap detectors. We have been taught to “remember” things in school, not to formulate rational thoughts, make observations, ask probing questions, or to identify and challenge assumptions. We have been taught to repeat what someone else says is true. The most probing questions that most of my adult students ask these days at the start of a class term is “how long does the paper have to be” and “do you deduct points for grammar?” By the end of the term, they are ready to begin challenging assumptions, but at the beginning, they just want to be told what I want them to say. We must take back our intellectual powers. Here is a chilling summary, by Postman and Weingartner, of the primary aims of so many teachers, either explicitly or implicitly in their teachings:22

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• Passive acceptance is a more desirable response to ideas than active criticism. • Discovering knowledge is beyond the power of students and is, in any case, none of their business. • Recall is the highest form of intellectual achievement, and the collection of unrelated “facts” is the goal of education. • The voice of authority is to be trusted and valued more than independent judgement. • Feelings are irrelevant in education. • There is always a single, unambiguous Right Answer to a question. • English is not History, and History is not Science, and Science is not Art, and Art is not Music, and Art and Music are minor subjects (subject to cancellation), and English, History and Science major subjects, and a subject is something you “take” and, when you have taken it, you have “had” it, and if you have “had” it, you are immune and need not take it again.

Deep teaching provides tools for increasing the sensitivity of your crap detector. Here are some: 1.Become a better listener. Most of us don’t listen when someone else is speaking. We are actually just waiting until it is our turn to speak. We really haven’t “heard” what the other has said. Practice listen-

ing, really listening. Don’t say a thing until the other is finished. Then, formulate your thoughts, C

slowly and carefully, taking all the time you need, and respond. This one thing alone will dramatically h a

change the way you communicate and the way you take in information. p

2.Challenge assumptions. Every one. If someone says “do it,” ask “why?” If the answer does not satisfy t e

you, ask again, and again, and again until you get a proper answer. r

3.Challenge your own assumptions about the way the world works. Go out of your way to understand 2 what is behind your actions. Be constantly aware that things are not as they seem. When you flush your toilet, be aware that the contents are not “disappearing,” buy are just going a few miles away to be superficially treated and pumped into the ocean, contributing to the toxic load in our seas, making lifeguards and swimmers sick, and killing sea life. Be mindful of your actions. Be responsible. 4.Hold yourself accountable for what you say and what you write. Don’t say something unless you know where you heard it from. Do some research before you add a “fact” to your collection. Don’t just “repeat” things. Under- stand them. Words are important. Every time we say something to someone, it makes an impression. They will pass it on and the person they tell will pass it on, like a bad photocopy of a copy of a copy. Don’t be part of that chain. 5.Be a “party pooper.” Challenge your friends and loved ones’ assumptions as well. Gently, respectfully, but firmly. Be open to having your own assumptions challenged. 6.Say what you mean and mean what you say. 7.Tell your elected representatives what YOU want them to do. They work for you and only you. When I disputed a phone bill with my phone company, I sent copies to the California and Washington State Public Utilities Commissions, the Federal Communications Commission, my two State Senators,

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and my California State Assemblyperson. They all sent back letters saying that they were looking into it and they did - I won. Use them. It’s what we pay them for. 8.Consider each dollar you spend like it was a 10-page letter to your Congressperson or to the Chairper- son of the Board of the parent corporation who makes the product you are buying telling them you approve of all their practices. Your buying choices are a tremendous form of activism. 9.Call things by their right name. When it is crap, call it “crap.”

We look with uncertainty Beyond the old choices for Clear-cut answers To a softer, more permeable aliveness Which is every moment At the brink of death; For something new is being born in us If we but let it. We stand at a new doorway; C Awaiting that which comes . . . h a

Daring to be human creatures. p

Vulnerable to the beauty of existence. t e

Learning to love. r

Anne Hillman 2

Something is Missing

“Find a place that feels special to you and simply be there, still and waiting. Let another life-form occur to you, one for whom you will speak at this afternoon’s Council of All Beings. No need to try to make it happen. Just relax and let yourself be chosen by the life- form that wishes to speak through you. . . Often the first that occurs to you is what is right for you at this gathering.” IKEA department store, Carson, California John Seed, Thinking Like A Mountain23

There is a powerful longing in us, a longing that creates an emptiness that we constantly try to fill. We try to fill that emptiness with food, substances, and consumer goods. We eat and we eat and we buy and we buy, but it never seems to be enough. Bombarded as we are with constant reminders of what we don’t have and can’t live without (the Mercedes billboard proclaims “Fire Your Therapist”), how can we not leave the warehouse store with all those items we didn’t know we needed until we saw them? Some- thing is missing. In the Spring of 1997, I took my environmental science class on a field trip to the IKEA department store in Carson, California. This huge, three story warehouse is home to every conceivable (and

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many inconceivable) home furnishing, kitchen implement, and odd-shaped, dust-gathering object ever created by humans. The top floor contains fully furnished rooms with all the merchandise in their native habitats. The middle level contains all the separate pieces set up for closer examination. Finally the bottom level, the level closest to your car, contains all the merchandise, most of it requiring assembly, laid out for you to buy. My class challenged themselves to resist the urge to go buy all the great stuff and examine some important questions such as: How many types of chairs do we really need in the world, and How many garlic presses are enough? I asked them to imagine all the goods being produced to service the never ending demand for just this one store, and to multiply it by many times. One of my students rather self-righteously said, in response to my “How many types of chairs do we really need” question, “Well, there are all kinds of homes and tastes.” She really hit the nail on the head. Those of us in the privileged class have grown used to having everything we want whenever we want it. We have not been challenged to really assess our needs. We then looked at the leather sofas. “What about this stuff,” I asked. “Oh, these are made from by-products” replied one very conscientious student. I said that was true, but consider how many leather sofas are in just this room and imagine how many are in the warehouse waiting to be ordered and then imagine how many are in all the furniture stores and warehouses

in just Los Angeles. How many cows would that be? And it takes a number of cows to make one sofa. C

Each cow is not covered with perfect, desirable smooth grain leather, you know. They have elbows and feet h a

and wrinkles and scars. It takes quite a few cows to get one perfect sofa. Thousands and thousands of p

animals are required to produce the sofas in just L.A. t e

alone. Is it really a “by-product” or actually a primary r

product in disguise, to relieve the guilt, to relieve the 2 pressure, to eliminate the need to think about the necessity of killing an animal to provide us with a place to sit and watch TV. What if all the world stopped eating meat tomorrow, I asked. What would happen to the leather sofa industry and all of its support businesses? One student got it. She said “the sofa factories would start raising cattle.” Sadly, I think she might be right. As we sat in IKEA’s restaurant (Yes, that’s right. They specialize in Swedish meatballs and tubes with fish and meat in them.) pondering these things, I told the class that this afternoon I learned while searching the Internet, that the Simon Weisenthal Center discovered that the owner of IKEA was a member of the Swedish Nazi Party.24 They had asked for a boycott of the store earlier this year. We looked around at all the happy faces shopping or eating, oblivious to the connections all around them. We live in transformative, challenging times with much conflict and contrast. But we can be amazing, resourceful, compassionate, loving beings capable of much diversity and growth. We can go from

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the warehouse filled with consumer goods, without buying anything, to the forest where we can notice the wind, notice each other. All we have to do is want it. All we have to do is to do it. But we need the help of skilled deep teachers, teachers who can help us think critically and to critically engage in the issues.

Notes 1 Capra, Fritjof. The Web of Life (1996). 2 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition (1992). 3 Ibid. 4 Columbia University. Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1995). 5 Capra, Ecology and Community, op. cit. 6 as quoted in Devall (1985). 7 Hanford Health Information Network Resource Center. “Coping with Uncertainty and Illness Concerns of Hanford Downwinders.” (1997). 8 Hanford Health Information Network Resource Center, Ibid. 9 Ibid. C

10 .The Nuclear Control Institute (NCI), “The Plutonium Threat,” April 17, 1996. . a p

11 World Game Institute (1997) t e

12 Thomas Nilsen, Igor Kudrik, Alexandr Nikitin. “The Russian Northern Fleet Nuclear-powered r

vessels.” Bellona Report nr. 2. 1996. Online. Internet. Available: http://www.bellona.no/e/russia/nfl/nfl2- 2 1.htm#O0 13 Ibid. 14 Science for Peace, University College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. “Hiroshima- Nagasaki: Fifty Years of Deceit and Self-Deception.” Novem- ber 7, 1995. 15Ibid. 16Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Wilson, Janet. “Turning Donated Rags Into Riches.” Los Angeles Times 7/28/97 :Part A. 19 Postman and Weingartner, Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969). 20 Helfand, Duke. “Hubbard-Inspired Textbooks Rejected.” Los Angeles Times September 23, 1997 1997: A-3. 21 Postman and Weingartner, op. cit., p.3. 22 Postman and Weingartner, Ibid. 23 Macy, Joanna and Seed, John, Thinking Like A Mountain, Philadelphia: New Society Press), 1988. 24 Neuborne, Ellen, “Idea founder admits past ties to Nazis,” USA Today Newpaper, November 8, 1994.

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Chapter 3 – The Deep Teaching Process

he process of teaching deeply is a journey of self and planetary discovery. It is an opportunity to cThallenge assumptions, learn how the world works, take control of our perceptions, and become more involved in the world. The process I describe below is the result of many years of teaching and observing the journeys of many hundreds of students. It is also a collection of tools and ideas that have been synthesized from the teachings of many scholars, teachers, and theologians whose work I have explored and whom I respect deeply. In this process, you will find pieces of Joanna Macy’s techniques for acknowledging our pain for the world, Matthew Fox’s teachings of the inherent spirituality of the Earth, Chellis Glendinning’s observations of the power of having a connection to the natural world, Kirkpatric Sale’s vision of a world where people have a relationship with their “place,” Neil Postman’s critical essays on the effect of our cultural assumptions, and many others. This process is dedicated to them and all those who are trying to bring people closer to that part of themselves that has been temporarily obscured. The process is presented as a series of steps flowing in a certain direction, but it can be entered C h

at any point and experienced in a variety of ways. It does not have to be linear or hierarchical. For a example, although the process begins with Recognition that something needs to be learned and ends p t with creating Change in one’s daily life, it could also be viewed as beginning with a Change. The change e r

that has occurred could be the stimulus for recognition, responsi- 3 bility, scholarship, and so on. The universe around us has many doorways to wisdom and insight. Each of our journeys follow different paths. The prime challenge of the deep teacher may be to recognize that each student in the class, although on the surface has signed up to embark on a study of the environment, is on a profound personal journey. The development of in and out of class opportunities for learning will either enhance or retard the individual’s journey. So often, a teacher feels that the outcome of a learning experience is out of their control and influence. I do not believe that this is so. The inclusion of the steps outlined below will almost assuredly result in some level of change on the part of the student, particularly because of the inclusion of creative arts and personal reflection on one’s relationship to the natural world. Key to the success of this program is the inclusion of experiences that bring the student in contact with the natural world, even if it is just getting out of the classroom and going into a parking lot. Intentionally interacting with the environment is key to the development of a relationship with it. Finally, the deep teacher is not just a transmitter of elements of this process - she and he are direct participants in it.

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Deep Teaching - The Process of Teaching Connec- tions Each of the process elements below is briefly described. Chapter 4 contains the tools an educator needs to implement this process and Chapter 5 contains specific learning experiences for each step in the process. Recognize

Recognize that an issue or condition exists. Educators usually assume that a student knows how to recognize that something needs to be learned. This is often not the case and a student needs skills that enable them to notice when they need more knowledge and to notice when something in their family, community, or personal lives is an issue. Recognizing when something is wrong - or right - is a learned skill. Responsibility C h

Assess one’s own level of responsibility and own it. a A powerful moment that turns learning into a profound personal p t experience occurs when a student takes responsibility for their contribution to our world’s sorrows and e r its joys. The educator who knows techniques for encouraging these moments and supporting the 3 feelings that arise is practicing deep teaching. It can be frightening for an individual who has spent a lifetime insulating themselves from full participation in our environmental and social dilemmas to suddenly realize that they are a participant and a contributor. For example, when I take students on a tour of the Hyperion Waste Water Treatment Plant in Los Angeles, a huge facility that processes 500 million gallons of our wastewater every day, students are shaken by the realization that what they flush down their toilets really does not go “away.” Without proper attention, acknowledgment, and processing with a facilitator, this awareness can turn into numbness and cynicism. Properly addressed, this awareness can turn into a greater sense of connection with the natural world. Scholarship

Learn about the issue or subject. Doing learning activities that foster critical thinking, awareness, reasoning skills, personal experience, and activism. Traditional “fact-packing” styles of learning are rejected in this process. At the end of a term in which a student has been required to memorize facts and figures and cover the maximum amount of material, the common response after the exam is “thank goodness I don’t have to know that anymore.” For a student to be able to embrace and find the connections in the knowledge, teachers must learn to teach reasoning and thinking skills along with the knowledge base.

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Doing Work - Meaningful Assignments

Assignments that foster critical thinking, awareness, personal experience, and activism. Meaningful assignments are vital to any teaching endeavor, and they are of particular importance in deep teaching. They must be designed to foster commitment, engage the student, and stimulate critical thinking. The following are the different categories of assignments. Exercises for each category are presented in Chapter 5. Critical Thinking

These assignments are designed to teach the student to look below the surface of an issue, examine assumptions, and detect fallacies in logic.

Awareness C h a

These activities provide practice for the student in study- p

ing the details of an issue from interdisciplinary, multicultural, and t e

multifaceted perspectives. r

Sense of Place Developing a relationship with the place where we live may be our most important challenge. These assignments help establish the need for and provide the means to revalue that relationship.

Experience

The learning must be solidified and felt “in the bones” through field work, group exercises, cooperative projects, and community involvement.

Activism

With a thorough understanding of many facets of the issue underway, actions can be identified about what needs to be done on a personal, community, and global level.

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Creativity

Use creative arts to explore one’s connection to the issue. Use of the creative arts can open the mind, heart, and soul and create a conversation on a level that words cannot. There is no finer way to challenge assumptions and avoid the pitfalls of language and definition than to communicate in lines and colors and shapes. Tapping into one’s creativity unleashes energy that allows for the possibility of developing unexplored relationships in ones universe. Reflection

Reflection through disucssion, art, meditation, and writing. Our fast-paced society rarely encourages time to pause and reflect, yet this is critical if we are to redefine our relationships. After each learning activity, reflection time should be built in, but a special time is also needed in this C process. Using combinations of art, meditation, writing, and other forms of expression, h

the individual needs time to let new awarenesses sit and settle in to their being. a p t e r

Reassessment 3 Reasses one’s personal, professional, community, and global values. Values are at the heart of our world, not laws or standards or documents. Time must be allotted in the learning process for one to reassess their personal, professional, community, and global values. This is the precursor to change.

Change

Create changes in one’s daily life. Every learning activity results in change of some kind. Here, we acknowledge change as a distinct and integral part of the deep teaching process. Creating changes in one’s daily life is the key to embracing learning and building that new relationship with self and the world.

Many concepts are vital to successfully implementing this process, but two stand out in my mind as necessary mindsets for a deep educator. If the educator sees a student as a passive receptor of what they have to give, deep teaching cannot take place. If the educator teaches only for content and not for the reasoning and assumptions behind the details, then the teaching is shallow. The next two sections address these issues.

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The Educator as Facilitator I visualize the concept of learning as a series of doorways along our life path. Behind each of these doorways is knowledge and opportunity that, when placed in the context of one’s life, can enrich, enlighten, and result in personal, professional, and spiritual growth. A teacher is one who, through the ability to communicate experiences from multiple perspectives, is someone who walks with a learner, pointing out these doorways to learning and who helps clear the pathway of any debris that might prevent access to what waits behind the door. These attributes are among the characteristics of a “facilitator.” A facilitator points out the pathways and doorways to learning and then walks with the learner. A facilitator does not always lead the way, but participates with the learner in the discovery. The facilitator sets the tone for the learning experience. Her or his excitement in the process will be trans- ferred to the learners and will enhance the process. The facilitator strives to identify his or herself as a participant in the learning process and as an explorer and learner who does not have all the answers. Common, traditional, didactic teaching techniques require that the teacher be the leader, imparting facts and figures to an audience of those who are ignorant on the subject at hand. This type of instructor will typically show only one doorway to C h

learning and then push the student through that door, whether or not it is appropriate for them and with a no attempt to associate the knowledge with the context of the student’s life. The primary skills of a p t facilitator include the ability to exhibit and share their excitement with the subject, to identify with the e r

student both as a learner and as a professional, to assess the learning needs of the individual, and to 3 direct the appropriate resources on the subject into the classroom and into the learner’s life. A facilitator is also concerned with elements of the learning experience that a traditional teacher often is not. The physical setting of the learning environment is very important to the facilitator, including the lighting, the seating arrangement, and the room temperature. Visual aids are of critical importance to the facilitator, and rarely will you find a facilitator’s classroom without posters, flipcharts, slides, and overhead transparencies. I use all these mediums together for virtually every class, carefully integrating different mediums and switching between them. With this approach, the learning experience is heightened and the different learning styles of each student are usually represented. The facilitator strives to create a learning environment in which the student feels it is safe to express thoughts and opinions and where the intuition of the individual is considered of great value. Before attempting any group activity, the instructor should carefully assess the goals and objectives for the activity. The process could be described as follows and is appropriate for designing exercises for many different kinds of group activities. 1. Identify the fundamental question at hand. 2. Identify the three or four fundamental concepts, insights, and understandings you want the learners to get out the activity. This clarifies in your mind what you are trying to accomplish and is an important step in designing the appropriate group activity. 3. Select an excerpt from the readings to use as the trigger to get discussion going on the subject. Then design a group activity that will allow the students to discover the fundamental concepts you have identified for themselves. 4. Devise a clear statement of the task for the group.

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5. Identify a focused product for the group effort. Will you require a group report, individual reports? Is a dissenting opinion allowed? 6. Require the students to write about the exersise as an outside assignment.

I will describe below how I applied this process to the conducting of two group activities in two very different classes. An “Unstructured Role-Playing” Session

For a class called “Environmental Action and Social Responsibility,” I included a session about fighting for world peace and justice. Applying the process outlined above, I examined my notes for the fundamental question at hand. What I realized, after looking at pages and pages of what was intended to be a lecture on the subject, was that the fundamental question was a very simple one: “Why is it a fight to attain world peace?” This is really the question that I wanted the students to examine.

The effort in determining the fundamental concepts, insights, and understandings I wanted the C

learners to get out of the activity was very worthwhile. It really helped me to boil down my own h thoughts by asking myself what points I wanted the students to get from my discussion. Once again, my a p

pages and pages of notes coalesced into the following fundamental points: t e r

1. Achieving “world peace” means different things to different people. 3 2. When you consider the social, economic, political, and personal points of view, there are many artificial barriers to world peace. 3. Not everyone may want world peace. 4. World peace can only be obtained through the attitudes of people, not laws, technology or other superficialities. 5. Taking ourselves out of our own ego-centered world is important if we are to think on a broader scale. 6. An individual’s own views and actions are very important.

Next, I selected an excerpt from the textbook that spoke of the concept of security. The excerpt discussed that the definition of “security” is based on your culture. In the United States, security is defined by how high your walls are or the size of your arsenal. In other cultures, how secure you are is based on how well fed and content your family is and on the interpersonal relationships in your community. This provided fertile ground to get the group thinking about the topic. The task for the group would be to come up with their plan for world peace, but from a specific point of view. I selected five points of view that each group would use as the basis for their plans: Group #1 Point of View: U.S. Congressperson. Group #2 Point of View: A working woman in the U.S. Group #3 Point of View: A poor, out of work mother in a third world country. Group #4 Point of View: An Australian Aborigine. Group #5 Point of View: Their own modern day point of view. Page 91 Chapter 3 - The Deep Teaching Process

The product of each group effort would be a report, based on a consensus of the group, that would be presented verbally by a recorder who would also take notes during the discussion. A group facilitator was chosen in each group and ideally, if your groups are large enough, the facilitator does not participate in the discussion. If there are only two or three people in a group, then the facilitator would participate. “Minority” opinions are allowed and the groups would have 30 minutes to complete their reports. I also decided that each student in the class would be asked to write a reaction to the exercise to be turned in at the next class meeting. Each time I have done this in class, the outcome has been excellent. During the presentation of each group’s report, the fundamental points I identified in my exercise planning always come out. And they come from the student, not from me. After the completion of the reports, I summarize C the fundamental concepts that were uncovered and the process is complete. h

A “Brainstorming” Session a p t

In a class I teach called “The Earth In Space: The Astronomy, Technology, Philosophy, and Ethics of e r

Space Exploration,” we discuss the many issues involved in the exploration of our Solar System and the 3 exploration of space. During the discussion of the Apollo lunar landings, I tell the class of the politics involved in the deciding who would be the first person in each mission to walk on the Moon and what they would say when they made that giant step. Then, using the process outlined above, I engage the students in a group activity in which each group considers themselves to be the crew of the first space mission to return to the Moon since the Apollo days. They have been instructed by NASA to meet and decide who would be the first to walk on the moon and what they would say as they get off the ladder of the spacecraft. The group is informed that their decisions will have to be justified and approved by NASA management and the President of the United States. This is an exercise that they have a lot of fun with and, at the same time, discover the difficulty in conducting a technologically based program within the constraints of politics, economics, and sociology. It gets them thinking on many levels. The group process is the same as the one described above and the products of the group are similar. These are just a couple of the many ways that students can be involved in the learning experience and placed in the role of self-teacher rather than passive learner. The job of a facilitator who is participating in the learning process with their students can be much more exciting, rewarding, and satisfying than that of a traditional teacher can ever be. Critical Thinking as a Mode For Learning

Educators of today face challenges unprecedented in the history of education. Overcrowded classrooms, inadequate facilities, and increased demands to move students through the system are but a few of the obstacles facing our teachers. Add to these burdens the fact that the world is changing rapidly, and the situation can seem overwhelming at best. Education began in the U.S. as a means to get

Page 92 Chapter 3 - The Deep Teaching Process farmers into factories, and standardized, mechanized, and linear modes of teaching became the norm. Today, however, there are very few farmers, few factory jobs, and the very reason why we educate is less clear and focused. This confusion has forced a reevaluation of modes and methods and a powerful redirection is taking place, turning the classroom into a dynamic environment where students can be taught to embrace learning as a lifelong process. To teach students in this manner is to teach thinking and reasoning skills. With this approach, the emphasis in the classroom becomes less on “facts and figures” and more on understanding the underlying conceptual framework. It is an empowering way to teach because it validates the native intelligence that we all possess. This style is known as teaching students to “think critically.”

Myths and Fears of Learning C h

To fully embrace this new mode of teaching, we must first become very aware of the obstacles a p

that we face in the classroom. Most people have certain “myths” about what learning is that our western t e

culture has reinforced in us. These myths are obstacles to the learning process. Learning certainly does r

not have to be boring. It can be exciting and dynamic. The myth that learning is only done in school 3 must be dispelled if we are to make our students lifelong learners. Learning takes place anywhere at any time. The myth that to learn we must be passive and receptive and that we “absorb” knowledge has been one of the most damaging misconceptions of the learning process. Educational research clearly shows that we learn the best when we are actively involved in the process.1 True learning does not take place through absorption, but rather through dynamic action. The concept of what a teacher is needs re- membering in our students. A teacher should not be someone that you “put yourself under.” Rather, a teacher should be someone you associate yourself with, someone who facilitates your journey thorough their abilities to relate their life experiences and knowledge to your life and experiences. The myth that learning must be systematic, logical, and planned has stifled much energy and made the learning process dry and lifeless. During a class session, the teacher must be prepared to go wherever the needs of the class require, diverging from a lesson plan where necessary and creating an organic flow to the process. Finally, so many learners have been discouraged and damaged by the belief that unless you “know it all” about a subject, you may as well not have gotten any of it. The drive to achieve “A’s” on exams and the rewards associated with getting the “top grade” has created a whole series of “fears” about learning that we as educators must heal. This approach is not suggesting that we not encourage excellence. What it does mean is that we owe our students an awareness of the reality that no one (that’s right, no one) can know everything about anything. Learning is dynamic and ever changing, and there is always more to learn about any subject. When educational researchers talk about “proficiency” in a field, they are not talking about 100% knowledge of the subject, but 80%. It is so important for all of us to

Page 93 Chapter 3 - The Deep Teaching Process realize that we must decide how much we need to know about a given subject and embark upon a learning program to achieve that knowledge. At the beginning of every class I teach, I tell the students that they are freed from the requirement to know everything about this subject. It is simply not possible anyway, so I ask them to give themselves permission to realize that they do not have to know it all to ‘get it.’ It is amazing how such a simple, yet powerful acknowledgment of this reality relieves the student from unrealistic expectations and allows for excellence to appear. Helping students to understand their myths and fears and to provide them with tools to overcome their obstacles to learning is the first important step in fostering the awareness that is required in order for them to think critically. The concept of teaching critical thinking can be summed up in two very important steps. First, you must teach students to notice that there is something to figure out. People are, in general, not good at reasoning, at noticing, and at judging when a problem is at hand that needs to be solved. Next, once skill has been developed in noticing and appreci-

ating the importance of problem solving, you help teach C them how to figure it out. A vital element of the process of h a

teaching students the skills for reasoning involves letting go p of the traditional view that learning is measured by the t e quantity of material covered. r

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart And try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers that cannot be given you Because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually, Without noticing it, Live along some distant day Into the answer.

Ranier Maria Rilke

When teaching critical thinking skills, it is important to cover less so that the students learn more. No other concept is as revolutionary, critical or as much misunderstood as this one. Studies done by the Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique at Sonoma State University in California show dramatically that students taught in this manner have a much better grasp of a subject, do much better on tests, and perform better in their chosen careers.2 So, what does it mean to cover less so that students learn more? In essence, it means that the teacher becomes a facilitator, not a lecturer, providing an environment where the students discover for themselves. It means that teachers need to remodel their lesson plans, turning their lectures into interactive experiences. And it means that students need

Page 94 Chapter 3 - The Deep Teaching Process to be taught to effectively listen, write, and read critically and to learn to assess their work while they are doing it. Evidence that “fact-based” teaching has minimal effectiveness can be seen if you look closely at how most students perceive the learning process. It is as if they put a bucket on their heads at the beginning of the term. The teacher keeps filling the bucket with facts and ideas and the bucket gets heavier and heavier. The student is staggering around, dreading coming to class and is painfully memo- rizing the material. Then, finally, the exam comes, the bucket is quickly emptied, and students can be heard saying “thank goodness I don’t have to know that stuff anymore.” There can be few forms of failure of the teaching process more dramatic than this phenomenon. However, students who are taught by facilitators who are involving them in the learning process, consider the knowledge gained to be a permanent part of their lives. Remodeling a lesson plan can be a very valuable experience for the teacher. Take a look at your lecture and ask yourself, what three or four fundamental and powerful concepts do you want to convey to the students. Then, develop activities for the students to discover those ideas for themselves. If the cover less so that they learn more principle is to be practiced, then students need to be given enhanced

skills in listening, reading, and writing. C

Listening is the first skill that must be enhanced. The notion that listening is a passive activity h a

needs to be dispelled. Ask your students regularly to restate, in their own words, what either you or p another student has just said. Conduct a simple exercise in listening. Have students pair up and take t e turns speaking to each other about something they are interested in right now. The listener is instructed r to not speak or respond in any way. Have everyone discuss how it felt to listen without responding and 3 speaking without acknowledgment. People will soon realize that they have often responded in a discussion without fully listening. Most of us begin formulating the response in a discussion long before the speaker has finished. This practice takes us totally out of the moment and we cannot respond well if we haven’t listened well. Students need to be taught how to read critically as well. Most of us have been taught to read by reading one word at a time and expecting and hoping that the meaning of what we read will accumulate. This has been found to be a very inefficient means of learning. Methods exist that enable the reader to see the whole represented by the book by taking in more than one word at a time. Time should be spent discussing the writing process, paying special attention to methods for researching, outlining, creating drafts, and assessing one’s own work while they are writing. A virtually untapped resource in opening up the learning process is the use of the creative arts as tools to explore and open the mind and heart. Our bodies and minds are capable of

Page 95 Chapter 3 - The Deep Teaching Process perceiving a wealth of feelings, sensations, and images which, if tapped, can dramatically enhance the learning process. The field of art therapy is an important illustration of the power of creative expression. Through various forms of art, deep feelings can be tapped and blocks can be softened. Much healing has taken place in emotionally disturbed individuals through the use of art. I have used various forms of art therapy with my students to help open them up for a learning activity as well as to allow processing of some of the disturbing information I will often share during my environmental science classes. I try to have a qualified art therapist on hand to conduct these activities, but there are art activities that can be used with minimal risk. They are presented in Chapter 5. The power of art is great, and a teacher should always be aware that such creative expression can bring up deep feelings. I have worked with an art therapist to develop a number of art projects that can be used with students prior to beginning a learning activity. These activities put the students in a very receptive state and the learning experience becomes much more rich and full. Learning activities that involve body movement also enhance the learning process. A learning experience that is “lived” in the body is one that is remembered for a lifetime. The use of movement in

learning will be discussed more fully in Chapter 5. C

The deep teaching process can bring vitality and excitement back into the classroom. It can also h a

provide the opportunity for the student to have a receptivity that does not occur when the teaching is p shallow. This advanced receptivity affords the deep teacher the opportunity to employ tools that can t e help the learner establish the vital relationship with the natural world. The next chapter offers some r strategies to nurture this receptivity. 3

Page 96 NOTES

1 Frank, Stanley. The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program. New York: Avon Books, 1990. and Gross, Ronald. Peak Learning: A Master Course in Learning How to Learn. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1991.

2 Paul, Richard, et al. Critical Thinking Handbook: A Guide for Redesigning Instruction. Rohnert Park, CA: Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, 1989.

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Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process

Teaching deeply incorporates a variety of techniques developed by a myriad of visionary educators such as Joanna Macy, Thich Nhat Hahn, Theodore Roszak, Matthew Fox, Gabrielle Roth, and Vandana Shiva. In this chapter, I will briefly discuss the foundational tools that are an integral part of teaching connectedness. Clearly, there are an infinite number of strategies that can be used. I have focused on a suite of seven. They are 1) despairwork, 2) ecopsychology, 3) ecofeminism, 4) deep and spiritual ecology, 5) addressing conflict and controversy, 6) social responsibility and activism and 7) astronomy and cosmology. Despairwork

In our complex daily lives filled with joys and sorrows, we don’t often have the occasion to use the words “despair” and “empowerment” in the same sentence. We are usually either feeling despair or feeling empowered, but we

never associate the two concepts as being even remotely C related. But thanks to the work of Dr. Joanna Macy, a visionary h psychologist, environmentalist, and peace maker, we have a p the knowledge to turn our despair and feelings of hopeless- t e ness and confusion into a sense of personal and planetary r power. With this new awareness, we can reshape how we 4 feel about ourselves and each other and provide a framework for the development of a planetary ethic that will allow us and our world to survive. All over the world, “despair and empowerment” working groups are forming and exercises are being used in the classrooms of students of all ages to channel the strong emotions we all feel about so many issues facing us today into a sense of hope that is grounded in the native interconnectedness of all things. “Despairwork” is drawn from both scientific and spiritual teachings and is a voyage through our pain for the world and an exploration of our own personal powers to heal the world. There are five guiding principles to the concept of depairwork.1 Feelings of Pain for our world are natural and healthy. When confronted with widespread suffering and threats of global disaster, responses of fear, anger, grief, and guilt in us is perfectly normal. These feelings are, in fact, probably the clearest measure of our humanity and these feelings are probably what we have most in common with each other. The pain is morbid only if denied. Denial of our pain results in dysfunction which manifests itself into the hatreds and suspicions that divide us, making us seek scapegoats and turning our anger against other members of society. It also turns us inward in depression and self-destruction but once we experience our pain for the world, it flows through us. It is our refusal to acknowledge it that keeps the pain in its place. Information alone is not enough. Terrifying information of the processes of global destruction

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drive us deeper into denial unless we can deal with the responses it arouses in us. We need to process this information on the psychological and emotional level in order to fully respond on the cognitive level. We don’t need more intellectual analyses of our plight - we need to feel helpless and hopeless together to feel our strength. The turning points in the civil rights movement were when people wept together in churches and jails. Unblocking repressed feelings releases energy, clears the mind. The repression of feelings is physically, mentally and emotionally expensive, draining the body, dulling the mind and hiding emotional responses. Unblocking our pain for the world reconnects us with the larger web of life. The distress we feel about our world reflects concerns that extend beyond our separate selves and beyond our individual needs and wants. It is a testimony of our interconnectedness. By recognizing our capacity to suffer with our world, we experience wider dimensions of being. The pain is still there, but it has transformed into a basis for a shared concern and a source of personal power and a feeling of interconnectedness. When we share our pain and confusion for the world with others we find, much to our surprise,

that everyone else is expressing similar concerns and fears. Suddenly, our aloneness in transformed into C

interconnectedness and our despair into empowerment as we realize that as connected beings, we h

possess awesome power. a p

An important step in the process is to admit just how scared and confused we really are. And t e

there is much to be frightened about as our planet’s life-support systems are systematically being r

destroyed by toxic wastes, acid rain, destruction of forests and poisoning by pesticides. Over half our 4 planet’s people experience great misery and suffer lingering, premature deaths. The threat of nuclear war is, in spite of the important inroads made toward peace among the super powers, is as real as ever. The world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has not decreased and nothing in history suggests that these weapons of mass destruction will not be used or unleashed by accident. We might not survive such an incident and our civilization could end. Joanna Macy calls this realization the “pivotal psychological reality of our time.” Until now, every generation throughout history lived with the tacit certainty that other generations would follow. Each assumed that its children and children’s children would carry on and would walk on the same Earth, under the same sky. But that certainty is now lost to us as we perceive, for the first time in our history, the possibility of our death as a species. In Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, Macy makes a strong case that these realizations span generations, religious affiliations, race, and class, and that they are deeply a part of our conscious and subconscious minds. We experience so much from these realizations, whether they be conscious or unconscious. We experience fear of the suffering in store for us and loved ones, anger that we live with such a threat and meaningless enterprise, guilt since as members of this society we feel implicated, and sorrow from the contemplation of so vast a loss. But these are not fears of our own individual demise. Their source lies in concerns for apprehensions of collective suffering, of what happens to others and fellow species, to the heritage we share, to the unborn generations to come, and to our green mother Earth herself, wheeling alone in space. Intuitively, we all realize that we are integral components of our world, like cells in a larger body. When part of that body is traumatized, we feel the trauma as well, in the suffering of other beings, in the pillage of our planet, and the violation of future generations.

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How often we have disbelieved all this news. How often we have denied the impact of our actions on the planet. So we lead a double life, as if nothing has changed, but in reality, everything is changed. Until we find ways of acknowledging and integrating that level of anguished awareness, we repress it; and with that repression we are drained of the energy we need for action and clear thinking. It is interesting to realize that each of us has the capacity to drop everything and act. That power to act is ours and no outside authority is silencing us and no external force is keeping us from responding with all our might and courage. It is something inside us that stifles our responses. Fears stifle us, and a long list of them at that.

FEAR OF PAIN FEAR OF APPEARING MORBID FEAR OF APPEARING STUPID FEAR OF GUILT FEAR OF CAUSING DISTRESS FEAR OF PROVOKING DISASTER FEAR OF APPEARING UNPATRIOTIC

FEAR OF SOWING PANIC C

FEAR OF RELIGIOUS DOUBT h FEAR OF APPEARING TOO EMOTIONAL a p

FEAR OF FEELING POWERLESS t e r

The effects of this repression on our daily lives is profound and Macy has categorized the effects 4 into nine major areas.

Fragmentation and alienation from ourselves results as doubt cuts us off from our deep sources of self esteem and creative power. Displacement activities become ever important as we turn increasingly to a desperate pursuit of pleasure and other short-term goals such as consumption of goods, sex, drugs, entertainment, the pursuit of money. Political passivity sets in as we believe that we cannot possibly have any effect on world affairs. Destructive behaviors seem not so bad in the light of the depressing state of world affairs. Projection of our concerns on others becomes the norm as we demonize other cultures and seek scapegoats. Resistance to painful information. We just don’t want to hear anymore. Diminished intellectual performance has been shown to affect those who repress and deny fears. A sense of powerlessness permeates our lives.

Each act of denial, conscious or unconscious, is an abdication of our powers to respond, allowing ourselves to be immobilized by the fear of moving through that pain. But it is only when we can hon- estly contemplate this horror that we can begin to master it. Until we have done so, the pain and fear have us in their grip. And the exciting aspect of the acknowledgment of despair and concern for our plight is that we survive the acknowledgment! There are no cosmic explosions and the Sun does not

Page 100 Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process blink out of existence when we begin to realize the blocks that have prevented us from taking responsibility for our actions and our lives. Instead, there is a burst of self-awareness and of deep, inner strength that comes from identifying our personal fears, calling them our own, and realizing that they are the same fears shared by others. In the despair and empowerment process, we first acknowledge our pain for the world and then validate that pain. Then we experience the pain, move through the pain to its source and, finally, experience the power of interconnectedness. Despairwork has been used in settings around the world, from the ravaged site of the Chernobyl reactor explosion to the world of corporate America. Young children, the elderly, and every age in between are being affected by the power of acknowledgment and the realization of interconnectedness. Macy’s book should be in every deep teacher’s library for use at all levels of education. It is filled with exercises that allow a teacher to custom design a “despair and empowerment” session of any length that focuses on the issues you want to address. The exercises are broken in to three categories, corresponding to the transformative stages of the work: 1) acknowledgment of despair, 2) the “turning” or transformation of that pain, and 3) empowerment. The exercises range from guided meditations to

expressing one’s concerns for the world with clay and drawings. Some exercises involve body move- C

ments while others are guided meditations. The exercises encourage small group processing and are h adaptable to any situation from a formal classroom setting to sitting on a bus on the way to a field trip. a p

A particularly powerful exercise that the author uses regularly in his environmental studies t e

courses is called “Thirty Years Hence.” This wonderfully simple exercise can be done in fifteen minutes r

in any setting. After helping the participants to relax, you ask them to close their eyes and breathe. You 4 ask them to put themselves forward in time to a day just like today, but thirty years from now. Everyone is to assume that they have the same feelings as they do now and that they are in one of their favorite spots. They are told not to worry about how the world has changed, but to know that there is one key difference : all weapons have been dismantled throughout the world and the world is at peace. You have become so accustomed to the idea that you take this concept for granted. Now participants are told to imagine that a child approaches them, 8 or 9 years old, who has heard songs and stories of the times when the world was at the brink of destruction. She approaches with great timidity and curiosity and asks: “Were there really bombs that could blow up the whole world?” Participants are told to listen to her questions and hear how you would answer them. “Were there really millions and millions of people who were sick and hungry?” . . . “What was it like to be alive in a time like that? Weren’t you frightened?” . . . And lastly she asks, “What did you do to get through that scary time, and not be discouraged? . . . What helped you stay strong so you could know what to do?” Participants are told to listen now to their own answers to these questions. This exercise can be conducted as a meditative experience or as a small group discussion or role playing. The effects are profound and the results can be life-changing for the participant. This is just one example of the many exercises possible. Students and nonstudents everywhere need help to awaken to what Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn calls “ the miracle of mindfulness.”2 We must awaken to the wonder, the beauty, the awe, and the suffering of the world around us. When students get over the initial shock and fear of this reawakening, and it is frightening to awaken to what Thick Nhat Hahn calls “the sound of the Earth

Page 101 Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process crying,”3 once the suffering has been acknowledged and we have developed the compassion within us, then a great inner peace is possible and a space is created to appreciate the awe of our universe. To be mindful of our actions, our surroundings, and ourselves, to reclassify the earth, the air, the water and all the planet’s contents as sacred, and to realize the importance of appreciating the present moment in our lives will help in the reintegration of our lives with the universe around us. For hundreds of years, our educational system has been evolving into a mass producing, creativity stifling, awe-dampening process that we as educators must reform and restructure to bring the human (and nonhuman) spirit back for ourselves and our children. We are in a transitional age in which the destiny of all Earth’s inhabitants hangs in a precarious balance. A new framework for our thinking and our teaching is required, one based on a re-membering of the knowledge of the interconnectedness of all life on this planet. Despairwork, pioneered by visionary woman and men, is an important tool in that re-membering. Ecopsychology It has long been understood that thousands of substances produced in our C world today are “neurotoxins” capable of h a

causing a wide spectrum of neurological p problems that range from mild and tran- t e sient to totally debilitating and deadly. Of r the 65,000 industrial chemicals registered 4 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, between 3 and 5 percent - 2,000 - had neurotoxic potential. Some research- Trash collects at the end of Ballona Creek, stopped by a net ers put the figure at more than 28 percent before it gets to the ocean, after a heavy rain in Los Angeles. or 18,000. The March of Dimes organization (LA Times, 9/27/97) estimates that 5 to 10 percent of birth defects are the result of environmental toxicity.4 In today’s environment, exposure to substances that can cause toxic mood disorders is virtually constant. Many of the symptoms of toxic mood disorders are identical to those of depression and other mental illnesses. Such disorders can last for hours, days, or can reoccur unexpectedly, even when exposure to the source has ceased. 5 Symptoms include personality changes, mental changes, sleep distur- bances, chronic fatigue, and motor incoordination, to list a few.6 We spend 70 to 98 percent of our time indoors at either the home or office (or hotels and cars when we travel to play). Indoor air pollutants in the U.S. cause as many as 6,000 cancer deaths each year and up to 20,000 more deaths from indoor inhalation of the decay products of radioactive radon gas. It is estimated that one-fifth to one-third of all U.S. buildings are “sick” and are causing people to suffer from a variety of ailments. Each year, exposure to pollutants inside factories and business in the U.S. kills from 100,000 to 210,000 workers prema- turely.7 Each of us carries around a potentially toxic awareness of the challenges that face our world,

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challenges that we often do little or nothing about. We know that the air and water are compromised, yet we must go out into the world each day and breath and drink. We can use bottled water, but the air is more difficult to replace. We breathe all day long, yet a part of our psyche knows that we are harming ourselves by doing so. Yet what other choice do we have? An educator who does not take these awarenesses into account in designing learning activities is missing an enormous opportunity and leaving a barrier in place that will interfere with any learning process. The unacknowledged awareness we live with is staggering. Look what people in the United States do every day:8 • Throw out 200,000 tons of edible food • use 313 million gallons of fuel - enough to drain 26 tractor-trailer trucks every minute • take 18 million tons of raw materials from the Earth • Use 6.8 billion gallons of drinking water to flush toilets • Throw 1 million bushels of litter out of car windows • Add 10,000 minks to their closets and coat racks • Spend $200 million on advertising

• Saw up 100 million board feet of wood C

• use 250,000 tons of steel h

• use 187,000 tons of paper a p t

9 e

On a global scale, a typical day includes the following activities: r

• 238,000 people are added to the world 4 • 1,233 people in the U.S. die from smoking related illnesses • 120,000 children worldwide die from diarrhea • 180 sq. miles of tropical forests are cleared • 73 tons of topsoil is eroded • 10-100 species are eliminated • 78 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere • 1,800 tons of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons are added to the atmosphere

As presented earlier, it is clear that there is still a significant worldwide nuclear threat facing us. This awareness, says Joanna Macy, may be “the pivotal psychological reality of our time.”10 For the first time in human history, a generation of people can envision a world that is polluted, poisoned, and devastated. Since the beginning of time, all humans shared the belief that their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren would all walk the same Earth and breathe the same air. But since the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the increasing awareness of environmental devastation, generations of people exists who can imagine a future where they and their children inherit a horror. Deep teaching can address this psychic despair that we feel. Deep educators must help their students through barriers and obstacles to learning created by these conscious and subconscious awarenesses. Helping students to critically examine the environment in which they live, work, and play is instrumental if the learning is to effect personal and societal transformation. Theodore Roszak, a major contributor to the definition of this growing new field, has said

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“These commonplace environmental problems have become the psychopathology of our everyday life. They reveal a condition of the soul for which Freud would have had no name.”11 Toward an “Ecopsychology”

One of the major areas for reassessment in the growing field of “ecopsychology” that can help deep teachers is the concept of “self.” Joanna Macy has described this need to redefine “self” in an essay entitled “The Greening of the Self:”

The self is the metaphoric construct of identity and agency, the hypothetical piece of turf on which we construct our strategies for survival, the notion around which we focus our instincts for self-preservation, our needs for self-approval, and the boundaries of our self-interest. . . The conventional notion of the self with which we have been raised and to which we have been conditioned by mainstream culture is being undermined . . . It is being replaced by wider constructs of identity and self-interest - by what you might call the ecological self or the eco-self, co-extensive with other beings and the life of our planet.12

As discussed in Chapter 1, our Western concept of individualism has had a tremendous effect on C

our relationship to the natural world. Chellis Glendinning suggests that our relationship with ourselves h and our world could better be defined through “energetic affiliation rather than the erection of bound- a p 13 aries.” She says that nature-based people do t e

not even have a notion of the psyche or indi- r

vidual consciousness as it exists in our modern 4 world. She says that their “essential unit of wholeness, if we can even use such language, is the entire universe; vital consciousness resides both within us and at the same time all around us in the world.”14 Ecopsychology affords the opportunity for teaching deeply in the truest sense of the concept. There can be no greater gift that a student could receive than to gain some insight into the subtle and pervasive stresses they carry around in their lives from our dysfunctional relationships with ourselves and the natural world. Ecofeminism

The patriarchal culture of the last few thousand years has emphasized the devaluing of from a print published in 1655 (Williams, natural processes and labeled anything nonhu- Riding the Nightmare) man as “other.” Our culture is a product of denigration and manipulation of nature, women,

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people of color and lesser developed cultures. This denigration takes many forms and women are often the first to notice the effects. In the West, although we have dramatic environmental issues such as the spraying of toxic chemicals on our food or the improper disposal of toxic wastes, the connections to women are less apparent although there are many examples of women leading the fights. In the lesser-developed countries where women gather food, water, fuel, and fodder, they usually see the effects of technological devastation first. Historically, women have traditionally been closer to the Earth. They have been healers with knowledge of medicinal plants and cycles of the Earth, midwives, food gatherers, and child

bearers. Women’s bodies are “sites for environ- C

mental stress” on planetary, regional, and local h

levels as is evidence through birth defects, a p

caretaking, nutrition, community stress, and t e

stress-induced miscarriages r

The very language used in most modern from the cover of Witchcraze by 4 cultures is one of objectification and domination. Anne Llewellyn Barstow We “enter virgin territory” and “rape the land.” Francis Bacon said “nature had to be hounded in her wanderings, bound into service” and made a slave.” She was to be “put in constraint” and the job of the scientist was to “torture nature’s secrets from her”15 He wrote that the new man of science shouldn’t think that the “inquisition of nature is in any part interdicted or forbidden.”16 Many feel it is no coincidence that the tenants of modern science were being formed during the period in history when, over a three hundred year period between the 1500’s and 1800’s, over 9 million women (and some men) were being burned at the stake, most for practicing connections to the Earth. The very tools of modern science may have had their inspiration from the tools of torture used during the inquisitions.17 The principles of ecofeminism have many applications in deep teaching, not the least of which is as a vehicle for illustrating how the scientific revolution transformed the practice of science into a methodology for manipulating nature.18 The connections between physics, consumerism, corporate influences, and the domination of nature are drawn clearly from a study of ecofeminism. Ecofeminism rejects the idea that women are only to be associated with nature and nurturing and that man is the vital force behind culture. Ecofeminism creates a new cultural paradigm that embraces and honors caretaking and nurturing and does not put nature over culture. It acknowledges our interconnectedness and embeddedness in the multiple webs and cycles of life. It is an ethic that suggests that we as humans live with the Earth, not on it. Ecofeminism embraces women of all cultures, men of all cultures, plants, animals, and ecologi-

Page 105 Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process cal interconnectedness. It takes inspirations for action from myths and symbols of the ancient Goddess traditions, Native American traditions toward future generations, tree planting, alternative healing communities, food co-ops, performance art, witchcraft, poetry, ritual, and social activism. It embraces a concept of power that is not monolithic, homogeneous, or anthropocentric. A Feminist Critique of the Physical Sciences

Ecofeminism suggests that all knowledge, perceptions, ideals, and ethics in all fields of study have been influenced by the dominant white, male, patriarchal culture, and possibly no fields have been so adversely affected as the physical sciences. Sandra Harding has explored this area in great depth in her books and she points out that feminist critiques of science are no longer lone voices “crying out in the wilderness (if they ever were) but are linked thematically and historically to a rising tide of critical analysis of the mental life and social relations of the modern, androcentric, imperial, bourgeois West, including its sciences and notions of knowledge.”19 She says that today there is rising skepticism about the benefits of science and technology from many different groups, especially those who are marginalized by racism, imperialism, and class exploitation. There is a growing body of literature which critiques the traditional approach to science in C general and science education in particular. Harding states that science education is “woefully flawed in h that it is structured by unrealistic and politically damaging images of and goals for scientific activity.”20 a Ruth Bleier has edited a collection of papers that present a comprehensive feminist critique of science, p t probing the reasons behind the virtual absence of a feminist voice in the natural sciences and question- e r

ing what such a voice would sound like, how science would be different, and how our perceptions of the 4 natural world would be affected.21 In Bleier’s collection, Mariamne H. Whatley presents a fascinating discussion on the implications of taking feminist science into the classroom. Whatley examines the narrow manner in which the scientific method has been employed, often resulting in exclusionary practices and biased observations and results. She challenges the traditional belief that “good science” is objective and free of political issues. It is impossible to remove the values of the scientist from their analysis and this tendency to objectify everything has excluded many details from consideration.22 Sue V. Rosser examined the question of whether or not successful women scientists have developed approaches and theories different from those used by traditional male scientists and stresses the importance of developing and using inclusionary theories and methods to involve more women in science.23 Harding has pointed out that there has always been deep ties between science and warmaking. Her studies of U.S. science policy since World War II clearly show that late twentieth-century physics has been shaped by military control. Science has become a business and a tool for proliferating the West- ern notion of power and control throughout the world. And other than feminist scholars, few today deeply challenge the internal social structure of science nor science’s involvement in exploitative politics.24 The relationship between science and society is subjected to profound questioning by Judy Wajcman in Feminism Confronts Technology.25 She reminds us that our icons of progress have been traditionally drawn from science, technology, and medicine and that we revere that which is defined as “rational” and condemn that which we judge as “emotional.” But it is becoming clear as we approach

Page 106 Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process the twenty-first century that science and technology are not supplying all the answers to world problems of environmental degradation, unemployment, and war. A transformation is taking place on the planet and a shift in belief systems that can no longer be contained is under way. For many, the awakening is not unlike that described by Evelyn Fox Keeler in her book, Reflections on Gender and Science. She describes her own transformation a decade ago when she was working as a mathematical biophysicist. She believed wholeheartedly in the laws of physics and in their place at the apex of knowledge. Then, sometime in the mid-1970’s, she was upset - over- night - by the consideration of another kind of question that upset her “entire intellectual hierarchy: How much of the nature of science is bound up with the idea of masculinity, and what would it mean for science if it were otherwise? A lifelong training had labeled that question patently absurd; but once I actually heard it, I could not, either as a woman or as a scientist, any longer avoid it.” She explores the relation between gender and science in her book of essays.26 She aptly says that the women’s movement, which began as an effort to reexamine the absence of women in the history of social and political thought, has called attention to the question of what it may mean to call one aspect of human experience male and an-

other female. She asks “how do such labels affect the ways in which we structure our experiential world, C 27 assign value to its different domains, and, in turn, acculturate and value actual men and women?” h a

Confusion about Our Place in Nature p t There may be no area of our experience that has been impacted more by the objectification e r

and rationalization of our perceptions than nature itself. Ynestra King, ecofeminist scholar, said that the 4 “ecological crisis is related to the systems of hatred of all that is natural and female by the White, male, Western formulators of philosophy, technology, and death inventions.” She observes that at the root of Western society is a deep ambivalence about life itself and a “terrible confusion about our place in nature.”28 Paula Gunn Allen, in a piece in Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, an important collection of work on ecological feminism, said:

A society that believes that the body is somehow diseased, painful, sinful, or wrong, a people that spends its time trying to deny the body’s needs, aims, goals, and processes - whether these be called health or disease - is going to misunderstand the nature of its existence and of the planet’s and is going to create social institutions out of those body-denying attitudes that wreak destruction not only on human, plant, and other creaturely bodies but on the body of the Earth herself. The planet, our mother, Grandmother Earth, is physical and therefore a spiritual, mental, and emotional being. Planets are alive, as are all their by- products or expressions, such as animals, vegetables, minerals, climatic and meteorological phenomena.29

Gunn Allen has expanded on this theme from a Native American perspective in her other works.30 I have found no more direct description of the parallel between our treatment of nature and our treatment of women than by Arisika Razak, director of Nurse-Midwifery Services at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California:

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The physical rape of women by men in this culture is easily paralleled by our rapacious attitudes toward the Earth itself. She, too, is female. With no sense of consequence and scant knowledge of harmony, we gluttonously consume and misdirect scarce planetary resources. With unholy glee, we enter “virgin” territory. Nature is naturally threatening - she must be conquered, reduced, put in her place. She can be improved on. The Earth must be entered, emptied, changed. She can be made to “yield up her secrets.” We will have from her what it is that we need.31

She goes on to say that the reversal of this cultural attitude is of fundamental importance to our health as a society. She says:

we need to develop new paradigms that articulate positive human interaction and functioning. We need models that are more inclusive and holistic. We need paradigms that are nurturing. We need models based on human cycles of growth and change, not mechanistic iterations of stasis and motion.

Arisika develops vitally important parallels between the role of midwifery in culture and history and the importance of birth as an event of incredible human significance. She asks the disturbing 32 question: “Why don’t we celebrate birth instead of war?” C h

Deep and Spiritual Ecology a p

Carolyn Merchant, in her book Radical Ecology, gives excellent overviews of many of the t e

tools I suggest are important to the deep teacher, r

including deep and spiritual ecology. Deep ecology’s 4 principles can be summarized as 1 not placing humans above nature 2 redefining the concept of self to include the natural world 3 rejecting industrial society as the world model for development 4 offering an ecocentric ethic 5 promoting a nonviolent peace with nature, using technology as a means, not an end. Deep ecology is an important tool for the deep environmental studies teacher. Spiritual ecology seeks to redefine the Earth as sacred. It is, says Merchant, a product of the profound sense of crisis that many feel in the way humans have interacted with the natural world.33 Spiritual ecology includes celebrating the seasonal cycles and interacting with nature as a direct participant, not as a casual observer. It also includes examination of ancient nature-based religions for ways of being.34

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A Return to the Goddess

An explosion of research in the last few years, highlighted by the work of the late Marija Gimbutas, explores the roots of human civilization and reinterprets much of the anthropological interpretations of the last two centuries. Goddess figurines, altars, spiral snake designs and other imagery that was not considered significant by early explorers, are believed now to signify a focus on the Earth as deity and woman as the source of power and life in the early peoples of Old Europe.35 Examining the significance of a civilization worshiping female deities that was overtaken by male god worshiping invaders between 4400 BC to 2800 BC can be a powerful tool for the deep environmental studies teacher in the classroom.36 Exploring the possibility that the Mother Goddess - the Mother Earth - became the subservient consort of the invader gods, and her attributes and powers were absorbed and came under the domination of a male deity, is an excellent way to examine and challenge the assumptions that we have all taken for granted.

Native American Awareness

Native American awareness contain many important tools for the deep teacher. They are also C excellent places to discuss the assumptions we make in our lives. Native American traditions have often h a

been presented in a very simplistic manner, as representative of the ultimate caretaking ethic. The p t

deep teacher must consider using Native American teachings (or that of any indigenous peoples) with e caution. Care must be taken to present those people in a fair context and to resist the tendancy to r overromanticize them. 4 Many native American tribes believed that they were descended from female creator spirits and were matirfocal.37 We believe that Native Americans looked at the Earth as alive and as mother. Many seem to have believed that the entire natural world was animate and that they were a part of the natural and the supernatural at the same time.38 Many of us have been inspired by the words of Chief Seattle where he proclaims that “every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark wood, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.39” Yet our assumptions about these people and their ethics may need careful examining before we enter the classroom with their teachings. As an example, when we look at the history of Chief Seattle’s speech, it seems that these words were not spoken by the Chief himself, but rather are, as Carolyn Merchant reports,

a third- or forth-hand version of an oral address delivered by Seattle in 1854, translated on the spot, by an unknown person, from Suquamish into English to Henry A. Smith, M.D. who in 1887 reconstructed it from extensive notes. Smith’s version was later rendered into ‘better’ classical English by William Arrowsmith and then rewritten by Ted Perry as a film script for Home, produced in 1972 by the Southern Baptist Convention. Many of the words which resonate with modern ecological consciousness are not the original words, but contain phrases and flourishes designed to appeal to ecological idealism and the Christian religion.40

Another example that suggests that Native American people were not always living a sustain-

Page 109 Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process able lifestyle can be found in Montana, the home of the “Buffalo Jump.” Native Ameri- cans would dress up in wolf skins and chase large herds of buffalo up and over a cliff near the modern day town of Boseman. At the base of the cliff, where the Buffalo jumped to their death, the tribe would set up a buffalo “processing plant,” where thousands of animals were processed for meat and hides. This is one of a number of such sites that have been found throughout the nation, some of which were in use 5,700 years ago (“Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump website, http://www.head-smashed- in.com/archaeol.html).

So, do we abandon the principles of C

a people about whom we really know very h little, who used guns, set up animal process- a p

ing factories at the base of cliffs and con- t e

ducted fire drives? I don’t think so. I agree The Sacred Hoop by Marie N. Buchfink (from Mother r

Earth Spirituality by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man) with philosopher J. Baird Callicott who said 4 that Native Americans did maintain a long term balance between themselves and nature. Their model may represent hope for us.41 But the deep teacher faces quite a challenge in trying to incorporate an appreciation of the Native American lifestyle to modern learners. For example, a superficial treatment of the lifestyles of native peoples anywhere can lead a student to conclude that hunting and the use of animal products is justified as long as you thank the animal and pay homage to its spirit. I do not accept this simplistic assessment of the spirituality of indigenous people. Care must be taken to allow the student to really explore what the implications are of living in “balance” with nature and living “sustainably.” Applying modern Western values and assumptions to complex indigenous values can lead to misconceptions and to rationalizations for modern destructive behaviors. Another example is in the use of Native American crafts as a teaching tool. When I do this, I will not use animal products of any kind, although that would be considered “authentic.” If you look through the catalogs of the many companies that sell Native American craft supplies, the amount of animal suffering and death represented on those pages in order to capitalize on the popularity of the craft is shocking. All manner of fur and animal parts are available, being bought by people who have no idea of the power associated with these items by the original users. Besides, how can we expect to really know the people that the invaders of America conquered and hunted to near extinction? The winners always write the history books. There are, though, some resources that can help you design a learning program that fosters an appreciation for Native Ameri- cans that will help put their deep and complex spirituality into a modern context. These books will

Page 110 Chapter 4 - Components of the Deep Teaching Process help:

God is Red, A Native View of Religion by Vine Deloria, Jr. American Indian Myths and Legends selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz Keepers of the Earth, Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac, The HOPI Survival Kit and American Indian Women Telling Their Lives by Gretchen M. Bataille and Kathleen Mullen Sands Papago Woman by Marie Chona.

A retelling of the story of Columbus can be a powerful tool to reawaken the mind to the realities and darkness of the foundations of our culture. Rather than the benevelent discoverer of our land, Columbus tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. Many exercises that can help frame the issues with indigenous peoples can be found in Rethinking Columbus, published in 1991 by Rethinking Schools, Ltd, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (414-964-9646 or (800) 669-4192). They have a

great web site at http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ that will help. C

The deep teacher can lead a student on a journey into these issues and capture the important h elements that may help us reconstruct a relationship to the natural world. a p t e

Astronomy and Cosmology r

4 In addition to the problems and biases that modern science has brought has come unprecedented knowledge into the origins of the universe. Physics and astronomy have provided us with a cosmic story of the origins and development of the universe and presented us with a challenge to find the role of the human species within that framework. Physicist Brian Swimme has said

The universe can no longer be regarded as a result of chance collisions of materials, nor as a deterministic mechanism. The universe considered as a whole is more like a developing being. The universe has a beginning and is in the midst of its development: a vast cosmic epigenesis. Everything that exists is involved in this emergence - galaxies and stars and planets and light and all living things . . .We need to understand the human within the intrinsic dynamics of the Earth. Alienated from the cosmos, imprisoned in our narrow frames of reference, we do not know what we are about as a species. We will discover our larger role only by reinventing the human as a dimension of the emergent universe.42

Matthew Fox sees the story of the creation of

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NOTES

1Macy, Joanna. Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publish- ers, 1983. 2Nhat Hanh, Thich, The Miracle of Mindfulness, Beacon Press Books, Boston, 1975. 3Nhat Hanh, Thich, Being Peace, Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, 1987. 4Upton, Arthur C., M.D. and Eden Grabber M.S. Staying Healthy in a Risky Environment: The New York University Medical Center Family Guide. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1993. P. 84 5Ibid, p. 101. 6Singer, Raymond M. Neurotoxicity Guidebook. New York: Van Nostrand, 1990. 7Miller, G. Tyler, Jr. Environmental Sciences: Sustaining the Earth. Forth ed., Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1993. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Macy (1983). 11Roszak, Theodore. The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology. New York: Simon/Schuster, 1992. p. 13. C 12Macy, Joanna. “The Greening of the Self.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, h a

ed. Allan Hunt Badiner. Berkeley, California: Parallax Press, 1990. p

13 t Glendinning (1994), p. 30. e

14 r

Ibid. 4 15 Capra (1982), op.cit. 16 Merchant (1992), p. 46. 17 The Burning Times video, National Film Board of Canada (1990). 18 Merchant (1992), ibid. 19Harding, Sandra. Whose Science, Whose Knowledge. (1991). p. viii. 20Ibid., p.31. 21Bleier, Ruth, ed. Feminist Approaches to Science. New York: Teachers College Press, 1990. 22Whatley, Mariamne H. “Taking Feminist Science to the Classroom: Where Do We Go From Here?” In Feminist Approaches to Science, ed. Ruth Bleier. p. 181. New York: Teachers College Press, 1990. p. 182. 23Rosser, Sue V. Female-Friendly Science: Applying Women’s Studies Methods and Theories to Attract Students. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. p. 1. 24Harding, 1991. p. 33. 25Wajcman, Judy. Feminism Confronts Technology. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Uni- versity Press, 1991. 26Fox Keeler, Evelyn. Reflections on Gender and Society. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985. 27Ibid. p. 7. 28King, Ynestra. “Healing the Wounds: Feminism, Ecology, and the Nature/Culture Dualism.” In Reweaving The World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, ed. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein. 106-121. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990.

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29Allen, Paula Gunn. “The Woman I Love Is A Planet; The Planet I Love Is A Tree.” In Reweaving The World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, ed. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein. 52-57. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990. 30 Gunn Allen, Paula. Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986, and Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World - The New Female Shamanism. San Francisco: Harper, 1991. 31Arisika, Razak. “Toward a Womanist Analysis of Birth.” In Reweaving The World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, ed. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein. 165-172. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990. 32Ibid. p. 172. 33 Merchant, Carolyn. Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. Revolutionary Thought/Radical Movements Series ed. New York: Routledge, 1992. 34 Ibid., p. 122 35 Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987. 36 Ibid. C 37 Gunn Allen, Paula. Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World - The New Female Shamanism. San h

Francisco: Harper, 1991.p. 1. a 38 Merchant, op. cit. p. 120. p t

39 Ibid. e r

40 This is recounted in Mercant’s Radical Ecology. Her reference is: Callicott, J. Baird. “American Indian Land 4 Wisdom?: Sorting Out the Issues.” In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Ed. J. Baird Callicott. New York: State University of New York Press, 1989. 203-19, see p. 204. 41 Merchant, op. cit. p. 122. 42Swimme, Brian. The Universe Is A Green Dragon. Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Co., 1985, p. 18. 43Fox, Matthew. Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. San Francisco, Calif.: Harper, 1991. p. 27.

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Chapter 5 Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning

When we are embodied, we become learners. We can learn from situations, from our experiences, from life. If we do not live in our body, which is the seat of our experience, we are only capable of rote learning and reacting in mechanical ways. Identifying with the life of the body, and less with the demands of society and our constant caravan of thoughts and fantasies, brings us closer to our unconditioned self. This gives us the ability to genuinely respond to life. Richard Heckler, The Anatomy of Change

The path from the darkness to the light is not an easy one for everyone to find. It can only be discovered through an opening of the mind and heart and spirit. It will

not be found by answering multiple C

choice and true-false questions. It h

must be found through experiences p

that touch the body, activate the t

creative impulses, and reawaken the r

senses. The path to the light will also 5 not be seen if the time is spent entirely in a classroom. It is impossible to foster the kind of relationships with the world that environmental studies deep teaching promotes while sitting rigid in chairs that are unmoving and unyielding, with climate control systems all around (usually with only two settings: too hot or too cold). With the teaching of adults, the setting is even more of a concern, since many degree completion programs that cater to working adults are conducted in office buildings or even hotel meeting rooms where the climate control systems are atrocious and the windows do not even open.1 Teaching in most academic settings only reinforces the already profound disconnection from the natural world. We can only speculate on the effect that removing ourselves from the forces of nature has had. Not feeling the air on our faces on a regular basis, not experiencing the presence of insect and animal life all around, and not experiencing changes in temperature and allowing our bodies to acclimate to them has resulted in a fear of the world outside. We consider being outside distracting and uncomfortable. Temperature changes, air movement, and the presence of wildlife are considered cause to get inside to our climate controlled environments. I saw this phenomena first hand at my wedding, which was held outdoors in a natural setting high above the Pacific Ocean. It was a bright, warm sunny day in November in Malibu, California. Tables were set up under umbrellas and a Santa Ana wind condition was present.2 Occasional gusts of wind brought umbrellas down and table centerpieces blew over. Seeing discomfort in the faces of some guests who were clearly experiencing something “wrong,” I made an announcement.

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Welcome, my friends. I appreciate you sharing our day with us in this beautiful setting, rather than in a hotel banquet hall as is so common with weddings. Of course, being outside, exposed to the elements, we are going to feel sometimes cold, sometimes hot, and sometimes windblown. This will feel unfamiliar to most of us, since we spend so much time inside. I know how unfamiliar it feels to be exposed to the elements, but it was important to us to experience this day in nature. I appreciate your willingness to have these experiences with us. When something blows over, just pick it up and feel the beauty of the wind.

Environmental science educators who take inner city children on wilderness experiences have witnessed the profound affects of our disconnection from the natural world. For inner city youth who may have never experienced wild nature, the experience can be frightening. Children (and adults)

C whose entire universe has been surrounded by pavement and asphalt and walls cannot be expected to

h feel at one with nature. Many educators have reported children whose entire lives have been enmeshed a

p in a violent, sterile urban experience will sometimes be unable to get off the bus, paralyzed in fear at t the lack of walls and the presence of open space in nature.3 e

Field experiences, art experiences, and body movement experiences are some of the most 5 powerful forms of connecting and learning. They are often unpredictable, and much more difficult to control than just staying in class and lecturing and conducting group discussions. Yet it is their very unpredictability and uncontrollability that make them so valuable in the deep teaching experience.

“And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two makes four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: You are a marvel. You are unique. . . .You have the capacity for anything. . . .And when you grow up can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel?” Pablo Casals4

Involvement of the body and the senses is absolutely vital to the learning experience, especially one that is trying to develop a deep appreciation for the natural world and our connections to it. I extend Pablo Casals thought to the study of the environment – if an individual learns that she or he is an intimate part of the natural world, that a stream, a mountain, or a tree is part of them, then how can they bring harm to that piece without harming themselves? Yet bringing one’s awareness back to the body is a challenge. Our culture’s emphasis on cognitive learning has resulted in an imbalance. We have lost touch with the wisdom of the body. Richard Heckler believes that the body is a way for people to access their deeper urges and potentials, that through our bodies, we can learn how to embody the values and qualities that we think important. He says that “experiencing the life of the body brings us into contact with the quality of compassion.”5

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But cognitive thoughts are strong and our bodies will often respond with feelings of discomfort when traditional ways are challenged. We often find ourselves feeling sick, numb, or chronically injured. This is the body’s way of telling us that we are out of sorts with ourselves. Heckler believes that these points of discomfort are

doorways that we can use to begin living in our body. Living in our body means experiencing life through our feelings, sensations, and interactions and not simply from our projections and memories. When we begin to open up and live in our body, whether through pain or joy, a whole new universe of alternatives becomes available to us. (8)

Heckler’s critique of education is profound and revealing.

Traditional education encourages us to live society’s image and discourages us from awakening to our deeper and more energetic impulses. We are not taught how to use ourselves in the learning process. Without knowing that, we lose our individuality by following the images that society and the media systematically place in front of us. We bury the intelligence of our body in order to be uniformly responsive and predictable, which marks the death of preverbal, preliterate wisdom. (9)

The traditional, Western way of a educating, particularly in science, by p

t teaching facts and concepts and “scientific e

truths” results in a static and fixed sense

5 of what is real. We grow up with the idea that there are absolute truths and that it is everyone’s goal to obtain a “stable” lifestyle that is free of change. How can a person so educated possibly feel a part of a universe that is based on constant change and upheaval? How can such a person ever feel comfortable identifying with the natural world? “We are never educated,” says Heckler, “into the how of living through change.”6 We can only learn to be in connection with the natural world, and with our fellows on this world, by being fully present in our bodies, following our energy, and trusting our perceptions. Yet we have been taught that learning occurs by siting still in an uncomfortable chair and having someone lecture to us about someone else’s perceptions of the universe.

We become swallowers of history, language, and mathematics but are rarely encouraged to let go of that which is not meaningful or relevant. We also need to be taught how to sit so we may better receive; and how to appreciate the actual process of writing and drawing; and how to participate in the joy of flourish when the name we write is connected to who we are; and how to follow the interest generated by our deeper levels of excitement. True learning, receiving the transmission of experience, happens at a level much deeper than cognition. It is in the experience of the lived body that we have the opportunity to contact and learn from the process of being alive. 7

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There is a deep conditioning that we have experienced since the Scientific Revolution. This conditioning takes many forms, but the most common in the West may be our ability to intellectual- ize as a form of diversion and evasion, a way to circumvent feeling. Heckler says that “becoming overinvolved in our thoughts is a way to avoid the emotions, gestures, and expressions that were at some time in the past responded to unfavorably or with disapproval.” 8 In addition to being told that the natural world was wild and unsafe, most of us were told that we were awkward in our movements, that we couldn’t draw or be creative, and that you risk ridicule and censure if you do those things. Hence, there are many resistances to an experiential learning experience. The conditioning we experience is a powerful obstacle to learning and opening up to the connections that exist in the natural world. This conditioning is a complex web that has been woven for a number of generations. It has a solid foundation of faulty assumptions created in a post-war environment, particularly in the United States, where the emerging corporate world order was teaching the world (with the help of the government) that

C the most powerful people are those who consume

the most and who shelter themselves the most a completely from the natural world. Climate con- p

t trolled, insulated homes filled with all the modern e

“conveniences” became the symbols of power and

5 affluence. These values became the foundational teachings of our educational system, a system built upon the premise that farmers had to be trained to be the factory workers required to churn out the goods that we all needed to consume.9 This conditioning is heavily influenced by our media satura- tion that begins at birth (some would say even before birth) as our parents create gender roles and participate in the stereotyping that insidiously exists at every turn of the head. Our definitions of what it Many tools exist for capturing dust and dirt is to be safe and secure are fixed at an early age as we are taught to shelter ourselves from even the mildest temperatures and protect ourselves from nasty bugs and dirt. Revulsion to insects, rodents, and soil (called “dirt), begins at an early age. We are taught from an early age that we need the latest vacuum cleaner to get every last bit of dirt (earth) out of our homes. Moving less in order to be more efficient and productive is part of our early training as well. We are on a constant quest for “labor-saving” devices that give us more time to do things. We want cars so we don’t have to walk places and we design our homes so that everything is “at our fingertips.” Minimizing movement is emphasized – even our chairs have wheels so that we can move

Page 117 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning around in our office without having to move our bodies. This trend toward virtual immobility as a goal in our Western culture has had profound implications on our ability to feel, not only a connection to the natural world, but a connection to each other and ourselves as well. A return to movement and creativity-based experiences in the classroom can have a dramatic affect on the learning process.

When we place our attention in our body, we begin to feel, and our feeling connects us to our energy. Our energy then informs us of our direction and meaning in life. If we respond from our energy, we are responding from that part of ourselves that is least conditioned. If we act from our energy, and not from our ideas, social images, or what others expect, we feel enriched with genuine expression and life. 10

Our “conditioning,” which varies from individual to individual in content and intensity, may be the greatest obstacle an educator faces. In older students, this may be more evident, but younger students face the same burdens. Awakening a relationship to our bodies and our senses is a way around much C of that conditioning. In Movement Expression classes, intro- h

duced in Chapter 1, I have seen dramatic examples of this p phenomenon during the over 180 hours of these classes that I t

e experienced. In each session, some single 2-1/2-hour introduc- r

tions and others intensive 9-week series’, people from all walks 5 of life and backgrounds moved and felt together as if they knew each other. Often, however, we knew nothing in the traditional sense about each other. Rarely did I know where the other people lived or where they worked or what their interests, prejudices, or politics were. Yet in these sessions, through movement alone, with a partner, or in groups, issues such as trust, love, fear, giving, receiving, and other profound emotions and states of being were explored. I have incorporated many of these experiences in my environmental studies teaching. Words have been so abused in our world. Definitions of such fundamental concepts as trust, safety, and security have been so co-opted by political forces that an educator cannot rely on language as the communicator of awareness. The U.S. Department of Defense doesn’t like to use the term “peace” in their documentation. Instead, they say “permanent pre-hostility.” Instead of the word bullet, they prefer “kinetic energy penetrator.” The invasion of Panama was called a “pre-dawn vertical insertion” and instead of saying soldiers were killed, they say they were “arbitrarily deprived of life.” Wrongly amputated legs in military hospitals are referred to as “therapeutic mis-adventures.” 11 I wish I were joking, but these are real examples. Even in our common, everyday language, assumptions abound about the way the world and society work and phrases abound that have terrible origins. We will often casually say that we have given someone the “third degree” when referring to questioning someone for information. Few realize, however, that this phrase comes from the 300 years of horror when over 9 million women (and some

Page 118 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning men) were burned at the stake for witchcraft.12 The third degree was the final, and most horrible, level of torture when any victim said what their tormentor wanted them to say. We will say that some idea is a “rule of thumb.” Yet this phrase refers to the time in old England when it was legal, and recommended, to beat your wife. You simply had to use a stick that was no wider than the width of your thumb. That was the “Rule of Thumb.”13 Ever call someone a “stool pigeon?” This phrase comes from the days of the passenger pigeon, an amazing bird whose flocks, in the 1850s, would darken the U.S. skies for four hours as a 240 mile long by 1 mile wide flock passed overhead. Such a flock contained over 2 billion birds. By 1914, the last passenger pigeon, Martha, died in

the Cincinnati Zoo, the species driven to extinction by C

relentless hunting and a complete lack of understanding of h the population dynamics of this bird. It seems that the a

reason why there were so many of them was because they, t

for some reason, needed huge communities of birds to be present for successful mating and reproduc- r

tion. They were extremely social birds and it wasn’t long before someone noticed that a live bird 5 could be used as bait. A living passenger pigeon would be tied to a stool which was put out into a field. Within minutes, hundreds of birds would gather, to be shot or clubbed. This was the stool pigeon.14 The energy of these origins lingers on in us all. The witch burning times lasted for 300 years. Six generations of children watched their mothers burn. How can we come to terms with that horror? Gay men are stilled called “faggots” to this day. How many know that this term comes from the times of the witch burning as well? Gay men were often collected together, tied in bundles, and burned in the witches’ fire.15 The term for a burning bundle of wood is a faggot. Many of the scientific tools developed during the Scientific Revolution came directly from the inquisition’s tools for torture.16 Few know this grisly origin of much scientific methodology. Special interest groups have crafted how people perceive science. How often do we wait for “scientific proof” of the health impact of a toxic exposure when many have already died? One sick child or one dead person should be enough to suggest caution, yet thousands of chemicals that are known carcinogens are on the market today for political and economic reasons. Scientists can be found who support

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global warming as reality or who consider there to be no causal relationship between our industrial activities and climate change. We must find another language while we redefine common terms and erase other terms of horror from common usage. In the classroom, the language we use and the myriad of assumptions and issues behind it may be our greatest obstacle. Hence the power of movement, nature experiences, and art as a tool for the exploration of an issue are powerful communication strategies. Following the showing of a disturbing video about issues of genetic engineering, I will have adult students draw their discussion. “Imagine,” I will say, “ that you are going to share your feelings about what you just saw with someone to whom it is imperative that you get your point

across. But they don’t communicate in words, they communicate in colors and lines and shapes. How C

would you share your feelings with them?” The resulting drawings are profound and revealing. After h sharing the meaning of the imagery with each other, the discussion feels complete on a level that an a

intellectual, scholarly post film discussion never could achieve. What surfaces are not concrete t

answers that tell the student how they are to respond to the potential horrors of genetic engineering, r

but rather feelings become accessible that may suggest how to cope with the changes that are coming. 5

If we don’t buy into our conditioned tendency, we have the opportunity to feel the rush of energy as a possible resource in times of change and crisis. Instead of freaking out over the huge rush we are getting from the grab, we can begin to see that this flood of energy may actually be made friends with and that it can provide intelligible information on how to handle the change. The energy has surfaced to help us deal with the situation.17

Experiential learning can be frightening to some, and students, especially adults, will often resist it. A safe, supportive environment must be present in the classroom for students to feel safe enough to explore this uncharted territory. Some will need to run, to leave the experience and its intensity. This must be allowed, because the quiet that often accompanies experiences in nature can reveal dark and unexplored places in the individual.

There is a time to quiet ourself so that we may look at and listen to who we are. There is also a time, and a need, to go with our desires and urges. This is the path of passion. It is the making of a seasoned and rich soup that we call our process, the all of who we are. 18

A student may decide to run or not participate, but those who stay may encounter richness beyond their imagination.

If we decide to stay and participate in what we have begun, we increase our state of aliveness. As we increase our initial awakening, we enlarge and expand our excitement and increase our ability to tolerate deeper levels of contact. 19

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Placing attention on a part of one’s life that is paid so little attention, our body, can be frightening. The educator must be open to the expression of these energies.

A primary goal in working with someone therapeutically, artistically, or educationally is to bring them into contact with their energy, that is, into the experience of their lived body. The first step is to have the person identify with what they feel, to place their attention on what is occurring in their bodily life. Attention to what we feel takes us out of our heads and into the energetic currents of our body. Living in our bodies means living in the moment. Our energy and attention weave the tapestry of who we are - bodily, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. 20

We must take the risks and do what may feel initially uncomfortable. Charles Dubois knew the importance of this when he said

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.21

In this chapter, I present a variety of experiential activities, organized in the steps of the deep teaching process presented in Chapter 3. However, they may be done in any order at any time to support the learning objectives of your particular program. Many books have been written that give examples of traditional environmental studies exercises

C such as those demonstrating ecological principles, energy, and testing for polluting substances. The exercises in this

h chapter are not like those. I believe we have many exercises and curricula that teach water or air quality analysis, but a few that teach a learner how to conduct a quality of life analysis. The exercises in this chapter try to help the educator p

t and learner explore new horizons together. Please consider them only starting points in an endless adventure without e

boundaries. 5

Physical Settings for the Exercises Getting outdoors as much as possible is vital in environmental studies education for the deep teacher. Even when this is not possible, the deep teacher must do all that they can to bring experiences into the classroom that will constantly remind the students that the universe is not defined by the four walls of the room. Posters, models, globes, and other tangible objects are vital for students of any age. In my classroom, which may often be a hotel meeting room or a room in an office building, I surround us with posters, globes (an Earth globe made of photographs taken from Earth orbit is always present) and other items as appropriate. I have gas masks obtained from a hunting supply company ($10), various home and garden respirator masks, models of the solar system, a roll of “DANGER – DO NOT CROSS” tape, and a myriad of other items. For $40 from a uniform supply company, I purchased a toxic waste disposal practice suit, made of tyvek with a clear plastic faceplate. I will sometimes enter the class dressed in this suit on the first day for effect. We then speak of the fact that we have had to build such devices to protect us from

Page 121 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning the materials we have created. Plastic models that you assemble are an inexpensive way to provide three dimensional models. Toy train companies have manufactured thousands of plastic models depicting all kinds of structures. I have models of electrical transformers, a nuclear power plant, and a nuclear waste disposal truck. These small touches are vital elements for learning.

Dealing with the Feelings that will Surface Many of these exercises will bring up a wide range of feelings in the students and the deep teacher. Few opportunities exist in our culture for profound personal sharing, so people carry around a lot of unspoken truths. Art experiences, body movement, group sharing, and sometimes just walking in nature can provide the opportunity for the unspoken to at last be said. A safe, supportive atmosphere must exist in the classroom to receive these feelings. Dealing with them is surprisingly simple. Usually, all you have to do is let the person who is experiencing the emotions have their experience. There is no need to rescue them. Let them have their feelings. The exercises are designed to illustrate to the group that they are not alone, that most people share their

concerns. If the emotional release is big, sometimes just having other students sit closer to the student C 22 for support is enough. h

Sometimes the release will have nothing to do with the subject matter of the course. Experi- a

ences designed to illustrate connectedness will allow the presence of other unspoken of issues to t

surface as well. In a class I taught where students had returned for a second quarter to rework their r

papers about the Earth’s moon for possible publication, a student suddenly was weeping profoundly. I 5 had been talking about tapping into your creative source and writing from your heart. She had experienced a personal loss that morning (I believe it was a relationship, but she didn’t say what it was). I stopped talking and went over to her and held her for a moment. This would not be appropriate in all cases. In fact, touching the person is usually not recommend since it can have the affect of stopping the necessary outflow of emotions. But in this case, I felt she needed a little relief. She did. In another class, I conducted a day-long workshop after 5 weeks of class. The class was held at a student’s home with a lovely backyard with much greenery and a pool and pond. For one of the many experiences of the day, students were instructed to draw their life trajectory on a large piece of paper, highlighting the events in their lives. Since the group had done many activities together before this exercise, people were already pretty open. There was very soft, peaceful music playing in the background. One student suddenly began weeping – something in his drawing combined with the experiences of the day had brought something up. There was nothing to do. He needed to cry over this. The intimate setting of the workshop was enough for him to not feel alone and the episode passed. We may need to stop being afraid of strong feelings. The science educational system has worked long and hard to strip emotional reality from its teachings. Even in non-science classes, students have been taught to be quiet, calm and still. Deep environmental studies teaching requires a full realization of the senses and the other aspects of the human experience that have been covered up by educational “standards” and “assessment instruments” for far too long. There are many other exercises that I feel require a trained psychologist or therapist to be present (such as Joanna Macy’s Despair Ritual). None of those are presented in this work.

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Categories of Experiences

Below are general categories of experiential learning activities. Many modes of learning are presented and it is important to infuse a learning session with as many different modes as possible. Students have many different learning styles, and a program of diverse modes of instruction insures that most students will have their own preferred learning style used, at least for a while, during each learning experience.

WRITING AND JOURNALING Writing is a powerful form of expression. When done in settings outside the classroom, it can be even more powerful. Students’ writing skills are often below what they could be and are uneven among a group. If writing experiences are a regular part of the learning experiences the instructor selects, then the student’s writing ability will benefit as well. Unless your students have taken some level of writing instruction or have experience with the written word, the instructor will have to do some level of teaching about writing. 23 Keeping a journal should be encouraged during the class. An excellent resource on the many facets of journal writing can be found in Life’s Companion: Journal

Writing as A Spiritual Quest by Christina Baldwin.24 C

HIKES IN N ATURE (WILD OR URBAN) p

Encourage participants to resist chatting like they would during a trip to the mall. Have them practice t

using their senses of smell, sight, hearing, and touch differently than they would on a typical day. Ask r

them to try to see the sounds and feel the colors. It is vitally important to get out of the classroom. 5

CREATIVE ARTS The arts are powerful windows into our hearts. Communication occurs at very deep levels through creative expression. Experiment with drawing, collage, mask making, gourd making, clay, and weaving.

MOVEMENT EXPERIENCES Children know the power of movement – they are constantly in motion, learning by being a part of the ever-present movement of the cosmos. As we grow older, we are taught to sit still to learn. Richard Heckler says it perfectly. His words are reproduced again below:

Traditional education encourages us to live society’s image and discourages us from awakening to our deeper and more energetic impulses. We are not taught how to use ourselves in the learning process. Without knowing that, we lose our individuality by following the images that society and the media systematically place in front of us. We bury the intelligence of our body in order to be uniformly responsive and predictable, which marks the death of preverbal, preliterate wisdom.25

Just getting people up and out of their seats is a beginning, but many specific movement experiences are presented below that will facilitate learning and connecting with the world.

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GROUP SHARING Time will rarely permit everyone to share their work with the entire class, nor is that always the best mode. Multiple presentations can become tedious. The experience of sharing in a small group, however, can be rich and rewarding. The group can then summarize what they discussed or select one person to present to the entire class. Students will usually need some instruction on how to conduct small group work. It should be made clear that when someone is speaking, they should be given everyone’s undi- vided attention. One member of the group should be chosen as a moderator/timekeeper to keep things moving. A recorder can be appointed to collect the groups thoughts if a group summary will be required. The small groups should be proving grounds for behavior that is mutually respectful and supportive.

INDIVIDUAL PROCESSING Allowing time for an individual to process on their own is very important. Sometimes, just having everyone write or draw something on their own, without sharing it with anyone or even turning it in can be a powerful experience.

C OPEN DISCUSSIONS

Discussions where everyone is free to participate should be a part of most class sessions. The deep a teacher, however, is constantly guiding the group back to the point at hand. Care must be taken to p

t respect other points of view while not letting any one individual dominate the time or the energy of the e

discussion. Sitting in a circle is best. A circle seems to provide us support that is needed when

5 feelings from the heart are expressed.26

MUSIC Using music during many of the exercises will enhance the experience. Music is particularly beneficial during the drawing and movement experiences. Your choice of music is important and will set the tone and the mood. Build a collection that includes African drumming, classical, flute, and popular music. Here is a brief list of some of the titles that I use regularly. Get or make your own drum. The possibilities are endless. Using your own drum to provide rhythmic beats can be powerful as well (contact Lark of the Morning Musical Catalog at 707-964-5569 or www.larkinam.com). • Gordon, David and Steve. Sacred Spirit Drums. Sequoia Records, 1996. • Tribal Winds: Music From Native American Flutes. Earth Beat Records, 1996. • Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors. Totem. Raven Records, 1985. • McKennitt, Loreena. The Book of Secrets and The Visit, Warner Bros. Records, Inc. • Souther, Richard. Vision - The Music of Hildegard von Bingen. Angel Records, 1994. VIDEOS I use many video clips in my teaching. An amazing array of films have been produced that will help the environmental studies educator on her or his journey. There are very few video productions that I show in their entirety – most are clips of just a few minutes that in length. I will intersperse them during the time we have together. Here are a few of the important video resources I have used: 1.The Video Project. “The Video Project Catalog: Films and Videos for a Safe and Sustainable World.” 200 Estates Drive, Ben Lomond, CA, 95005. (800-4-PLANET or web site at www.videoproject.org). They are

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the best in their selection and their prices. 2.Bullfrog Films, Inc. “Bullfrog Films Catalogue: The Source for Environmental Videos, Films, and Video- discs.” Oley, Pennsylvania. (www.igc.apc.org/bullfrog) 3.Mystic Fire Video. “Mystic Fire Video.” Trans. . S. Burlington, Vermont, 1992. 4.Ladyslipper Music and Video Catalog, 3205 Hillsborough Rd, Durham, NC, 27705 (800-634-6044 or web site at www.ladyslipper.org).

Here are a few films that should be in any deep teacher’s video library:

DIET FOR A N EW A MERICA Produced by Ed Schuman and Judy Pruzinsky for KCET-TV. 30 Min. Version & 60 Min. Version Available from The Video Project (or some video stores), this transformative film will help illustrate the many connections between our food choices and our environment. The Video Project catalog says: How does our choice of foods contribute to our personal health and the health of the planet? DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA convincingly documents that the average American diet is a recipe for personal and environmental disaster. Host John Robbins, author of the best-selling book of the same name, takes us on a journey into the great American food machine, examining scientific and medical evidence for a more healthful C diet. Robbins, heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream business, turned away from the family-owned enterprise h

in an effort to regain his own health. In DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA he talks with a variety of health p

and environmental experts and shows us the startling facts he learned during his 10 year investigation of t

America’s animal-based diet. r

THE BURNING T IMES National Film Board of Canada. 1990. 60 minutes ($39.95) Available from the National Film Board of Canada, Ladyslipper Music Catalog, or most women’s bookstores around the country. This is the amazing story of the 300 year period of our history where over 9 million women (and some men) were burned at the stake for practicing the last vestiges of intimate connectedness to our natural world. There is no finer way to demonstrate the idea that the Scientific Revolution was influenced by many cultural forces that has led to our disconnected state of being. It is also reveals many root causes for the way women are perceived by our culture.

WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM Produced by A.C. Warden and Karen Hirsch, 30 Min. Available from the Video Project ($39.95 includes study guide). The Video Project Catalog says: America’s most historic river, the Mississippi, has become a 2,300 mile toxic waterway. Over half the industrial toxic waste discharged into our lakes and streams is dumped directly into the Mississippi. Cancer and mortality rates are among the highest in the nation along the chemical corridor stretching from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Entire towns have been shuttered as the direct result of unchecked air and ground water pollution. Meanwhile, the debate rages between environmentalists and government officials over how dangerous the pollutants are and what regulations should be put in place or enforced. WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM explores the problems and the stories of people who live along the river, many of whom are now fighting to save the Mighty Mississippi. This powerful film can be a turning point for your students. After these 30 minutes, they will look at

Page 125 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning resources use issues and the web of life differently.

SEA OF SLAUGHTER Produced by John Brett for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Hosted by Farley Mowat. 96 minutes (Available in 4 parts for schools: Part 1. 21 min., Part 2. 23 min., Part 3. 2 min., Part 4. 27 min.). Available from Bullfrog Films. ($350.00) Their catalog says: Based on the best-selling book of the same name by internationally renowned author and environmentalist Farley Mowat (“Never Cry Wolf”), SEA OF SLAUGHTER is a devastating history of the decimation of marine wildlife along the North Atlantic Coast. Sadly, this film is priced out of range for most educators. If you can find the means, please get it. It is a remarkable account of our relentless use of resources. I use a 4-1/2 minute segment about the herring fishery in all my classes, including business class I teach for the University of Phoenix. It shows the herring fishery’s drive for the row, eggs to be sent to Japan, and how the carcasses are trashed – buried in a landfill instead of being used to feed the hungry masses of our Earth. No one is the same after those few minutes. This segment is worth the price of the entire film.

RESOURCES C Every deep teacher should have the following invaluable printed resources in their library as aids in h

a designing learning activities. p

e 1.Crum, Thomas. The Magic of Conflict. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. r

2.Crum, Thomas. The Magic of Conflict Workbook. Aspen, Colorado: Aiki Works, 1993. 5 3.Glendinning, Chellis. My Name is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization. Boston: Shambhala, 1994. 4.Macy, Joanna. Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publish- ers, 1983. 5.Macy, Joanna. World as Lover, World as Self. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991. 6.Paul, Richard, et al. Critical Thinking Handbook: A Guide for Redesigning Instruction. Rohnert Park, CA: Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, 1989. 7.Roth, Gabrielle. Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman. Mill Valley: Nataraj Publishing, 1989. 8.Sark. A Creative Companion. Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 1991. 9.Shields, Katrina. In the Tiger’s Mouth: An Empowerment Guide for Social Action. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1994.

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Experiential Learning Activities for the Deep Teaching Process RECOGNIZE ...... 129 EXERCISE 1 - PURPOSE, V ISION, AND M ISSION ...... 129 EXERCISE 2 - THE FOUR THINGS ...... 131 EXERCISE 3 - HOW WOULD YOUR LIFE BE DIFFERENT? ...... 131 EXERCISE 4 - W HAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?...... 131 EXERCISE 5 - A IMLESS W ALKING ...... 131 EXERCISE 6 - WANDER WITH INTENT ...... 131 EXERCISE 7 - DRAW ...... 132

RESPONSIBILITY ...... 133 EXERCISE 8 - B LINDFOLD WALK ...... 133 EXERCISE 9 - INFRASTRUCTURE F IELD TRIPS – WASTEWATER T REATMENT P LANT ...... 133 EXERCISE 10 - ‘LEAN ON ME ’ M OVEMENT EXPERIENCE ...... 134

EXERCISE 11 - THE GLOBAL V ILLAGE – W E ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM ...... 135 C

SCHOLARSHIP ...... 136 a

EXERCISE 12 - A TTENTIVE LISTENING ...... 136 p

t XERCISE EFLECTIVE ISTENING E 13 - R L ...... 136 e

EXERCISE 14 - LISTENING STORIES ...... 136 r

EXERCISE 15 - HOW DO YOU ATTAIN YOUR GOAL MOVEMENT E XPERIENCE ...... 137 5 EXERCISE 16 - C AST OFF YOUR ASSUMPTIONS ...... 137 EXERCISE 17 - O ZONE MONITORING ...... 138

CRITICAL THINKING ...... 138 EXERCISE 18 - GROUNDING AND CENTERING ...... 139 EXERCISE 19 - S EA OF S LAUGHTER VIDEO ...... 140 EXERCISE 20 - F IELD TRIP: W AREHOUSE D EPARTMENT STORE ...... 140 EXERCISE 21 - P OWER GENERATION AND LAND USE FIELD EXPERIENCE ...... 140 EXERCISE 22 - C REATE YOUR OWN NEWSPAPER ...... 141

AWARENESS ...... 141 EXERCISE 23 - IMPACT OF T ELEVISION N EWS ...... 141 EXERCISE 24 - R EASONING SCRAPBOOK ...... 142 EXERCISE 25 - BOOKSTORE VISITS ...... 142 EXERCISE 26 - SEASONAL C YCLES CELEBRATIONS ...... 142 EXERCISE 27 - E XPERIENCE DIFFERENT FEELINGS IN YOUR BODY M OVEMENT EXPERIENCE ...... 143

SENSE OF PLACE ...... 144 EXERCISE 28 - N ATURE JOURNAL ...... 144 EXERCISE 29 - DRAW WHERE Y OU LIVE ...... 145 EXERCISE 30 - WRITE ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE ...... 145 EXERCISE 31 - DWELLING LIFELINE ...... 145 EXERCISE 32 - M APPING YOUR COMMUNITY5...... 145 EXERCISE 32A -OBSERVING THE MOON ...... 145

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E XPERIENCE...... 145 EXERCISE 33 - T HE MILLING ...... 149 EXERCISE 34 - C OMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT ...... 150 EXERCISE 35 - FIELD EXPERIENCES ...... 150 EXERCISE 36 - F IELD TRIP TO A MEETING OF A LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL BODY ...... 150 EXERCISE 37 - W HY IS IT A FIGHT FOR WORLD PEACE?...... 150

ACTIVISM ...... 151 EXERCISE 38 - S HARING OUR CONCERNS ...... 151 EXERCISE 39 - COMMUNITY A CTION PROJECT ...... 152 EXERCISE 40 - HOW WE EXPERIENCE OUR POWER ...... 152 EXERCISE 41 - COMMUNICATING INFORMATION ...... 152

CREATIVITY ...... 153 EXERCISE 42 - M AKING MASKS ...... 153 EXERCISE 43 - CREATE A WORLD C RISIS OR EMPOWERMENT C OLLAGE ...... 154

REFLECTION ...... 154 EXERCISE 44 - ANNOTATED TIME L OG ...... 154

C EXERCISE 45 - DRAW OR B UILD YOUR LIFELINE AND LIFE TRAJECTORY ...... 155

h EXERCISE 46 - O BSERVING ANIMALS ...... 155

REASSESSMENT ...... 156 t

EXERCISE 47 - D IET LOG AND SUMMARY ...... 157 r

EXERCISE 48 - B UILD YOUR EGO OUT OF CLAY ...... 157

5 EXERCISE 49 - IMAGINING A WORLD WITHOUT THREAT ...... 157 EXERCISE 50 - C OUNCIL OF A LL BEINGS ...... 158

CHANGE ...... 160 EXERCISE 51 - T HIRTY Y EARS H ENCE ...... 160 EXERCISE 52 - IDENTIFYING GOALS AND RESOURCES ...... 161 EXERCISE 53 - C ELEBRATIONS, INITIATIONS, AND RITES OF PASSAGE ...... 161 EXERCISE 54 - L IVING A D OUBLE LIFE ...... 162

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Experiential Learning Activities for the Deep Teaching Process

I learned to move in the world as if it were my lover.27

Recognizing the creative powers of imagery, many call us today to come up with visions of a benign future – visions which can beckon and inspire. Images of hope are potent, necessary: they shape our goals and give us impetus for reaching them. Often they are invoked too soon, however. Like the demand for instant solutions, such expectations can stultify – providing us with an escape from the despair we may feel, while burdening us with the task of aridly designing a new Eden. Genuine visioning happens from the roots up, and these roots for many are shriveled by unacknowledged despair. Many of us are in an in-between time, groping in the dark with shattered beliefs and faltering hopes, and we need images for that in-between time if we are to work through it.28 Joanna Macy

Sections in bold italics are sample directives to be said to the students. In most of the activities, the deep teacher should be a participant as well as a facilitator.

RECOGNIZE h

People often don’t have practice understanding what is important p to them. The way responsibility is diffused in our culture creates a t

e challenge for the educator – children and adults alike generally don’t r

know what they care about. Also, the blurred, often conflicting line 5 between what one does “for a living” and what one does to live can interfere with recognition of issues.

EXERCISE 1 - PURPOSE, VISION, AND MISSION29 I used to use this exercise at the end of the term, but I realized that in order to give the students the opportunity to explore what is important to them during the course, they needed assistance recognizing their values. Without an identified purpose, we will usually focus on short-term needs, and our behaviors will not necessarily be ones that contribute to a sustainable future. Part of developing a purpose involves developing a social consciousness. First, take about 90 seconds to write about “what would you take a stand for” and another 90 seconds to write about “what do you want to be remembered for.” Next we direct the students to build a “life purpose statement” in this way: STEP 1: write your 2 or 3 strongest gifts, skills, and strengths STEP 2: write 2 of your modes of expression of these STEP 3: write 2 or 3 adjectives that describe your ideal world STEP 4: write the first draft of your life purpose statement, using the elements from Steps 1-3 as follows: My purpose in life is to use my STEP 1 through STEP 2 to foster a world that is STEP 3. Then have students share their statements with a couple of other classmates. Instruct them to feel free to change or add to their statements with elements they like from their groupmates’ statements.

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A Life Purpose Statement, first draft, might look like this: My purpose in life is to use my awareness, facilitation skills, creativity and compassion through sensitivity to the needs of others and sharing all that I know to foster a world that is compassionate, sensitive, aware, inclusive, and peaceful. The Life Purpose Statement can be modified and refined during the time the class is together, whether that is for a few hours or for an academic term. Students are encouraged to do this process every few months during their lives as needed. We need to be constantly asking ourselves “does what I am doing foster my life purpose?” Knowing your purpose evokes a sense of spirit in you and it can be a guiding light during times of personal change and transition.

VISIONING If time permits, ask the students to meditate and visualize an ideal day one year from now and take notes about the following elements of their lives. Sample responses appear below:

LIFE ATTRIBUTE MY IDEAL Physical excellent health

C Mental at peace, content

Emotional thoughtful, introspective, quiet a Spiritual mindful of Mother Earth p

Relationships many close, dear friends and still dancing every day with my dear wife Bonnie e

Material possess only what I need

5 Work teaching, lecturing, writing Hobbies photography, gardening Other I begin each day with mindful meditation I play with my dog Banshee every day

GROUNDING OF THE VISION The vision must be grounded in action, otherwise, it may stay just a goal that is never achieved. For this exercise, the student makes a list of “life choices” and then “daily choices,” the daily activities that you will do to implement the life choices. The final column is the “challenge choice” which is something immediate that will implement the policy choice. The purpose of the challenge choice is to be conscious of the moment, to avoid the “Dammit, I did it again” syndrome, to choose to make a change, and to be conscious of the challenge. The framework of the process is shown below:

LIFE CHOICE (examples) DAILY CHOICE CHALLENGE CHOICE to be true to my needs I need quality time alone examine my current lifestyle to be free to be self-determining to be healthy to exercise daily not drive as much to be true to myself to be responsible

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These next exercises are to be written, preferably outside prior to a hike in a natural setting. If this is not possible, then anywhere will do. Writing exercises can either be shared with a partner, a small group, the entire class, or not at all. The logistics, amount of time available, and desired tone for the learning experience will determine what you do with the finished products. They are all designed to be experiences which open the senses and the mind to a nature experience. If a nature experience is not possible, they can open the senses and mind to a discussion as well. Although they are part of the recognition phase of the deep teaching process, they can be used anywhere.

EXERCISE 2 -THE F OUR THINGS30 What are the four things that you keep out of your personal experience, out of your life, when your heart is closed? How can one understand the priority to place on issues of the day if you are not fully experiencing life? A closed heart may be the cause of a closed mind. This writing exercise gets people thinking about the concept of “heart.”

EXERCISE 3 -HOW WOULD YOUR LIFE BE DIFFERENT? 31 How would your life, your world, be different if your heart was open and you let the four things, C

and life, in? a

EXERCISE 4 -WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? t

Our inability to act, to react, to admit responsibility, and to decide on a course of action is usually r

due to a fear of some kind. Acknowledging fears and taking steps to identifying them is a powerful 5 action.

EXERCISE 5 - AIMLESS WALKING32 If you are outside in a natural setting, then at this point, after people have shared their writing, have them just wander around, with no clear intent, for 15 or 20 minutes. Have them write about their experience. Were they open and without fear? How did it feel to wander “aimlessly?” Sometimes it is important to move with clear intent while other times it is important to allow yourself to just explore.

EXERCISE 6 -WANDER WITH INTENT33 This time, instead of wandering without purpose (which can be of tremendous value as well to practice opening your heart), start out with intent. Maybe it is to find a certain kind of plant; maybe it is to walk mindfully on Mother Earth; or maybe it is to just notice all that is going on around you.

EXERCISE 7 -DRAW Drawing is a powerful tool to open the senses and facilitate recognition. Students can be asked to draw anything

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or to respond to a question or directive. Drawing could be used with any of the above exercises, either before or after. Here are some examples on how to adapt Exercises 1- 6 to include drawing experiences. All of the exercises in subsequent sections can be modified like these examples to include drawing and other forms of creative arts.

EXERCISE 1 Ask the student to draw their world one year from now. The experience and subsequent discussion will help solidify the vision. EXERCISE 2, 3, AND 4 Students could be asked to draw before or after any of these experiences. EXERCISE 5 AND 6 These would be particularly good experiences to draw. Here is an example of how I would introduce a drawing experience after Exercise 5, Aimless Walking: Imagine that you are going to communicate what you just experienced on your walk with someone who doesn’t use words. Rather, they communicate in lines and shapes and colors. Close your eyes and visualize what you might want to tell that person what you experienced. When you feel ready,

open your eyes and draw. C

The time allotted for this can be just a few minutes or 10-15 minutes. After the time is up, have p them break up into small groups of 2 or 3 and share what they drew. Then volunteers can be asked to t

e share with the entire class. There is no need for everyone to do this. Two or three is enough. r

After the exercises described above, recognition can continue in a variety of ways. These surprisingly simple experiences can result in a very different academic experience, one rich with feeling and depth. If a paper is required in the class, students may now be in a better position to choose a topic. The goal is to make topic selection more personal and less just for the sake of doing a paper. Waiting until you have done a few of these exercises before going over the syllabus may result in a greater appreciation of the learning experience that is about to begin.

RESPONSIBILITY

Taking responsibility for the dark and the light in our lives is not easy for everyone. These experi-

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ences will help foster that often underdeveloped attribute.

EXERCISE 8 - BLINDFOLD WALK Taking responsibility and trusting another may be among the most difficult things we can do in our world. Taking responsibility for the experiences of another during this exercise help set the stage for taking responsibility for one’s own actions. This exercise can be done anywhere, but the experience is much more powerful if done outside in a natural setting. Someone’s backyard will do. Split the group up into pairs. Prior to the exercise, ask the group to bring in a strip of fabric to use as a blindfold or prepare some in advance yourself. Doing it yourself can add the element of spontaneity and eliminate the possibility that people will have been thinking about what they would do in advance. Take your blindfolded partner by the arm and lead them around this space. Introduce them, safely and carefully, to sensory experiences. If you want them to experience the feel of a plant, gently move their hand to it and share the experience. Change the pace of movement, change directions.

See where it takes you. Notice how it feels to lead and be led, to take responsibility and to trust. C

Allow 10 – 15 minutes for the experience. Then have the partners switch, right away without h

discussion. After the second person has had a turn, allow 3-5 minutes for the pairs to discuss their p experiences. After they have shared among themselves, ask for volunteers to share some of their t

e experiences with the entire class. Consider having the students write about their experience. r

Drawing could be integrated into this experience in a number of ways. One way could be to 5 have the students draw the images they remember while they were blindfolded. They should be encouraged to express their sensory experience.34

EXERCISE 9 -INFRASTRUCTURE F IELD TRIPS – WASTEWATER T REATMENT PLANT Nowhere is the evidence of our isolation from the full magnitude of our resource use and our disconnection from the natural world so evident than with how we use water in our homes. On a typical day, a resident of Los Angeles will dump 100 gallons of wastewater down the drain. This includes wastewater from bathroom and kitchen drains as well as the toilet. The daily flow is over 1 billion gallons that travels through 6,500 miles of buried sewer pipes. Another 25 million gallons of water per day goes down all the curbside sewers. No treatment is done on water entering these storm drains. That water, containing the runoff of a city of 7 million people, can contain tens of thousands of pounds of lead, zinc, cadmium, and other heavy metals and toxins. It flows directly to the ocean, creating toxic zones where sea life, swimmers, lifeguards, and surfers are poisoned each day. During a heavy rain in 1989, 8 inches of rain washed 150,000 pounds of lead, 500,000 pounds of zinc, and 11,000 pounds of cadmium into the Santa Monica Bay

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(L.A. Weekly, October 9, 1992). All this from the air pollution that settles on plants and on the ground, animal waste, pesticides from watering our lawns, and illegal dumping of wastes by businesses. Many tons of other kinds of human waste go into the storm drains as well. Refrigerators, car parts, bodies of humans and animals, and solid waste of all kinds wind up in the ocean. One flush of a standard toilet in the U.S. uses more water than most of the world’s people use individually in a day. Nowhere may our lack of responsibility be as evident as it is when we flush. We feel relieved when the waste goes away. We even clean the toilet bowl afterward. But of course, there is no such thing as “away” on Earth. The waste is just moved to another spot. A visit to a wastewater treatment plant is an

effective means of removing the myths of “away.” C

In Los Angeles, the Hyperion Wastewater Treatment Plant sends nearly 500 million gallons of h partially treated sewage into the waters off the coast of Southern California. After students see this a

facility, life can never be completely the same. t

Protect your student’s health when you take such a trip. Although officials at the plant will r

tell you “everything is OK - it just smells bad,” there are bacteria and other harmful pollutants in the 5 air in great quantities at a wastewater plant. I insist that my students wear filter masks (designed to keep out organic vapors) during the entire trip. Since no one else in the plant wears any breathing protection, this has turned into an excellent learning experience. Work- ers will laugh and make fun of us, giving us all the chance to see what it feels like to stand up for what we believe in.

EXERCISE 10 - ‘LEAN ON ME’ MOVEMENT EXPERIENCE35 The experience of being responsible for someone else is a powerful reminder that we are not alone on this Earth. This exercise can also allow the students to uncover how it feels to be responsible for someone else and how it feels to be dependent upon someone. Ask the group to get into pairs. Each group should choose who will be “A” and who will be “B.” The A’s will start off literally leaning on B as if they could not stand up without them. They should be asked to exaggerate the experience, really feeling into the movements. B should move around the space, trying to ignore A, while A makes demands, begs for help, or whatever comes to

Page 134 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning mind. The experience often generates laughter and playfulness for some, but for others, it will be a very serious reminder of patterns in their lives. At the end of 3-4 minutes, have them stop and share with each other how the experience was for them.

EXERCISE 11 -THE G LOBAL V ILLAGE – W E ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM This is a fascinating exercise I learned while attending a Union Institute seminar. I have done it a number of times, each time with dramatic and meaningful results. Once, I actually did it along a river. That one was really special. Split the class into groups of 3-5 people. The premises for this experience is that the groups represent tribes that all live along a river. Assign a number to each group, starting at 1. Draw a map and post it so everyone can see it showing the relative positioning of the tribes along the river. The map might look something like the one

C dipicted h

here. a

The groups are then instructed to meet to discuss t

use of the river. The river supplies them all their water, r

power, and much of their food needs. But now the popula- 5 tions of the other tribes are beginning to cause concern over the river resource. Each group must meet to decide on who will represent them at a conclave where the use of the river will be discussed. Allow 20-30 minutes for the groups to develop their plan and elect their representatives. A meeting is then held with the group representatives. What will happen next will be different every time. The time I conducted this experience at a wilderness retreat center along a real river, the results were nothing less than extraordinary. The group that lived furthest upstream decided that the only way to protect their interests was to murder all the other groups! At the meeting, they staged a mock massacre of the rest of the tribes. It is interesting to location of tribes along a river (drawing from Ed McGaa’s Mother Earth note that the members of the aggressive group were biology Spirituality) teachers who claimed that their plan was based on their observations of how the natural world works. Have students write about this experience. Ideally, a debriefing should occur during the next class session.

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SCHOLARSHIP

Learning about anything requires the development of certain skills that have been under emphasized in most educational systems. These exercises will help prepare the student to be a better learner.

EXERCISE 12 - ATTENTIVE LISTENING36 Can you remember a time when you really felt listened to, when you really felt that the other person was really there for you and not just waiting for a chance to speak? Turn to your neighbor and choose who will be A and who will be B. Partner A will begin sharing something personal about themselves for three minutes or so. I will signal when time is up. During that time, Partner B will say nothing. When the time is up, have the partners switch roles. When finished, have everyone discuss the experience of being the attentive listener and the

C speaker. They will notice many things,

including the desire to speak and inter- a rupt when they were the listener. Some p

speakers will feel like the other was not e

listening, since they weren’t responding.

5 Others will find it refreshing to not be interrupted by the other. When someone really listens to you, you can express doubt, confusion, half-formed ideas, and anything else you like. This can be a vital opportunity for you to get some inner clarity and remove self-doubt.37 But rarely do we really listen. Rather, we are constantly thinking about what we are going to say in response, how we are going to defend our position, or how we are going to have the last word. Conflict, not cooperation, results from such dynamics. We assume that someone can listen if they have ears, but listening is a skill that needs to be taught. Examples of listening as a tool for social change abound.38 This simple exercise can go a long way towards preparing the student to really hear what is going on in the class – and in their lives.

EXERCISE 13 -REFLECTIVE LISTENING39 This time, the listening partner asks infrequent, open-ended questions that try to get the speaker to go deeper into their theme. They will ask questions such as “How was that for you” and “How does that affect you?” They can also paraphrase and repeat back to the speaker, indicating that they are fully listening, not just hearing them.

EXERCISE 14 - LISTENING STORIES40 What listening stories do you have? Have there been times in your life when either you, or someone else, listened in a way that made a significant difference to the situation?

EXERCISE 15 - HOW DO YOU ATTAIN YOUR GOAL MOVEMENT EXPERIENCE41

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This should be conducted in as large an open space as possible, inside or outside. PART 1: Close your eyes. Visualize how you get to your goals. Do you go straight for them? Or do you wander off on tangents, never seeming to get there? Maybe you put off doing what you know has to be done. Visualize this. Feel it in your body. Exaggerate it. Now open your eyes and walk toward your goal, as if it was at the other end of the space here. After everyone has made it to the other side of the space, get everyone to stop where they are. Close your eyes again. See how that felt. Were those feelings familiar? Breath into those feelings. Now shake them out! Shaking out is accomplished by raising your arms in the air, jumping up, and literally exhaling out the experience. Model this for the class first. It is important to let go of the feelings that have been brought up. PART 2: Close your eyes. Now visualize your goal and your own clear intent on how you are going to achieve it. You know exactly what to do. Now open your eyes and go to your goal at the other side of this space.

After everyone has made it to the other side again, ask them to share how it felt to do it this time. Was the experience different than the first? How did it feel. Do not shake out this feeling of having moved directly toward one’s C goal. h

p 42 EXERCISE 16 -CAST OFF YOUR ASSUMPTIONS t

Our assumptions limit our actions and limit our acceptance of responsibility for our actions. r

They keep us from acting powerfully and appropriately. These assumptions will keep you from carry- 5 ing out the vision you identified in Exercise 1. Have your partner stand behind you and lock their arms around your chest. This lock can represent all the assumptions you have about yourself and the world. It can represent the excuses you give yourself that keep you from taking action or keep you from achieving what you want in life. Think about these self-generated obstacles and start walking forward. For most people, they will be unable to move very well – the force of the partner’s arms and the lack of centering from thinking about their assumptions will hold them back. Now move slightly back and feel grounded and centered. Visualize yourself as one who wants to explore reality and the truth, not one who wants to be burdened by assumptions and false perceptions. Focus your mind on accomplishing what you want in life and not being a victim of your past or your assumptions. Begin moving forward. This time, many people will find it much easier to move. They will move powerfully across the room, literally dragging their partner behind them. The power of assumptions will be clear. Not everyone will experience it. Have a discussion, letting the people who did feel the difference tell of their experience. One of the greatest obstacles to the deep teacher may be the assumptions that we all carry. These assumptions were crafted over the years from our family of origin, from our own way of looking at the world, from our prejudices and from our fears. We have a mythology about how the world works and how we interact with it that is based more upon media perceptions than our own. Each time you cast away an assumption and replace it with reality and truth, you are stepping toward your vision and

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experiencing true power.

EXERCISE 17 - OZONE MONITORING This is the only exercise in this chapter that requires the purchase of a specialized product. Many teaching supply houses and environmental hazard measuring companies exist where you can get relatively low-cost monitoring products that measure ozone, carbon monoxide, or other pollutants. A favorite product of mine is the EcoBadge by Vistanomics, Inc.43 For about $30, you can get thirty chemically treated filter papers with two large “dots” on them. The top dot is designed to be exposed to the air for 1-hour and measure ozone. The bottom dot is designed for an 8-hour exposure period. The color the dot changes to indicates the ozone exposure, which can be compared to a color chart that comes with the kit. The kit comes with only 1 plastic badge that the strips fit in, but you can get an entire class involved by simply pinning the papers themselves to clothing with a safety pin. The filter papers are kept from the air until the student is ready to begin the measuring period by keeping them in a plastic sandwich bag.

C Even in an environmental studies class where little emphasis is h placed on the technical science of pollution monitoring, a discussion a

on the subjective nature of monitoring activities is important. We t

often rely on technology to provide the solution to our toxic prob- r

lems and legislation is relying more and more on monitoring data. 5 Wearing these badges gives the student a first hand look at the challenges in collecting environmental data and interpreting the results. Issues that can be examined include: dose and exposure; interpolation; determining an exposure value from a subjective color change; variables that can affect the badge; age of the testing material; and many others. I particularly like asking the students to wear the badges prominently on their clothing during the exposure period. With such a visible activity, they get to experience the strange looks that people give, the questions, the disbelievers, and the self-consciousness that comes with being an activist.

CRITICAL THINKING

Probing below the surface is a talent that needs to be developed. Western culture promotes the “soundbite” approach to information gathering and thinking. We are trained to get our point across fast or we may lose our audience. Appreciating our complex environmental problems - and experiencing the joy that the Earth has to give - requires grounding, centering, and gazing beyond what appears to be on the surface. Environmental studies students will benefit from the practice that these exercises give.

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EXERCISE 18 - GROUNDING AND CENTERING The instructor should ask for a volunteer and model the activity first. Make sure that the class is told that anyone who has any back trouble or who would experience discomfort from trying this should not do so. Alternate experiences exist to show them this concept. Find a partner. One person starts by closing their eyes. While their eyes are closed, the other person walks around them speaking something like the following. It doesn’t need to last more than about 30 seconds: You have so much to do – you don’t know whether you are coming or going. Your time is not your own. You shouldn’t even be here taking the time for this class. How are you going to get everything done? Everything feels so out of control. Then the person who has been speaking wraps their arms around the person from behind and lifts them off the ground. Because they have been ungrounded by the speaking, they should be very easy to lift and swing from side to side. Now walk around your partner saying soothing, grounding things like:

It’s true, you have so much to do, but you know exactly what you have to do to accomplish C your tasks. You know what to do. Everything is in order. You are experiencing great peace. h

Imagine a stream of golden light pouring down through your head and moving through your p

whole body, calming you. Imagine your legs solidly on the ground. Imagine a great golden light e

coming from your legs into the ground, all the way to the center of the Earth, anchoring you.

5 Feel the golden light coming out your fingertips, also into the ground, further anchoring you. You are at peace. The speaker once again tries to lift the person. In most cases, they will be totally unable to lift the person at all! It will be as if they were anchored to the ground for real. Have the partners switch roles. In order to look below the surface of an issue, examine the assumptions, detect fallacies in logic, and make meaningful decisions for action, you must be grounded and centered. The power to learn, speak, listen, and act from a grounded and centered place is in each and every one of us. It takes a special mind/body state to be able to respond to all the demands upon us today – demands upon our intellect, our emotions, and our spirit to act. To be willing to learn and change, we must be centered. This powerful exercise shows how much power is locked up in our minds. It proves how an emotional state, either a pleasurable one or a painful one, is generated from within. Nothing really changed from the first part to the second part of the exercise except the subject’s state of mind.

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Centering is a psychophysiological state that is physically verifiable, a state that heightens awareness and increases concentration. When we are centered, we are in a powerful state for dealing with conflict.44 Alternative forms of centering and grounding (including ones that can be done by people who cannot lift) can be found in Thomas Crum’s Magic of Conflict Workbook, cited in the notes for this chapter.

EXERCISE 19 - SEA OF SLAUGHTER VIDEO As discussed earlier, this powerful video has many segments that can foster an awareness of the need to look below the surface of any subject or issue. Show the four and a half-minute segment from the video that discusses the herring fishery in the United States. The fish are netted in huge numbers (nearly 1800 tons in one catch) and then the row (eggs) are taken, most of which are exported to Japan. In the process, males and females alike are taken, even though only the females are of value. The herring resource is being wiped out in the sea due to overfishing. Rather than use the carcasses to feed the hungry, they are buried in landfills (over 18,000 tons at the one landfill site in the video).

C Ask the class why the herring company doesn’t make use of the carcasses. Explore the idea that a company h

can make a profit and still be responsible to the needs of society. a

EXERCISE 20 - FIELD TRIP: WAREHOUSE DEPARTMENT STORE e

No experience highlights the oppressive resource

5 use in our culture better than a visit to one of the many warehouse chain stores. There are many examples to choose from: Home Depot, Home Base, Price Club, Ikea and others, depending upon where in the country you are. In Southern California, I take students to visit the Ikea department stores, huge warehouses filled with every manner of furniture and housewares. There are many levels of learning that can take place at such a store. Look at the labels where items are manufactured and discuss the labor practices that brought the item to the store. If the store has a vast array of wood furniture like Ikea, much can be discussed about the use of that resource. Leather furniture provides a subject for a rich discussion about how we use animals. The question “how much is enough” and the perils of overconsumption can be thoroughly explored at these locations.

EXERCISE 21 - POWER GENERATION AND LAND USE FIELD EXPERIENCE Plan a trip to visit schools in the community and notice how many are built on land leased from power distribution utilities, often under high tension power lines. The land is relatively cheap in these areas.45 If you are able, obtain an electromagnetic radiation meter46 and measure the electric and magnetic fields at these locations. The results are dramatic. When you

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return to the classroom, have the students research the controversy over the association between cancer clusters and power line locations.47

EXERCISE 22 - CREATE YOUR OWN NEWSPAPER The daily newspaper is a collection of stories chosen by a group of people with their own personal interests, values, and prejudices. It is filled with advertising and demands to consume and creates a definition of “news” that may not match everyone’s. In this experience, students get the opportunity to notice that the story chosen by the student newspaper recreation newspaper to be the headline for the day may not be the most important story in the paper after all. This exercise can be an important one in the process of challenging information sources. Get newsprint paper from a local art supply store that is the size of an open newspaper, or close to it. Split the class into groups of three or four and supply enough copies of the morning paper so each group has one. Have scissors, glue, large markers (for writing headlines) and transparent tape available for each group.

Each group should spend some time going through the paper. With your awareness and knowledge h

from this class and your own concept of values and priorities, create a newspaper of your own that a

selects the stories that you want to display and presents them in the order that you think is impor- t

tant. Your newspaper will have no advertising. What will your headline story be? What stories will r

you choose to be on the back page. 5 Each group can then present their own newspaper and the ensuing discussion can highlight the reasons for the choices made by each group.

AWARENESS

With many senses more open from the preceding exercises, awareness can now increase to new levels. Deeper associations can now be made and more assumptions can be spotted. The concept of having a relationship with the world may now be more tangible.

EXERCISE 23 - IMPACT OF TELEVISION NEWS Instruct the students to watch an evening TV news broadcast from one of the major networks (not PBS) for two or three days in a row. The point of this assignment is to watch a broadcast from the networks that most people watch and take as their primary information sources. PBS is a little more balanced (not much) and not as dramatic an example. Take note of how the presentation makes you feel. Then, for two or three days more do not watch any TV news. Take note of the difference. Write 2-3 pages on the experience. Reflect on the following questions. 1. How did you feel during the broadcast? What feelings were invoked by the various stories? 2. Reflect on the style of the presentation? Was it to inform or to create something else? 3. What was the role of images in the broadcasts.

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4. What is the role of commercials in the broadcast? 5. How did it feel to not watch for a few days? 6. What value did watching the broadcast add to your life? This exercise can provide an excellent starting point for or supplement to a discussion about the quality of our information sources and how our knowledge of events and processes in our world are so dramatically affected by the assumptions we make.

EXERCISE 24 - REASONING SCRAPBOOK The scrapbook is a collection of items from the printed media (newspaper stories, magazine articles, letters to the editor, advertisements, etc.) that illustrate the various types of fallacies discussed in the course. There should be a minimum of 10 items in the scrapbook. Each item should be accompanied by one or two typewritten paragraphs identifying the type of reasoning or decision and providing an analysis. All entries should be contained in a presentation folder. The student can pick a common theme to illustrate or a variety of themes. Students then present a 5-minute discussion of their scrapbook when it is turned in.

EXERCISE 25 - B OOKSTORE VISITS h Have the students visit an alternative, independent bookstore in your a

area on their own. Have them look for books about science, our perception t

of the universe, and our environmental and social crises. Have them look r

around for other topics that have been discussed in class or that they have 5 discovered in their readings. Then have them visit a Borders or a Barnes and Noble bookstore or other large chain bookstore (invariably, there will be one very near the independent bookstore – that is the strategy of the superstores). Have them notice the difference in the type of books carried and to reflect on the affect that such selective book offerings in the “superstores” has on the public. What if everyone knew about alternative bookstores and their selections? Have the students find a “women’s bookstore” in your community. Look for the same kinds of things. See the rich array of studies in all fields by women. Reflect on the absence of the voice of women from our world. Reflect on the fact that this bookstore is one of only a handful of stores in the country that carry these books. Have them find a large chain bookstore. Look in the women’s section. Ask them to consider the question of how has the world been affected by the fact that the perception of the universe we have created has been a patriarchal one? Have them write about their observations in a 3-5 page paper, including what they think about the superstores opening their outlets so near well-established, neighborhood bookstores?

EXERCISE 26 - SEASONAL CYCLES CELEBRATIONS Increasing ones awareness of connections in the natural world must include recognition of the Earth’s seasonal cycles and the role that our cultures play in them. Learning about them in class is one aspect, but actually celebrating them is another experience entirely. You can create a celebration

Page 142 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning for the class around a solstice, an equinox, or a new or full moon. Many books have been written that tell of the rituals historically associated with these celebrations.48 In every community, people gather to celebrate these events regularly. Check bulletin boards in your local independent bookstores, health food stores, and the Internet for ideas.

EXERCISE 27 - E XPERIENCE DIFFERENT FEELINGS IN YOUR BODY M OVEMENT EXPERIENCE49 Often the fear of being enveloped in a strong emotion will prevent some of us from wishing to broaden our awareness and take on new responsibilities for our planetary crisis. It is easy to believe that our grief or sadness will consume us. This exercise is powerful in that it demonstrates that we are very much in control of how we feel and can choose to shake off a feeling if we want to. Have the group stand up, either inside or outdoors. Have them think about a feeling, exaggerate it in their bodies, and walk around like that. This is done a number of times with contrasting feelings. Here’s what it might sound like: Close your eyes and think about a time when you were feeling overwhelmed and overburdened. Feel what that might have felt like in your body. What happens to your posture, your stance, your breathing? Now walk around the space feeling that

feeling. C

After a minute or so goes by: h

Now start glancing at people as you encounter them. Greet them. p

Usually, people will feel heavy, walking slowly with their bodies hunched over. Encountering t

e people will feel difficult and heavy. No one is r

really feeling open. After about a minute, 5 Now stop. Feel how that feels. Were the sensations familiar or foreign. Is this feeling a part of your life? Were you feeling open and alive connecting with people or shut down and closed off? Now shake it out! The shaking out process is important. Model it by raising your arms above your head and letting them drop down, jumping up and down in the process, letting out some sounds and breaths. Let go of the feeling! Doing this with three or four “heavy” feelings like confusion, irresponsibility, or sadness followed by more positive sensations like self-assuredness, responsibility, or feeling directed will dramatically show how much we are the ones who decide how we feel. Often, we say “he made me feel bad” when it is really ourselves who made a choice to create the feeling. We have more control than we think we do over our emotions. Now close your eyes and think about how you feel when you know what you have to do and you have a plan to do it. Feel how that feels in your body. Exaggerate the feeling. Now walk around the room with that feeling.

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Once again, after about a minute: Now start meeting people. After about 30 seconds to a minute: Now stop. Feel how that feels. Is this feeling familiar or foreign. Would you like more of this feeling in your life? Were you more open in connecting with people? Now shake it out! People will often be reluctant to shake this good feeling out. It is important to shake it out too, supporting the notion that they can bring it back whenever they want to.

SENSE OF PLACE

Developing a relationship with our local place may be the most important thing we can do. It is not uncommon for people to spend very little time in the community in which they live. These exercises will help a recognition of the importance of the local environment, both culturally and physically.

C XERCISE ATURE OURNAL E 28 - N J h

There is no way to develop a complete sense of our place in nature and the meaning of a

having a relationship with nature from classroom activities. This must be an on-going process if we t

are to re-define our relationship to the natural world. I ask students to choose a natural place that is r

important to them or that they are 5 drawn to and visit it each week. They are to keep a journal of this process. How long they spend at the place is up to them. You are encouraged to explore creative forms of expression in your journal such as poetry, artwork, etc. No one will judge your writing or artwork nor will you have to share it with the class. Pick a place that you can get to and visit at least once per week. If you don’t have such a place (and it can be something as simple as your own back yard) find out what local parks and scenic areas are near you. You may be surprised at what you find. We all need a place where we can nurture ourselves and experience a focused connection with the Earth. The journals turn into highly personal expressions of self and should not be graded or judged in the traditional sense. When they are turned in, ask for volunteers to share what they have done. The discussion will be rich and the connections that people have made will be profound. One of my students wrote her journal in soy inks on leaves and bark! She plans to bury the journal when we are

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done with it. She calls it her compostable journal. The possibilities are endless.

EXERCISE 29 - DRAW WHERE YOU LIVE At the beginning of the term, each student draws their idea of where they live and their relationship to that place. This will be repeated at the end of the course as well.

EXERCISE 30 - WRITE ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE At the beginning of the class, each student writes a short 2-page piece about where they live and how it fits in their lives.

EXERCISE 31 - DWELLING LIFELINE Each student will draw a “lifeline” showing all the different places they have lived and what their relationship to each place has been.

EXERCISE 32 - M APPING YOUR COMMUNITY50 We can develop a more complete relationship with our place, understand what it has to offer,

and learn what aspects of it need more attention through community mapping.51 The maps can be C developed over an entire term or done quickly as an exercise in class. In addition to being drawn on h

paper, the maps can be built from any craft material such as clay, fabric, or ceramics. p

We should value most that which we are in contact with on a daily basis, but all to often, we e

place value only on those things that are scarce or extravagant. Developing more of a relationship with our everyday place is desperately needed to foster a sense of community and a sense of the 5 intrinsic value of the natural world.

EXERCISE 32A -OBSERVING THE MOON Developing a sense of your place on the Earth is enhanced by becoming aware of the heavens above and realizing that you are on a planet in space. Observing the Moon is a wonderful way to begin this reconnecting with the universe above. Have students look for the Moon every day for a complete lunar cycle. They record their observations on the form reproduced on the pages that follow. A sample form partially filled out is also presented. Have students ponder how their lives might be different if they could see the heavens above in dark skies every night and felt connected to the universe. Create different writing assignments during the time they are observing. For example, students can write about the kinds of cycles they observe in their own lives that are metaphors for the phases of the Moon.

EXPERIENCE

Field work, cooperative projects, and community involvement help activate the knowledge in a way that cannot be achieved in the classroom.

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Sample Moon Observation Form with Entries (form by Jackie Giuliano)

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EXERCISE 33 - THE MILLING52 This is a particularly good introductory exercise to use after sharing personal stories or after a discussion that has had people sitting for some time. It allows a place for the experiences to sink in while at the same time breaking tension that has accumulated by sitting. This can be done anywhere, but the more open space you have the better. Get people to start walking around the space, weaving in and out through the others. Tell them to keep moving, with no talking – just circulate. There are a number of variations on this exercise. It is most effective to do them all, but you can just do parts that fit your objectives if time is short. Part 1 – Hurrying past one another, taking no notice of the other, like on a busy street, is one important part of the experience. This is often how we go through our lives, only superficially noticing the world around us. Part 2 –Now notice and look an each other as you pass. Keep moving, but notice the other. Notice that they share this world with you.

Part 3 – Now, as you pass a person, stop for a moment and really notice them. Be conscious that C this person has just expressed their pain for our world. h

This part is done after a sharing experience. Nothing should be said – just acknowledgment p

t and respect for what has been shared. e

Part 4 – Next, to break the mood, have everyone put their left hand behind their backs and as they pass a

5 person, have them try to touch their right hand without being touched back. People dodge and laugh, releasing pent up energy. We have control over our feelings of heaviness and can change them if we choose. Part 5 – Now stop and begin milling again. When you encounter another person, stop and face them straight on. Let the possibility arise in your mind that this person could die from environmental destruction or nuclear war. Just look, be open, without speaking. Let this go on for a few encounters and then Now face one another, placing your raised hands together, palm to palm at shoulder height. Look into each other’s eyes. Let the notion raise in you that this person may be the one you happen to be with when you die. Part 6 – This variation may be added to alter the experience from a “death meditation” to a life affirming one. Which one you use will depend upon where in the teaching process your are at the time and the individual dynamics of the group. Now face another person and let the possibility arise that this person might be someone who helps save the world.

These encounters may evoke strong emotions. This exercise should ideally be followed by an experience that takes advantage of the openness most people will be feeling now. I will use the milling prior to a nature walk to heighten the sensory experience.

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EXERCISE 34 - COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Participating in a community activity can open eyes and doors that have been closed for a long time. Whether it be helping out at a homeless shelter or participating in a beach cleanup activity, this experience is vital.

EXERCISE 35 - F IELD EXPERIENCES Field experiences are a vital part of an environmental studies program. If time is short or if logistics are a problem in traveling to a natural area, just journeying to the school’s parking lot ecosystem is of great value. Visiting parts of the city’s infrastructure are very important as well. Visits to utility companies, wastewater treatment facilities, power generation facilities, and freeway overpasses will help develop a sense of the reality of the urban environment and dispel the myths of how our cities work.

EXERCISE 36 - FIELD TRIP TO A MEETING OF A LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL BODY a

Attending a meeting of the local city council, county board of supervisors, or school board is p

t a powerful experience. The flaws as well as the benefits of our system are in full view of the students. e

Try to pick a meeting where a local environmental issue is being discussed and have selected students

5 participate in the public comment portion of the meeting.

EXERCISE 37 - WHY IS IT A FIGHT FOR WORLD PEACE? This exercise was described in Chapter 3. As with any exercise I design, I first write down the 3-5 fundamental and powerful themes I would like people to encounter in the experience. Here are some for this exercise: 1.Achieving “world peace” means different things to different people. 2.When you consider the social, economic, political, and personal points of view, there are many artificial barriers to world peace. 3.Not everyone may want world peace. 4.World peace can only be obtained through the attitudes of people, not laws, technology or other superficialities. 5.To take the student out of their own ego-centered world and think on a broader scale. 6.To demonstrate the importance of the individual’s views and actions. Split the class up into small groups of 3-5 people. Each group is assigned a point of view for coming up with a plan for world peace. The five points of view are: 1. U.S. Congressperson 2. A working woman in the U.S. 3. A poor, out of work mother in a third world country 4. An Australian Aborigine 5. Your own personal views

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The groups are given 15-30 minutes to come up with their plan. Then each group selects a representative to present their plan to the class. It is a powerful and moving experience, one that takes everyone out of their day to day assumptions and puts themselves in someone else’s shoes.

ACTIVISM

With heart and mind open, or to open the heart and mind, understanding what is important to us and taking action is vital. Understanding power and power relationships are an important element in understanding activism as well. Although many of the exercises already presented are activist in nature, these that follow are particularly helpful in tempering action with careful thought and self analysis.

EXERCISE 38 - SHARING OUR CONCERNS53 With the group formed into a circle, preferably outside, but inside is fine if you can’t go out, begin sharing concerns for our world. Ask the group to consider the following questions. Take 3 minutes or so per person and listen without interruption or discussion. If strong feelings arise, don’t try to cheer people up. Listen supportively. Others may sit close to the person to support them if necessary.

C Sit quietly for a minute and remember significant moments in your life when you first became

aware of our planetary crisis. a

p ∙ What event changed your perception of the way things are? t

∙ What were you thinking and feeling at the time? r

Now, in pairs, ask the following questions. One partner speaks to the other, uninterrupted. 5 The listener takes notes about each answer. Then the list of questions is asked again, with the roles of speaker and listener/notetaker switched. A period of time is then allotted for each person to take turns telling the other what they learned from their notes. 1. The things I feel really concerned about are . . . 2. When I think of the world we are going to leave for our children, it looks like . . . 3. One of my worst fears for the future is . . . 4. The feelings about all this that I carry about with me are . . . 5. When I try to share these feelings with other people, what usually happens is . . . 6. The ways I avoid expressing these feelings are . . . 7. The ways that I avoid experiencing these feelings are . . . 8. If I were feeling strong and powerful, what I’d like to speak out about is . . . 9. The person or people I’d really like to address this to is/are . . . 10. The things I need that will help me speak up are . . . 11. My worst fantasy about what would happen if I spoke up is . . . 12. What could I do, in the next 24 hours, not matter how small an action, to help?

These questions can also be used by themselves at anytime during the course to elicit responsiveness in a lackluster group or to frame a class around feelings of empowerment and action.

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EXERCISE 39 - COMMUNITY ACTION PROJECT Having a community action project that lasts the entire term is of great value. For my Com- munity Action and Social Responsibility class, I have the students choose an issue in the community to become involved in and to develop a comprehensive plan of action around it. This plan must be in writing and have objectives, proposed action, fundraising options, volunteer recruitment plans, a schedule, a budget, and follow-through plans for the future.

EXERCISE 40 - HOW WE EXPERIENCE OUR POWER54 Virtually all environmental issues turn out to be a struggle for power over something or someone. It is critical that we experience our own personal power or we will wind up in power struggles of our own for the best grade or to be the one who is right, no matter what the cost. Gather the group into a circle and instruct them to Think of a time when you felt powerful, when something important happened because of a choice you made, because of

something you said or did, or because of the C

way you were. Choose one of these times and h

recapture the scene in your mind. Play it p

back for yourself. What made you feel t

powerful in that situation? Now, in groups of r

5 four, take turns listening to each other tell their story without comment until everyone has finished. The group can also be instructed to draw this experience and discuss the drawings. This gets students thinking about the may forms that achieving power can take. Having power doesn’t have to mean that for me to be strong, someone else has to be weak. Being powerful doesn’t have to mean that I must have many material things while others have less. Being powerful may mean being flex- ible, helping others, and sharing all that you have. Power can come from actions and ideals that the dominant culture has defined as weak.

EXERCISE 41 - COMMUNICATING INFORMATION55 Many fears often block us from expressing our feelings and speaking up against that which we feel is unjust. Often, we may feel that we don’t have enough information to communicate our feelings effectively. People need help in achieving confidence in their knowledge and in the importance of their feelings. You don’t have to know the intricate technical details of an issue to communicate your disapproval or anger or thanks to an elected representative. This exercises is done with the students in groups of threes. One person starts by communicating their concern about an issue important to them or chosen by the instructor. The other two in the group gently question, helping the speaker through any blocks and fears. For example, if the speaker says something like “I feel stupid. I am concerned about the nuclear threat, but I don’t know much about it.” Another

Page 152 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning member of the group might ask, “How does that make you feel” or “Are you afraid?” Through this gentle questioning, we can help each other realize that we know much more than we think we do. The exercise is also an opportunity to stress the importance of expressing feelings as well as data.

CREATIVITY

Through our native creativity, we can access our hearts. We can turn our knowledge into lived experience through metaphor and artistic representation. Creative expression can free us from our fears.

EXERCISE 42 - MAKING MASKS Making masks has been used as a form of artistic expression for centuries. Bringing thought and ideas into three dimensions, particularly when that object is going to cover your face and change your very identity, is a potent experience. Many of the exercises presented in this chapter could have mask making easily incorporated into them. There are a number of ways to make a mask. The more lasting and impressive method involves making a plaster cast of C

the student’s face and creating the mask from that. Many craft a

books exist giving instructions for this process. p

Clay can also be used to sculpt a mask. There are many e

different clays on the market. Visit your local art supply store

5 and you will find a number of clays that do not have to be fired in a kiln. There are clays that will air dry or that can be baked in a conventional oven. Select the medium that matches the level and depth of the experience you want to create. An easy way to do mask making that I have used in many situations uses common craft materials and cardboard. It can be done any time and anywhere. Get some large sheets of cardboard (visit local moving or storage companies and warehouse department stores and look in their trash – you will find large boxes that can be cut). You can either cut squares that are large enough to cover a face prior to the class session or have the ripping of a cardboard shape from a large piece be part of the experience for the students. Spread out on a table some tapes, glues, paints, brushes, glitter, colored tissue paper, and whatever you can afford or find. Plan ahead about what system you will use that allows the masks to be held in front of the student’s face. You can get elastic from a fabric store that could be used to make a headband to hold the mask on their faces, but most people prefer the following method. Get some tongue depres- sors or other flat sticks from your craft store. They can be stuck directly into the cardboard with a

Page 153 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning little glue, making a handle can be held. Make masks to represent animals observed, to represent the faces of children in the future, to represent the faceless children that die of starvation every day, or to represent the joy in our hearts. There are no limits. Mask making is an integral part of the Council of All Beings exercise and is discussed separately in the description for that activity.

EXERCISE 43 - CREATE A WORLD CRISIS OR EMPOWERMENT COLLAGE56 There are many ways to trigger awareness and action through creativity. Collage is a powerful artform that uses existing images as a palette to transform your thoughts and ideas into form. Here are a couple of suggestions on how to use this medium, but the possibilities are endless. Spread all forms of magazines out on a table, The magazines should include popular culture publications as well as more environmentally focused ones. Garage sales and flea markets are good sources for these.

C Have large (at least 18”X24”) heavy weight paper available along with scissors, glue, scraps of fabric, h glitter, etc. a

Option 1 – Create a collage of your vision of our world’s crisis. t

Close your eyes and relax. Think of what we have been discussing over the last few weeks (or r

hours, or minutes). What has concerned you the most? What affect do these concerns have on our 5 children? When you are ready, open your eyes and create a collage that represents your thoughts. Option 2 – Create an empowerment collage. Relax and close your eyes. Think of a time in your life when you felt powerful, when you were in com- mand of a situation, when your values and actions were not in conflict. Let images of events, people and sources of inspiration that contributed to your sense of empowerment come up. When you are ready, open your eyes and create a collage that represents this feeling of power.

REFLECTION

These experiences incorporate opportunities to reflect on the learning and openings experienced so far.

EXERCISE 44 - ANNOTATED TIME LOG Fill out the “Annotated Time Log” in your course notes package (handwritten is OK), indicating how you spend your time during a 3-day (and night) period, including at least one work/ school day. Prepare a 2-page summary paper discussing what trends you observed and evaluating how you spent your time. Discuss how you could change how you manage your time to be more effective. How could you include more time for play? Include elements from our class discussion on the topic.

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EXERCISE 45 - D RAW OR BUILD YOUR LIFELINE AND LIFE TRAJECTORY57 We so rarely take the time to fully reflect upon the events in our lives, events that have helped create the things we believe in and cherish. The first part of this exercise is an opportunity to do that reflection. The second part extends that reflection into the future. This exercise is best done after some discussions have taken place about our global crises so the student has an opportunity to think about their lives in that context. Some people choose paper and colors while others may want to do a three dimensional construction. You can do this anytime in the term, but you might consider having students start their lifeline at the very beginning of the class so that the evolution of the learning during the course can affect their presentation. Part 2, the Life Trajectory, picks up where the lifeline leaves off and continues into the future and includes death. I prefer to do Part 2 as a group in class, preceded by a meditation. For those that have chosen to do their lifeline in three dimensional materials, they can be encouraged to continue in the same medium and bring their materials to class or do something different. Part 1 – Draw Your Lifeline Think about your life, all the opportunities (those taken and those missed), the joys, the sorrows,

the turning points, and the relationships you have had. Create a lifeline that begins at birth (or h before) and stops at your present age. You can use any medium to create your lifeline – paint, a

collage, or sculpture. Choose a medium that supports your thoughts and feelings about the colors, t

shapes, size, movement, and texture of your life’s events. What does change look like in your r

lifeline? 5 Part 2 – Draw Your Life Trajectory This is done in the class session where students bring their Lifelines in to class. Allow at least 20- 30 minutes for this exercise. Look at your lifeline. See the colors, the shapes, and the textures that you have chosen to represent your life. What will the future bring? What kind of future do you envision for yourself and your family? How will you participate in your future? What events will determine your future? When and how will you die? Think of all these things and when you are ready, continue your Lifeline and draw your Life Trajectory out to your death.

EXERCISE 46 - OBSERVING ANIMALS There are many ways to observe animals. If your course content requires it, this can be a part quantitative exercise, drawing upon the myriad of exercises that exist in most environmental science textbooks for explorations of species diversity, population dynamics, or other ecological indicators. Rarely, however, do these texts afford the opportunity for the student to explore their relationship with the non-human world or to look critically at the effects of human’s actions on individual animals or communities.

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When observing animals, there are a few guidelines that I recommend that deep teachers follow. The most important guideline is do not capture, disturb, or molest wildlife in any way. Too many animals have been harmed in the name of studying them. What is learned from a close, taxonomic examination is debatable. It is certainly unlikely that this type of examination enhances our damaged relationship with the natural world. Also, do not disturb habitats in any way, including turning over rocks or removing intertidal invertebrates from tide pools. These exercises are about observing our

relationship to the natural world, not our dominance C

over it. h There can be many adaptations of this experi- a

ence. Here are a few pathways. t

Variation 1 r

Just Notice: On a trip to the beach, in addition to 5 noticing the beauty and grandeur, the storm drain outfalls, and the pollution, notice the shore birds. If you are fortunate enough to happen upon a gathering of sea gulls sitting on the sand, have everyone just sit and notice. In some cases, all the birds, no matter how large an area they occupy, will all be oriented the same way, as if paying homage to that direction. Sit down in the sand and observe this. Sit in a posture similar to the sea gull and face the same direction. Ponder this phenomenon. Have the students draw or write about the experience.

Variation 2 Wildlife is all around us, even in the cities. Develop exercises that challenge students to look for and observe urban wildlife including squirrels, rodents, birds, insects, opossums, and deer. Have the students notice the wide variety of adaptations that animals make to our urban sprawl. Have students develop a map to document their observations that includes sources of food, water, and cover for the urban wildlife. If students have done the community mapping exercise, they can do this on the same map.

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REASSESSMENT

With the varied and vital learning that accompanies deep environmental studies teaching, a student is likely to reassess his or her values. These exercises provide opportunities and a framework for that reassessment.

EXERCISE 47 - D IET L OG AND S UMMARY For one week or so, keep a log of what you eat. Pay particular attention to how you feel for the few hours after your meals and snacks. Write a 2-page summary of your eating habits and their affect on your learning ability. Did you snack late at night while studying and have an upset stomach in the morning that interfered with your day? Did you have a fatty lunch with a lot of animal protein and feel sluggish for the afternoon? Did you have a salad for lunch and feel energized and light? Making these

associations is the first step toward recon- h necting with your body. a

e 58 EXERCISE 48 - BUILD YOUR EGO OUT OF CLAY r

Our egos often keep us separated from each other and the natural world. They are mixed up 5 with our perception of ourselves that can often be distorted. A healthy ego keeps us self-assured and strong, but most of us have elements of greed, hatred, and ignorance in our egos. This exercise is a very visceral way to explore these concepts. This exercise should only take place after some degree of personal sharing has taken place and the group has been together for a while. It can evoke strong feelings. Students should be sitting in a circle. Each student is given a block of clay (a 3” cube should be enough) and asked to create a sculpture of that part of their ego that holds them back. Music in the background is helpful during this experience. Allow at least 15-20 minutes for the sculpting. When they are done, split the class into small groups to share what they have created. If it is a small class, you can go around the room with everyone. Following the sharing, a ceremony is held to present their ego as an offering to the goddess/god/universe. An altar can be created in the center of the circle of people, around which the egos will be laid. Each person presents their ego with great fanfare from the group – remember that it has taken a lifetime to build this ego. We feed our egos very well and care for them. They should be given up with great applause. Have a drumbeat accompany each presenter as the group expresses great appreciation for the offering. After all the egos are presented, the entire group can walk around the offering in silent meditation or chanting. The sculptures that come out of this experience will amaze you in their depth and in their detail. Strong emotions can also be evoked. Be prepared to deal with emotional releases. Prepare the class in advance with a warning that this exercise could result in some emotional releases.

EXERCISE 49 - IMAGINING A WORLD WITHOUT T HREAT59

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People often go through life without a vision of a future that is free from environmental or social threat. Without this vision there is no motivation to act, nothing to strive for. Why not just buy water purifiers to filter our poisoned water and masks to filter the poisoned air? This exercise can show that more may be possible – and serve to remind students how little they may think that solutions to our problems are achievable. Relax and close your eyes. Imagine a day sometime in the near future. It is a world without threats. A child approaches, maybe someone you know or someone you are meeting for the first time. You take a walk together. Notice how it looks and feels: is the weather sunny or grey? What is the time of year? What are the sounds and smells around you? Turn to the child and talk to her or him. Tell her or him that the danger is over, the dangers of nuclear war, of

C ecological disasters, of toxic pollution, of hunger and of sick-

ness. Explain what that means to his or her life, to yours and a

the lives of others, and to the Earth. Talk to the child for two t

minutes. It will be plenty of time. r

Now touch the child and let her or him leave. Know that she or he will be all right. Allow 5 yourself to feel how it was to do that, to know the danger is over, to be in a place and to love the child and the world deeply. Notice what images and colors arise – maybe none. Notice if there is any particular feeling or movement in your body. Now bring your images and colors and shapes and movements back with you. Feel the paper in front of you. Let your hand move over it with your eyes closed. When you are ready, open your eyes and begin to draw whatever came to you. Draw with your eyes open or closed, maybe even with your non-dominant hand.

EXERCISE 50 - COUNCIL OF ALL BEINGS Created by John Seed and Joanna Macy, this experience is one of the most powerful I have ever participated in or conducted. It is fully described in Thinking Like a Mountain by Seed, Macy, Fleming and Naess. A brief outline of the process is presented below, but the book is a must to fully appreciate the journey. This is best done at a site in nature, but you can adapt it for any location. It can be done in a few hours or over a week-long retreat. The scenario below has been

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adapted for a one-day experience in a natural setting. I will share with you the process by describing one of my workshops. In this particular workshop, there were 20 adult students and 5 of them brought partners. After some time at the beach introducing each other and sharing an experience of feeling connection to the natural world and then sharing an experience of feeling pain with the world, we went inland to notice forest and stream. By the stream, people were instructed to wander off and find a place that felt special to them. They were to meditate in that spot and to let another “being” occur to them and choose them to speak through. It could be a plant or animal or geologic feature. This being would speak through them at a Council of All Beings later that evening. The being would speak of its concerns for the actions of humans and offer strength and gifts to help.

C “Find a place that feels special to you and simply be there, still and

waiting. Let another life-form occur to you, one for whom you will a

p speak at this afternoon’s Council of All Beings. No need to try to make

it happen. Just relax and let yourself be chosen by the life-form that r

wishes to speak through you. . . Often the first that occurs to you is 5 what is right for you at this gathering.” (Pat Fleming and Joanna Macy, Thinking Like A Mountain, New Society Publishers, 1988) It was a powerful experience, an experience that went far beyond anything that numbers could give. After about 20 minutes inviting in a being, a drumbeat called the participants back to our campsite where I had set up all types of art and craft supplies. For the next hour, all made masks to represent their beings. The creativity that was unleashed was powerful and amazing. A practice session in small groups followed where the participants practiced representing their being in small groups. They experimented with their voices and their body language. This part always generates

Page 159 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning laughter. We had dinner after the practice. The Council was a powerful hour around a raging campfire. Each “being” spoke from behind their mask, admonishing the humans for their shortsightedness. Having half of the group take off their masks and be the human audience for the other half works well. I spoke as the swarm of insects seen earlier in the day and scorned by the group. I told the humans to learn from the connectedness of me and my fellows, to learn to work together as the swarm does. Many beings spoke including a rabbit, a bird of prey, a spider, a tree, a rock, and a fish. Even the sound of the stream and sensuality had a voice at the Council. The last phase of the Council is for the Beings to name the particular powers or gifts they can offer the humans to help them stop the destruction that is going on. It was an enriching experience for all, a chance to leave the powerful human ego for a while and see the world from the perspective of a being considered of less value that has no voice - at least a voice that most humans refuse to hear. The Council ended as the full Moon rose above the hills. We then observed the heavens

through telescopes, binoculars and the naked eye, completing our experiences in connectedness with C

an awareness of the universe above. h

CHANGE p

Finding a way to integrate our learning into our lives to affect change may be the fundamen- e

r tal reason why we strive to learn. These exercises provide some catalysts for change.

EXERCISE 51 - THIRTY YEARS HENCE60 Get outside if you can. Gather the class into a circle or have them lay down on the ground. Have everyone relax and close their eyes. Imagine that it is thirty years from today. You are still the same you, the same name, the same gestures and feelings, same action of heart and lungs. Don’t worry about the fact that some of us will be pretty ancient by then. Assume you are still around and in one of your favorite spots in nature. Don’t worry about the details of how the world has change, just know that there are some key differ- ences: all the weapons in the world have been dismantled, all the environmental degradations have ended, and people are not sick and hungry any more. It may have happened some number of years ago. By now, you have become so accustomed to the idea that you take it for granted.

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Now, a child approaches you, about 8 or 9 years old. She has heard, perhaps from songs and stories about those times, what you and your neighbors and friends did back then to save the world from disaster. She approaches you timidly, but with great curiosity. “Were there really bombs that could blow up the whole world, she asks with incredulity in her voice? “Were there really hungry people and polluted rivers?” Listen to her questions and hear how you answer them. “Where there really millions and millions of people who were sick and hungry?” “What was it like to be alive in a time like that? Weren’t you scared? Lastly she asks, “What did you do to get through that scary time and not be discouraged? What helped you stay so strong, so you could know what to do?” Listen now to your answers.

You could have everyone draw their responses or discuss them in small groups. This is a powerful visioning experience. I cry just writing these words down. This can put form to the nebulous thoughts in our minds about how we can get by and what we can do to turn things around.

EXERCISE 52 - IDENTIFYING G OALS AND R ESOURCES 61

C Now, in pairs, ask the following questions. One partner speaks to the other, uninterrupted.

The listener takes notes about each answer. Then the list of questions is asked again, with the roles of a speaker and listener/notetaker switched. A period of time is then allotted for each person to take p

t turns telling the other what they learned from their notes. e

1. If you were unblocked by fear and in the possession of all your powers, what would you do to

5 heal our world? 2. What specific project could actually be accomplished through you in the next year’s time? 3. What strengths or resources do you now have that would help you do that? 4. What will you need to learn or acquire? 5. What obstacles are you likely to put in the way of fulfilling this goal? 6. What can you do in the next 24 hours – no matter how small the step – that will help you reach that goal?

EXERCISE 53 - CELEBRATIONS, INITIATIONS, AND RITES OF PASSAGE Truly connecting with ourselves and the natural world involves not only scholarship and awareness, but celebration as well. Celebrate the Earth’s seasonal cycles, lunar cycles, women’s menstrual cycles, and coming of age (birth, midlife, and latelife). This is a vital element of the study of our environment. Create a celebration yourself around these holy days of the Earth. It can be a simple as having a party at the time of a full or new Moon. You can have a drum circle where everyone sits in a circle and simply drums. A beat will come alive and soon, everyone will be creating an energy that you can feel in the space. As you start to pay more attention to the Earth’s cycles, celebrating

Page 161 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning them when you can, you may begin to feel that you have not payed enough attention to the cycles in your own life. You may have not acknowledged their importance in your life. Lynn Andrews says that if we pass over the important passages in our lives without celebration and acknowledgment, we take the risk of lessening our own chances to grow and manifest our dreams.62 So too with the Earth and her cycles. We need to all dream together along with our planet. If you don’t feel able to organize your own celebration for your students, there are probably many going on in your community. Check the bulletin boards in local health food stores, yoga centers, alternative bookstores, and the Internet. In Los Angeles, opportunities abound. One organization, the Yoruba House in West Los Angeles, is an African-based store, learning center, and celebration hall. Every new and full Moon they have a drum circle that is a wonderful and empowering event to attend. There is nothing like 60

people in a hall drumming and dancing to celebrate the Moon! Look around your community. You C

will be surprised who you find exploring the idea of reconnecting h with the natural world. a

EXERCISE 54 - LIVING A DOUBLE LIFE63 No matter how much we learn about the challenges to our environment and our relationship with the natural world, most of us still live in an urban area and each day, we contribute to the problems of our society. No one starts their day saying “today, I am going to increase my disconnection from the natural world and generate toxic wastes,” yet many of our actions do just that. After many weeks of examining our environmental and social crises, many students will begin to feel the conflicts between their beliefs and values (some of them very new values) and the life choices they have made for career and home. I marvel often that sometimes I am teaching about environmental impacts to a group of people 50 miles from my home that took me 2-1/2 hours to get to on a crowded freeway. Facing this troubling awareness can help relieve the inevitable accumulation of stress that arises from leading a double life and help put you on a path towards a solution. Katrina Shields describes this stress as “the tension of incon-

Page 162 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning gruity.” It is important during times of transition to acknowledge where we are and where we would like to be in our values and actions. She says we must congratulate ourselves for being willing to question the myriad of things we have taken for granted. Divide the group into pairs or threesomes. Ask them to speak of the conflicts they have become aware of between what they know and how they live. Ask them the following questions: 1. When in your life are you most aware of inner conflict? 2. When in your life are you most aware of living a double life? 3. What are your needs? How do these differ from your wants? 4. How else can your needs be met? Which needs are more important in the overall scheme of things?

C 5. Whose cooperation is needed in making these changes?

6. What do you need of yourself in making these changes? a The group can discuss these questions together or you p

can direct them to answer one at a time. The exercise can e

also be conducted in the manner of the questions in the

5 Identifying Goals and Resources exercise.

In Conclusion

So where does this journey bring us? How do we synthesize all these ideas and tools into a new way of living and being in the world? The answer will be different for everyone, but I think that solutions have common attributes regardless of their motivation. I have come to believe that so many of our dilemmas have very little to do with the need for new legislation or a new law. Rather, I keep coming back

Photos from the Official Web Site of the Israeli to the reexamination of fundamental values as a means to Defense Force (who are right now preparing their citizens for possible retaliation from Hussain if the heal. U.S. begins bombing). Inset photo of Iraqi boy with AK 47 assault rifle. It is not easy to discover what we feel and what we know. Our society expends a great deal of effort to teach us how to be dishonest. Huge industries exist for the sole purpose of maintaining an illusion that we are happy or on the verge of becoming happy if we buy this car or that product.64 None of us are free of sorrow for our world. None of us can sustain the energy it takes to look away from the sights and sounds of our Earth and her people and her animals crying. Yet we all need help to recog-

Page 163 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning nize the anguish so we can find the path to an open heart, open arms, and the joy that is inherent in each and every one of us. Opening to what we know and feel takes courage. It involves, like Gandhi’s satyagraha – “truth-force” – an ability to listen to ourselves. We are all experts in our own way on what needs to be done.65 We must listen to our body, the home of our heart, for that least conditioned response. We must tune back in to our “gut feelings.” We must learn to live together, make a difference with every waking moment of our lives, and live as authentically as possible. We must notice the details of the natural world around us and revel in the awesome beauty and connections. We must feel - feel the pain, the sorrow, the responsibility, the joy and

the need to act. C

We know that our animal and plant h neighbors are in danger of extinction. We a

have an Endangered Species List to track t

their decline. Maybe we need an “Endan- r

gered Values List” as well, where we put 5 ethics like reverence for life, the sacredness of the earth, the air, and the water, and the acknowledgement that we are all part of the web of life. Then we could work to “delist” the endangered values, restoring spiritual and psychic health to a people badly in need of healing. I’m not sure how else we will learn as a people to worship life again.

The forest may sometimes seem quiet, dark empty. But that is only because we aren’t used to listening hearing seeing feeling.

With a little practice you can feel

Page 164 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning the life all around you struggling hoping working dreaming the same dreams as you.

With a little practice you can feel the sameness of the life all around you breathing eating moving playing loving the same things as you.

With a little practice, you can let go of

the fear C

the greed h

the terrible confusion about our place in nature p

and open to r

the sounds of the Earth crying 5 the sounds of the babies crying the sounds of people laughing the sounds of our breath breathing.

Just listen. Jackie Giuliano

We are the generation that stands between the fires: behind us the flame and smoke that rose from Auschwitz and from Hiroshima; before us the nightmare of a Flood of Fire, the flame and smoke that consume all Earth. It is our task to make from fire not an all-consuming blaze but the light in which we see each other fully. All of us different, all of us bearing One Spark. We light these fires to see more clearly that the Earth and all who live as part of it are not for burning. We light these fires to see more clearly the rainbow in our many-colored faces.

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Blessed is the One within the many. Blessed are the Many who make one.

Arthur Waskow

I see my own life choices and the privileged life I lead and I feel guilty that I don’t do more for the world. I see the billionaires in the world and all the money squandered and images of the poor and sick haunt me. I see visions of the poor opossum hit by a car and suffering in the street that I stopped for and tried to help – my wife and I were on our way to a movie. He died a short time later in my car, but at least he wasn’t alone. I see the pain and the suffering of the trees in the Head- waters Forest as 193,000 of the 200,000 acres are soon to be destroyed because of greed. I see advertisements in the paper, like the one illustrated here, telling us to buy shoes to feel better. As I have said before, there is a price to pay for opening one’s mind and heart. We are not encouraged by our Western culture to help each other – we are instead encouraged to isolate ourselves from the world, to take care of ourselves, to be independent. C

But we must resist the pressures to buy shoes and all the other stuff those in power offer to us h

to feel better. We must resist the pressures to feel hopeless. We must fight to remember our power as p compassionate beings. We must stop for every suffering being and do the very best we can to help. t

There is no alternative. There never was. We must feel the pain, enter the darkness, cry, and shine r

light on the other side – no matter what the cost. If we don’t, who will? 5

There will be a morning song for those who clean the dust from the children’s bruises the blood of the wounds from bullets those who wipe the sleep from the eyes of the weary and whose labor shields the frail bodies of the old those whose pain is multiplied by the pleas of their young scarred by the precision of their inquisitors who refuse to retreat in battle and who are dying with the sum of this knowledge There will be a future.

Iyamide Hazeley

“The Giveaway Ceremony” by Marie N. Buchfink in Mother Earth Spirituality by Ed McGaa.

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Mother of Exiles, Shelter of the Homeless, we are in need of your mercy. We ask your blessing on your children everywhere who are in danger today. Bless all who suffer from injustice. Shelter them in the warmth of your love and safeguard them from the evil that rages around them. Turn our eyes and hearts to their needs and give us courage to act for their good. We ask this, relying on your compassion and confident of your love. Amen.

Pat Kozak

Developing a relationship with the natural world can have profound effects on our perceptions of the universe. Opening our minds and hearts to include the idea that a tree has rights and that a dolphin may be our neighbor can forever change one’s appreciation for life. Consciously choosing not to eat meat because of the deplorable conditions under which animals are kept can develop a con- C

nection to the world and the universe that can only come from accepting full responsibility for our a actions. Even flushing the toilet with a mindfulness that the waste is, after minimal treatment, going p

t into the ocean and not magically disappearing, can dramatically alter perceptions. e

But with an open heart and open mind comes a price – and it is a high price for those living

5 in the U.S. today. That price can be horror, shock, revulsion, and powerlessness. Deep teachers are needed now, more than ever before in our history. Now the opportunity exists to synthesize a few thousand years of experience and to take the next step towards living within the web of life.

I would like you to know That we were not all like that. That some of us spent our lives Working for Peace Speaking for animals Tending the Earth. And that when you find The mass graves And the abattoirs And the laboratories Please understand That we were not all like that.

Mary de La Valette

We can become discriminating thinkers – and teach our children, family, and friends to become that way too. Here are some ideas how.

• Realize that you may not have been given the tools to successfully wade through all the com-

Page 167 plex, mumbo-jumbo out there. Seek help. • Ask questions. Probe assump- To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. tions. This is probably the easiest To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, thing to do immediately. Ask “why” and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and “how” and “where did you hear and is traveled by dark feed and dark wings. that” and “how do you know that?” Wendell Berry • Hold yourself strictly accountable for what you say. Don’t even tell a friend about something you “heard about” unless you know where you heard it. Don’t contribute to the growing mythology we all have about what is going on in the world, how the world works, and who is good and who is bad. Find out for sure. When you read something in the paper, realize that it is a very incomplete picture of what is really happening. When you talk about it, preface your statements with words like “well, I don’t know what is really happening, but I read in the Times that . . .” This is a very important step in keeping your mind and heart open. Say what you mean and mean what you say. • Reject stereotypes. Watch your language. We reinforce our own flawed learning everyday when we are sloppy with our thinking and our language. Don’t participate in the assumptions of our culture that continue to isolate us from each other. Don’t say things like “women love to shop” or “men love sports.” Don’t accept any of the assumptions that are often made about Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Jews, or whoever. When you hear someone say “oh you know them, they are so lazy” when referring to some other culture, STOP THEM. Tell them that such a statement is inappro- priate and unfounded. If you listen and laugh, you are participating. • Don’t watch the television news AT ALL. There is nothing you can gain from it. Nothing. • Seek alternative information sources. Seek out alternative bookstores in your community. Resist patronizing the large chain bookstores. Visit an alternative bookstore and then visit the superstore. Notice the difference in the type of books carried. Reflect on the affect that such selective book offerings in the superstores have on the public. What if everyone knew about alternative bookstores and their selections? Visit a womens bookstore in your community. Look at the amazing titles they carry. Reflect upon how has the world been affected by the fact that our perception of the universe has been seen from almost exclusively a white class-privileged male perspective. • Examine your spending habits. Think carefully about what you need versus what you think you want. Are you spending to fill an emotional need, because you’ve been denied something you thought you deserved at work or as a child, or because you are angry or sad? Think about this very carefully. We are supporting the corporate regimes that are trashing our society. We buy their stuff. Participate in The Media Foundation’s “Buy Nothing Day” on November 28, the day after Thanks- giving and the biggest retail shopping day of the year.

It is easy to get discouraged, to feel overwhelmed. But if you realize that the choices you make in what you buy and what you eat can have such a dramatic affect on the world, you can get quite a bit of power back. If you realize how easy it can be to smile at someone or to help someone

Page 168 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning in need, you will start to see that the answers to our dilemmas lie not just in legislation or politics, but in our hearts. Just figure out what you want to be remembered for and what is important to you. Then, do everything in your power to make them come true.

I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. There I can find, as in old letters, the days of my life, already lived, and held like a legend, and understood.

Then, knowing comes: I can open to another life that’s wide and timeless.

So I am sometimes like a tree rustling over a gravesite and making real the dream of the one its living roots

C embrace:

a dream once lost p

among the sorrows and songs. e

Rainer Maria Rilke 5 (translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

Did we see anything? We who have lost our sense and our senses – Can we tell the difference Our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are; between we who frantically force and press all things, joy without rest for body or spirit, sorrow hurting our Earth and injuring ourselves; We call a halt. pain life We want to rest. death? We need to rest and allow the Earth to rest. We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, Who will give us the answer? that is the ground of every unique expression of life, Channel 2 or 4 or 7? the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion. We declare an Earth Holy Day, a space of quiet: When will we listen to the for simple being and letting be; quiet for recovering the great forgotten truths. the raging the wisdom Daniel Martin the knowledge

It is not easy to make decisions. How many decisions and choices that we make are our own or actually the result of subliminal, repetitive, and constant advertising we have been exposed to

Page 169 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning from an early age? In fact, drug companies are now advertising in major newspapers and magazines with the banner “Ask your doctor about ______.” Did you ever count the number of commercials you are exposed to? By age 5, most children in the U.S. see hundreds of thousands of commercials. We live in a culture which has 260,000 billboards, 17,000 newspapers, 12,000 periodicals, 27,000 video outlets, 400 million television sets, and well over 500 million radios (not including those in cars).66 We are awash with social conditioning that is virtually inseparable from our true self. Yet in order to fully comprehend our planetary (and personal) crises, we must learn to separate

ourselves from the conditioning. C

Mother Teresa a

Lady Di t

have died. Water - the source of all life - defined as e

One poor, one rich. having no nutritional value by our culture.

5 Billions watched the burial of one while few watched the other.

Many mothers, daughters, fathers, sisters, brothers died that week. Who saw them? Who saw them? Who saw them?

Many mothers, fathers, daughters, sisters, brothers lived that week. Who saw them? Who saw them? Who saw them? What did we see that week?

We may need to retrain ourselves to place a new priorities of value on the elements of our lives. We place little value on our natural resources because they are so relatively cheap. Water is so cheap that we still wash our cars with it and flush our toilets with it. Yet only 1% of all the water on planet Earth is fresh water and of that, much is already poisoned with industrial chemicals. But why worry? All you have to do is turn on the faucet and out it comes. We place so little value on our atmosphere, the very air we breathe, that we continue to

Page 170 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning drive polluting vehicles and purchase goods manufactured by companies that put tens of thousands of pounds of pollutants in the air each day. Seventy-eight million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and 1,800 tons of ozone-depleting chloroflourocarbons are added to our atmosphere every day worldwide). But why worry? All you have to do is go outside and breathe and it seems OK. We place so little value on our food resources that we fill our plates, eat what we want, and throw the rest away. Each day in the United States alone, we throw out 200,000 tons of edible food. But why worry? The supermarkets stay full and there seems to be no shortage of food. We place so little value on the earth beneath our feet, the very soil that grows our food that we tear it out and replace it with concrete and buildings. Seventy-three tons of topsoil is eroded away every day in the world and 180 square miles of tropical forests are cleared away. But why worry? There still appears to be plenty of food, right?

The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests as the deed; The deed develops into character. So watch the thought and its way with care,

And let it spring from love C

Born out of concern for all beings. h

a The Buddha

Our culture places so little value on life itself, whether it be human or animal, that we ob- t

e scenely torture animals in the name of profitable food production. Human life has so little value that r

it is acceptable that 120,000 children die worldwide each year just from diarrhea from bad drinking 5 water. It is considered a cost of doing business that 6,000 people each year die from tainted meat products. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will not force an airline to implement a safety feature unless the cost of doing so is less than the cost of paying a wrongful death lawsuit to survivors of the passengers that could be killed (average lawsuit = $3.4 million = 1 human life). We place tremendous value on exceeding limits, on pushing the envelope and seeing how far we can go. Is this courage and fortitude or a reckless disregard for the cycles of nature and the natural limits that exist in the web of life? What about learning to live within the envelope for a change, learning to live with limits on our consuming, our spending, our lives? We haven’t been taught to place much value on a full, rich sensory experience in the world. We roll up our windows of our cars to control the climate inside and we protect ourselves from the elements so effectively that our homes are now great sources of toxic indoor air pollution. Even when we take the time to go out into the natural world, maybe during a vacation to a national park, we avidly take Food Pyramid by the U.S. Department of photographs, as if nature were an image to be captured and Agriculture taken home. We seem to value the land for what we can ex-

Page 171 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning tract from it rather from what it can give us. The new kinds of awareness I have discussed in this work provides us a wonderful opportunity to examine our values and what we have placed value on. It can be a joyous time of house cleaning and soul cleaning, a time when we embrace nature’s limits and see value in unexpected places.

The time for healing of the wounds has come. The time to build is upon us . . . We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination . . . There is no easy road to freedom . . . None of us acting alone can achieve success. We must therefore act together as a united people, for reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Nelson Mandela We have been lulled into complacency about our illnesses in our culture. We have been

C taught to believe that we get sick because of the luck of the draw or because it was meant to be. We

h have been distracted so that we do not see the connection between reckless consumption and the a production of life threatening toxic substances. We have been taught to believe that the government p

t will take care of us and set standards that protect our health. Yet time and time again, it has been e

r proven that government-set standards for toxic substances are designed to protect the free-flow of

5 commerce. Even the four food groups that the government promotes are really an advertisement for the dairy and meat industries that ignore the overwhelming evidence of the dangers of consuming large amounts of animal protein.

How many times must a man look up, before he can see the sky? Yes’n how many ears must one man have, before he can hear people cry? Yes’n how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?

How many years can a mountain exist, before it is washed to the sea? Yes’n how many years can some people exist, before they’re allowed to be free? Yes’n how many times can a man turn his head, pretending that he just doesn’t see?

The answer my friend, is blowin in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

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Bob Dylan

Malidoma Patrice Some, a West African medicine man with three master’s degrees and two Ph.D.’s, in his book Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community (Swan Raven and Co., 1993), gives us some clues to our confusion. He says

Industrial cultures live with the essence of two extremely dangerous phenomena. One is the good side of production; the other is the danger of what happens to the tools for production when they are devoid of any spiritual strength . . . The spirit liberates the person to work with the things of the soul. Because this reaching out to the spiritual is not happening, the Machine has overthrown the spirit and, as it sits in its place, is being worshiped as spiritual. This is simply an error of human judgement. Anyone who worships his own creation, something of his own making, is someone in a state of confusion.

He says that Western technology “is being put into the hands of people who have lost touch with the spiritual.” What he says next sends a chill up my spine:

Western Machine technology is the spirit of death made to look like life. It makes life seem easier, comfort- C able, cozy, but the price we pay includes the dehumanization of the self. To sleep in a cozy home, a good

bed and eat great, chemically produced food you must rhyme your life with speed, rapid motion, and time. a The clock tells you everything and keeps you busy enough to forget that there could be another way of living p

in your life. It has made the natural way of living look primitive, full of famine, disease, ignorance and e

poverty so that we can appreciate our enslavement to the Machine and, further, make those who are not

5 enslaved by it feel sorry for themselves.

We are entering troubling times, probably the most troubling in human history. Because of discoveries in the field of genetic engineering, we are on the threshold of being able to create life from non-life, life without nature, life without woman – which many would suggest has been the patriarchy’s desire all along. What will the souls of these pitiful creatures be like? How will the value of life be reduced even more? How will it be possible to value some animal or person that you can create in a tube, in a dish, and grow like a plant? How much easier will it be to torture and kill such a creation because it was so “easy” to create? How will our disconnection from the natural world increase if we create beings that are not born connected to that which has connected life from the beginning of time – a mother’s womb? The possible answers to these questions frighten me. But we must ask them – relentlessly – and do everything in our power to resist the temptation of the Ma- chine. Now is the time, To climb up the mountain And reason against habit, Now is the time.

Now is the time, to renew the barren soil of nature Ruined by the winds of tyranny, Now is the time.

Page 173 Chapter 5 - Coming Alive: Experiences for Learning

Now is the time, To commence the litany of hope, Now is the time . . .

Now is the time, To give me roses, not to keep them For my grave to come, Give them to me while my heart beats, Give them today While my heart yearns for jubilee, Now is the time . . .

Mzwakhe Mbuli

This book has been an attempt to help us focus on the truth. The truth is a powerful medi-

cine. Once we get through the panic and fear that comes from taking responsibility for our actions, C

the truth can give us the power to revolt from the chains that bind us. Vaclav Havel gave us a h powerful mantra to live by in “The Power of the Powerless.” He said that the true nature of revolt is to a

“attempt to live within the truth.” By doing this, you step out of living within the lie, reject the ritual t

e of those in power and break the rules of the game, and discover suppressed identity and dignity. We r

all have the power to do this. A deep teacher can help. 5 Now more than ever is the time to focus on our teaching, time to focus on what is in our heart and to decide what we want to pass on to our children. Now more than ever, you and I must look at our teaching as if our life depends upon it – because it does.

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Page 177 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness

Appendix 1 Teaching as if Our Lives Depended On It Coursework for Connectedness

The courses in this appendix reflect the principles presented in the preceeding chapters. They represent courses that embrace the tenants of deep teaching and are offered as examples of student centered learning experiences. I have developed and taught all of them in various settings and with students of different backgrounds and ages. An asterisk (*) by the course description indicates that the course notebook for that class is included as an attachment to this document. Course Descriptions

THE EARTH AS A PLANET: ASTRONOMY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM The exploration of the Solar System is one of the boldest, most inspiring adventures ever attempted by the human race. It has resulted in many technical achievements, however philosophical, spiritual, political, and ethical controversies have also emerged. This course

A will explore the Earth’s place in the Solar System through the study of

astronomy, including how perceptions of the universe have changed as p knowledge has increased. Emphasizing the results of recent space exploration e

missions, the planets will be studied including their composition and origin. d

The course will include a session at the Beverly Hills High School Plan- x etarium, the Huntington Library, Art Gallery, and Botanic Gardens, and a field trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In addition to gaining a technical understanding of the astronomical aspects of the Earth and other planets, students will study the sociological issues that result from efforts to migrate off the planet Earth.

THE EARTH’S MOON IN CULTURE, LITERATURE, MYTHOLOGY, AND SCIENCE (*) In our complex lives, there is very little that we can call “constant.” Jobs change, people come into and out of our world, our moods fluctuate, and our physical bodies change. Yet in the heavens above us, the stars, planets, and the most prominent, easily observable heavenly body, the Moon, have been there always. The heavens above and the Moon in particular, have had a dramatic impact on our lives and culture. The Moon has influenced not only the tides of the Earth, but our music, mythology, and literature as well. Our calendar month exists because of the time it takes the Moon to orbit the Earth and even women’s menstrual cycles match the 28- day journey of the Moon around the Earth. It is said that people act strangely when the moon is full and countless poems and stories have been written about the Moon. It would be difficult to imagine how life would be without this familiar celestial body ever present in our skies. In this seminar, we will examine the powerful influence our Moon has had on the Earth’s literature, mythology, and culture. Through readings,

Page 178 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness

discussions, and on-going observations of the Moon, we will examine the question, “what would life be like if we had no moon?” The course will include a trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a “star party” where we will observe the Moon and the heavens through powerful telescopes at a sight in the local mountains of Southern California.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: THE HUMAN IMPACT This course will examine human impacts on the Earth’s environment that affect the planet’s delicate life support systems. We will survey pollution in many forms and explore air quality, pesticide use, acid rain, water resource issues, municipal waste problems, and land use planning issues such as airport and highway impacts. How humans can determine their impact on the environment will be studied as well as how to understand the social and economic impact of our actions. Ecological cycles and energy flows on the Earth and the impact of human activities on their delicate balances will be explored. Guest speakers from federal, state, and local environmental management programs and a field trip to a selected facility will help the class understand the differing perspectives on environmental laws and policies.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH p

The complexity of the human impact on our environment has made the deter- p

mination of the health impacts a continuing challenge. This course examines the effects n

of environmental quality on human health, both physical and mental. Topics include a d

i study of the effects of air and water pollution, radiation, toxic wastes, and pesticides in x the open environment, home, and the workplace. Students will examine the impact on our health of the environmental quality of their home, workplace, and classroom and conduct some tests in those areas. Field trips to local sites that are affecting our environment and health will also be conducted.

ECOPSYCHOLOGY: THE ENVIRONMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH (*) Professionals in the psychological fields face challenges never before faced. Not only is it now known that thousands of substances produced in our world today can cause toxic mood disorders, but the very awareness of the toxicity of our environment can degrade our mental as well as physical health. Many of the symptoms of toxic mood disorders are identical to those of depression and other mental illness, making it important that psycho- therapists of today investigate the environment in which their clients live, work, and play. This course will provide the student with the tools to explore these issues. Including the examination of environmental factors in psychotherapy demonstrates the powerful interconnectedness that exists between humans and the rest of the world. The traditional Western cultural view that places humans separate from, and in control of, the world and considers all that is non-human as the value of water inferior needs to be reconsidered and challenged. This course will examine these

Page 179 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness issues and present options for anyone, particularly the therapist to contribute to resolving the confusion we have about our place in nature.

THE HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD This course will examine, through field visits to sites around the city, the impact of humans on the Earth. We will study, in the field, some of the things we see every day, yet rarely consider for their impact on the environment and our lives. The sites visited will include the Marina del Rey harbor, Santa Monica Pier, Hyperion Waste- water Treatment Plant, housing developments, shopping centers, and other areas where humans have changed the shape of the land. We will examine the impacts humans have had on the geology, meteorology, hydrology, animals and plants by directly examining specific sites. We will consider effects on the marine, nearshore, and urban environments of tourism, boating, sewage treatment, homes, and highways. The course will also examine the sociological and psychological implications of these impacts.

COMMUNITY ACTION AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY A

Concern for management of the environment around us has reached a new high in the last few p years. But social concern is racing far ahead of technology’s ability to “prove” the harm of a pollutant or a p

policy. In a society there “scientific truth” is traditionally valued above ethical responsibility, the polariza- n tion of viewpoints in many environmental issues often results in frustration, lack of direct action, and a d

i continuation of the problem. This course will provide the student with x the intellectual tools necessary to understand the complex issues before society today as we attempt to manage the environment. The various methods available for public comment will be examined, such as letter writing, public hearings, grassroots protest, boycotts, and demonstrations. Historical examples of these methods will be studied and students will actively participate in a controversial issue currently before the public eye though a combination of the methods for public input. The course may include field trips to public hearings.

DESPAIR AND EMPOWERMENT IN THE NUCLEAR AGE In this course, participants will share their concerns about the planetary crisis. Through experiential work, lecture and discussion sessions, they will: explore the physical, emotional and spiritual costs to individuals, families and communities of living with the possibility of environmental and nuclear destruction; learn theory and methodology for assisting ourselves and others in dealing with the anguish and isolation of living on a threatened planet; experience peacemak- ing as processes of healing and empowerment.

Page 180 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness

OASES IN THE URBAN DESERT - THE LAST STANDS OF THE NATURAL WORLD This one day course will examine the scientific, ecological, environmental, social, and psychological importance of some of the remaining open spaces and natural environments in the Los Angeles area and their importance to humans and wildlife. This class will be conducted in the field and will include visits to small and large natural areas where the importance of the natural world can be studied. We will examine first hand the importance of these last oases in the desert.

WATER FOR A DRY DESERT - HOW L.A. QUENCHES ITS THIRST Southern California is a desert biome, receiving less than 14 inches of rainfall per year. Without the importation of vast quantities of water from other parts of western North America, life as we know it in the Southland would not be possible. In this one day workshop, we will study how L.A. gets it water and the troubled history of that process. We will explore the impact of L.A.’s thirst on other communities, ecosystems, and the

pollical, social, economic, and ethical forces at work. This class will A

be conducted in the field at one of the many reservoirs that stores p water for Southern California and the pumping plant that brings water up over the mountains from North- p

ern to Southern California. n

i THE UNIVERSE STORY x All tribes throughout history have had a story of their creation, a story that unifies them as a people and a culture. Western culture has not had such a unifying story until today, as modern theories of physics, astronomy, and ecology have given us a tale that tells of the creation of our planet and the universe - a creation story for an Earth Tribe. Today we know that the Earth and everything on her was born in a primordial fireball and remnants of that fireball are present in each of us and every animal, rock, and waterfall on the planet. In this course, we will examine the change in our view of the world and the universe throughout history and study the new cosmology of our time, a cosmology that crosses boundaries of race, class, and religion. We will weave a part of the cosmic story of our origins with the marvels of our world, learning firsthand of the interconnectedness of life on our planet. We will visit a variety of ecosystems including forest, riparian, meadow, and mountain habitats to look closely at the web of life. Some sessions will be conducted in the evening as we connect with our universe through observations of the stars and planets.

Page 181 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness

ECOLOGICAL FEMINISM AND THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS [also called ECOFEMINISM] (*) The philosophies articulated in feminist theory, particularly the ideals of the ecological feminism and creation spirituality movements, may provide the foundation for a societal ethic that allows mutual respect and understanding for the planet and each other. Educational programs modeled after an ethic that is based on the interconnectedness and ultimate unity of all living things would be an excellent vehicle for the introduction of these philosophies into our schools and, ultimately, into society. In this course, we will explore ways of sharing the web of life and the interconnectedness of all things. Participants will explore the importance of teaching and understanding the parallels between the domination of nature and the domination of women that has plagued many cultures. Ynestra King has said that “ecofeminism” can be viewed as an entirely new direction for culture that can be used as a “vantage point for creating a different kind of culture and politics that would integrate intuitive, spiritual, and rational forms of knowledge, embracing both science

and magic.” A merging of the political, spiritual, and psychological within the context of “environment” A

is crucial to our growth and development. p

GENDER AND SCIENCE: THE IMPACT OF THE ABSENCE OF A FEMINIST VOICE n

Knowledge, perceptions, ideals, and ethics in all fields of study have been influenced by the domi- d

i nant white, patriarchal culture, and possibly no fields have been so adversely x affected as the physical sciences. Today there is rising skepticism about the benefits of science and technology from many different groups, especially those who are marginalized by racism, sexism, imperialism, and class exploitation. In this workshop, participants will examine the question of whether successful women scientists have developed approaches and theories different from those used by traditional male scientists and the importance of developing and using inclusionary theories and methods to involve more women in science. The Western practice of science has come to revere that which is “rational” and condemn that which is judged as “emotional.” This over-objectification of our experience has resulted in much pain and suffering on our world and is at the root of what Ynestra King had described as “a deep ambivalence about life itself and a terrible confusion about our place in nature.” In this course, we will learn of the substantial, but unrecognized contributions of women in science and explore how much of the nature of science is bound up with the idea of “masculinity.”

Page 182 Appendix 1 - Coursework for Connectedness

THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE Deeply rooted in the history of science is a tapestry of human exploration and growth that has set the stage for everything from world cultural values to our system of justice. The development our ethics toward each other, people of color, women, and nature have been molded by events that can be shown through the study of the history of science. Through the study of the changing human perception of our place in the universe and our perception of Heaven, Hell, Earth, God, and Church, this course will trace the evolution of science and its affect on the morals, ethics, and values in the world today. Particular emphasis will be placed on examining the role of women in the history of science.

Page 183 Appendix 2 - Course Workbooks

Appendix 2 - Course Workbooks

Deep teaching (see Chapter 3 of PDE) requires that an instructor take extra effort to insure that students have every opportunity to be present for the learning experience. Being present means much more than simply showing up for class. It also means that the classic barriers between a student and the teacher must be removed. If the student views themselves as a passive receptor of knowledge from the teacher, then full participation is not possible. If the student is constantly wondering “what does the teacher think is important” and spends all of their time taking notes, hoping to stumble upon the right information that will allow them to pass the test, then they cannot possibly have the time to look below the surface of any issue or course of study. In environmental SCI/PSY 333 studies, as well as any science course, this is particularly a problem since Ecopsychology: The Environment and Mental Health a new mode for being most courses are content heavy and driven by a desire to cover a certain with the earth and ourselves amount of material. Course Notes In order to help my students be fully present for the learning experiences, I produce a course workbook for each of the classes I teach. The workbook has “notes” for each class

session, in overhead transparency format, A Jackie A. Giuliano NTIOCH Antioch University, Los Angeles A U N I V E R SS I TT Y

p that allows the student to participate in ANTIOCCH SOUTHERRNN CALIIFFORRNNIA AAT LOSS ANGEELES

113274 FFiijii Waay M arriina deel RReey, Caalliiforrnnia 900292 the discussions at a very different level. p

They take supplementary notes on the COURSE WORKBOOK n pages and gain experience in noting what is important to them. I have HUM/SCI 340 d The Eartthh’’s Moon i already given them what is important to me. This has been vitally in Culture, Literature, x Mythology, and Science important for the adults that I teach who have virtually no science background. They often come to a Jackie course with many fears of learning a Giulliano Ecofeminism Instructor a new mode for being with the earth and ourselves “science” since most of their early schooling and college experiences A One-Day Workshop with science classes were less than thrilling. Most report that science education has paid very little atten- Course Workbook tion to who is sitting in the room. The typical (shallow) instructor has a certain amount of material to cover and that is that. Being fully present is not a requirement. Jackie A. Giuliano The course notebooks are also filled with many supplementary Antioch University, Los Angeles readings and items that provide the basis for in-class discussions and exercises. The level of “presence” my students experience is far above what other instructors report who do not use such a system. I base this judgement on the quality of the work that comes from my students as well as their course evaluations. In this package are three workbooks from my classes, two from 10-week courses and one from a one-day workshop.

Page 184 Appendix 2 - Course Workbooks

These course workbooks are maintained at my site on the World Wide Web at http:// www.jps.net/jackieg. For the version of this document that is being microfilmed, hard-copy workbooks are not attached. Interested readers of the microfilmed version are asked to visit the Internet site for information about the workbooks.

Ecopsychology: The Environment and Mental Health This course workbook was chosen because this class combines the elements of a more traditional environmental science class with the innovative additions of the growing field of ecopsychology. In this class, there are many elements of the intersection of environmental science, culture, and the psyche.

The Earth’s Moon In Culture, Literature, Mythology, And Science This course workbook was chosen to highlight because it is a good example of a form of spiritual ecology, presented in the context of extablishing a relationship with the heavens above. It is rich with references to Earth-based spiritualities and provides the opportunity to illustrate connections though the humanities.

Ecofeminism

This course workbook was included because of the challenge of presenting experiences in seeing p environmental connections in a one-day format. p

Hypatia

Page 185 Bibliography

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Page 207 To connect clearly, you must love yourself. Do not connect to fill a deep need. You must fill that need with yourself before you can love another. To welcome another into the void that is your need is to drown them, to lose yourself, to lose them.

Welcome another not into your void, but into your fullness. Give to another not your desperation, but your contentment. Say to another not that you are lost without them, but that your are richer with them. Touch another not to make yourself whole, but to share your wholeness with them. Receive from another not in disbelief, but with open arms. Trust in another not to avoid trusting yourself, but to experience peace. Spend time with another not to exist, to be alive, but to share your existence and aliveness. Make love with another not out of longing and need, but out of passion and desire.

Connect clearly, with peace, with fullness, with love.

Jackie Giuliano