From Thoreau’s Walden to Woodhouse Woods - Addressing the cultural barriers to ‘sustainability’ through place based ecological education.
Bryan Clubbe
Abstract
This paper presents an experiential learning programme that took place in a small patch of oak forest in South West Wales, known as Woodhouse Woods, and that like Thoreau went out into the nearby woods to seek a simplification of life, to provide an opportunity to gain a broader perspective on how we can live as human beings. It discusses some of the failures of education that have put humanity into our current environmental crisis before looking at a place based ecological education pedagogy as a way to begin mending the separation of society from the places we dwell. The Woodhouse Woods project is discussed in more detail in order to highlight some issues faced in the programme’s design as well as to advocate a non-prescribed approach to dealing with varying cultural barriers in educating to live more sustainable lifestyles. Finally, a call is made to all educators to pursue their own pedagogic endeavours into an ecological understanding of place in their local communities.
Introduction
Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man. Henry David Thoreau - Walking, 1862
As part of the MA in Outdoor Education degree at Trinity College I was given the task of designing and facilitating an experiential learning programme in the autumn of 2007. In so doing, the words and life of Henry David Thoreau provided much inspiration. Thoreau, an American educator and philosopher, wrote of the value of simple living in natural surroundings and of the necessity for balance between the steady encroachment of civilisation and the preservation of wilderness. Most noted for his book Walden, which chronicles a period starting in March 1845 when at the age of 27, Thoreau left Concord, Massachusetts to set out on an experiment in essential living. With a borrowed axe he built himself a wooden hut on land he did not own, in the woods surrounding nearby Walden Pond for $28.12. Here, he lived happily until September 1847. Thoreau was seeking to experience life in its purest form, but to do so he chose the ordinary, to study the essential facts of life. He produced no research data, but rather a record of what he did and experienced on his philosophical journey to solve the problems of life. Thoreau (1980) set about to do so from not only a theoretical perspective but from a practical one as well. In the end his experience at Walden Pond became the tool to not only study his own life but to think broadly, to perceive systems and patterns, and to live well in a place as what Orr (2004) would call a ‘whole person’.
This paper will present an experiential learning programme that took place in a small patch of oak forest in South West Wales, known as Woodhouse Woods, and that like Thoreau went out into the nearby woods to seek a simplification of life, to provide an opportunity to gain a broader perspective on how we can live as human beings. Although, in designing this experiential learning programme I did not expect students to reach the same depth of insight as Thoreau in such a short time, I had however hoped that in some way this experience could help ignite or foster an already existing connection with the natural environment for each participant.
With this in mind I decided to work with a small group of first year Outdoor Education students from Trinity College in Carmarthen, Wales, who had expressed an interest in expanding their ecological literacy. Other than this desire they were like most other Outdoor Education students; concerned about attaining the industry required outdoor certificates, into the latest ‘techie’ outdoor equipment and influence by many of the other modern trappings that characterize the field today. Yet also like most Outdoor Education students they were keen to take on any new challenges presented to them.
By choosing to bring these students into the local woods and attempting to provide a simplified outdoor experience, the programme also aimed at addressing some of the cultural barriers of our modern Western society that seem to limit out ability to connect with nature and the places in which we live. More than trying to recreate a scenario from the words or life of Thoreau, this project grew from a personal feeling that intuitively knows the importance of living more in harmony with the places we inhabit. The same feeling that led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Outdoor Education and that drives me to focus my current and future work on trying to understand how outdoor experiences can aid in a reconnection between people and place.
Background
How will the mainstream education establishment respond to the apparent disconnection of society from nature? This is a question that many would like an answer to but that only time will reveal. Many among us believe that education can and will provide the tools necessary to overcome our current environmental crisis. This may prove true yet quite paradoxically, others, including environmental educator Professor David Orr (2004) content that perhaps more than any other factor, Western educational practices have had the greatest negative impact on the long term viability of life on Earth. Orr (2004) suggests that the typical modern education is in real danger of exacerbating the present crisis by merely equipping our youth to be more effective vandals of the Earth rather than stewards.
Concern over the apparent separation between education and the natural world is not just a recent issue and is arguably linked with a historical reluctance to acknowledge outdoor learning as a legitimate source of knowledge. As a former schoolteacher, Thoreau was no doubt uneasy with the way youth were educated and probably shared in the concern of his mentor Emerson who observed:
We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at least with a bellyful of words and do not now a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or out eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the Woods. We cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun (Emerson, 1972:136).
Unfortunately, the failings of the education style that Emerson refers to, still seem present in our modern Western education systems which are built upon a Eurocentric tradition that lacks any real connection or roots in place. In fact the fundamental failure in education today may just be the growing detachment of people from place. Yet addressing this detachment through education is not in itself a simple matter.
Place is nebulous to educators because to a great extent we are a deplaced people for whom our immediate places are no longer sources of food, water, livelihood, energy, materials, friends, recreation, or sacred inspiration (Orr, 1992:126).
We live in a globalised world where the process of formal education seems poised to wipe out any manifestation of societies or cultures based on local relationships and knowledge in favour of one that celebrates participation in a global economy. Taken in this context,
The fundamental educational task of our time becomes making the choice for a sustainable planetary habitat of interdependent life forms over and against a pathos of the global competitive marketplace (O’Sullivan, 2002:59).”
Making this choice requires a fundamental transformation in our underlying assumptions about nature, knowledge and humanity. Especially how we view our membership within the biotic community. Meaning educators must work towards transforming the way students view and interact with not only each other but with the world around them, whilst reaffirming cultural traditions currently being lost to the forces of modernisation and globalisation. However, in order to experience an education that reaches us at the core of our life, where our worldview can be shaped, we must first undergo a transformation of consciousness that opens us up to an awesome vision of a world that energizes our imagination well beyond the market place (O’Sullivan, 2002). In other words, it is time for education to acknowledge and respond to what Brookes (1994:39) refers to as “the cultural dimension of the ecological crisis.”
The simple matter is that we are place-based creatures every bit as much as the amazingly diverse wild organisms that have carved out delicate niches for themselves in a variety of environments. The only difference is that our diversity is shown through different forms of cultural interaction appropriate to the varying biotic communities and natural conditions in which we live. And only through more ecologically minded programs can this be fully recognized.
Ecological education is a practice deeply rooted in place and as such attempts to remember the “ineluctable relationship between specific biosystems and cultures, and that cultures that have demonstrated their sustainability have often developed highly specific practices well suited to characteristics of their particular region (Smith and Williams, 1999:4)." An ecological approach to education calls on us to critically re-examine how we as a race have historically interacted with the more than human world that has allowed communities to thrive for millennia. It is in the light of these proven cultural traditions that we should base our current practices and policies.
According to Gruenewald (2003), the type of place based education described by Smith and Williams, shares the goal of social transformation with critical pedagogy, making them a logical combination. Critical pedagogies of place are “thus a response against educational reform policies and practices that disregard places and that leave assumptions about the relationship between education and the politics of economic development unexamined (Gruenewald, 2003:3).” All the while making the education of citizens more relevant to the social and ecological places people actually live by integrating “ecological sustainability with social justice (Sterling, 1996:18).”
Woodhouse Woods
Woodhouse Woods is an 80-acre privately owned woodland reserve located about 20 minutes drive outside Carmarthen in South West Wales. Although privately owned, the property has a few simple structures; several walking trails, outdoor toilets, and is open to the public year round.
Primarily an oak forest, approximately one hundred years ago it was extensively logged, with much of the best timber harvested. Since then it has been left to regenerate and the current owner hopes to one day be able to harvest high quality oak, only this time in a sustainable manner. In all, three people live either seasonally or permanently on the property in some of the aforementioned ‘simple structures’, which include a woodworking shop as well as a blacksmith’s forge. Their homes and workshops have been built with the same oak that grows all around. The walls insulated with bales of hay and the roof covered with turf. The homes, which resemble those of the Hobbits from the Lord of the Rings, have also been built into the side of a slope for additional shelter and insulating from the elements.
Much care has been taken to have a minimal impact on the local ecosystem and to use principles of permaculture in their designs. Permaculture principles draw heavily on the practical application of ecological theory to analyze the characteristics and potential relationships between design elements (Mollison, 1991). In this theory, each element of a design is carefully analyzed in terms of its needs, outputs, and properties. Permaculture, which originally came about as a theory for sustainable agriculture, seems to have now gained wider acceptance and today is practiced more commonly as a lifestyle ethic. As such the use of permaculture attempts to place not only buildings but also lifestyles within the ecosystem, inseparable from nature and seemingly in line with a philosophical position or ecological ontology like that espoused by deep ecology.
This is a powerful message since before I even open my mouth to speak to the group as a facilitator, the students can immediately sense that they are in a place where natural balance is valued. It is a ‘silent pedagogy’ if you will, that shows the group a more connected way to interface with nature. This ‘silent pedagogy’ represents actions that can speak louder than any educators’ words to highlight lifestyle choices made by individuals living a low impact existence counter to the mainstream consumerist perception of how we should live.
The importance of place as pedagogy is often overlooked in education and to a great extent, vaguely understood by educators (Orr, 1992). Learning lessons from place, either sub-consciously or consciously is important, and the integration of place into education is also important because, “it requires the combination of intellect with experience (Orr, 1992:128).” In this case it allowed students to see and experience first hand, alternative lifestyle choices that are available to everyone and to provide a broader perspective to make more informed decisions for themselves in regards to the way they wish to live in relation to the natural world.
An essential element of this programme was also the opportunity for students to use simple tools and experience outdoor work as ‘play’ in nature. In this sense, the programme could be described as something like what is known in Scandinavia as friluftsliv or pedagogy towards a deep ecological understanding. At Woodhouse Woods this friluftsliv type activity came in the form of a small-scale building project that involved replacing an existing roof that covers a gap in the much larger roof of the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse is a communal area on the property that has a spiral roof structure covered with turf but without permanent walls. The roof that we rebuilt was essentially identical to the larger one but on a much smaller scale.
When dealing with pedagogy such as friluftsliv in a non-Scandinavian context, I believe one must take great care not to simply import and impose a foreign cultural expression onto the programme and participants. It is true perhaps that many lessons that need learning through the outdoors are universal and as such transcend nationalities and borders, yet at the same time it is vitally important that communities be allowed to individually develop a local approach to combat widespread displacement from nature, that is culturally applicable to their given place. Otherwise, concepts like friluftsliv are in danger of being exploited and robbed of their deepest value. In this a UK context, we needed to accept that there is no equivalent term in the English language, nor a historical contemporary in the British culture. Rather we could try out activities or take inspiration from other’s ideas but it was up to us to develop something appropriate to the participants and the place. This was difficult at times since the group consisted of first year Outdoor Education students who were familiar with the term but not with its pronunciation. And kept asking “Are we doing frila...frilu…frilift…what do you call it?”
This project was completed over a labour intensive two day period and all accomplished with basic tools such as a bow saw, axe and hammer. Some of which even consisted of metal forged on site by the local smithy. In addition to this building project, Woodhouse Woods also provided the opportunity for the group to build their own fire for warmth and as a means to cook communal meals as well as share stories and sing songs around. Work was also required to keep the fire going and for preparing building materials (ie: longer support beams for the roof that needed to be skilfully split). This meant a fair bit of wood needed chopping, hauling and splitting once we arrived and set up camp. It is these types of jobs that present important aspects of the learning experience and in this case, potentially the most easily identifiable learning, because these tasks gave the students a wholly new perspective on outdoor activities that did not revolve around high adrenaline or competitive activities and involved so called ‘primitive’ skills. Although often difficult and uncomfortable to learn at first, especially without much prior experience, these basic outdoor skills can be a key to allow people to feel more relaxed and open to experiencing and valuing nature. Renowned educator John Dewey regarded practical and manual skills as essential aspects of experience, good thinking and the development of the whole person (Orr, 1992). By creating this non-competitive, non-adrenaline packed learning experience that utilised low-tech tools to begin the development of practical outdoor skills I believe we were able to begin integrating “school learning with life (Dewey, 1963:12)” and overcome several of our modern cultural barriers that plague many outdoor learning experiences.
In the grand scheme of things this project was miniscule but nevertheless valuable in that it appears to be a step in the right direction. If education is to have success in transforming society and propel humanity towards long-term sustainability as a species then
Educators must become students of the ecologically proficient mind and of the things that must be done to foster such minds. In time this will mean nothing less than the redesign of education itself (Orr, 2004:3).
For this pedagogic endeavour to gain momentum, the “priorities of priorities” in education must be the environmental education of teachers (Corcoran, 1999). In outdoor education this means students at the undergraduate level, who will presumably become the informal or formal outdoor educators of the future. They need to learn these lessons if there is any hope for them to be passed on and positively affect society. A transformation of this magnitude is unlikely to occur as a result of increased environmental studies courses since they remain hindered by conventional academic concerns. We must come to understand, more intimately, the places we dwell on an ecological level since we will not protect what we do not love yet we struggle to love what we do not know.
Unfortunately, attempts at rapidly improving ecological literacy can easily backfire. In this case, from the outset the students expressed an interest in increasing their ecological literacy but this proved best accomplished slowly over extended periods of time in natural environments sharing and gaining knowledge with others. Otherwise, the dynamic of the experience can quickly deteriate to the point where the modern didactic teacher-student hierarchy takes over. These circumstances are much less conducive to transforming worldviews and can significantly limit the nature experience. Perhaps ultimately it comes down to Aldo Leopold’s (1948) statement, “we are not scientists. We disqualify ourselves at the outset by professing loyalty to and affection for a thing: wildlife.”
This is just one example of something that I learned from this experience, a pedagogic tip that I can take with me into future endeavours. Yet there is so much more that we can and need to learn as educators from these types of experiences, if only we keep trying. Without a doubt there is a great need for new pedagogic endeavours. This translates into a need for greater experimentation right across a broad range of groups (age, gender, ethnicity etc…) with new and old pedagogies. There is no singular method of best practice to address these cultural issues, which vary from place to place. Further pedagogic experimentation is the most promising path to the future of ecological education; a future of transformation.
Conclusion
As previously mentioned, more and more people today, particularly youth, are increasingly disconnected from the most fundamental of life’s support systems and thereby disconnected from any notion of place. To a certain extent this programme at Woodhouse Woods was able to challenge these notions by showing people who live well in their place and by highlighting what these students have in their own backyards. Most of them were quite surprised to learn this forest community existed and that is was so close to where they live.
When addressing the cultural barriers preventing Western societies moving away from exploitive practices to more sustainable lifestyles through education, there is no prescriptive method of best practice. There cannot be. Although there are concepts and lessons that can transcend cultures and nationalities, ideas like friluftsliv or the writings of Thoreau, for example, lack cultural expression outside of their respective locations to blindly be imported in the hope of recreating an ecological understanding of place. This kind of ecological understanding can only be grown from the ground up by revisiting cultural traditions that have already proven their sustainability.
In terms of the Woodhouse Woods project, it proved itself a fruitful experience that garnered positive feedback from all involved and seemed to bring the students a step closer to embarking on a deeper personal journey of discovery and ecological understanding, as well as providing the opportunity to develop new practical skills whilst also gaining a sense of empowerment and satisfaction from building something extremely useful, with their own two hands. For myself, I certainly grew as a facilitator and was able to add a new basis from which to approach future pedagogic endeavours into ecological education.
Like Henry David Thoreau and his life experiment at Walden Pond, there is a necessity for us to go into the open air and experience life ‘deliberately’. To take others along with us, to experiment and determine what types of place based pedagogies work in the UK context, or more specifically in a Welsh context or wherever your local area may be.
References
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Gruenewald, D. (2003). The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place. Educational Researcher, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 3–12
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Smith, G., & Williams, D. (1999). Ecological education in action: On weaving education, culture, and the environment. Albany: State University of New York Press.
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Author’s Biography
Although originally from Canada, Bryan is currently completing his Master’s of Arts in Outdoor Education at Trinity College in Carmarthen, Wales.
