SelfDesign
As I continue to expand my horizons around education and learning, and their relationship to human development and evolution, I came across this book by Brent Cameron, founder of Wondertree foundation for Natural Learning. Though I am not quite finished yet, the book is rich in amazing content and extensive research leading Cameron to describe what he has coined as SelfDesign. A way of experiencing learning from a deep connection with the self, while building healthy relationships with the world around us as a supportive network of incessant information and experiences waiting to unfold as the learner wishes. Putting the learner at the center of how learning takes place as well as how the learner access support. It is an awesome addition to anyone who wants to understand how to better support children and all people reach the depth of their inner genius. As well as for any educator in or out of education systems who wants to incorporate innovative strategies as part of their daily work.
The book has helped me in numerous ways, not only as a parent who is able and choosing to support my own children’s learning experiences from home, but as an individual, as a learner. When you really delve deep into your consciousness, you most likely will find a bit of a nebulous dark cloud of experiences related to learning, like that one time you really wanted to experiment with vinegar, water and baking soda at home, but your parent was abhorred at the mess that would have to be cleaned up afterward. Or in my case, the deep guilt trip from my Catholic schooling of having to confess my sins every Friday to a total stranger, sins like, I stole a piece of candy from my mother’s purse, or I hate my math teacher. I have questioned myself with all sincerity to discover that the learning experiences that I cherish the most involved my freedom of choice, and a wonderful person to guide me along. But many, and I mean many, school experiences are not counted on those very seldom “free” moments. The most “free” I ever felt in school was when I diched out in 8th grade with my whole class (28 junior high school seamstresses) and went hiking in the mountain across the road, to discover that one classmate was terrified of the woods and thought a leaf touching her leg was a snake, which ended up being a beautiful chance for everyone to show care and team work.
Something that has stuck with me from the book is learning about some of those considered “geniuses” by society standars, who as children did “poorly” in school settings. Mostly because schooling prevented their inner curiosity and inner genius to drive their learning fire. Instead, being held responsible to perform in a very specific way or left to be clasiffied as a failure.
Granted, there are many new and truly inovative schools out there, some of which I have gotten a chance to work with. However, as a mother of two children, having gotten the chance to experience first hand the genius of nature within us, as it often happens when you see your son go from crawling to taking his first steps, I am a firm believer and advocate of releasing and supporting each human beings full potential. And believe me, every day is so much work to constantly provide the amount of patience, clarity of mind, presense, availability needed to fully focus and support one individual. It is no wonder why educators can only do “so much” in their classrooms. It is quite an endless task.
After reading this book, I am better able to let go of some control, wanting to create curriculums for my childrens’ education at home etc, and instead allow them to choose what they want to learn, and position myself as a resource who can also access other resources to support their inquisitive curiosity.
Today, our 4 year old daughter decided that she wanted to teach others how to learn to hoola-hop (which she learned from watching an amazing hoola-hoop acrobat in Cirque de Soleil’s “Alegria“). So she cut some construction paper, sew the pages together with needle and thread, and drew stick figures showing each step. My concluding thoughts right for now are, if children are allowed and supported (and adults for that matter), they can reach within, with focus and attentive awareness, and manifest in action their full potiential, as a result producing a purposefull being, who is at peace with their creative process. Isn’t that what we need in this next stage of humanity anyways? Don’t we have a whole lot of a mess to deal with created by the enslaved greedy minds of hurt humanity?
I am supporting 2, how about you?
