by Denny Olson
The Value of “Our Place” in Education
In Montana, we are lucky in that education has always had a tradition of local control. Unfortunately, it has seldom had a tradition of local emphasis. In fact, the primary key to living well politically, economically, ecologically, spiritually and as a community member (on all levels) may well be “place education”. Whether we recognize it or not, most of us need a sense of home which extends beyond the fenced yard (or worse, the immediate area of the television and the couch). We need a sense of family which extends beyond our own offspring. We gather subtle hints about these senses of connection when we take a refreshing walk in the woods, go hunting and fishing, attend summer camp or even simply join a club. Deep inside of most humans is a strong urge to belong somewhere. We often interpret that urge as a need to circle the wagons around home and property, but it goes broader and deeper than that obvious response. If we further examine our own motives and needs, perhaps there is an obvious gap that our culture actually widens. It could be that we need a sense of place, a level of comfort with our surroundings – including nature, our only life support system — that is created through familiarity and interaction, instead of distance and isolation. Simply put, “place” adds an essential context to life, or rather, it is the context out of which life operates.
Teaching a sense of place, by its very scope, demands a teaching partnership between schools, families, other human communities (political, business, church, etc.) and nature. To make education a true community partnership, children must be seen (and function) as contributing members of the community, no matter what their age. In our present culture children are protected, but also insulated from active participation in the affairs of the community, and adult voices advocating children’s interests are few and largely ignored. Children are seen as being in a constant state of preparation for adulthood, an unpaid and largely ignored apprenticeship for the real life of the marketplace later. To illustrate with two examples, adults must admit that (1) the users of a play area might be qualified to review and recommend changes in that area’s design, or (2) that the future users of a natural area might have more stake in that area’s welfare than those presently being asked to decide its fate. (Witness the success of the recent kid’s lawsuit upholding the constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. They have to think ahead.)
To create a healthy community through a sense of place, this educational partnership must realize that the where and how of learning are as important as the what. If we examine our own educational experiences in terms of what we learned best, we will probably realize that respect for something has been a prerequisite for learning about it. From an examination of the stark beauty and seasonal happenings of our own place (natural, familial, political, spiritual, etc.) we can begin to understand the more abstract nature of all places. The way education is now practiced, we learn the abstract, global things first, get bored with it because it has so little relationship to our own lives, and therefore never get around to learning about here. By studying the tropical rainforest, we are asked to develop a sense of stewardship for our home, when we have never had the chance to know, love and respect the places just outside our doors.
The concept of global climate change is almost ridiculously abstract and complex. Conversely, wondering why I have so many fewer days of cross-country skiing (which I dearly love) in my home in Flathead Valley, and watching January rain soak layers of snow and then re-freeze – locking many animals from the safety of insulating snow, or breathing August and September smoke from wildfires across the West – these things happen to me. In 2023, with the world-wide January temperature the highest ever on record, I cross-country skied exactly five days, and had to travel 2000 feet higher in nearby mountains to do it. When odd weather becomes a multi-decade trend, I can begin to understand the differences between weather fluctuations and climate change. These conditions are immediate to me, and they are happening more and more often. Observations about my place bring the abstraction of climate change down to a reality I can understand, and prompt me to want to do something about it. It is accidental place education at work. Imagine how effective it could be if we did some planning around it.
As a small example, we have some of the most spectacular bird species and migrations in the world right here. Why does not every child and adult in the Flathead know about these things? Just sayin’ …