Back to School, Back to the Land

This week as our youth are going back to school, our farmers are busily attending to their last yielding crops, preparing the squash and pumpkins.  The anticipation for September is ubiquitous; felt in the urgency of the migrating birds moving south, the kids who have already separated from summer and the beginning of fashion week's global tour. And the leaves are marked in colour with the appearance of fall.

As I helped Farmer Steve at his farm in the Catskills today, I thought about all those youth, suddenly sitting in hard chairs in their classrooms.  The tomatoes were dripping off the vine and we were trying to keep up with them, plucking out the perfect ones by the gentle handful.  We filled buckets and leaned over our legs, reaching forward and down. 'This is a primal position' Steve told me, 'it just feels so good... as though you are operating from an ancient place of humanity.' In the morning light the grass was still dewy and our motions were matched with conversation and then silence as we each moved down the rows.

Overcome by rich smells of soil, ripening tomatoes and rotten ones I thought about the ways that students are able to use their senses in the classroom.  Our hands and nose, ears and eyes are such valuable tools for deep learning.

“Deep learning is learning that takes root in our apparatus of understanding, in the embedded meanings that define us and that we use to define the world.”  

What better way for something to become relevant,  than if it is experienced first hand and with all the senses.

I think this is one of the defining characteristics of 21st century education.  And it's not a new idea; Jean-Jaques Rousseau wrote about it in his 1762 treaty 'On Education' or 'Emile.'  His ideas were radical at the time, but now his belief in 'natural education' could be essential for the technology driven next generation.  He believed in embodied knowledge.  Rousseau believed in bringing the student to life.  He wrote, 'to live is not to breath, it is to Act! to make use of our senses, our facilities (42).'

Having the skills to cultivate land has long been considered one of the virtues of the wise.  It has the capacity to teach us crafts both technical and conceptual.  We are made to understand seasons, inter-relativity, responsibility, ownership, exchange, morality.  We are meant to know and recognize our relation to other living things and their flourishing.  So as we're pulling carrots out of the ground and shaking the moist soil back to the earth, I'm thinking about the senses of our next generation.  I'm remembering how freedom as a child is learning and that nature provides the greatest playground.  I want our youth to understand that the boundless connectivity of the World Wide Web is also visible in the natural world.  So how can we get more youth onto farms and into the woods?  I know that my own capacity to pay attention is increased by the feeling of sun on my neck, clean air and expanse.  Why is it so easy to diagnose ADHD, but rarely a finding of 'nature deficit disorder (NDD)?'

Richard Louv coined the term NDD in his book 'Last Child in the Woods,' which brings together new studies indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for a child's healthy physical and emotional development. Our beloved American naturalist Thoreau said it;

"Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature lying all around, with such beauty, 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 exlusively an interaction of man on man."

Many educated Boomers, X and Y-generations are making their own return to subsistance or community farming.  I know countless farmers with countless degrees who have given up high paying jobs in order to cultivate land.  What is this shift?  And how can we get youth on board?  As we move beyond outdated modes of educating, let us remember how freedom in youth and connection to  'place' are at the core of deep learning.  In a world of constant flux and accelerating information we could all use more connection to the soil.  It's those moments of loosing time to nature's harmony that we begin to come back to ourselves.  And in our flourishing, we are learned.

Photos and text by Rebecca Thom, 2012

Greet Me

 Man on sixth Avenue, NYC by Rebecca Thom

I live in New York City where legend warns that people are hard and don't look at each other in the street.  Although you can find this phenomenon in certain regions and blocks of the city, for the most part, I've never been somewhere with more eye contact.  Though greetings are usually kept for those special moments of madness in the subway when someone does something shocking or unforgivable and you just have to look at your neighbor and have a word, many are ready to exchange and are just waiting for the opportunity.  It's true that more and more we are living in a world of digital communication, where people find themselves enraptured by their cell phones, email, tweets and instagrams (I have been loving witness people taking photos of the little things they notice, this app actually seems to make people more present).  Yet, I am a firm believer in the old school tradition of greetings.  Having lived in Africa I am actually quite fanatic about them.  Should you find yourself in an elevator with me, I will probably talk to you.  There is an old African proverb that says;  

Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka
Hurry Hurry has no blessings.

In many countries throughout the world you would be considered impolite for not greeting the person you pass in the street.  You are there together, so why not?  It is those moments in between rushing around the city, or getting to the gym that make up your life.  There are human equivalents of angels everywhere, you just have to look up and say hello - You never know what you might find in the other person.  And yes, sometimes people will look at you as though you're mad, but most of the time you will be greeted back and somehow, between all the technological interchange, you will feel more human.

Babu. Kasulu, Tanzania, 2010 by Rebecca Thom

Note: For the streets of Tanzania there are varied ways of addressing that pay respect to age, gender and class.  For example, an elder is to be greeted with 'Shikamoo' which literally means, 'I take your feet' to this, the elder or respected individual responds, 'Marahaba' which means, 'I thankfully accept your respect.'  Even the chosen intonation denotes a quality of submission; often making the 'Shikamoo' resound in an emphatic, 'Shhh' falling off into an almost silent 'kamo'  The use of accentuation is sometimes even paired with body motions.  A child greeting an elder, for instance, may dip one knee and downturn the gaze in order to further illustrate their respect.  This particular greeting goes straight to the heart of understanding Swahili culture.

Learning on this Land

In June I had the fortuity of traveling through the vast expanse of historic territory that is South Dakota. It is a state with a population of 812,383 (2009) and contains seven severed reservations, cut-up squares where the Oglala Sioux people now live. In the southwest corner of the state there is a reservation called Pine Ridge Agency which sits in the barren expanse east of the sacred Black Hills, and stretches north to the dramatic temper of the Badlands - the place where the Lakota Ghost Dances were before soldiers prohibited them. The tragic history there runs as deep as the landscape so aptly named. But the most devastating part of the story is written in the faces of youth today, whose dream might be just to live beyond 50.

Badlands, Rebecca Thom, 2011

The three counties that make up Pine Ridge are among the poorest in our Nation. With some of the highest infant mortality rates, lowest life expectancies and unemployment rates exceeding 80%, the people of Pine Ridge live in a deep poverty only imagined beyond our borders. No, this is America. These are the first Americans. This is the heart of our Nation and we should be looking more closely at the devastation here. In the late 1800s, as Indian land was sold and swindled all remaining, diverse bands of Native Americans were moved into the confines of the Reservations.

"...And we made these little gray houses of logs that you see, and they are square. It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square. You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished."
- Black Elk Speaks

We drove down to Pine Ridge one day in order to visit the burial ground and memorial center of the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee, in which hundreds of innocent Lakota people, including women and children were shot and killed by soldiers one snowy day. The burial site is a mass grave on the top of a windy hill, surrounded by chain-link fencing and other graves of people that died too young. At the bottom of the hill there is a circular building, the 'museum.' Despite daylight, inside the rotunda you could hardly read the story under one naked light bulb that hung from the middle. The tragedy is pieced together through prints of photos, hand written cardboard and painting on the wall. It is hardly a museum, but a relic of the devastation - of the thievery that has occurred amidst these people. Four young men stood at the entrance, welcoming us, urging us to buy one of their hand crafted drums or dreamcatchers - neither with any authentic appeal. They were desperate, but quiet. One of them was highly informed, yet shy. Another of them was drunk, yet intently sober - he was the one who sat with us outside and spoke.

The Burial Site at Wounded Knee. By Rebecca Thom

We rolled our tobacco and then offered it to them because that is what you do. Then, over a cigarette this young guy in his early twenties, with a face scarred with acne and anguish, described life on the Res. He started out with words of gratitude for the greenness of the rolling hills that surrounded us as only a slight portion of the Native land is any good for anything, the landscape is usually harsh browns or white with snow. But this summer the rain had been a plenty and the land was bright and lively. A sickly looking dog slept below us, a bootlegger passed by selling alcohol out of his mini van (alcohol is illegal on the Reservation) and the young man continued on, his breath smelling thick of booze, he spoke slowly. He told us that he worries for his sisters, he fears they'll commit suicide. He described the other ways that people live and die there; Cancer is rife and the hospital care is poor, alcoholism takes people if they don't go first in car accidents. We asked him his dream and he went quiet for a while,

"I guess it's to live longer. You know, live beyond 50."

Yoga in Schools

There is no doubt in my mind that youth today need to learn more ways of coping with stress from technology, overwhelm of information and over-testing. Parents and teachers say that student's are lacking focus, the ability to concentrate. But what kind of practices are we offering as examples? What resources are we giving students so that they might access peace of mind?

There is no better place to practice focus, and discipline than on the yoga mat. It's lessons can be incorporated into all realms of one's life. Yoga literally means, 'Union,' which takes us back to the Greek understanding of paideia - in which the first focus of learning is that of the body, beginning only with gymnastics and music, and later progressing to theory. The body soul union has largely been forgotten in schools.

Did I mention that 1 in 5 American children are obese? The radical adjustments we need will come from reprogramming diet and exercise cravings, which are like addictions in brain function . This kind of change will only come through practice, re-circuiting what is good and abandoning that which weighs you down.

Nuclear Power: We have a great deal to learn and become responsible for.

Mother and Child sit in the wreckage of Hiroshima, 1945.

The Essential Resource

March 22nd is World Water Day.

Water is life's matter and matrix,
mother and medium
There is no life without water.

- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, a Hungarian Biochemist, 1937

The Authentic Woman

I liked Arianna Huffington's post to commemorate yesterday's International Women's Day. She reflected on the invaluable lessons that her mother taught her and how she applies it to her work and family life. Her story touched me, as does her capacity to nimbly dance the line between deal-closers and motherhood, with elegant femininity.

I thought I could also write about my mother today and all the other woman that have inspired me throughout my life. Then, as I recognized there are just so many that continue to awe me each day; my sisters, aunts, cousins and dear friends around the world, I realized it's just too much for one story -
So today I will focus on just one.

She is also a mother, a grandmother, a sister, an activist, intellect, brazen beauty, confidante, friend, survivor, globe-trotter, entrepreneur, extrovert and full of all the best kinds of true grit. She was introduced to me by my mother and I was instantly taken by her stature and fashion of speaking; a sort of clarified Bostonian accent, with clear syllables and the invocation of French when English just wouldn't do. She handed me her card once, with beautiful embossed letters declaring her position: MATRIARCH. I was instantly enchanted.

This Matriarch is part of what has been coined the 'Silent Generation,' those who were born during The Great Depression and World War II. They say that members of this generation were "withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent." My dear friend and Matriarch couldn't be a further departure from these qualities - au contraire! She is the kind of person that makes new friends wherever she goes, who says what she thinks and does what she says, she is ageless, and wears many (metaphorical) hats. She had her first child in a hospital in Morocco in the early sixties, moved triumphantly through her husbands unforeseen suicide and her own bout with cancer, raised her three children and is a continual inspiration and friend for her grandchildren and fabulous people of all ages and creeds throughout this wild world. She is simply a vivacious, unstoppable woman.

She has taught me many things and offered so many experiential gems, but there is one decree she once shared with me that is of utmost importance to women today.

Be Authentic.

I think of these words each time I am faced with some New York moment of superficiality, or when feeling insufficient or provoked - I think of her when I feel actualized, unafraid and in joy. There really is no excuse not to be authentic, to be oneself entirely. If not that, than what?

Poetry of Revolution

“A man in his forties/ thin/ handsome today/ stroking his black beard/ steps firmly on the ground/ tells the TV camera/ with a budding smile/ that today/ for the first time in his life/ he felt he was Egyptian.”

- Sharif S. Elmusa of Egypt blogs about the poetic, political nature of Revolution. You can read more here.

Power of the People

There have been outbreaks of violence since Antigovernment protests arrived in the Libyan capital, Tripoli today.

In the first months of 2011 we have seen a familiar call for freedom. Spread from out of Northern Africa to the Middle East, calling out with force for liberation from the iron fist.
In the U.S. 170 million Americans are angered at the proposed elimination of federal funding for public broadcasting. Citizens are also speaking out against the amendment passed by Republican-led senate on Friday, which would stop all funding for Planned Parenthood. And on February 11th, the same day that Mubarak stepped down Republican Governor of Wisconsin quietly commenced an attack against public sector unions. All the protests that have ensued in recent days are asking Government officials to honor their right to civic participation.

This wave of radical political alteration reminds me of Amartya Sen's notion of 'Development As Freedom,' in this thesis Sen approaches freedom and the developmental process as intertwined dynamics. The more freedom people have, the more likely they are to partake wholly in their society with greater happiness and health - the more freedom people have the greater the productivity.

Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development,
they are also among its principle means.' – Amartya Sen

People must be granted the Right to speak out, share information and assemble peacefully. Public Broadcasting is on the line, and it is the people's source to reliable news and the capacity to . Do what you can for Public Broadcasting, call your elected official by going to this site. Public Broadcasting allows people to participate in the political process as informed citizens - And to have choices other than Fox News when seeking out unbiased coverage.

انا فخور لسكان البلاد Proud of the People of Egypt

It has been more than two weeks since the advent of the protests in Egypt, yet the gathering of people in Tahrir Square and the strength of their feelings are escalating. The Middle East is entering a New Wave, in which the Y generation is stirring the murky waters of antiquated power. Yet, it is not just the youth - it is everyone who desires to live in 2011, to keep up with the fast changing world, to be part of it. As we can see in Tahrir Square, the faces of the protesters range in age, class and creed - They are Egyptians, and they are demanding to be heard.

It is People's revolution; they are not calling out in the name of Allah or ideology, these people are calling out for their freedom in today's world. The following tweet was posted to the Lede blog in the New York Time's, which brings together a nice montage of reportage from blogs, cellphones images and people's accounts. It is amazing to see the spread of information and imagery via the web, and I feel fortunate that we have access to such a vast array of news sources, unlike the propaganda that is rife on television and news in Egypt.

I love Thomas Friedman's Op-Ed, 'Up With Egypt', here he gives the uprising a sense of hope and humanism.

The Tahrir Square uprising “has nothing to do with left or right,” said Dina Shehata, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “It is about young people rebelling against a regime that has stifled all channels for their upward mobility. They want to shape their own destiny, and they want social justice”

From the Lede NY Time's blog: Taken with a blackberry this sign, on the Parliament gate reads
'Closed Until Regime is Toppled.'

I am distinctly proud of the protesters of Egypt and feel grateful to bare witness to this important moment in history.