Earth Dialogues - An International Round Square Collaboration
We created a website shared with ten international Round Square Schools to inspire a sense of communion and communication with our planet. It all started with a question ...
What is the present saying?
Like the murmur of ghosts, impulses drift … gratitude, sorrow, atonement, healing …
How do we communicate with a suffering planet; with cultures that moved gently on the earth; with species in distress; with lost dreams?
We need to reimagine schools and society as collaborations that explores communication and connexion with the earth as mentor. Possible lines of inquiry – how can we connect? Share? Help?
… Four threads offer options or weaves according to student/child input.
Plant voices – Begin with a mindfulness/visualization exercise, perhaps starting from a seed, and then, explore what grows through forest bathing, sketching, flower pressing, dancing, video, puppet mentors, creating flower boards and/or a botany feast.
Betsy the Bee teaches younger students how to plant a pollinator garden
Waterlily Dancing for botany research
Rewilding our schoolyard
Honour Place – Find a natural place in your area and develop a relationship with it. Research societies that live on and with the land and create a tribe. Visit your place frequently and enhance your research with rituals, artefacts, artwork, costumes, food, song and dance.
Tribes of North America
Making Shelters
Mulch Mona Lisa by T
Elder Wisdom – Invite elders to share their story with students through interaction, story-circles, tales of simplicity, loss and gain. Invite the students to share their feelings and thoughts in any way they choose. The Kairos Blanket Exercise https://www.kairoscanada.org/ might prompt responses in various media.
Great Environmentalist Dramatis Personas ... Chico Mendez by D. - "At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon. Now I realized I'm fighting for Humanity."
Paula Kahumbu by J. -"It is going to be a rocky path but it can be done."
Flying to Freedom inspired by Woodland Cree art and the tragedy of residential schools
Beyond Words – Through simulation, immersion and research, practice listening and communicating with other species. As perceptions evolve, try to express their teachings through media, experience and mentorship.
Connecting
Horse Anatomy
Suggested Sharing/Documentation might be in the form of short interviews of students by students; an online gallery of images and text; a book of changes highlighting ways we are improving and strengthening our relationship with the earth.
The response was overwhelming, from beautiful light boards illuminating natural objects collected by early childhood students to whole school curriculum revolutions and candle -lit celebrations of eco-awareness. The website is limited to Round Square participants but this provides a small insight of earth-themed offerings.