MEND Season 2 - Episode 37

Experiential Capital with Waldorf Educator, Jeff Lough

"Train up a child the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."  

~Proverbs 22:6

These were the words often bandied about in my (Amy's) childhood.  Used in that moment to speak to a certain type of religious education.  But what if we took this idea into a larger framework?  Expanded the context and the meaning?

What does it mean to educate a child as an evolutionary and still-incarnating being?

What does it look like to take the long-haul aproach - to not rush into books or standardized tests or memorized facts and figures - but to first prioritize the development of the soul - of an inherent sense of reverence, play & wonder - to build a spirited “F-you” into the curriculum of a budding adolescent because we VALUE their want and need to revolt - and have built it into the way we educate them?

And more - what would it look like to translate these ideas - beyond the classroom, beyond the realm of the scholastic, the world of childhood - and to work to educate, emancipate and elucidate humanity as a whole?

Join us as we take this hour to speak to local School Psychologist, Educator, Advisor, Administrator & ardent Advocate - Jeff Lough - about the undergirding philosophies surrounding Waldorf Education, a method devised by Rudolf Steiner in Europe during the late 1800's.  

When we first embarked upon this conversation with Jeff, we expected to find ourselves engaging in a talk around Intellectual Capital, but soon found ourselves knee-deep in the...

Experiential.

Spiritual.

Anthroposophical (don’t worry - you’ll hear that one again)

Material

And so much more.

And while we geek out a bit, admittedly, on this particular methodology and philosophy - 

I want to urge you to keep a broad and open perspective.

To listen for ways that these ideas filter into your own experience.

Your own Philosophy of Life.

And into what it means to empower and educate oursleves - at every step of the way.

What experience do we wish to have inside this Life?

And how do the ideas, methodologies, principles and patterns we subscribe to - help us to step up and claim the fullness available to us?

And what are we actively doing - to step into the world we wish to inhabit?

May the questions put forth here - help shed some light - as you move down your own path.

May they re-orient you back toward your own true north.  And help us all, collectively - reclaim a better way.  

MEND Season 2 - Episode 27

A Field of Possibility...

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there."  ~Rumi

Hello again.

As you probably know, you are cozied up to the land of the storytellers.

We feel very comfortable here.

Here we can spin a tale, conjure up a poem at a moment’s notice, or weave together some divergent strands of thought in order to craft a slightly different lens through which to view.

BUT.

We cannot - on our own at least - do justice to the larger framework of this season’s theme.

As you know, we’ve borrowed from the world of permaculture this season, in order to frame up the stories and conversations we’ll be having in the coming weeks and months.

So, we wanted to pay homage - and gather up some resources - and set the larger stage -for what’s to come.

Toward that end, we sat down with two different members of the local ecological and permaculture tribes.  We had the great pleasure of sitting with Boyd Smith, who is the man behind EcoGardening. a company, practice, and philosophy of that  Considers the relationships of each organism in our ecology in relation to development, agriculture, products, programs, and society.

Boyd sat down with us to talk about his vision for long-term sustainability, education & coming into right relationship with the natural world.

The second part of this episode is devoted to our time with Levon Durr, who is part of the local Humboldt Permaculture Guild and is also the owner of Fungaia Farms. We talked about what it looks like for communities in transition to begin to implement some of these principles into the fabric of the everyday.

In a word, we asked these two well-read ecologists, steeped in the language and learning of earth sciences - to break it down for us.  The lay-folk. Those of us who may never pick up a heavy ecological tome or enroll inside a 9-month course to explore these concepts. But who want to get a feel for them.  And more - to see how these ideas can live their way into the way we think, interact, and move about this world.

For more info on either Boyd, Levon or the Humboldt Permaculture Guild - make sure to check the show notes for full links to each.

For now - we hope you enjoy.