Here I am with my mother on a Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains in summer 2018. Long distance backpacking has helped me develop the skills to observe my environment and persevere in difficult situations.
I've used storytelling and imaginative roleplay in both my teaching and learning throughout my life. Here I am at a Renaissance Faire in Washington State in 2017 with other primitive skills and ecology game masters.
In 2013, I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, an experience which defined me as an individual, challenged my perceptions of myself and others, and taught me that healthy community is the strongest asset a person could wish to have.
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MY SCIENCE TEACHING PHILOSOPHYI was schooled at home, taught exploratory biology by my father, a trained behavioral ecologist, taught chemistry by my mother, an accomplished farmer and chef. I taught myself physics and mathematics setting off bottle rockets in the fields surrounding our house, building goat fences and wind turbines, and making iron filings dance with an improvised electromagnet. What I did not, or could not, experience with my own eyes and my own hands, I read about. In the days before Wikipedia I would lay for hours reading from the World Book. Nobody told me to do any of this. Nobody assigned me chapters or commissioned book reports. Nobody gave me a grade. Still, I learned. Every child- every human- is different and should be given the chance to grow and learn at the pace and in the manner that suits them.
In my science classroom, students ask their own questions, design their own experiments, are given feedback by teachers and peers, and are encouraged to complete and present their work seriously. My classroom is built not off of externally-created assignments, but self-driven exploration, problem-solving, and questing. My projects take advantage of intrinsic curiosity of students and teachers working together. Studies show that children raised in democratic schools have more well-developed social skills and greater tolerance of difference. My classroom is a place where everyone has a voice, where decisions are made by the collective, where rules are based on the good of the community and the unique individuals that comprise it. Ours is a curriculum that changes and supports and deepens and expands. Our course of study will vary, will wend one way or another as we ask new questions and find new solutions. Mine is a classroom that places learners within their community; it does not start and stop within the walls of a school. My science classroom is not required; no one is forced to attend. If you would rather go fishing, or sew a dress, or practice logarithms, that is fine. It is a place where you may find yourself at your own discretion. My classroom is based on questions, on curiosity, and on wonder. There are no deadlines, no due dates, and no grades. My science classroom is the library, the park, the sidewalk, town hall. In my classroom, one student might be reading about water quality and pollution regulations while drafting recommendations to the local city government while another group of students assays the town river for microbiota. Students in my classroom correspond with scientists to learn up-to-date findings and analyze results, to define scientific vocabulary and develop scientific literacy. Students in my classroom take advantage of all available resources, build from the results of others and create their own new conclusions as well. I was lucky enough to be shown the freedom to explore my world as a child, to be given the trust to choose my courses of study, and to be allowed access to resources I needed to learn and grow. I teach science to afford each of my students with those same opportunities, to allow their natural motivation to drive them forward. Only by creating a democratic space that entrusts students with rights, freedoms, and which holds them to high community expectations can real learning happen. Individual freedom, collective questions, and community goals lie at the heart of a resilient and rigorous classroom, and I work with my students and peers to create a classroom that encourages everyone to grow and change. -Whistle Barkan |
There isn't a right way to become educated; there are as many ways as there are fingerprints." -John Taylor Gatto |