Growing Place Based 'organisms'

Fresh from another blast of Sunnyside Environmental School, its sparky kids and stimulated teachers, I have a final meeting with Greg Smith at Lewis and Clark College in Portland before the family and I travel south towards Arizona.

It is lovely to talk to this inspiring man again, and our discussions touch on the strong connection between the nurturing of self esteem, love and care within the Place Based schools I have visited and the capacity to relate to and care for the school community, the wider community and, beyond that, the planet. How different from efforts to 'do the right thing' for sustainability out of a sense of duty - although of course that's fine too. Each school has been very different in its outward characteristics, but the most important common element has been this 'culture of care', often emanating from a particularly charismatic school leader. Replicating this intangible but vital quality adds challenge to any aspiration to create a 'blueprint' for a Place Based school.


Yet while the charisma of a particular person is certainly important, developing a vision of how schools could be different is also central to what schools like Sunnyside have accomplished. Greg Smith believes a 'both-and' approach is needed. Sharing this vision with others can infect new generations of educators with the enthusiasm and commitment they need to transform learning and teaching.


Another area of discussion revolves around whether Place Based education should be more 'deeply anchored in a critique of industrial civilisation'. This continues an email conversation between Greg Smith and David Greenwood which can be read in more detail at http://www.clearingmagazine.org/online/archives/2108. Interestingly, the various educators and school leaders whom I have spoken with about this tend to feel that perhaps it is nurturing the culture of love, respect and responsibility for oneself and the wider world and putting it into action locally that is most important. There are certainly risks involved in trying to impose parameters for Place Based Education. Its accessibility and the simplicity of its approach, its flexibility to local circumstances and the way in which it speaks to the hearts of a wide range of very different individuals are perhaps its key strengths.