June 14 – 20
It’s been difficult to find the time to update all of the happenings here at the Ecovillage as time seems to pass at a different pace here than elsewhere. The past week has been filled with many memorable times, after our trip to Tofino we jumped right into some school visits to local schools and continued our regular routine on the farm. Community building
Tuesday: We went to visit the Sunrise Waldorf school here in Shawnigan this morning. It was incredible. I have been curious about the structure of this form of education and how their philosophy is different than other schools and education systems. The energy in the building itself was so powerful and pure compared to any other school I have visited before. There is no technology used in the Waldorf school and students are encouraged to adopt this kind of lifestyle beyond their schooling as well. The rooms were all painted gentle, pastel colors depending on their developmental stage and the architecture of the building itself is reflective of human development (e.g – lower ceilings for the younger students and specific angles and window shapes to correspond to the different angles and perspectives each human has within themselves) It was a fascinating experience and really opened my eyes to the many faceted sides of education.
For some time I have struggled with the whether I will feel satisfied working in a traditional classroom setting as many of my beliefs and my educational pedagogy do not fit into the standard educational system. Seeing a Waldorf system and how nurturing and holistic this approach to education has inspired me and revived my hopes in finding a suitable place in this career path for me. It was also very interesting to compare the Montessori approach to education with the Waldorf approach. It left me wondering if I end up working in the public school sector, how I could blend these two educational philosophies into a mainstream classroom without disrupting the expectations of the ministry or the individual school that I am working within.
Wednesday: To be honest I can’t quite remember what we did today so it isn’t going to be a huge focus in this entry!
Thursday: I was still swimming in a state of enlightenment from our visit to Waldorf school yesterday so the visit we made to Dwight International School was quite shocking. They are an IB school that welcomes many international students from all over as well as local students into their classes. It was a stark and lacking environment that, in my opinion was not conducive to higher learning. That being said, the staff that welcomed us and showed us around the campus were warm and inviting which made me feel slightly better about the place. It was a mix between the old and new, and the vibe I received from the students that were still there and the construct of the place was that the intent and purpose of the school was still very much in the making. The classrooms were spiritless and cold and the it was very clear that the teachers here focused on content, content, content. I suppose that’s natural thing in an IB school, but I just wasn’t prepared for the energy that I received from this place. It solidified the notion that I do not belong in this style of education and that if I were to find myself teaching secondary students I would definitely pursue the arts and fine arts side of the system.
A highlight of this visit was the historical richness of the campus. Their gymnasium was built sometime in the early 20th century and had a smell that really took me back. Upon walking in there I was flooded with memories of my family home and the old community centers I spent my time in on the east coast as a kid.
They had just finished writing exams in this space which also took me back to my undergraduate years, and the stress and anxiety that came with these testing periods.
After our visit at Dwight we went on a bread mission. The Ecovillage has an agreement with a local bakery in Mill Bay – at the end of the day, this bakery donates any of their remaining products to the Ecovillage at no charge (provided that we do the pick up!) Mark and the Angels (what we have started calling ourselves) we elected for the task and so we made a whole evening of it. We arrived a bit early and decided to share in having a pint together on the pier. Then we picked up the literal garbage bags of bread from True Grain
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After we loaded it up in Jess’s car we then celebrated with a lovely dinner together at the Cow Cafe. Mark is such a lovely and kind person and I felt fortunate to have the chance to hear his stories and learn more about him. It was an enriching evening and really brought the group closer together.
Something I forgot to mention about this day – we spent the morning rendering pork fat to be used for cooking in the kitchen and for making soap. Arthur gave us a fairly complex chemistry lesson on the properties of fat and water and how soap actually works in removing oil from dishes or from our skin. It was quite interesting and a bit disgusting, both qualities that will help me remember the process for a long time!
Friday: We had a pretty calm day today, most of our time was spent digging trenches for the irrigation system again. We improved in our productivity and managed to get an entire trench dug and the line laid in one morning. It felt good to be using my body again and be physically tired, I needed that. The afternoon was quite wonderful as I had a massage scheduled with the local masseuse – Estelle. She is a wise and witty character who shared some deep insights and whom I felt really connected with during the massage. We spoke about our experiences with Aboriginal education and the truth and reconciliation act and how we are all a part of a bigger picture than what many people are aware of (or choose to be aware of). She was a school teacher herself in the UK many moons ago and in recent years was invited back to teach culture specifically after having lived in the Pacific Northwest for many years. I realized through this conversation how much we all have to learn from our elders and through the simple act of sharing stories and experiences. As an educator I will use this method of information sharing in my classroom as often as possible as it ties so many of our natural human tendencies into the transmission of information.
I rounded out the afternoon with a little bit of gardening, helping to transplant some parsley into their new homes. I was on dinner duty and what a whirlwind it was! We decided to make pizza for 30 people, all of whom have varying dietary needs so it was particularly difficult to find and execute recipes that cater to everyone’s need. In the end we served up 5 different pizzas (an hour late) including cauliflower crust, traditional crust and sweet potato crust. No one was too upset by the lateness as it was a delicious meal. Teamwork was the only thing that got us through this crazy kitchen experiment – I was grateful for the other kitchen magicians today.
Final thoughts: We were recently talking as a group about the kinds of things that we are learning during this time and in general about the title of this practicum as “The Community Field Experience”. It’s been challenging to explain to others how this three weeks is part of my degree and considered a valuable learning experience. I am coming to the realization of how incredibly valuable having a community is for having a happy and healthy life in general. This realization reinforces what I already know about creating that kind of community in a classroom is. The Ecovillage is a reminder of how a strong community can nurture and support all of it’s members and how monumental things can be accomplished by a small yet determined group of people.
A fellow UBCer recently professed that they aren’t really sure that they are learning anything here. This comment really opened up my eyes to how troubled and stagnant many people’s opinions surrounding ‘education’ really are. I responded to this remark with a discussion about how it’s difficult for us (who have been confined to traditional, classroom based education systems for far too long) to really appreciate how much we are actually learning. We’re so accustomed to being seated in a classroom or lecture hall and having information either read to us or displayed on a screen. This is what we consider ‘learning’. I reminded them that we have been engaged in a rich learning environment for the past 2 weeks, constantly learning but in ways that are so foreign to us we often don’t recognize them as ‘learning’. It was an interesting concept to discuss with fellow teachers and I sincerely hope that through this discussion, everyone has expanded what they believe ‘learning’ really is.