Taking a Stand

Well saying that i have been busy would be quite the understatement. I am just going to quickly summarize all of the wonderful activities I did all day so that I can jump quickly into the story/conversation that most invigorated and interested(interests) me.

We started the morning off with the lesson of the Superior View Hike, going through it as if we were students in the class that we are going to be teaching in less than two weeks. It was incredibly enjoyable, and, of course, we got to look out over Superior. It is an awesome view, 600 feet above the surface of the lake, allowing us to see out over 30 miles. On that hike I asked the ‘teacher’ about the current state of fish in the lake and he took a very non-committal stance on the effects of sport and commercial fishing on the lake. Non-committal to the point where I would bring it up later in the evening (which lead to the conversation I will talk about in most of this post).

The second lesson that we had explained/taught to us that we will be teaching is entitled Ojibwe Heritage. In that lesson we learned how to start a fire with flint and steal, something I failed pretty miserably at but plan to practice more. We also learned how to make twine out of basswood (which, if you know me, you won’t be surprised to find I was much better at). We also learned how to pound ash in order to get strips of thin wood for basket making and other things. We sat in replicas of their two types of dwellings and even heard the legend of how fire was brought to the Ojibwe people. I truly enjoyed this lesson and asked a LOT of questions about the heritage and what they do with the strips of ash. They don’t do a thing and I was told I could use them to make baskets whenever I want. I am thrilled about this!

This then brings us to the evening activity which was a meeting about teaching here in general. This is where I brought up the topic of taking stances on environmental issues. I really wanted to know the policy on this as I am incredibly passionate about the environment (obviously) and I am NOT comfortable taking a non-committal stance on logging, for instance. I was told that over the years environmental education as a whole has gone from taking solid stances on issues that effect the environment to being quite soft and not really taking a stand. Joe, the head of my program up here, said that that is a tragedy and that is imperative for us to take stances on issues that are important to this planet’s very survival. He said that many people do not believe in climate change, but we teach a class on it because it is BACKED UP BY SCIENTIFIC FACT. When I asked if when children inquire about the logging history of this area (something that is brought up in the Superior View Hike) if I can illustrate the drastic changes to tree cover that occurred as an effect of that, he told me that I should definitely go ahead and do that. I am going to try not to preach to students, but they need to know these things. I will just make sure I hold a ton of knowledge before I take that committed stance on an issue so that if there are objections I can share facts in argument/discussion and ask the children to debate and discuss the issues that will directly effect them in their lifetimes.

I miss you all and am having a blast! Take care:)