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Institute of Global Education Part 6 Orientation Course Instructions |
PROJECT NATURECONNECTSECTION 3: INTERACT GROUP PROTOCOL
Is the course based on day by day as well as long term commitments?
Because course participants learn, in part, from and through each other, an essence of this program is for each participant to painstakingly fulfill their commitment to participate once they make that commitment. In addition, each participant commits to giving and seeking support to and from their interact group members regarding their course experiences, thoughts and feelings.
How do course participants actually study themselves and each other?
One thing we study in the course is how we and others relate to the natural world in ourselves, others and nature. To have this work, we ask participants to make commitments as to what they are doing and going to do, and keep the commitments. If a participant finds they can't keep a commitment, then they let the group know that they have to change the commitment and, if possible, gain consent to make the change. For example, if the assignment says: Day 3 read Article 6 and you're going to be away on day 3, drop a note to this effect to the interact group and say you'll get that assignment done by day four, then be sure and get it done on time or change it again. In this way language promotes trust and integrity rather than misleads us. It shows we care about our effects upon nature in people and places. Nature does this same thing non-verbally; to our cost, we have become insensitive to many of these attraction communications.
Why does the course insist that participants learn to make conscious sensory contact with and in natural areas?
Let me repeat the example in the article (Book Introduction) that is part of these instructions. Perhaps you have already run across this type of question asked on an intelligence test given to the candidates seeking a worthwhile job: "If you count a wolf's tail as one of its legs, how many legs does a wolf have?"
"Five," of course, is the answer. Intelligent people say "five." You probably don't get the job if you don't say "five" because the question addresses your mathematical-logic ability. However, our sense of reason only recognizes five as correct until we additionally validate what we know from our, or others, contact with a real wolf. Then, many of our other natural senses come into play: sight, touch, motion, color, texture, language, sound, consciousness, fear, contrast, and love. Each of these natural senses help our sense of reason make more sense and recognize that a tail is different than a leg, that a wolf ordinarily has four legs, not five.
Does the course support all kinds of learning and ways of knowing?
Although all people are biologically and psychologically part of nature, contemporary people mostly learn and are habitually conditioned or addicted to know nature from 5-leg, out-of-touch, "as if," stories about nature. Often we cling to our stories in the belief that our survival or well being now, or in the hereafter, depend on us acting from them. The course is psychologically unique in that it offers additional sensory experiences with nature on a 4-leg basis.
Why is nature connected learning the course focus? Many course members have a great deal of 5-leg. "as if" knowledge and intelligence that has been accumulated from and continues to mold our nature-disconnected, contemporary world. In addition, many of us learn not to "walk our talk." For example, we might be individualistic exceptions to the rule and say "a wolf has four legs" but we might also have learned to think and act based on "The only good wolf is a dead wolf." Genuine contact with attractive things about wolves that we observe in a real wolf pack society can help us change that idea along with the notion that a wolf's tail counts as one of its legs. After all, on some level every wolf is intelligent enough to know that its tail is not one of its legs. Wolves can be more appreciated when we see that they relate to each other cooperatively and lovingly, like dogs are when they are part of human families or that there is no record that a wolf has ever attacked a person.
How does the course help us undo our destructive relationships?
Too often without realizing it, we have been taught to dance to the drumbeat of "as if" messages that produce destructive thoughts and relationships and that are seldom found in natural systems. The deteriorating state of ecosystems and people suggest that we must improve the "as if" drumbeat of the way we learn to think about and relate to the natural world and its people. The course addresses this problem through developing respect and "4-leg" contact with "genuine" nature and with people as part of nature. We then learn to think and relate based on our 4-leg experiences rather than misleading 5-leg stories.
Aren't many of our 5-leg stories deeply ingrained and unchangeable?
Some of us are very attached our "as if" way of knowing the world. For this reason we are also very attached to teaching or preaching it as well. Painstakingly try not to influence the class with your conditioned or favorite way of knowing (your religion, political party, vocational or academic training, factual knowledge, race, subculture, etc.) Instead, if it is attractive to you, help the interact group discover if or how your and their past information gels with what you personally have or may learn from conscious sensory contact with natural areas through the activities and people on the course.
Is the course atmosphere safe?
Each participant's commitment to refrain from bringing the group into their stories from elsewhere helps establish the atmosphere of good will and trust that allows group email relationships to form safely. If you have any questions or doubts about your ability or desire to relate on the course this way, please explore the self-evidence activity found in Appendix A
(Appendix Page 1). Most people find it a useful and helpful tool here and for application elsewhere, as well.
Please proceed to Part Seven
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..........ALTERNATIVES