Advanced Topics in Lifecraft #3 Learning as Transformation

This deep sky is for me a visual representation of the possibility of  deep learning

In this essay, I am taking a somewhat different tact, using by permission, the Learning Model of the Academy for the Love of Learning. This has been developed over many years and is explored through the Academy’s programs. I believe Seton would have understood this approach since observation and experience were key to his view of learning.

We can enter the Learning Model by referring to events from Seton’s life, and then follow up with questions that we can ask about our own. Learning Model components create the basis of all programs offered through the Academy. Even in its simplest form, it brings personal engagement to the learning process, invites creativity and insight, and the establishes the potential for deep learning. Four key elements of the model (below) are also inherent to the meaning of Seton’s Lifecraft.

The Academy’s founder, Aaron Stern, while he was developing the fundamentals of his organization’s approach to education, had no knowledge of Seton or his ideas on Lifecraft. It may be too much to claim convergence of the two sets of ideas, but there are parallels which I mentioned in the previous essay (Lifecraft #2).

When Aaron made an agreement with Dee Seton Barber (Seton’s daughter) to provide the Seton Legacy with an institutional home at the Academy, he saw that Seton’s life illustrated one of the Academy’s core principles: one can become the change that one wants to see in the world. To learn more, we invite you to visit the Academy’s web site (the link is above) as well as the campus at Seton Village to take part in its programs. (In the meantime, we are happy to hear your thoughts on all of this.)

While there is no direct connection between Seton’s Fourfold Path and the four aspects of the Academy’s Learning Model (the number of four being coincidence), you may wish to join me in consideration of the parallels. The Fourfold Path (or Lifecraft Way) summarized:

1.     Service of Love (a waking up of consciousness about oneself, and one’s place in a larger context.

2.     Spirit of Fortitude (courage arising from self-reflection and empathy)

3.     Body of Beauty (recognition of the sanctity of life and standing for the well-being of all life)

4.     Mind of Truth (accepting honesty, reverence, and reasonableness as core guiding values)

As an adjunct to this, I can add, that although Seton was a romantic (in reaction to the mass-war, mass-industrial age), at the same time he specifically rejected the irrational as a legitimate means of interpreting meaning in the world.

The Learning Model of the Academy for the Love of Learning summarized:

EXPERIENCE
Seton hunted wolves, and eventually trapped Lobo. He came to see the nobility and intelligence of the wolf and, as he watched Lobo’s dignity in dying, was profoundly touched.  His understanding of animals was forever changed.

Begin with the experience—either an experience in the moment, or one that can be remembered…

• Experience could come in many forms: drawing or painting, storytelling, movement, group activity, time in nature, going for an outing
• Pretty much anything you give full attention to could be called an experience

Can you recall an experience that was transformative for you?

REFLECTION
Seton spent much of his time alone while he was in New Mexico trapping wolves. He kept a journal of his experience, and thought deeply about what he was seeing and feeling. Writing Lobo’s story was a powerful form of reflection.

 Take some time to think and feel into the experience…

• Reflection can be alone, or with another – can include journaling, drawing, going for a walk
• Tell the story of the experience to a partner
• Include feelings, emotions, memories that were evoked

When you reflect back on your transformative experience, what do you remember most clearly? What were the details, including feelings and emotions, that seem particularly meaningful to you now?

MAKING MEANING
To find meaning from his experiences in New Mexico, Seton made an extensive study of its birds and animals as an artist and naturalist, and also learned from Native American friends and mentors. Over time, Seton formulated an understanding of the interconnectedness of the natural world, including the role and impact of humanity.

Explore learning from the experience and what meaning can be made from it…

• What personal or shared learning came from the experience?
• What other sources of information can add insight?
• How can this learning be applied in life? How can it be explored further?

What meaning does your experience hold for you? What did you learn from it about yourself, and about the world?

ACTION
Seton’s life of activism as a conservationist, naturalist, and educator, grew out of his experience with Lobo, and the resulting transformation of his understanding of the natural world.

Try out the learning…

• Follow curiosity, see where this learning leads
• See if it invites another cycle of learning…

How were you changed by that moment in your life? What actions, or new ways of being in the world, resulted from your experience?

Four Ways to Support the Learning Process

1. This way of learning involves the whole person:
Thinking is only a small part of the picture. Invite the whole of each person into the inquiry.

• Physical movement – can you dance your experience, or explore it with your body?
• Sensations – what textures, tastes, tones are in your experience?
• Emotions – how do you feel? What do your feelings want to tell you about your experience?
• Imagination – what colors are in your experience – what could you name your experience

2. Slowing down helps bring awareness to reflection:
Often our need to reach completion overwhelms the richness that comes with savoring the journey.

• Invite participants to stop for a moment and listen, or feel, what is happening inside themselves, and in the group.
• Encourage participants to relish their stories, take time to speak, and really get into the telling.
• Listen slowly, too. As a facilitator, listen with depth, and experiment with reflecting back what you hear when a participant says something that touches you. Let him or her know how you were affected.
• If things are going too fast, suggest everyone takes a breath, feels their weight on the chair, looks around the room.

3. Follow your curiosity:
What catches your attention can bring guidance as you work with the group.

• Ask questions that deepen and invite feeling: “Can you say more…?”
• Invite the unexpected: “What might happen if…?”
• Allow yourself to be transparent at times: “When you said that, I felt very moved. Thank you for being so open.”
• When strong feelings come up for you, as facilitator, can you follow the thread internally – what is being evoked in your own story? Be curious about that, too.

4. Attend to what goes on in the ‘field’:
When the unexpected happens, it may bring a key insight to the group.

• Notice the tone of the group – is it alive, sleepy, all over the place.  Can you play with that, and make it part of the experience? “Let’s get up and run around the room.” “How about a five-minute nap?” or, “What do you think our sleepiness is trying to say to us?”
• Are there themes coming into the group through reflections? Stories?
• What’s happening outside the group? Are there interruptions? What’s the weather doing? Was there a powerful headline on the news?