Forest schools

 It was interesting reading the book about Forest schools. 

It made me go back to the Principles. 

What comes through is a focus on structure and the relationship between structure and agency, within the Forest school paradigm. The focus is very much on practitioners

I think what worries me about it is the focus that we developed on the Odd project on what is happening around the edges. New materialism and the idea of 'thinking like a tree' is also not really mentioned. 

Forest Schools seems to be about the practices. We are going to think about the things that could happen, the research creation, the speculative work. 

Wo what should we do on our project that is different?

We will focus on what children do and how they can make art with, and in, woodlands. 

We will focus on children and trees as a unit of thinking, using new materialism. 

We will bring together disciplines (including art) to create a differently weighted set of practices. 

That is why our project is a bit different. 




Comments

  1. spodsheffJanuary 10, 2022 at 9:03 AM

    I think Dennis Atkinson would say that Forest schools principles are transcendental in that they structure things from the outside. They replace one type of external structure with another schools need structure and this is why forest schools can work in an educational envirment. I think what you are saying is that we allow thoughts ideas and learning to grow from the inside intrinsic to the experience of the learning event. I think this is what I have tried to do in schools for years - intrinsic here relates to the non-sense of practice that grows out of experience. Sometimes i think new materialism is a bit like the thinking hats of Edward Debono in that it is a way of controlling the way we think about things - that is why I have grown a little resistant to it, that and the fact i struggle to really understand why it is new. I wonder if our project is about letting thoughts and ideas grow slowly like trees and that is enough if we can somehow share it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kate PahlJanuary 14, 2022 at 9:05 AM

    Yes I agree. Let's focus on that, and embodiment, and go slowly.

    ReplyDelete

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