Five tenants of outdoor teaching
by Joseph Cornell
Before we begin exploring nature with children, let’s think about our role as teachers and guides. What are the basic rules for giving children—and ourselves—a joyous, rewarding good time while sharing nature?
I would like to share with you five tenets of outdoor teaching...with children’s lively energies. Underlying these principles are basic attitudes of respect for children and reverence for nature.
1. Teach less, and share more.
Besides telling children the bare facts of nature, I like to tell them about my inner feelings in the presence of (nature)... Children respond to my observations much more freely than they respond to textbook explanations.
I believe it is important for an adult to share his inner self with the child. Only by sharing our deeper thoughts and feelings do we (encourage children) to explore, respectfully, their own feelings and perceptions.
2. Be receptive. Receptivity means listening, and being aware. It is one of the most richly rewarding attitudes you can cultivate while working with children. The outdoors brings out a spontaneous enthusiasm in the child that you can skillfully direct toward learning.
Be sensitive. Every question, every comment, every joyful exclamation is an opportunity to communicate. Respond to the child’s present mood and feelings. Expand your child’s interests by teaching along the grain of his own curiosity.
Be alert also to what nature is doing around you at the present moment. Your lesson plan will be written for you minute by minute if you tune in with sensitive attention.
3. Focus the child’s attention without delay.
Set the tone of the outing right at the start. Involve everyone as much as you can, by asking questions and pointing out interesting sights and sounds... Find things that interest them, and lead them bit by bit into the spirit of keen observation. Let them feel that their findings are interesting to you, too.
I have never underestimated the value of such moments of touching and entering into nature. We can nourish that deeper awareness until it becomes a true and vital understanding of our place in this world. Joseph Cornell
4. Look and experience first; talk later
At times nature’s spectacles will seize the child in rapt attention. The child can have an experience of wonder by just watching quiet ordinary things with close attention. They will gain a far better understanding of things outside themselves by becoming one with them than from second-hand talk.
Don’t feel badly about not knowing names. The names of plants and animals are only superficial labels for what those things really are. There is much more to an oak tree, for example, than a name and a list of facts about it. You can...smell its bark and leaves...quietly sit on or under its branches, and be aware of all the forms of life that live in and around the tree and depend on it.
Look. Ask questions. Guess. Have fun! As your children begin to develop an attunement with nature, your relationship with them will evolve from one of teacher and fellow-student to one of fellow-adventurer.
5. A sense of joy should permeate the experience, whether in the form of gaiety or calm attentiveness. Children are naturally drawn to learning if you can keep the spirit of the occasion happy and enthusiastic. Your own enthusiasm is contagious, and that it is perhaps your greatest asset as a teacher.
from Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell
by Joseph Cornell
Before we begin exploring nature with children, let’s think about our role as teachers and guides. What are the basic rules for giving children—and ourselves—a joyous, rewarding good time while sharing nature?
I would like to share with you five tenets of outdoor teaching...with children’s lively energies. Underlying these principles are basic attitudes of respect for children and reverence for nature.
1. Teach less, and share more.
Besides telling children the bare facts of nature, I like to tell them about my inner feelings in the presence of (nature)... Children respond to my observations much more freely than they respond to textbook explanations.
I believe it is important for an adult to share his inner self with the child. Only by sharing our deeper thoughts and feelings do we (encourage children) to explore, respectfully, their own feelings and perceptions.
2. Be receptive. Receptivity means listening, and being aware. It is one of the most richly rewarding attitudes you can cultivate while working with children. The outdoors brings out a spontaneous enthusiasm in the child that you can skillfully direct toward learning.
Be sensitive. Every question, every comment, every joyful exclamation is an opportunity to communicate. Respond to the child’s present mood and feelings. Expand your child’s interests by teaching along the grain of his own curiosity.
Be alert also to what nature is doing around you at the present moment. Your lesson plan will be written for you minute by minute if you tune in with sensitive attention.
3. Focus the child’s attention without delay.
Set the tone of the outing right at the start. Involve everyone as much as you can, by asking questions and pointing out interesting sights and sounds... Find things that interest them, and lead them bit by bit into the spirit of keen observation. Let them feel that their findings are interesting to you, too.
I have never underestimated the value of such moments of touching and entering into nature. We can nourish that deeper awareness until it becomes a true and vital understanding of our place in this world. Joseph Cornell
4. Look and experience first; talk later
At times nature’s spectacles will seize the child in rapt attention. The child can have an experience of wonder by just watching quiet ordinary things with close attention. They will gain a far better understanding of things outside themselves by becoming one with them than from second-hand talk.
Don’t feel badly about not knowing names. The names of plants and animals are only superficial labels for what those things really are. There is much more to an oak tree, for example, than a name and a list of facts about it. You can...smell its bark and leaves...quietly sit on or under its branches, and be aware of all the forms of life that live in and around the tree and depend on it.
Look. Ask questions. Guess. Have fun! As your children begin to develop an attunement with nature, your relationship with them will evolve from one of teacher and fellow-student to one of fellow-adventurer.
5. A sense of joy should permeate the experience, whether in the form of gaiety or calm attentiveness. Children are naturally drawn to learning if you can keep the spirit of the occasion happy and enthusiastic. Your own enthusiasm is contagious, and that it is perhaps your greatest asset as a teacher.
from Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Cornell