Learning Collective

I continue to be fascinated by how life plays. I found this entry in my journal from a year ago while I was in India.

There are many ways that I can interpret this entry. For this purpose of this post, I am going to explore this in regards to ‘education.’ I will write more about the collective, collaboration, working together and energy in separate post.

Here, now, I am a part of a collective. I am participating in a learning collective. I am facilitating and listening and guiding as a part of a learning collective. 

Each day is new. Each day unfolds in the way it is meant to.

We, the participants of the collective have an agreement that no photographs, images, movies or words will be shared without permission. In honoring that, I have chosen to share here the letters that I wrote in the beginning, as we embarked on this journey.

This is the letter I wrote to the children who would be participating in the collective:

Namaste. Namaste means I see and honor the light inside of you, because that same light is inside of me. I use Namaste as a greeting and I also use “hello, “hi.”

We are going to be embarking (meaning starting something that has not been done before) on a journey- a journey of learning that involves others and ourselves.  This learning is especially important because this work that we will be doing, honors who we are as unique individuals. We will be exploring these questions:

”What makes me, me?” 

“How do I learn?” 

“How do I share my learning with others?”

“How do I learn from others?”

“How do I learn from the world around me?”

Each time we are together we will have the opportunity to decide what it is that we want to do, what is it that we as individuals and as a group want to explore, want to learn more about.

It is a very exciting time.

We will meet for the first time, together as a group, on Tuesday, September 15th.  We will learn more about one another and all of the possibilities that are available for us.

Here are a few things that I am bringing and ask that you bring them too.

*a water bottle full of water

*a snack to nourish yourself

*your mask

You are welcome to bring other things too. Maybe you are really interested in something and you want to share that something with us, maybe you are curious about something and you want to ask questions about something you have, maybe you have something special that you want to share with us.  You are welcome to bring anything that you would like. Whatever you choose to bring (in addition to the above listed items), please bring it in a pack, bag or something that you can carry.

We will be seeing each other soon and when we do we can talk, share and learn more about one another. Until then, be in joy (that is a play on the word enjoy… Do you get it?  En joy, In joy).

Looking forward to learning with and alongside you,

Sara

This is the letter I wrote to the families who chose to participate in the collective.

Thank you for choosing to be a part of this collective. Thank you for taking a step forward into the unknown. This collective will be co-created through our collective voices and our collective wisdom. In being a part of a collective, participation is a way of being.

Through your choices, advocacy and responses, your children are coming together with other children to construct their own knowledge, to come together as a community, to be in a shared space with one another, to listen to and respect each other as individuals. Through our active participation, we will be cultivating learning processes. Each one of us is a bearer, a bringer of diversity and difference. Each one of us has a unique perspective, a way of being, a way of seeing, a way of doing. In this collective space, we are honoring, seeing and recognizing that which makes us diverse, that what makes us unique. The intention is to give voice and value to all of the different ways that children express themselves, bring their own selves to a group and build knowledge individually and collectively.

Your participation aids to cultivate a space which has the potential to be developed, the potential to be accessed, the potential to offer and create learning contexts rather than a pre programmed activity for our children. The dynamics of the group along with the dynamics of the environment will create the context for learning. The intention is to increase learning for all, honoring the unique capacities and capabilities of each individual, which will bolster learning for all.

As we embark on this collective journey together, we will have opportunities to know more about each child, how each child participates, how each child learns and how each child constructs their own knowledge. In addition, I will be holding these guiding questions in my awareness:

How does one's learning enrich the learning of others?

What are the processes that activate participation?

How are participation and democracy, diversity and difference related?

Thank you again for the opportunity to learn with and alongside your children. I trust this will be a journey full of discovery, meaning and embodiment.

In awe of life while simultaneously saying, while laughing of course!

Hugs,

Sara