A lovely visit from Clifford Paul to our class was most enjoyable, inspirational and as always for me, emotional. Clifford is a vastly talented and unassuming man. He is a fabulous photographer, reporter, author, jewelry maker and an excellent speaker. Clifford is also the co-ordinator of the “moose”. He works along side of Chiefs, the Province, and Parks Canada to ensure the longevity of our moose. The word he used was “responsibility”.
Clifford takes this word seriously. He spoke so knowledgably about nature, the plants and animals. He spoke about learning, and how we need to get the children outside the classroom walls and into the great outdoors. Reconnecting with our environment. That the kids should not just be regurgitating information from text books.How can you teach children to respect and be responsible for the earth if they don’t know anything about it? Pretty hard to fish if you have no idea what a brook looks like.
I thought about this. I thought about how knowing how something works from a book is not the same as first hand experiences. I thought about a video we had seen in “food” class. One kindergarten child thought a potato was a tomato. Another child when asked “where do carrots come from” replied, “The grocery store.” We has become so disconnected from our planet, our food.
Clifford talked about his ancestors and why they lived long, long lives. They knew how nature worked, how to grow food and hunt. How to be responsible with nature and to replace what they had taken from it. They took only what they needed from the earth and gave thanks for their triumphs. Resources where respect wholly. The future is what we teach our children. I think it is time to go back to the beginning so we can move ahead to the future.
Two-Eyed Seeing for Health 