These reviews appeared in the Spring/Summer 2020 issue (Issue 61) of the Reforesting Scotland Journal.
Hawthorn Press publish ‘thoughtful books to support a creative, peaceful and sustainable world’ according to their mission statement, and these two books illustrate the diverse range of their publications, even within the field of outdoor learning.
Creative place-based environmental education shares the models of learning developed over 20 years in Aurland, Sognefjord, Norway, in their primary and secondary school and their agricultural college, a vocational upper secondary school with a large organic landholding. We have much to learn from the landscapes, land ownership and land management practices of our Scandi neighbours. That is also the case in education, where Scandinavia is considered the birthplace of Forest School and outdoor nurseries, where there is a play-based kindergarten stage right through to age seven and a very different and broader model of leaming right the way through schooling, compared to our traditional ‘subject-silo’ approach to secondary education.
For a dense and academic text, the book is accessibly written and peppered with stories and case-studies to show what the theory looks like in practice. I found the tale of two teenage boys choosing ‘pig slaughtering’ as their subject for in-depth study particularly humbling – raising two piglets for six months, being present at their slaughter and preparing the sausages and other cuts of meat afterwards. The book’s premise is that when children and young people engage in a meaningful way with the natural and cultural environment in which they live (within the school garden, farm and wilder areas in that region) through skilfully facilitated activities, curricular outcomes are met and connections with ‘place’ are deepened. There are some lovely case studies from elsewhere, including the Ruskin Mill colleges in England and Wales. The approach described very much resonates with that of the Shieling Project in Strathfarrar, featured in issue 58 of this Journal (page 11).
The power of stories and storytelling runs through this book, with links to ancient lore and stories of the landscape and the people who inhabited it. By exploring these local stories, and participating in authentic ‘work’ that helps shape these landscapes, children and young people can write themselves into the rich narrative of their own ‘place’. This book is a well-documented model for a very different kind of education to the neo-liberal, target-driven education system we seem to be increasingly moving towards, despite the laudable original intentions of our Curriculum for Excellence. It is a vision where schools open out to become the creative centres for sustainable community development, and children and young people are supported to participate in creating the kind of world they want to grow up in.
In contrast to the academic writing of the first book, The children’s forest is a beautifully-illustrated cosy delight. It is packed full of games, crafts, stories, songs, recipes and plant lore, organised across the seasons of the year and the Celtic festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasa and Samhain. As someone who works with children outdoors, I already have a whole shelf of ‘activities to do with children outdoors’ books for inspiration. However, there were many ideas in here that were new to me, from super simple (adding clay faces to pinecones to transform them into hedgehogs) to the more involved (making ink from acorns and then using a simple feather quill pen to write fairy letters on scraps of birch bark). Contained within the book are lots of ideas for rituals or celebrations to mark the Celtic festivals or change in the seasons. I can imagine this might feel a stretch for some (myself included) but could be really positive to try. It is not cheap, but as a resource book for children’s nature connection activities to dip into and take inspiration from, it is a valuable addition to the home library in my view.
Rachel Avery
For more information on these titles, please visit the books’ pages on our website: Creative Place-Based Environmental Education: Children and Schools as Ecopreneurs for Change (out of print) and The Children’s Forest.
