Wrenshall News: Right now, outdoor spaces make for ideal classroom

I recently ran across a quote from the writer and thinker Bell Hooks talking about the possibilities a classroom environment offers students: "The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created." In her book "Teaching to Transgress" she continues: "The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility."

There has been a lot written about what impact the loss of a deliberate space for learning might mean for students. I teach at the college level and had my courses switched online. While there have been some wonderful moments with students during this transition, the loss of a shared campus means inequalities become much more transparent.

Karen Strassler teaches at Queens College in New York and recently spoke to the value in the "fiction of equality" in an opinion piece for the New York Times. "Each type of classroom presents distinct challenges and pleasures, but they all have one thing in common. In these classrooms, students meet one another as apparent equals. They sit in the same chairs."

Since the middle of March I've been forcing my family to get outside every day. We've found some wonderful spots that we had somehow overlooked before - tree crevices to perch on, dirt to move around with toy tractors and places to rest for a snack while we notice the sounds and smells of the changing season. I am constantly reminded of how fortunate we are to live in a place that has such easy access to the natural world and that we are free to take these daily outings.

On today's march I was thinking of Strassler's article and I realized that for those that are able to get outside, nature might offer an alternative to those shared chairs. When humans are in nature they meet one another as apparent equals.

Last Friday I found the first wildflower of the season - a beautiful purple hepatica (above). I took a photo and drew it in the journal we've been carrying on our walks. I am seeing the same hepatica that someone else might see, no matter what other circumstances they bring with them into the woods. I also saw bloodroot and, surprisingly, the first three leaves of a trillium.

The paradise of learning is open for all of us right now in Wrenshall and Carlton County. It's in our backyards and our state park. Go outside and partake.

If you want to share a Wrenshall-specific story, call Annie at 218-310-4703 or email [email protected]