A School that Walks
our classroom above the Beagle Channel
Biocitizen is a school that walks.
This makes what it does, in many ways, the opposite of conventional institutional learning; the outdoors is our classroom. When we need indoor spaces to work in, we use public facilities: museums, libraries, town halls, cafes. Our basic philosophy is that the world is our text, and to grasp its meanings we must immerse ourselves in it. So, instead of sitting in a rectangular florescent-lit room, we walk.
Instead of teaching indoors, he met his students at the entrance of Athen’s temple of Apollo. From there they walked together, discussing the ideas he presented while moving, sensing, experiencing and interpreting the world directly. Learning is alive when it occurs this way—ideas are felt as much as they are thought.
Our model is also that of ecological field studies, where students make direct contact with what they are studying (wetlands, for example) because no book can ever explain what an ecosystem actually is. The only way to understand ecosystems is to marry book-knowledge with actual experience.
Students of all ages and backgrounds benefit from our programs. They are designed to 1) draw upon the background knowledge students acquire indoors, 2) offer new sources of knowledge, and 3) provide experiences that, by inspiring them to use what they know to interpret the world, challenge and expand that knowledge.
Because our programs are designed to engage the full self, and not just the intellect, they are of value to students who excel in traditional classroom settings, and to students who find it difficult to excel in those same settings. “Gifted” and “ADHD” students experience remarkable personal growth when they walk and learn, and share their learning.
And that is why biocitizen is a school that walks.
walking into the text
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