Connecting Nature and Education | Bandile Phiri | TEDxCalgary

about this time last year I went with my mother to her home country Swaziland and at the time it was summer there and so the earth was in full blossom with rolling hills of bright green grass and we stayed with my gogo on her farm where we were greeted by all my little cousins and my gogo and her neighbors they grow a lot of what they eat and they produce almost no food waste however this lifestyle is becoming increasingly difficult to live because a lot of countries in Africa are experiencing drought Swaziland included this land that they have known for centuries with information passed down to them from their ancestors as beginning to wither away and it gets worse a couple months ago my gogo called saying that my grandfather had passed away because he had been bitten by a snake in his house and this incident these types of incidents are becoming more and more frequent throughout Swaziland because wild snakes are extremely dangerous and they are beginning to take refuge in people's homes to cool off because it's too hot outside for African snakes so over throughout all the chaos of human evolution there's one thing that stays consistent and that is that we are nature we belong to nature we come from nature and whatever or whoever created the mountains and plants and trees and lakes created us as well yet being in nature for many of us is such a rare opportunity it's a once a year events that we take or trip that we take with our family or gardening class during the May long weekend and we surround ourselves with all these things that we've built like our houses and computers and TVs and phones while all very helpful and useful can easily be taken away by the very nature that we've neglected to take interest in now I think that climate change I think it's safe to say that climate change is probably the most greatest issue of our time right now and the way I see climate change is it's like flexion or the Earth's reaction to our growing disconnection from nature and so we can't really fix this problem when we continue to take part in daily routines that involve as little connection to nature as possible like for example my average day of school will include me waking up in my house driving to school spending 6 to 8 hours in the school building maybe going to another building if I feel like eating out then driving back home and spending the rest of the evening in my house doing homework on time I fall asleep wake up the next day and do it all over again and so because we remain so disconnected to nature we tend to not see all these little changes that are happening in the natural environment around us that is planet Earth and so we don't notice often the cause and effect relationship between what we do the things we eat the products we buy and the products we use and how the creation and disposal of these things affect the natural environment and other people around the earth who may not have direct contact with and so perhaps unconsciously we've allowed this global society to build itself with a acceptance for a disregarding human exploitation or exploitation of nature in the pursuit of profit and it's getting us into a lot of trouble with mother nature there's this quote from Albert Einstein and here he defines insanity as trying to solve your problems by using the same thinking that you used to create them and so I think that with climate change we have to change our thinking and it starts with schools I believe that formal education is perhaps one of the most strongest weapons that we have for a successful human evolution because it influences how generations of humans see the world and how they think in relation to their perception of it right now what schools are kind of telling kids is that what we need in the world are people who can conform people who can memorize large amounts of information and people who can follow formulas to realize predetermined answers and the world needs a lot more than that right now we need creative critical thinkers diverse thinkers people who are passionate about what they're doing and not just doing it for money we need scientists business owners leaders who have a strong knowledge in connection with the natural environment right now school sorry right now a lot of the educational systems that are being used throughout the world to educate kids are based on a model that was designed for the previous era a time with a much smaller global population a time when the consumerism culture was still fairly new and didn't cause as big as an eco footprint as it does today and it was also a time with with a smaller urban sprawl and less advanced technology and I think that's really important to look at when we consider education and I think that's why this education system has been so successful up until now when we look at today the students in today's education system have grown up in a world with super advanced technology we have very smart cell phones and computers and HD TV with all these social media apps and so there isn't a whole lot of information Notah vation to go outside and connect to nature anymore so when we're not at school we're usually inside our homes looking at these screens and so that's very important to consider when we look at what makes an effective educational system for the students of today so what would an effective education system for today's students look like well I was thinking about this and I realized that the blueprint for probably the most effective educational system that we can use is all around us and inside us and ironically it's what's trying to kill us right now nature we can use we we can create a educational system modeled on biomimicry which is the act of looking at trends and patterns in nature and using that information to create something that humans can use and we can do that with the educational system rather than educating kids despite nature like keeping them in classrooms at desks this disconnected from their peers telling them that they can't talk to anyone and you're sitting down and receiving information that they find completely irrelevant to their lives and then testing them on it to see how much they can remember we need to use the information that we know about how humans learn and we need to look at the trends that happen in nature and incorporate that into building an educational system that will connect kids with the outdoor environment and also help them realize their full potential so one of the things that we can see in nature is diversity the power and strength of diversity we can use that in education too we need more diversity in teaching more diversity weren't more diversity and how people think and we need to incorporate that into education as well as nature also Tom shows us that things are always constantly changing and that's why I think it's it's very important that the education system is being constantly looked at and constantly updated and tailored and being tailored for the needs of the times also nature shows us that connection is something that is very important everything is connected and right now schools don't really incorporate a whole lot of a whole lot of a connection you know we sit at desks we're disconnected from all the other kids were just listening to what the teacher has to say most of the time there's not usually a lot of windows and classrooms I know like for me personally like they're like I read like maybe two windows in a classroom if I'm lucky and also subjects are very disconnected to we learn and as soon as the bell rings then we have to shut off our thinking for that subject walk to the next class the next subject sit down and activate our brains to think for the needs of that subject so we need to have a lot more connection in education - and not just connection between subjects and peers but also connections between students and the outdoor environments - right now I am part of a very very great program it's an environmental class that I'm taking at the Korean Technology Center that's just right across from my school and the Korean Technology Center is already incorporating a lot of these biomimicry ideas into their education system I remember walking into class on my first day and just feeling like I could really breathe there there are plants all over the classroom there was a big garage door which was open letting all all of the Sun in and I really just felt like I could breathe and think and when you go into class there are no desks for each person there's a table and we all sit around the table and we take part in discussion based learning and we focus on asking questions rather than finding predetermined answers we all choose what projects we want to do in the project I chose was writing the speech that I'm sharing with you today and you can see some of the other projects outside and the teachers help us and guide us through these projects so when so when so when you go there another thing that you'll notice is that all of the students in this class are all very different we all have very different interests which shows that this type of learning appeals to all different types of students right now the education system for the most part is the the people who are in the decision making positions in the education system right now are people who have thrived with the standardization standardization type of learning and because of that there isn't a whole lot of empathy for kids who struggle with this type of learning and I think that there needs to be because the numbers of kids who are struggling are starting to rise the numbers of kids who are being failed by this system are no longer just a small minority that we can ignore and yes there are many students who do do very who do very well in this system but from what I can see many of these students are simply tolerating school and that's not learning learning is so beautiful and it's not something that you just simply be tolerated especially because it's so important for the evolution of human beings we are humans before we are students before we are numbers on test scores or statistics or scores to make our country look good we are humans we come from nature we belong to nature and whatever created the trees and mountains and lakes created us as well we are human and that cannot be avoided we are creative beings and that what sets and that's what sets us apart from other animals in the course of evolution and when we take away that creativity that that that ability to think critically and creatively and be diverse and that freedom and connection to the natural environment we become at risk as a species and that's what the earth is trying to tell us we are human and I think it's about time that we start learning like it's because education is a very important catalyst for human evolution thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 31,893

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Canada, Education, Education reform, Nature, Science, Youth

Id: nVj3qizoWS8

Length: 12min 27sec (747 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 10 2016