SelfDesign Nurtures Natural Learning

The face of a joyful two-year-old exploring the world is called to mind when thinking of the natural learning gesture people have to open and interact with the world, going deeper into what catches our attention and feeds our curiosity.

This is a way that people enter into a sense of wonder that brings joy and connection to the world, says Barbarah Nicoll.

At SelfDesign Learning Community, human beings are seen as natural learners from conception.

“We are constantly opening to the world and interacting with the world and opening into ourselves and coming to know ourselves, and that’s learning,” she tells Axiom News.

“We don’t have to be taught how to learn; we do it (and) are actually experts at it.”

Barbarah is vice-principal at SelfDesign, a Nelson, B.C.-based distributed learning school funded by the B.C. Ministry of Education offering programs from kindergarten to Grade 12.

She points to Brent Cameron, founder of the Wondertree Foundation for Natural Learning and SelfDesign. Brent authored SelfDesign Nurturing Genius Through Natural Learning, and likens the unfolding of natural learning to the Fibonacci spiral.

There is a natural orderly unfolding such as a fern unfurling or a shell’s spiral construct, and the Fibonacci sequence is the geometry of that unfolding and can relate to the unfolding of human beings, says Barbarah.

When humans are involved and awakened to a gesture “you can sense that you have an innate joy and curiosity in the world and in yourself and in other people,” she says.

“You’re the most connected when you are doing things in the area that your interest is the strongest,” she adds.

The “corralling of the human being” that has happened with education is abnormal, says Barbarah. She notes there have been political and social reasons for education being introduced to teach many people at one time and the way public schools have evolved, but it doesn’t mean it’s the best idea.

The human gesture of noticing, exploring and desiring to master new skills does have a generalized timing for humans as a whole and the individual.

Barbarah says this can been seen through travelling the world and observing two to four-year-olds playing in a similar way, unless an outside circumstance hampers their expression.

The same part of the brain — the prefrontal cortex — that rapidly grows and lays deep networks and pathways when children are between two-and-a-half to five years old starts to grow again during puberty.

“Our culture doesn’t realize or forgets how precious and vulnerable and full of blossoming human potential these young people are,” she says, adding children need to experience the world is good and needs them.

“They have something to bring to the world, they have gifts that are blossoming,” she says.

Barbarah says young people have a longing to engage, and need to have adults around who are curious about them and they are in service to that provide an “invitation to experience a wonderful world,” which could be one of literature, sciences, history or the arts.

“We stand in a place of deep support and interest in who they are and allow their interests to guide them,” says Barbarah.

At SelfDesign, students choose learning activities and how to express what they have mastered, been curious about and skills they have improved in their courses.

“There’s a real longing for mentorship and to be around people who know things besides your family,” she says.

Visit http://selfdesign.org/ to learn more.

Related Story:

SelfDesign Cultivates Individualized, Choice-Based Learning

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