Jospeh Bruchac is one of the great teachers of our times and is central to the work that I do with young children. As a Native American, Abenaki, author, poet, storyteller, musician and environmental educator, his teachings always address the the whole child, the whole teaching and learning situation in the context of the unity of the earth and the interconnectedness of all things. Many of his explicitly “educational” books are written with Michael Caduto who I will not address in this profile but whose contributions to the Keepers of the Earth series should not be minimized or overlooked. Start with Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children and continue to learn and grow as a teacher by working through his magisterial corpus of educational books and activities.
Joseph Bruchac always situates his educational work in the context of storytelling and an ethic of respect, care and love for the earth. He steadfastly avoids the fragmentation of knowledge into “disciplines,” and the separation of literacy learning from being a part nature and learning how to live in harmony with others. As Arlo Guthrie sang several decades ago, “schools are still like prisons because you don’t learn how to live.” Bruchac asks us as educators to constantly think through how we are connecting the stories we tell, the songs we sing, the activities we set up for children, the experiences we facilitate, the kinds of projects we scaffold, the sorts of reflections and celebrations we value, and the kinds of ethical values we seek to encourage, into an integrated, coherent whole.
In an interview for a literary magazine Bruchac cites a study in Robert Coles’ monumental five volume, Children in Crisis, study of children in the United States. He reflects on how the “typical” child’s drawing of him or herself and their family puts the child in the center, some stick figures for mom, dad and siblings, and maybe a stereotypical house, fence and sun. On the other hand a Native American child’s drawing will often represent him or herself off to the side in the context of a larger social and natural landscape. The kind of inevitable narcissism that comes from the child being the crown jewel of the nuclear family in a hyper consumer materialistic culture, is subverted by a deep rooted, implicit understanding of oneself as being a part of nature rather than being apart from and alienated from the natural world. Through his storytelling Bruchac situates the child in a reverent, curious, open, caring relationship to other people, plants, animals and the earth.
A cursory survey of the table of contents of Keepers of the Earth provides a basic, comprehensive nature based curriculum that can serve as a guiding framework for a school or an individual educator. The topics he addresses are: creation myths, the origin stories that plumb the great mysteries of where we come from, life, death and the spirit; the basic elements, fire, earth, water and air that make up the world; the sky and the heavens; the seasons, which provide the basic framework for a phenology of seasonal events and changes that will be intuitive to a lot of preschool and early childhood educators; plants and animals; and the great interconnected, inter-community web of life that is central to Native American spirituality and forms of life and is also at the heart of modern ecological science and the environmental movement.
The term “outdoor education” is almost a pleonasm (the use of more words than are necessary to convey ones meaning) for Bruchac since education is essentially about finding one’s place in the natural world. This becomes clear when he divides the suggested activities to go with the stories into four areas: 1) sensory awareness of Earth, 2) understanding of Earth, 3) caring for Earth, 4) caring for people. This does not in any way diminish the importance of technology and art, rather, instead of understanding technology and art as ways of mastering and subjugating nature, they are understood as tools, techniques, strategies and ways of seeing that foster a greater understanding of, and suitable ways of relating with, the world and our place in it. Education is essentially “place based education.”
A primary, educational purpose with young children is to initiate and support them in having pleasurable, memorable experiences outdoors. “Waves tumble over sands; wind rushes through pine boughs; flowers scent the breeze over a field; a pungent smell wafts from the pavement near a vacant lot after a rain—these and more are waiting to be experienced outdoors. There is adventure in the unknown, and even the familiar looks different when it is being visited with the intent of discovering what has been looked at but not yet seen, heard but never listened to. Whether in the backyard, on the school grounds, a vacant lot, nature center lands, a wilderness area or a vest pocket park in the city, there are discoveries awaiting.” We want to facilitate a process of exploring, wondering, discovering, caring and growing where curiosity and adventure go hand in hand.
Taking your students outside, spending large periods of time outdoors, is essential to the overall project of exploring the natural world and overcoming our modern alienation from ourselves, each other and the earth. “I see people becoming lost. One of the reasons I write is because part of what I write might be a little bit of a map, a little bit of a way post, pointing to something that’s important. I think that people all over this continent and all over the world have a great emptiness in their hearts and a great feeling of loss in their spirits without even consciously knowing they feel loss. I think that some of the anger and frustration and the violence that we saw at the Woodstock 111 music festival was a result of young people lacking connection, feeling disenfranchised, feeling lost. In the midst of all that music and sound they were not coming in touch with the land but were feeling out of touch with the land and with each other, feeling alienation. That can, by the way, be changed (my italics). I’ve worked again and again with groups of of young people who initially know nothing about the land. But when you take them out into the woods in a small group, after a day or two their minds begin to change and their spirits begin to heal.” ( https://www.jstor.org/stable/20737139?read-now=1&seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents ). We need to take seriously and listen carefully to Bruchac’s “little maps” and “way posts” if we are to get at what is really important in our work as educators and caretakers of children!
Bruchac is an important guide to educators in this violent, alienating confusing world. I can think of no better way to begin a process of change, healing and growth than to learn “by heart” some of the stories that Bruchac shares, try out some the engaging, memorable activities that he suggests, and tend to the body, mind and spirit of the whole child in their specific cultural milieus, by exploring natural and sacred places and spaces together, and in the process, becoming good stewards and keepers of the Earth.
Additional resources:
http://josephbruchac.com/ Joseph Bruchac’s website (always start at the source)
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/authors/joseph-bruchac/ A functional breakdown of the “grade level” of various Bruchac books for children
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/bruchac An incredibly wide-ranging, illuminating and educational interview with Bruchac that is very helpful to this white educator in avoiding typical pitfalls in appropriating and using Native American culture to teach children!
