Thoughts on Place-based Education

When I decided to take this two-day seminar/class, I had no idea how much I would be immersed in reminders of my childhood, nor did I realize how much I'd missed out on learning about this area, even though I grew up in SE Alaska. My knowledge of plants, berries, trees, and shrubs is infantile compared to what I could still learn. Timely reminders to address the forest, the beach, the sun, and all of nature inspire me to continue to pass those words of wisdom onto my children.

What strikes me the most, though, is about language. I think the Tlingit language was suppressed when I was a child in 1960's and
1970's Juneau, though I do remember seeing the dances and hearing the drums and chants during occasional visits from tribal members to school. We didn't learn or hear the indigenous place names, we didn't see the written language, there weren't dual names to local buildings and landmarks. The children of Native descent weren't necessarily encouraged to learn the Tlingit language - maybe in their homes, but not in school or anywhere publicly. This past two days reminded me that those things were probably always there; it's just that they weren't available, obvious, or taught to me. Why? Why not? My best friend when I was growing up was born to a Tlingit mother and Caucasian father. I remember her beautiful Tlingit grandmother, but we learned no words from her. She likely was in the generation of assimilation and had been taught to appear as one of Western culture to some extent.

Here are my thoughts on three of the concepts we discussed on June 7 and 8:

Regeneration: I think of regeneration as providing renewed energy and interest in a project, issue, or social concern. The rise of the use and teaching of the Tlingit language in Juneau over the last 20 years is an example of regeneration, or the regenerating of the value of the language.

Resilience: I think of resilience as the flexibility of a species or culture to maintain it's integrity while existing in the 21st century. It is noted by one of the Tlingit culture bearers in a DVD about Elizabeth Peratrovich and her speech to the Alaska legislature, that the Tlingit people have never been "conquered", but have gone from "repression" by the western culture to "assimilation" into western ways to "parallel existence" with western influence.

Restoration: I think of restoration as the process of returning something to it's original state of being. The example in the STRAW project video was powerful in illustrating place-based education in a natural science setting. The students, and eventually their teacher, worked to restore something to it's original state - the waterways to protect the freshwater shrimp. A number of people at this two-day seminar commented that it would be nice if somehow the herring and sockeye populations in the Auke Bay area could be restored in time.