Seeing Old Things in New Ways; A statement of purpose, learning and teaching
Unlike some, as a child I was encouraged to play in the mud. I was taught to touch and feel and experience my surroundings, and explore the unknown. As a child of two teachers, I was taught to experience new things and to keep my eyes open to the beauty that surrounds us on so many scales. I have found that opportunities to see and experience new things are, in fact, everywhere. They are around every corner, perched in a tree, beneath your feet, or sitting right next to you. Each situation that is experienced deeply, can and will change the way that a person sees themselves and everything else. This assimilation is learning.
The experiences that have brought me to where I am now are far reaching in geography, but carry certain common themes. One is compassion for the organisms around me, which in my early teens could be labeled a desire to "save the world". Combined with a little more maturity, this developed into a "conservation ethic," with a desire to continue to play in the mud. All of this is encompassed in the work I have been involved in for the last 15 years, trail maintenance and reconstruction. It has allowed me to travel through the United States, working and living in landscapes from postcards, and taking every opportunity to experience new people, new geology, new landscapes, and mud pits.
Through these years of intense social group living ad working dynamics, I learned much about working with people, leadership, and more than anything, myself. I could not say which experiences provided the most learning, as they were each unique. Possibly my greatest learning experience grew from the first time I saw a starving child, while docked off the coast of Cap Haitian, Haiti on a 3.5 month long schooner trip. Or maybe my greatest was learning patience while wrestling a 300 pound rock into place in the pouring rain, through clouds of biting insects so thick that a bug-free inhalation was impossible. Or maybe, my greatest learning experience was the first time I did not succeed, regardless of how hard I tried. At this point, I can see no experience that is greater than any other, but allowed me to see aspects of the world and myself in a new light.
One thing I have clearly gained in summation of these experiences, regardless of how large of small, from the origins of the soils beneath my feet, to ecological decimation of a people and a place, is the creation of a world view that continues to widen. Each experience changes the way that I look at the entire world, old and new. Things that are considered average become spectacular, with depth and breadth, while everything else shifts around these perspectives. In my mind, this is true education and the product of learning.
Through 15 years of working in the field of trail reconstruction, living from Maine to Alaska, finding beautiful things from bromeliads of Ecuador, to the polished limestone of Thailand, I am ready to stop playing in the mud (atleast, very often), and go back to "saving the world," or in my more mature language, creating wider change in the world. Having teachers for parents, I vehemently denied any interest in teaching. However, it seems to be the clearest conclusion to my next intellectual and professional pursuit, as what seems the most effective way for me to create change. I find that every experience I have had to share my passions for the world around me and ignite interest in others, or to aid someone in an exploration that opens the world up to them, or to bring someone outside of themselves and their view points for one moment, is the most rewarding moment to be found. This is what I plan to bring to teaching.
Unlike some, as a child I was encouraged to play in the mud. I was taught to touch and feel and experience my surroundings, and explore the unknown. As a child of two teachers, I was taught to experience new things and to keep my eyes open to the beauty that surrounds us on so many scales. I have found that opportunities to see and experience new things are, in fact, everywhere. They are around every corner, perched in a tree, beneath your feet, or sitting right next to you. Each situation that is experienced deeply, can and will change the way that a person sees themselves and everything else. This assimilation is learning.
The experiences that have brought me to where I am now are far reaching in geography, but carry certain common themes. One is compassion for the organisms around me, which in my early teens could be labeled a desire to "save the world". Combined with a little more maturity, this developed into a "conservation ethic," with a desire to continue to play in the mud. All of this is encompassed in the work I have been involved in for the last 15 years, trail maintenance and reconstruction. It has allowed me to travel through the United States, working and living in landscapes from postcards, and taking every opportunity to experience new people, new geology, new landscapes, and mud pits.
Through these years of intense social group living ad working dynamics, I learned much about working with people, leadership, and more than anything, myself. I could not say which experiences provided the most learning, as they were each unique. Possibly my greatest learning experience grew from the first time I saw a starving child, while docked off the coast of Cap Haitian, Haiti on a 3.5 month long schooner trip. Or maybe my greatest was learning patience while wrestling a 300 pound rock into place in the pouring rain, through clouds of biting insects so thick that a bug-free inhalation was impossible. Or maybe, my greatest learning experience was the first time I did not succeed, regardless of how hard I tried. At this point, I can see no experience that is greater than any other, but allowed me to see aspects of the world and myself in a new light.
One thing I have clearly gained in summation of these experiences, regardless of how large of small, from the origins of the soils beneath my feet, to ecological decimation of a people and a place, is the creation of a world view that continues to widen. Each experience changes the way that I look at the entire world, old and new. Things that are considered average become spectacular, with depth and breadth, while everything else shifts around these perspectives. In my mind, this is true education and the product of learning.
Through 15 years of working in the field of trail reconstruction, living from Maine to Alaska, finding beautiful things from bromeliads of Ecuador, to the polished limestone of Thailand, I am ready to stop playing in the mud (atleast, very often), and go back to "saving the world," or in my more mature language, creating wider change in the world. Having teachers for parents, I vehemently denied any interest in teaching. However, it seems to be the clearest conclusion to my next intellectual and professional pursuit, as what seems the most effective way for me to create change. I find that every experience I have had to share my passions for the world around me and ignite interest in others, or to aid someone in an exploration that opens the world up to them, or to bring someone outside of themselves and their view points for one moment, is the most rewarding moment to be found. This is what I plan to bring to teaching.