Rallying Cry & How-to Manual

Why Learning by Nature - the book - is needed in the world

Hi! 

Tomorrow we head back to Colorado for two months after our first year of living in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s a wild transition. If I let myself get worked up, I feel like there’s a lot to figure out. Then I remember that just 9 months ago, we uprooted our family and moved overseas with a 2- and 4-year old. What do we need to live in Colorado for two months? Bikes, helmets, some underwear and shoes. Sun hats. A few changes of clothes. I think we’ll be ok. 

Photo by Ross Parmly on Unsplash

Our impending travel is making me a bit distracted. And, today’s letter is important. Plus, I want to write it to untangle and wrangle my thoughts into some coherent package before I see many of you again soon-soon – hopefully some of my former students and colleagues at the High Mountain Institute’s 25-year reunion (HMI is one of the places where I facilitated days-and-nights-under-skies-capital-N-Nature experiences I wrote about here). 

And – right after that retreat I get to join the inaugural cohort of Good Natured Learning’s Brains on Nature Fellows for the International Children & Nature Network conference in Colorado. Dreamy! Hopefully I’ll get to see some of you there as well. 

Welcome new readers (returnees can skip this part)

Hi new readers! Learning by Nature is my sandbox for exploring things I see as being connected to nature-based learning (which, by its very nature 😉, is nearly everything). It’s my platform for writing-a-book-in-public to get feedback on ideas and my writing. It’s a way for me to share my oodles of words and thoughts and maybe make them more a bit more organized a bit. It’s a space for reflection. 

I have always loved letter writing, so that’s how I’m approaching this for now – don’t hold me to it forever. I would be much obliged if you write back (comments are highly awesome) to have this feel less like missive and more like correspondence. 🙏

Also, please send my letters to your friends

So we’re on the same page, here’s my working definition of nature-based learning:

Nature-based learning is learning outdoors or bringing elements of nature indoors for learning, in any content area, any grade, any curriculum/school model, anywhere. 

Here you can read boatloads of (hopefully engaging) words where I trace how I came to this definition if you like. Notably, the definition has even evolved since then. 

Anyhow, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. 

Today - Step 2 of Finding an Agent: A Compelling Argument

Even if I don’t end up with an agent (not a necessity on the path to bookdom, right

Sam Chaltain, 180 Studio

?), I still really need to be able to explain what Learning by Nature – the book – is about and, ultimately, write it.

So I’m chipping away, little-by-little at

Kimberly Nicholas

’ checklist for finding an agent. 

1. An elevator pitch “In MY BOOK TITLE, I argue that X” Read my first draft elevator pitch designed for a very tall building.

2. A compelling argument for why this book is needed in the world. 

3. Who is the audience? 

4. Why should I write it? (establish my credibility)

5. A Table of Contents-style outline of chapters w/ some ideas about what goes into each and how they are related

6. A reasonably strong draft of at least one full chapter 

This “compelling argument” task feels like the gauntlet. Plus - I got some feedback on my elevator pitch (thanks @Susan for being a superb critical friend) about how the fact of our human evolution in nature is not super compelling to her – but the benefits of nature connection and consequences of not having nature connections are – which I get and agree with. So now I need to dive into the maw and return victorious with the most salient-gut-punch-in-a-good-way compelling argument I can muster. 

Here goes…

Part why-to rallying cry, part how-to manual, Learning by Nature: Tackling Nature Deficit Disorder in Schools  lays out why and how to foster human-nature connections in schools everywhere. 

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Why-to rallying cry:

1. There are boatloads of educational, social, health, and environmental problems.

2. Human-nature connections yield individual, community, and planetary benefits in each of these categories.

3. 1.56 billion people¹ (BILLION! – nearly 20% of the WORLD’S POPULATION!) spend a lot of time in schools.

How-To Manual:

Here’s how.

Implement nature-based learning in schools. 

This can happen IMMEDIATELY when we empower educators everywhere to implement nature-based learning practices (pedagogical and classroom design) in their locus of control. We have the knowhow, personnel, and systems to allow for this RIGHT NOW.

Longer-term, apply nature-based learning design principles to spread and adapt the naturey goodness everywhere to grow higher quality, more equitable human-nature connections for all those people in schools.

📣 Calls-to-Action

I know it’s not best practice to have more than one “CTA” (call-to-action)…and I lack the discipline to prune my list:

1. Please share feedback on this argument - in comments so others can chime in or in an email - beccakatz@gmail.com

2. Help me think of a good subtitle.

3. Share my substack with someone you know. 

Ok. Have a good rest of your day. I’ll be in touch again soon. 

B

1. ChatGPT got these numbers from a 2018 UNESCO report