Thursday, September 29, 2011
memories for those without
After Wednesday's cider making experience with the elderly people with dementia, Laura posed the question to Sara and I of how this is environmental education. Obviously, for persons who retain long term memories but may not remember their Merry Lea experience even into the next day, it becomes difficult to define it as education. Where the education part comes in is when the adults working with this population see the positive affect these activities have on the attitudes and satisfaction of their group. Too often, elderly are isolated from nature as their physical or mental limitations decline. This is a population that really runs the risk of "nature deficit disorder". Additionally, I believe the elderly are an often overlooked resource. The "sustainable" practices that we strive to achieve were every day living for a generation of people who lived through the depression. Yes, they did this out of necessity. There is much we can learn from them.
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Hmm, that is indeed an interesting question. Is it EE if the participants cannot remember what they learned? I'm inclined to side with Carli in saying, "so what if it isn't?" Although, come to think of it, I suppose it is still EE, because the intent is the same. I'm sure that not all of the kids who come to farmcraft remember what they did and learned the next day, and that certainly doesn't mean it's not EE. Regardless, I'm so glad you and Sara had the opportunity to work with those folks. Glad for them AND you!
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more about the wonderful resource more aged people are. I dislike how, most often, elderly people are treated or ignored in our society. They are the ones with all the knowledge. Everything we need to know they can teach us. Our culture could learn some lessons from other cultures.
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