Blog 3: Why Sense of Place Matters

 

       
 Sense of place matters because we each have our own distinct connection to place. Our most personal  and probably diverse, sense of place is in the perceptual dimension. The lens through which each of us perceives is crafted from every experience we have ever had, things our parents said or didn't say, the environments we grew up in, social and economic status - everything that has touched our lives, influences how we view any given situation or place.

         
  As educators, we need to take this into consideration, as we start off the year with our plans to implement the amazing units we have crafted for our students. Why? Because we are operating from our own, perceptional sense of place with our own very strong convictions of what is most important for our students to learn. Because I come from a free range, outdoorsy, left leaning, environmentally conscious kind of childhood - I find that most of my units want to address environmental issues in some way. I'm distressed by the lack of eco-consciousness that I see around me, particularly in the middle school students I have worked with here on Oahu. I want these kids, who stay inside all day on their devices, to go out and play. I want them to appreciate nature, while all they want to do is hang out in cyber space. I also recognize how this view may be perceived as elitist. 

   

  I know that I grew up privileged, in a place devoid of freeways, chainlink fences, gunshots and gangs. It was safe to go outside any time of day or night, to camp or hike or bike and we could walk everywhere we wanted to go. Parents didn't have to worry much about us. I had two working parents, my dad was a professor and mom a nurse. There were books all over our house. My mom had a garden. There was a piano and art. Our family talked about what went on in the world. Conversely,  I have had students who were not allowed to leave the house at all because their parents were fearful of what was outside. They didn't go to the beach or visit the aquarium or the nature center or the museums. Often they had to take care of siblings, cook dinner and clean house, in addition to keeping up with their school work, because both of their working parents came home late   Here we see a potential rift in sense of place, between student and teacher.

  My dad once told me that first and foremost is self preservation, survival. Once that has been established there is room for art, ideas, and caring for more than just ourselves.  When people are in survival mode, they can't care about where their food is coming from and whether or not their fruit has been sprayed, they're just lucky to have it. 

      On the other side of the spectrum are the kids who have been given everything, who have all of the advantages of wealth and social status. They may feel they don't have to work for anything or care about issues that do not affect their own social and financial well being. Being disconnected from how the majority of people live, may hinder their sense of social responsibility.

       Having said that, I am by no means devaluing the life experiences my students have had in relation to my own. Their perceptions have value and as Tara pointed out in her power point, regardless of where people are from, they are connected with and have pride in their place. I may be horrified to hear about kids joining in gang fights or having to avoid parts of their neighborhoods to reduce the possibility of being shot, whereas they would think growing up in a bucolic setting was a colossal bore. 

     Before introducing our well meaning and important units, we need to bring our class to a collective understanding of what we are doing and why.  We can begin to establish this collective understanding by exploring the sense of place and personal and cultural ideologies, that each of our students bring with them. How do these relate to our curriculum as we begin to widen their scope of place? What may be their role in this wider, real world place? How do we empower them to care and to act? If we are bringing in concepts of social and /or environmental justice (the environment should have rights too) with the intention  of having our students take action, they need to know why they should care, how they and their families and their places are being affected and how they can participate in making change. This is all part of establishing a working sense of place in our classrooms.