Spirit in the Land: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Education

Near the end of my training at the Jung Institute in Zurich, I had one of the most powerful and simple dreams I have ever had. It was a single-image dream of a typical upper Midwestern landscape. There was a meadow with very green grass, flowers and possibly alfalfa. The topography was gently rolling with trees on the horizon. Insects flew above the meadow. It was a beautiful sunny day with puffy white clouds in a blue sky. What was most remarkable about this simple scene was that it shown with an inner light: every atom in the dream was alive. Despite having seen some of the most beautiful scenery in the world—California, the Grand Canyon, the Canadian Rockies, Switzerland--I have never seen anything as beautiful as this simple meadow scene.

This is an example of what the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung called a numinous dream—a dream with an inner light and a sacred sense. I contend that no indigenous person has had a more sacred dream of the land. Every human is capable of experiencing this. Long ago Jung recognized this archetypal need of a connection to, and love of the land that E. O. Wilson calls “biophilia”.

When one has such a dream, the challenge is to let it lead one’s life and direct one’s conscious orientation. To follow such a dream’s inspiration is to walk a path with heart. Having grown up in Wisconsin, I knew the state affected me deeply, but I had no sense of just how deeply until this dream. I began to look at all elements of the Upper Midwest more closely—its soils, topography, flora and fauna, seasons, etc. To deepen this process and help convey this sense of the land to others, my wife and I set up a week-long summer institute in 1991 called Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People. The Institute was so well received that we ran a second one in 1992, followed by a reduced version for the University of Wisconsin Extension in 1994. In 1992 we got a grant to conduct three teleworkshops using presenters from the Spirit in the Land seminars. This was part of a series of extension programs called “Strategies for Improving Schools”, our program being titled “New Approaches to Environmental Education”.

Presenters at the Spirit in the Land seminars included four Jungian analysts; a geologist, soil scientist and dendrologist; nature educators; a professor of teacher education; a Wisconsin writer; a Native American artist, Native American story teller, and Native American dancer; a therapist practitioner of shamanism; a psychiatrist who works with the criminally insane; the mayor of Madison; instructors in t’ai chi, psychosynthesis, and body work; the Wisconsin Secretary of State from the famous Wisconsin progressive tradition; a Buddhist monk; and the daughter of Aldo Leopold who took us on a tour of Leopold’s shack. The talks I gave at the various events became the genesis of my writing four volumes of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe—Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology. This Spirit conferences were some of the first Jungian attempts to integrate Jungian psychology, science, and Native American spirituality in a didactic and experiential manner. The term “ecopsychology” was coined by Theodore Roszak in his 1992 book The Voice of the Earth and the first book on ecopsychology appeared in 1995: I was engaged with the topic before it had a name. To convey my sense of an interdisciplinary environmental education program, I am reproducing the contents of three brochures announcing the Institutes and a description of the teleconferences.

1991 Madison Summer Institute Education for the 21st Century
SPIRIT IN THE LAND, SPIRIT IN ANIMALS, SPIRIT IN PEOPLE

From the Director…

I grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin where I spent many hours of my free time wandering the hills and marshes with my dog. A deep connection was forged between the land and my psyche, much deeper than I realized. After spending many years away from the Midwest, working on a doctorate at Berkeley in the late 60’s in Insect Pathology (microbial control of insects), then a master’s degree in Humanistic Psychology from Sonoma State College, California, and finally training to become a Jungian Analyst in Zurich, Switzerland, I was led by a series of powerful dreams to return to the land I have felt so connected to. I also became involved in sweat lodge, vision quest and Sundance ceremonies of the Lakota Sioux of the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota which added a depth of relationship to the environment I could not have otherwise imagined.

It is out of this background that I have put together a series of speakers and workshops that will help us embody a unique, multidimensional experience of our environment. The didactic, Western scientific content of the program will be presented in such a way as to enhance, not distance ourselves, from “all our relatives”: the four-leggeds, the standing brothers (trees), etc. The aesthetics of our relationship to nature will be experienced by hearing from artists, writers and poets, who have been deeply influenced by their ties to the land. In many ways and forms the Native American experience will permeate the program, including a guided tour of Madison’s fascinating Effigy Mounds with their astronomical alignments and hearing tales from a Winnebago Indian about the land and the animals of this area. There will be a strong emphasis on the intra-psychic dimension of our connection to the environment as revealed by dreams, myths, synchronistic events, and shamanistic techniques to discover our spirit animals. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin will discuss the hard reality issues he faces in trying to preserve the environment via effective legislative and land-use planning.

The entire program will be framed in a Jungian, symbolic, archetypal perspective, yet the contributions of the varied and talented presenters will offer perspectives and experiences beyond this framework. New models for education will be explored as this 1st Annual Summer Institute is an aspect of a broader model being developed for the University, entitled Education For The 21st Century.

We have the perfect environment for this program on the beautiful 135 acres of St. Benedict Center overlooking the shores of Lake Mendota to the East and rolling hillsides of trees and farmland to the West. Please join us August 19-25, 1991, for this week-long Madison Summer Institute—Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People.

Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

PROGRAM:

Monday, Aug. 19

Registration

1-2:00pm THE SPIRIT IN NATURE AND JUNG’S CONCEPT OF THE SYMBOLIC LIFE
DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

THE ICE AGE AND ITS IMPRINT ON OUR ENVIRONMENT
LEE CLAYTON, Ph.D.

WOODLAND TRADITIONS Artist’s slide show
TRUMAN LOWE, MFA

Tuesday, Aug. 20

AN ARCHETYPAL VIEW OF THE MIDWEST ENVIRONMENT
DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SOIL Slide show, violin music and songs
FRANCIS HOLE, Ph.D.

WALKING IN THE SPIRIT OF NATURE Nature walk MARION MORAN

ZEN GARDENS; ART BORN OF NATURE’S POETRY Multimedia presentation, meditation
BRYAN WALTON

Wednesday, Aug 21

MEETING MYSELF COMING ‘ROUND CORNERS
Nationally acclaimed author BEN LOGAN

SPIRIT, EROS AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF RELATIONSHIPS Includes video clips from operas
JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

SEASONS OF THE SOUL--ARCHETYPAL PATTERNS IN WEATHER AND CLIMATE
DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

SHAMANIC IMAGES OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF SPIRIT AND BODY Slide show
JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

Thursday, Aug. 22

TOUR: NATURAL BRIDGE STATE PARK Plants used by Native Americans

LUNCH at FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT designed restaurant, Spring Green

TOUR: HILLSIDE HOME SCHOOL—TALIESIN Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architectural School and Grounds
Tour Leader…BRYAN WALTON


TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION IN AN INTEGRATED ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM
HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

Friday, Aug. 23

ANIMAL FROLICS AND OTHER CHINESE EXERCISES Exercise, T’ai Chi
DONNA SILVER

WINNEBAGO ANIMAL TALES AND MYTHS
KAREN MARTIN

FINDING YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL Workshop, drumming
MYRON ESHOWSKY, M.S.

THE MENDOTA EFFIGY MOUND GROUP Slide presentation
GARY MAIER, M.D.

Saturday, Aug. 24

Morning in Madison – State Street, Farmer’s Market, John Muir Exhibit, Woodland Indians Exhibit, Boating on the Lake, etc.


TOUR: EFFIGY MOUNDS Eagle, turtle, deer, etc. and Frank Lloyd Wright designed Unitarian Church
Tour Leader…..GARY MAIER, M.D.

BANQUET: Address AESTHETICS, LAND-USE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Mayor of Madison - PAUL SOGLIN, LL.B.

Sunday,Aug. 25
THE BLACK MADONNA--THE DARK FEMININE, AN IMAGE FOR THE EARTH
FRED GUSTAFSON, D.Min.

CLOSING CEREMONY 11:00 –11:30 am
HEDWIG WEILER, M.S.N.,R.N.

PRESENTERS:

LEE CLAYTON, Ph.D. Geologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. Special interest in the glacial geology and history of the Ice Age in the Midwest.

MYRON ESHOWSHY, M.S. Psychotherapist in private practice in Madison and teaching faculty member of Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Has taught shamanism workshops across the U.S. Much of his current work involves the integration of ancient shamanic methods with modern psychotherapeutic practice.

FRED GUSTAFSON, D. Min. Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and an ordained Lutheran minister. Practices in Watertown, WI as both Jungian Analyst and Pastoral Counselor. Contributing author of Betwixt and Between and author of The Black Madonna. Sundancer for the last 4 years at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota under the leadership of Medicine Man, Norbert Elmer Running.

JOHN HAULE, Ph.D. Doctorate in Religious Studies from Temple University. Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and practicing Jungian Analyst in Newton, Massachusetts. Faculty member and ex-President of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts where he has been on the training board for a number of years. Author of Divine Madness —Archetypes of Romantic Love.

FRANCIS HOLE, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Departments of Geography and Soil Science. Author of Soils of Wisconsin, co-author of Soil Genesis and Classification and Soil Landscape Analysis. His main interest before and after retirement is in the soul and its connection to the soil.

BEN LOGAN Nationally acclaimed author of The Land Remembers—The Story of a Farm and Its People. Novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher and writer/producer of films and Emmy award winning network television. Born in Southwest Wisconsin, he has remained rooted in that hill country.

TRUMAN LOWE, MFA Wisconsin Winnebago and a UW-Madison Art Professor specializing in environmental art. Past director of the Native American Studies Program at UW. Recipient of numerous awards. Has exhibited throughout the US, in embassies, in Canada and the Palais de Nations, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. His environmental sculptures are personal investigations into the peoples and traditions of the Great Lakes and Plains.

GARY MAIER, M.D. Head of Forensic Psychiatry at Mendota Mental Health Institute, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UW-Madison and a national consultant on aggression management. His longstanding interest in Native American culture goes back to his childhood. Since being in Madison, he has developed a particular interest in the mounds of this area.

HERB MARTIN, Ph.D. Assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education at California State University, Sacramento. Has won awards for teaching excellence at Louisiana and California State Universities. Specializes in world cultural mythologies and their application to multicultural education in elementary education. His cultural heritage as African American and Cherokee provides a more personal insight into these topics.

KAREN MARTIN A Wisconsin Winnebago and graduate from UW-Madison in Consumer Science and Financial Planning. For several years Karen has been doing outreach programs in Wisconsin public schools sharing her culture with children through myths, tales, dance, music and art.

DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D. [DIRECTOR] Doctorate in Insect Pathology, UC-Berkeley. Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and a Jungian Analyst and sandplay therapist in private practice in Madison. A contributing author in The Analytic Life, “Jungian Psychology and Science—A Strained Relationship.”

MARION MORAN Naturalist, previously associated with the UW Arboretum and the UW Environmental Resource Unit. She provides courses and environmental programs across Wisconsin, with an emphasis on the interdependent relationships of all living things.

DONNA SILVER Has been practicing T’ai Chi Chuan since 1977. Has taught T’ai Chi and various forms of Chi Kung exercises for nine years based at the T’ai Chi Center in Madison.

PAUL SOGLIN, LL.B, Mayor of Madison Graduate from UW Law School. A student activist when elected to the City Council in 1968. Served as Mayor of Madison 1973-79. Left office for a private law practice. Elected Mayor in 1989 and re-elected for a second four-year term in 1991.

BRYAN WALTON Has traveled the world as a professional photographer. His focus has been on helping people of different cultures achieve mutual understanding through art. He established a craft and training center in Auroville, South India and was one of the founders of the International Community at Global View, Spring Green, WI.

HEDWIG WEILER, M.S.N., R.N. Has been a practitioner in health care, mental health, healing and teaching for over 30 years. In private practice at Midwestern Psychological Services, she is founder and Director of the Psychosynthesis Center of Wisconsin.

LOCATION:
ST. BENEDICT CENTER, WISCONSIN Provides comfortable lodging in a pleasant rural setting. Facilities include an outdoor swimming pool, hiking trails, volleyball, badminton, tennis, baseball and basketball. The Center is located 15 minutes away from the Dane County Regional Airport which is serviced by 6 major airlines.

1992 Madison Summer Institute Education for the 21st Century
SPIRIT IN THE LAND, SPIRIT IN ANIMALS, SPIRIT IN PEOPLE


From the Director…

We hope to build on the success of last years Institute as we continue to develop the themes of an integrative approach to environmental education and an experience that incorporates Jungian depth psychological and Native American perspectives. The contributions of science to our understanding and appreciation of the world around us will be respected and put in perspective. The spiritual dimensions of our relationships to the plants, animals and the land will be explored by looking at Christian, Buddhist, Native American and Jungian world views. It is necessary to examine how our conception of the human psyche affects our relatedness to the surrounding organic and “inorganic” realms. It is not enough to talk about the environment—we must also experience being fully in the environment. Music, dance, ritual, poetry and art are integral aspects of the relationship to our bodies, each other and the world—“we are all related”—at many different levels. Personal experience and knowledge forms the basis for consideration of new models for our educational systems and avenues to pursue in the political arena. These themes and ideas will take form during a week long program in a beautiful glen near one of the oldest landforms on the continent—the Baraboo Hills. We will also be privileged this year to tour the land and hear from a daughter of one of the giants of ecology—Aldo Leopold.

We received a grant to develop a program for satellite teacher inservice education—New Approaches to Environmental Education K-12. It will air nationwide on October 7, 14, and 21, 1992. Three of the presenters from last year’s Institute, Prof. Francis Hole, writer Ben Logan and Dr. Herb Martin will each present two hour interactive programs via satellite TV…We have applied for ECH credits (32.5 hours) for the 1992 Institute…A one day workshop has also been developed incorporating the three talks I gave at last year’s Institute.

Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

PROGRAM:
Monday, June 22

Registration 1-2:00pm

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY—A JUNGIAN APPROACH
DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

HO-CHUNK (WINNEBAGO) DANCES (Group participation)
JIM GREEN

THE HO-CHUNK RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENVIRONMENT—PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
JIM GREEN

Tuesday, June 23

PSYCHOLOGY, THEOLOGY AND DENDROLOGY (TREES)
LARRY COLLINS


NATURE SPIRITS AND THE HUMAN PSYCHE (Part I) Includes video clips from operas
JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

THE NATURAL AND HUMAN HISTORY OF DEVIL’S LAKE (“SPIRIT LAKE”)
KEN LANGE

NATURE SPIRITS AND THE HUMAN PSYCHE (Part II)
JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

Wednesday, June 24

THE OJIBWA CONCEPT OF THE FULLNESS OF LIFE—PRACTICAL ASPECTS
LOUISE MAHDI

EARTH SCULPTURES Experiential
LOUISE MAHDI

EVENING of meditation, poetry, music, drumming and yoga

Thursday, June 25

FREEDOM OF THE SPIRIT IN RESPONSE TO MOVEMENT, MUSIC AND COLOR
KAY ORTMANS

THE WORLD OF INSECTS—AND OTHER ANIMALS
DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

INDIAN EFFIGY MOUNDS AS EARTH WRITING
GARY MAIER, M.D.

THE MEDICINE WHEEL—THE WHEEL OF LIFE, AS USED IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SETTING
HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

SUMMER NIGHT WALK
MARION MORAN

Friday, June 26

TOUR: THE INTERNATIONAL CRANE FOUNDATION

TOUR: THE ALDO LEOPOLD FARM AND “SHACK”

THE FATE OF THE EARTH
NINA LEOPOLD BRADLEY

WALKING the Leopold farm trails
MARION MORAN

Saturday, June 27

MATTER ENSOULDED—REFLECTIONS ON INDIAN COUNTRY
FRED GUSTAFSON, D.Min.

THE POLITICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Secretary of State DOUGLAS LAFOLLETTE

TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT
GESHE SOPA

OUTING to the Gustafson Farm—Singing, drumming, barbecue

Sunday, June 28

MEDICINE SHIELD PRESENTATION (Group)
HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

CLOSING CEREMONY

PRESENTERS:

NINA LEOPOLD BRADLEY Daughter of Aldo Leopold. She and her husband are in charge of the research done on the Leopold Reserve. She continues her father’s attempt to restore the land.

LARRY COLLINS Ordained Presbyterian minister. Dendrologist and lecturer at Grinnell College Summer School, Iowa. Owner of the Riverside Nursery and Arboretum in Mazomanie, Wisconsin.

JIM GREEN Wisconsin Ho-Chunk and member of the Bear Clan. Outreach in local schools, pow-wow dancer and artist. In the tradition of the Bear Clan of maintaining law and order, he is training at the Madison Area Technical College to be a policeman.

FRED GUSTAFSON, D.Min. Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and an ordained Lutheran minister. Practices in Watertown and Milwaukee, WI as both Jungian Analyst and Pastoral Counselor. Contributing author to Betwixt and Between and author of The Black Madonna. Sundancer for the last 5 years at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota under the leadership of Medicine Man, Elmer Running.

JOHN HAULE, Ph.D. Doctorate in Religious Studies from Temple University. Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and practicing Jungian Analyst in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Faculty member and ex-President of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts, where he has been on the Training Board for a number of years. Author of Divine Madness—Archetypes of Romantic Love.

DOUGLAS LAFOLLETTE, Secretary of State Gained a national reputation during post-1970 Earth Day for articulating our environmental population resource crisis. Doctorate in Chemistry from Columbia University and was Asst. Prof. at UW-Parkside. Founded Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, served in the State Senate and is currently Wisconsin Secretary of State. Has worked as Public Affairs Director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Asst. Director of the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex and national board member of Friends of the Earth. Member of 1990 National Earth Day organization and author of The Survival Handbook: A Strategy for Saving Planet Earth.

KEN LANGE Naturalist at Devil’s Lake State Park for 26 years. Author of several books and other publications on the Park and Sauk County. Worked for the Smithsonian Institution and attended UW and the University of Arizona.

LOUISE MAHDI Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Practicing Jungian Analyst in Illinois. Founder of the Temogami Vision Quest Camps in Canada. Editor of Betwixt and Between, The Reality of the Psyche Series of Open Court Publishing Co. Producer of a film in progress of adolescent dreams of nuclear holocaust, filmed in Russia, Japan, Europe and USA.

GARY MAIER, M.D. Head of Forensic Psychiatry at Mendota Mental Health Institute, Clinical Asst. Prof. in the Dept. of Psychiatry at UW-Madison and a National consultant on aggression management. His longstanding interest in Native American culture goes back to his childhood. Since being in Madison, he has developed a particular interest in the mounds of this area.

HERB MARTIN, Ph.D. Asst. Professor in the Dept. of Teacher Education at California State University, Sacramento. Has won awards for teaching excellence at Louisiana and California State Universities. Specializes in world cultural mythologies and their application to multicultural education in elementary education. His cultural heritage as African American and Cherokee provides a more personal insight into these topics.

DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D. [DIRECTOR] Doctorate in Insect Pathology, UC-Berkeley. Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and a Jungian Analyst and sandplay therapist in private practice in Madison. A contributing author to The Analytic Life, “Jungian Psychology and Science—A Strained Relationship.”

MARION MORAN Environmental educator for 25 years. Naturalist, previously associated with the UW Arboretum and UW Environmental Resources Unit. She provides courses and environmental programs across Wisconsin, with an emphasis on the interdependent relationship of all living things.

KAY ORTMANS Founder-Director of Well Springs Foundation. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, the Dalcroze School of Eurhythmics, London, UK and the Rudolph Steiner School in Germany. Taught at Teacher Training Colleges in England, University of British Columbia, UC-Berkeley and San Francisco State. Won Canadian National Radio Award for her programs for children. Received Holistic Health Achievement Award in 1983. Currently involved in the Well Springs Discovery House Pilot Project in Madison, WI.

GESHE SOPA Tibetan Buddhist and spiritual teacher at Deer Park Tibetan Center, Oregon, WI. Chair of the Board of the Deer Park Corporation. Born in Tsang province, Tibet and began his monastic training at the age of nine. Formal education from Sera-Je College, Tibet. Professor in the Dept. of South Asian Studies, UW-Madison. Escaped across the mountains to India with the Dalai Lama in 1959 after the Chinese invasion. Asked by the Dalai Lama in 1963 to accompany three lamas to America. Awarded a Fulbright to study in India and Tibet. Author of The Wheel of Time and The Practice and Theory of Tibetan Buddhism.

LOCATION:

DURWARD’S GLEN, WISCONSIN A unique place--a monastery in a canyon--provides seclusion and natural beauty with its springs and flora that date from the Ice Age. The log building is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and the new accommodation center provides comfortable lodging close to the Wisconsin River and Devil’s Lake. The Glen in located one hour away from the Dane County Regional Airport which is serviced by 6 major airlines. Thanks to the Van Waveren Foundation, New York for a grant to help in funding and support of this years Institute.

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN EXTENSION PROGRAM
“SPIRIT IN THE LAND”

Because of the success of the week-long “Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People” programs described above, my wife and I were invited to arrange a program for the University of Wisconsin Extension Education. We chose several presenters from the seminars and reduced the program to two days, which meant we had to eliminate most of the experiential dimensions of the program. My wife and associate director, Chris Merritt, arranged an art exhibit to accompany the program with the theme “Spirit in the Land.” The “early birds” were able to venture out on the morning of the second day of the program to a buffalo farm to see and learn about these magnificent animals. A tasty farmer’s breakfast was served atop a hay wagon that included grilled buffalo meat. The fifty people, mostly teachers, who attended the program gave it one of the highest ratings ever for an extension program. What follows is the content of the brochure advertising the program which will give readers a sense of my concept of interdisciplinary environmental education.


Spirit in the Land: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Education

Monday, June 20, 1994 Tuesday, June 21, 1994 8:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. 8:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m.
Wisconsin Center 702 Langdon Street University of Wisconsin Madison Campus

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From the Director…

The rapid rate of environmental degradation challenges us to learn more about environmental problems and cultivate new ways of relating to nature. This two-day workshop meets the challenge in a holistic manner, integrating the dimensions of science, art, music, depth psychology, politics, Native American perspectives and storytelling. Experiencing a variety of perspectives encourages participants to develop an ecological way of using various disciplines and the arts to educate themselves and others. The focus will be on approaches to teaching and an awareness of educational resources that teachers can draw upon to enrich both their personal lives and their school curricula. The workshop is designed for all teachers and community members—not only those in the sciences and environmental education. It is hoped that this affective dimension of teaching will reach across subject area boundaries. Participants will explore new ways of perceiving and relating to the environment that provide the foundation for our attempts to save it. They will learn about the excellent resources of the Environmental Awareness Center on the UW-Madison campus and the UW Arboretum’s training program for teachers and students on Prairie Restoration for Wisconsin Schools. Each presenter embodies a different mode of environmental awareness and will provide handouts, reading lists and suggestions for classroom activities.

The Spirit in the Land experience will be augmented by an art exhibit and special video showings in the evening. The Madison setting will serve as a wonderful locus for “placing” this instruction. In addition to its beautiful physical setting, Madison was a center of Indian mound building and has the excellent resources of the University of Wisconsin with its rich legacy of leadership in the area of environmental concerns and education.

- Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

A two-day workshop for • K-12 Classroom Teachers • Teachers of Psychology, Art, Science, Music, Drama, Language Arts, and Social Studies • Curriculum/Learning Coordinators • TAG coordinators • All People Interested in Environmental Education and Issues

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Program

Monday, June 20

8:30 a.m. Registration (Coffee and rolls)

9:00 Welcome Linda Shriberg, program manager UW-Madison School of Education

9:15 New Approaches to Environmental Education
Dennis Merritt


10:30 Break (Beverage refills)

10:45 Mythical Dimensions of Trees: Their Impact on the Human Psyche As Revealed by Dreams, Myths and Cultural Attitudes
Herb Schroeder

12:00 Lunch (On your own)

1:00 p.m. Indian Effigy Mounds—Their Function As Symbolic Earth Writing, Astronomical Calendars and Nodal Points for Connecting People to the Earth
Gary Maier

2:15 Break (Juice and soda)

2:30 Visit to Environmental Awareness Center and Indian Effigy Mounds

Regional Design for Sustainability—A Vision For Sustainable Natural and Urban Systems in the Upper Midwest
Phil Lewis

4:30 Dinner Break (On your own)

6:30 Art Exhibit and Video Showings Art exhibit: Spirit in the Land Exhibit and Reception: Porter Butts Gallery Memorial Union

Video Showings: Development of videos funded by a 1992-93 grant from SERC (Satellite Educational Resources Consortium) Showings: Wisconsin Center
Meeting Myself Coming ‘Round Corners Ben Logan, author of The Land Remembers: The Story of a Farm and its People
Transformative Education in an Integrated Social Studies Curriculum Herb Martin, professor of Education, University of Maine at Machias

9:00 Adjourn

Tuesday, June 21

8:30 a.m. Hello Again (Coffee and rolls)

9:00 Conversations with the Soil Using Soil Songs, Violin Music, Slide Show and Puppets
Francis Hole

10:30 Break (Beverage refills)

10:45 The Politics of the Environment
Douglas LaFollette

12:00 Lunch (On your own)

1:00 p.m. Animal Tales and Myths
Karen Martin

2:15 Break (Juice and soda)

2:30 Living Out the Land Ethic
Gregory Armstrong

4:00 Concluding Remarks
Dennis Merritt

4:15 Adjourn

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About the Presenters:

Gregory Armstrong, M.S., received his graduate training in Botany from Smith College in Massachusetts, and is a recipient of the Kew Diploma from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, England. He spent 13 years as director of the Botanical Gardens and lecturer at Smith College. For the past 10 years, as director of the UW Arboretum, Mr. Armstrong has been carrying on Aldo Leopold’s legacy of the land ethic.

Francis Hole, Ph.D., is emeritus professor in the Departments of Geography and Soil Science. As author of Soils of Wisconsin, and co-author of Soil Genesis and Classification and Soil Landscape Analysis, his main interest is how to instill a deep sense of our profound connection to the soil.

Douglas LaFollette, Ph.D., received his doctorate from Columbia University, taught at UW-Parkside, and gained a national reputation during post-1970 Earth Day for articulating our environmental population-resource crisis. He founded Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, served in the State Senate and is currently Wisconsin’s Secretary of State. Mr. LaFollette has been public affairs director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, assistant director of the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex and national board member of Friends of the Earth. He is a member of the 1990 National Earth Day organization and author of The Survival Handbook: A Strategy for Saving Planet Earth.

Phil Lewis, M.L.A., A.S.L.A., A.I.C.P., received his landscape architecture degree from Harvard University, and is Jens Jensen professor of landscape architecture, director of the Environmental Awareness Center and instructor at UW-Madison for 42 years. He is a recent recipient of the Gold Medal of the American Society of Landscape Architecture, the Wisconsin Idea Award and the James Graaskamp Award from Capitol Community Citizens. Mr. Lewis also is author of Regional Design for Human Impact and of Tomorrow by Design: An Interdisciplinary Process for Sustainability (in press).

Gary Maier, M.D., is head of forensic psychiatry at Mendota Mental Health Institute, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UW-Madison, a national consultant on aggression management, and is a regular guest on WHA radio with Jean Feraca. He has a long-standing interest in Native American culture, particularly in the Indian Mounds of the Madison area.

Karen Martin, B.S., is a Wisconsin Winnebago and a graduate of UW-Madison in consumer science and financial planning. For several years she has been conducting outreach programs in Wisconsin public schools, sharing her culture with the children through myths, tales, dance, music and art. She is currently working on the WINGS Project, an outreach program through the Department of Genetics at UW-Madison that provides genetic counseling for Native Americans.

Dennis Merritt, Ph.D., received a doctorate in insect pathology from UC-Berkeley, graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland, and is a Jungian analyst, sandplay therapist, and eco-psychologist in Madison. He authored “Jungian Psychology and Science—A Strained Relationship” for The Analytic Life, and was recipient of a 1992-93 SERC (Satellite Educational Resources Consortium) grant on New Approaches to Environmental Education for national teacher in-service.

Herb Schroeder, Ph.D., received a doctorate in environmental psychology from the University of Arizona-Tucson, and for the past 13 years had been a Research Social Scientist with North Central Forestry Experimental Station in Chicago, a branch of USDA Forest Service. His focus is on people’s experiences and values regarding the natural environment and how this relates to forest management.

SERC Wisconsin
Satellite Educational Resources Consortium
Strategies for Improving Schools/1992-93 Teacher In-service Teleworkshop Series
> New Approaches to Environmental Education K-12
October 7, 14, and 21, 1992

Introduction

The main theme of this series is cultivating and expressing a sense of relationship with the environment. This goes hand in hand with having an intense curiosity about the environment and developing a deep understanding of it. Scientific facts about nature can increase our curiosity and interest in nature, thereby deepening our relationship with nature. But facts presented too intellectually or as masses of information to memorize are counterproductive to establishing that relationship.

Teachers must have a deep sense of relatedness to the environment before they can imbue such a sense in their students. The relationship is subsequent to, and the foundation for, how we treat the environment and our efforts to protect it. Unless we have or can develop that Native American sense that “we are all related” to the two legged, four legged, the standing brothers (the trees), etc., all will be lost. Even the scientist Carl Sagan said, “Efforts to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be infused with a vision of the sacred”.

The three instructors in this series are well prepared to help us see our environment differently and move us into a new relationship with it. They will focus on the environment’s impact on our psyches if we open ourselves to it and become more conscious of its effect on us. They will emphasize the affective dimension of teaching while conveying content, offering many innovative approaches and techniques for doing this.

Professor Emeritus Francis Hole is a living example of how science and passion can be brought together to deepen our appreciation to a vital element most would consider uninteresting and irrelevant—the soil. Dr. Herb Martin, an Assistant Professor of Education, champions an approach to environmental education practically ignored in current curriculums by emphasizing the symbolic and mythic dimensions of our connections to animals and nature. Writer Ben Logan articulates and helps bring to consciousness, as only a writer can, how the land impacts our psyches and captures us at deeper levels we are largely ignorant of.

Overview

In Dr. Hole’s program, “Conversations with the Soil”, there are two goals: To provide participants with a deeper appreciation for soil in terms of its importance, complexity, variety, aesthetics, and impact on our psyches; and to provide a variety of approaches and procedures teachers can use in the classroom to increase knowledge and appreciation of the soil.

Dr. Martin’s Program, “Transformative Education in an Integrated Elementary Social Studies Curriculum”, is designed to help participants: Work with students to develop a sense of relationship to the environment by emphasizing symbolism and world mythologies; and use the Native American concept of the Medicine Wheel as a teaching device and means of connecting students to the environment and gain an appreciation of the Native American world view.

Ben Logan’s program, “Meeting Myself Coming ‘Round Corners”, will give participants a deeper appreciation of the land and its effect on the psyche and character of a person, including the influence of the family farm on the individual’s life. It also looks at attitudes and teaching approaches to increase student’s creativity, writing ability and connection to the environment.

Contents

Teleworkshop Session I

Conversations With the Soil
The Earth Beneath Our Feet
What is Earth Soil?
Terra Loam Encounters Erosion—a puppet play
Bibliography

Teleworkshop Session II

Transformative Education in an Integrated Elementary Social Studies Curriculum
“Running Wolf” story
Where is the Eagle? Gone.
Teaching Philosophy and Commitment to Interdisciplinary, Multicultural Studies
An excerpt from “The Corn is Red” by Pekay Shore
California State University, Sacramento, School of Education Course Syllabus
Introduction to the use of Folklore, Mythology and Children’s Literature in the Classroom The Medicine Wheel

Teleworkshop Session III

Meeting Myself Coming ‘Round Corners
Thoughts about Environment, Conservation and Ecology
The Sleeping Seed—excerpt from a magazine article by Ben Logan
Which Came First? An excerpt from a work in progress titled “Hillborn” by Ben Logan
An excerpt from a work in progress titled “A Small Holliday” by Ben Logan
Some Thoughts About Classroom Teaching