This spring, I received a visit from a good old friend. Johana is one of the leaders of the Czech umbrella organisation for forest kindergartens and forest day care centres and works in a forest kindergarten in Prague herself. She asked me if I would like to be a speaker at her international summer school for nature education in August. What a great opportunity to spread the idea of the NQ project further out into the world! Of course, I wouldn’t just talk about it, but also invite people to try out with me how we implement this idea in practice in nature.
In addition to me, speakers from Switzerland, Finland, Great Britain, Chile, online from the USA and, of course, the Czech Republic were invited to the five-day camp at an eco-education centre south of Prague in the beautiful Czech countryside. And the 200 participants were even more international. Not only from all over Europe, but two nature educators had even travelled from South Korea! Among them, in addition to forest kindergarten teachers, were many who create nature programmes for school children. A super-committed team of Czech nature educators ensured that all these people were provided with interesting workshops and lectures, excellent vegan food, an exciting and entertaining supporting programme and all the information they needed.
In line with the four main aspects of the NQ model (for adults) spirituality, emotion, cognition and action, the inspiring lectures were accompanied by a lot of active experimentation, the mornings and evenings were filled with singing, dancing and making music together, and the whole camp was framed by touching rituals that connected us with each other and our planet. This was also the case with my workshop and subsequent discussion group.
As a practical workshop, I chose a topic that I have always found successful in inspiring children to love nature, even those who have had little contact with wild nature: travelling to the Stone Age in role-playing games! This topic offers endless possibilities for nature-based learning through play like no other. Even my adult participants were infected by this enthusiasm from the very beginning of our joint ‘archaeological excavation’. A small wild gorge in the forest, overgrown with ancient spruces, as every nature educator could only wish for their children, provided the perfect setting for the workshop. Here I was able to demonstrate wonderfully how we can use role play, outdoor games, nature crafts, stories and nature observations to specifically promote a deep connection with nature and all the important skills from an NQ perspective.
In a subsequent discussion round in the shade of a walnut tree, we turned to the goals and the changing conditions of our nature education work. Under the heading ‘Resilience and Nature Intelligence’, I introduced the participants to the NQ theory and our project and was able to show how the promotion of nature intelligence directly promotes resilience in our children and in us. Since all participants agreed that our forest day-care centres and after-school care centres already provide very good conditions in line with NQ, the discussion focused primarily on what external influences are having the greatest impact on these conditions and our work today.
The problems perceived by the participants in this context could be assigned to the following four problem areas.
In a subsequent discussion round in the shade of a walnut tree, we turned to the goals and the changing conditions of our nature education work. Under the heading ‘Resilience and Nature Intelligence’, I introduced the participants to the NQ theory and our project and was able to show how the promotion of nature intelligence directly promotes resilience in our children and in us. Since all participants agreed that our forest day-care centres and after-school care centres already provide very good conditions in line with NQ, the discussion focused primarily on what external influences are having the greatest impact on these conditions and our work today.
The problems perceived by the participants in this context could be assigned to the following four problem areas.
Media and digitalisation, which prevent many children today from developing good communication skills, flood them with stimuli and thus prevent a holistic development of sensory perception and impair their ability to develop action and design skills through passive consumption, which in turn makes it more difficult to get them excited about nature than it used to be. However, a changed, more anxious and often overburdened parenthood and stressful family situations in a great many children were also cited as factors that inhibit the development of nature intelligence and resilience today. The school system, which in the Czech Republic, as in Germany, is perceived as very rigid with a few exceptions and still hardly recognises nature-based learning as an opportunity, was mentioned as the third important factor.
Here, the NQ school project was able to show me a promising new approach that aroused great interest among the participants. Several strategies were developed for how we can positively influence these inhibiting factors in our immediate working environment, namely by educating and strengthening relationships with parents, developing further training opportunities, but also critical self-awareness and changing our own behaviour. Another concrete result of the discussion group is that the various participants from Germany who work in the field of schools and schoolchildren have formed a network. I was invited to the next conference in northern Germany on the topic of ‘Nature School’, where I hope to win over more supporters for the NQ idea and thus give it ever stronger wings.
Gunter Grün-Oostinga
GRÖNINGA
NQ project partner Germany
