Observe

Permaculture — something I’ve been learning about and drawing inspiration from not just in the context of the farms — places a huge emphasis on observation. Getting to know the seasons, the soil, the flora and fauna, how things respond — all this slowly and over time — is a huge part of learning to create and live with the land. It’s certainly not a design-implement one way pathway, as it gets reduced to in practive very often.

Most emergent systems (which again is most things in life and society) are like that. There are constant feedback loops that tell us what to try next, if we observe and listen.

Was having a conversation with someone around education, and it occurred that observation could be a great core principle to think of and design around for education as well! Books, videos, experiments, play based learning, hands-on work — all of it are tools to create the loops around this for learning. But at the core is the habit, the power, the ability to observe, to ask questions around, to digest and most importantly — to wonder.

It’ll be very cool to see schools and curricula primarily focus on observation, and tie the rest in through that. It’ll likely create adults with curiosity and critical thinking, and with the slowness and calmness that the world needs a lot more of as well.