A Path Toward Learning
The value of learning is emphasized throughout the oral history of The Walking People. They have preserved for us the path toward learning that enabled generation after generation to honor the unique contribution of the individuals in their community. Through The Walking People we see the genesis of their understanding of the nature of learning, the nature of the learner.
Educators may find the following descriptive passages on the nature of learning poignant and applicable to our time. The learner, as an individual, can become lost in a sea of standardization. It is incumbent upon us, as the caretakers of our children’s future, to see that each child has an educational environment that nurtures, encourages, and listens to the unique contribution of each learner, the wisdom of “New Eyes.”
(pg.605-606)
AND SO IT WAS
That this wise Council
began the work that must precede
all efforts toward viable learning.
First it is necessary, they saw,
to understand the nature of the Learner.
AND SO IT WAS
That they designed a way of enabling learning
which listened more often
than it spoke.
FOR THEY HAD COME TO UNDERSTAND
A GREAT TRUTH . . .
To enable learning
one must first apprehend
the nature of the Learner.
AND THEY CAME TO UNDERSTAND
ANOTHER GREAT TRUTH . . .
A path toward learning
which enables any two feet at all
to reach some destination
must be designed for that pair of feet.
AND THEY CAME TO UNDERSTAND
ANOTHER GREAT TRUTH . . .
The one most able to design such a path
was the Learner himself,
the Learner herself.
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