Dr. Kathleen Hudson, educator

Application of this Ancient Wisdom at Schreiner

I have been using wisdom from this learning way since I invited Paula Underwood to the Schreiner campus to talk with all freshmen and then to visit my own writing class. My friendship with Jeanne Slobod, editor of The Walking People, led to my introduction to Paula Underwood, Keeper of this Ancient Wisdom. I had a creative teaching grant and chose to bring Paula here. I knew at that moment that her work supported my vision for education. Since then I have not only coordinated PIP workshops and gatherings for the community, but I integrated the story “Who Speaks For Wolf” into the freshman program at Schreiner University for four consecutive years. Every freshman heard the story, then answered the question, “What May We Learn From This?” The program is now managed in a different way by a different group of people.

I use this story and way of learning in all my writing and literature classes. I also use the story (heard three ways) in my children’s literature class and methods of teaching class in the education department at Schreiner University.

I have conducted workshops for gifted/talented children, for children at Notre Dame Private School, for Kerr Leadership Program and for other organizations in the community.

I conducted a workshop at the annual Young Rhetorician’s Conference in Monterey, California, for teachers of writing at the college level. The workshop was experiential, and many teachers took home material for their own classrooms.

The medicine wheel was introduced in my writing classes as a model for creating and thinking. I used this concept in a decision-making class at one time, and also introduced the concepts in my global issues class, taught in San Miguel de Allende. We focus on the conceptual medicine wheel as a tool for discussion.

As you can see, I use the learning in my own classroom as well as in training programs. The wisdom has become a part of my personal life too, having created a medicine wheel in my front yard.