Learning does not take place if teachers simply dictate their knowledge to students. Instead, something marvelous happens when teachers put students into direct contact with what they need to learn.
Fortunately for a goodly number of Guadalajara youngsters, that is exactly what natural science teacher Jesús “Chuy” Moreno has been doing during his cursos de verano (summer courses) for nearly three decades.
Last week I caught up with Moreno at a wide, flat clearing in the Primavera Forest, just south of Pinar de la Venta, located eight kilometers west of Guadalajara. There were over 70 kids sitting out there on a carpet of pine needles in small groups, intently concentrated on … the shadow of a stick, which had been pushed into the ground in a standing position.
“What are you doing?” I asked one of the children, Meli Ibarra.
“Chuy showed us how to make sundials,” she told me. “And now we’re in the middle of a competition to see who can make the most accurate sundial, which involves marking the position of the shadow very exactly.”
Sara Rodríguez Villegas then chimed in: “We’re also learning how to use our sundials to find north.”
“OK, but now tell me something you learned last week,” I asked her.
“We learned the names of a lot of plants and we had a contest to see who could build the most resistant shelter out of branches and brush.”
“Last week, we had some big storms,” I replied. Did your shelter protect you from the rain?”
“Not much,” confessed little Sara, “but I didn’t care because the rain was so lovely.”
Next, I struck up a conversation with Andrea Borrayo, one of several adults who were assisting Moreno in managing this school-in-the-woods. Now 35, she has been attending his courses since she was ten years of age.
“This is my story,” she told me. “As a child, I lived in Mexico City and I spent my time watching TV
and doing what all city kids do. I didn’t know a single thing about nature. But I moved here to Guadalajara and went out into the woods with Chuy and we collected butterflies, we crossed deep canyons and we learned a lot about nature and I underwent a radical change in all my tastes! As a result, I went off to study agronomy, of all things. When I first came to these courses as a girl, I had no goal in life, and now I’m a biology teacher. So, comparing studying from a book in a classroom to
going out into the woods to experience things first hand, I can say for sure: what you do out in
nature stays with you; those remain the important things in your life.”
Borrayo said unprogrammed events that occur in the woods often turn out to be the best moments of all.
“Yesterday we came upon a lizard and her eggs,” she said. “The children drew pictures and there was much talk about how best to care for the eggs, because they were in an exposed place. Unplanned experiences like this are often the most meaningful, the richest experiences. Many of the kids actually took an egg home, to care for, to observe what would happen and to keep a record of everything they could learn.”
Guadalajara is one of the few cities in the world located in the middle of what I call a “Magic Circle,” an area filled with biological and geological diversity, such as volcanoes, deep canyons, dramatic waterfalls, arid deserts and lush tropical jungles. All five of Mexico’s ecosystems come together in this circle, creating the perfect outdoor laboratory for teaching subjects such as biology, botany, geography and geology.
Worryingly, recent concerns about security have made it more and more difficult for schools to plan excursions. “We still take an occasional trip outside the city,” Borrayo told me. “But not like before. Unfortunately, the losers are the children.”
Fortunately, Chuy Moreno’s summer courses in the woods have never been interrupted. “We have never lost a child, except for one, whom we found very quickly,” he confirmed.
If you know of children who would benefit from the next course in the summer of 2018, contact Jesús Moreno at 333-453-2797 (cel) or sign up yourself as these courses have no age limit!