Learning is embedded in memory,history, and story.
In First People’s cultures, knowledge was traditionally oral, for example, the first people had lots of stories and these stories were passed from generation to generation by dances, stories, or ceremonial artifacts, which is why i think we have so much information that was based off of their experiences and this is what has lead us to where we are today with all of our technology and skills. To this day we still use some of these techniques, like listening closely and remembering stories that are told based on true facts and experiences. This relates to our current unit because we are required to listen to the patterns, stories and history of the food chain, the environment, and the energy that gets passed along through an ecosystem. Keeping in mind all of these things are changing constantly which is why we need to keep these helpful learning principles so we can pass down these memories and stories to more generations on how we can help protect our environment with real experiences to back them up.
Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.
First peoples believed that in order to learn something they needed to learn about themselves. If someone is to learn about something but not know anything about what they’re capable of, then whats the point in trying. They needed to find their strengths and weaknesses, or if someone had a special gift/talent, they would use it to their fullest capability. This was very important to them because they wanted to prove to their family and community that they knew who they were and where their place in the world was going to be. The way they persuaded this learning was by experiences of learning who they are and taking those experiences into knowledge, which is then put into education. By these experiences, they made facts which helped them grow as a community and expanded their knowledge with others. This is very similar to this unit because, when we watched “the inconvenient truth” it really opened my eyes to what was actually happening and what will happen according to science, and i think based on what i experienced it will reflect on what I’m capable of doing to help this situation and how I’m going to pass on this information.
Learning involves patience and time.
First people wanted to find the whole story instead of the surface of the situation, which is why patience and time was so important to them. Learning requires multiple perspectives and needs to be examined by different personalities and sides to fully understand a subject/thing/object. Rather than “Majority Wins” this process takes longer but was thoroughly better for building their community and gave people freedom to speak what they had as ideas. This learning method gave people time to reflect on what they did and what will happen because of their actions. When we think of this today, it relates to memorization and layering knowledge, and with a little patience and time it will become a helpful tool. For me and my partners project we need to water two plants, one with acid and one with water, this is a good example of patience and time, we need to jot down notes on both perspectives and we need to wait with lots of time to see the outcome, and to know the full result of our project. Without this skill, i don’t think we would have the capability of doing this or of most things, like taking the time to go the extra mile and seeing the different sides of person to fully recognize who they are or what they, as a person, are capable of doing.