UVM/GIV Engineering Summer Institute June 28 - July 5, 2008

An autistic boy about 12 approached the Tipi with his instructor. She informed us that he was autistic and that he loved animals. He kept repeating the names of some animals in the forest, over and over. At first he was afraid to go into the Tipi. The instructor asked him if he wanted her to go in first. He said yes, and she did. He looked very frightened. After a minute he followed her and was able to hold the antlers of deer and moose, a real bear paw and learn about these animals's adaptations to their forest environment. He loved touching the artifacts of the forest.

When he was ready to leave, Beth took the boy outside and they stood face to face in the forest near a bird feeder. She put some bird seed on his gloves and gently held his hands. For several minutes nothing happened. Beth reassured him and they maintained eye contact. Finally a bird came and landed on his hands. The look of startled joy and wonder that spread across his face was a delight.

As the instructor and the boy headed off down the mountain he kept repeating the names of the animals of the forest but he seemed much happier. There was no fear, only joy.

Teaching occurs when you allow the students to connect with some thing larger than them selves. Beth and I will stand in the forest and let the birds feed from our hats and hands. It requires patience. In time chickadees and finches come. We some times invite children to watch or join us. A child once asked me "How do you make the birds come to you?" I answered "You can't. You only get to invite them." This is the point. We invite children to learn and through that learning become part of something larger than them selves. It is in understanding the connection with the natural world, the animals and plants of the forest, the incredible complexity of it all, and the scope of human history, that allow the students to grasp for a moment that they are part of something much larger. With in that is a sense of wonder and a realization of questions that take us to the edge of human realization. What does it mean to be human? How do we interact with the natural world? Why did that one bird choose to land on me when the others did not? As educators how do we invite our students to stand in the forest of knowledge and wait for inspiration to land on them? What do we do as youth workers if the children ask us questions for which we have no answers? Can we embrace the mystery and allow the children to join us?

I don't know if that one moment in the forest changed that boy's life. I do know that watching him, helped to change mine. I stand in wonder with that boy in the forest. I shudder at the beauty of it all.

Tom and Beth Tailer