Giving Compass' Take:

• This Children & Nature Network post describes a Toronto-based learning institution, which made a concerted effort to bring more Indigenous perspectives into environment-based education.

• The results were positive, but how could they apply to schools here in the U.S.? What programs could give us a better, more authentic Indigenous perspective?

• Here's more on how philanthropy can play a role for Indigenous communities.

This past April, the students and educators of the Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study decided to opt out of Earth Day.

For many years, the children at the JICS Lab School celebrated Earth Day with activities such as planting pansies along the front garden with their “special friends,” a schoolwide program that connects older and younger students around shared learning experiences. No one thought to challenge what seemed to be an agreeable and picturesque yard beautification and community building project.

With three generations of learners housed under one roof, the ever-expanding historic mansion bustles with 200 children from Nursery to Grade 6, teachers, teacher candidates, researchers and staff. All of them are united around a shared commitment to exploring what is possible in education. Since 1925, the Laboratory School has spearheaded a child-centered and inquiry-based approach to learning, which ripples into the public education system that they are mandated to serve.

In 2011, the initiative launched the first edition of its widely popular resource for educators, Natural Curiosity: Building Children’s Understanding of the World through Environmental Inquiry. Now in its ninth year, the Natural Curiosity program published an update: Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition: The Importance of Indigenous Perspectives in Children’s Inquiry. Reflecting three years of deep reflection and dialogue Natural Curiosity 2nd Edition celebrates learning in Mother Earth as an entry point for Truth and Reconciliation.

Written in extensive collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge-keepers and scholars, the second edition strives to elevate the environmental education conversation by including more Indigenous perspectives to support learning on and from the land, and also renewing the pedagogical framework proposed in the first edition with updated research and perspectives.

Read the full article about bringing Indigenous perspectives into learning from the land by Rosa Na at Children & Nature Network.