Learning through Nature:
A REAL-LIFE TESTIMONIAL
Growing up in a one-room
schoolhouse in the Australian
outback, the world of Montessori
and modern education
seemed a distant idea. But today, after
I have had many years of experience and
a strong philosophical and practical education
ethic. I grew up closer to Montessori
than I knew. In thinking about my
meager educational beginnings, it was not
what I learned in that classroom but what
I learned in the wide open world that educated
me for life. Spending many hours by
myself in the wilderness, working with my
father and brothers on the farm, and watching
as my mother baked cakes, desserts, and
cookies... these are the things that really influenced
me. All these have spoken to me in
the same way that Montessori speaks to all
of us. We, as Montessori educators, believe
there are important mantras that are necessary
for a child to successfully attain adulthood.
They include family, a stable home,
good adult mentors, and a strong system of
education that foster independence, individual
autonomy, and joyful learning opportunities
with a system of choice and a
strong prepared environment. I would like
to mention one additional mantra that I believe
to be of equal importance in a child’s
by Geoffrey Bishop
life, and that is unstructured and unrestricted
outdoor and nature play. Richard Louv,
in his book Last Child in the Woods (2008),
speaks of the “Nature Deficit Disorder” he
sees in many of today’s children. I see this as
well, and in my role as the head of a Montessori
school set on 400 acres and as the
head of an Outdoor Environmental Education
program, I aim to correct this deficit.
I would like to tell the story of my own
childhood, how it mirrored that of a
Montessori education in its most authentic
form, and how the elements of the natural
world formulated my education and helped
me in later life to truly understand Montessori.
My education was unconventional, so use
your mind to draw comparisons to your work
in your Montessori or home environments.
System of Education
The setting is St. Joseph’s Catholic School, a
small cluster of stone buildings at the bottom
of Gillagala Hill on the outskirts of Merriwa,
a rural town of 500 people in North West
New South Wales, Australia. It is in this oneroom
schoolhouse that I received my “formal
education.” We pupils sat in rows, ink wells
full, and listened to repetitive instructions
Once at school, the
schoolyard was
also my science and
engineering laboratory,
with inconvenient
interruptions of
classroom work. My
days would include
building ant traps,
constructing forts out
of sticks and discarded
rope, and climbing trees
to prevent detection
from those that were
chasing me.
of which I have no memory. But it was not
in this classroom that I truly received my
education. Each day, I would wake up on
our sheep station with my four brothers
and two sisters. We would do our chores
and then walk a mile to the bus stop for the
rough and ragged journey to school. On this
journey, I would start my schooling.
As the notorious “naughty boy,” my designated
seat was up front, on an old apple box next to
the driver. My engineering education came from
being up close and personal with the bus engine
and the gearing system. As I was not permitted
to talk for the 1½-hour journey, and the scenery
got boring, I found other ways to engage my energies.
In this bus, there was no lid on the engine
housing, so the driver constantly had to refill the
radiator so the bus would not overheat. I would
watch the engine rattle and groan, and the driver
rev and change gears, until I knew every working
part of the bus.
On one occasion, to try and understand the
tension applied to the brake pedal in order
for the bus to stop, I reached my foot across
and slammed down on the brake pedal while
the bus was in full motion. We stopped, all
right, and I learned that it took a lot of my
weight to push the brake pedal to the floor; I
also learned, through a sore bottom, that placing
one’s foot on the brake randomly was not
a good idea.
Once at school, the schoolyard was also my
science and engineering laboratory, with
14 TOMORROW'S CHILD © OCTOBER 2020 WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG
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