Connecting with Nature Through Deep Thinking

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Connecting with Nature Through Deep Thinking
By Shaina Robinson 


A couple of days ago, I got the chance to sneak a peek inside the room of "Is Nature What We Think It Is?" focus group.

When I entered, it was dimly lighted by a single candle with sunlight being its only other source of lighting. At the time, all of the group members were in the state of "deep thinking" and were trying to answer the discussion question that had been given to them.  

I soon found out that the goal of this focus group was to determine what nature really is and how when our ideas around it change, so do our outcomes.

It's hard to explain what types of discussion happened in the focus group, but modern and premodern thinking were prominent topics in many of them. The general idea and ensuing argument behind these phrases is that schools aren't teaching students to be humanistic anymore and are instead promoting materialism.  

As I was taking pictures I was able to see the group members trying to comprehend this information, and as I watched them form their responses to this argument, I realized that the group members had accomplished Dr. Seth Holtzman's ultimate goal: "Understanding . . . the value of thinking ethically, psychologically and spiritually about nature." 



Photo by Shaina Robinson
Pondering the Discussion Question


Photo by Erin  Blackburn 
Interacting with Nature


Photo by Erin Blackburn
Look at this awesome bug, blink and you might have missed it!

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