Learning From Life...
28 February, 2025
Dear Friends,
One way to describe our approach to education is that it is based on learning from Life, by encountering and relating to life directly, rather than merely learning ‘about’ it in abstract ways.
Why? The attempt to learn from Life leads us towards new possibilities of coming to see, to know, and most importantly, to relate to, the diverse expressions of life, whether plants, rivers, people, poems, stories, economic systems, or works of art, on their own terms.
We believe that the practice of learning from Life is of crucial importance in these times. This is because it offers us ‘new’ pathways for relating to, thinking through and for moving around the complex problems of our times. Whether through our sensing, our imagining, our thinking, our visioning, our storytelling, or our designing, learning from, rather than learning ‘about’, opens up the possibility to bring forth the actions, creations and the conditions that are needed for life, human and more-than-human, to flourish, not just survive.
As a learning community, our main concern then becomes 'how' to learn from life. By exploring together how we might learn from rivers or from rocks; from a Roman philosopher or an 18th century poet; from a macro economic system or from a local community; we can begin to imagine with, to think with, to create with and to design, in relationship with life.
The wonderful British Philosopher John Shotter used to teach Schumacher students a practice of 'withness' thinking, and helped to distinguish the difference between the possibility of learning to 'think with' or ‘thinking-from-within’ rather than 'thinking about'. In the practice of learning from, the process of being in relationship 'with' is key.
We have realised recently that so many of the words that social, environmental and cultural change-makers love, like collaboration, community, or connection, all begin with the prefix 'co', which is derived from the Latin 'com' and means 'together, with'. In 17th century English, 'co' was used as a living prefix meaning, "together, mutually, in common"...which is even more interesting!
Whichever kinds of change we would like to bring about in the world, or ourselves, we believe that we must first learn how to learn from...so that we can better understand 'who' we are encountering and 'how' to be, think, and act with them, on their own terms. We can then act and create in ways that enhance the potential not simply for survival, but for the thriving and flourishing of all life.
If you would like to join us on a collective journey of learning from this year, there is still time to apply for a place on the New Schumacher Foundation course, which starts at the end of April. Our next Live Chat is at 6pm (GMT) on Thursday 6th March.
We are also delighted to announce the very exciting news that we now have two Scholarships available for the Foundation course! There are also bursaries available to others who are need of financial support. Do head to the website to find out more, and please share this exciting news far and wide!
Sending inspiration and solidarity from the land of South Devon,
The Schumacher Wild team x
P.S. - If you would like to go deeper into the theme of learning from feel free to head over to our Substack page. This month our feature article is from the wonderful Peter Peason, whose online course Living Waters begins on the 11th March, co-hosted by our dear friend and collaborator, Hawkwood College.
Lichen close up, Image Courtesy of Georgina Campbell