TAKANO Takako Received Dragonfly Award at PBE Conference in Flint, MI
With Dragonfly Award. From left, Dr. Greg Smith and Mary Whitman of GLSI.
TAKANO Takako at the session
In the session, activities of ECOPLUS was reported.
Discussions in the session.
In the field trip before the conference, we visited schools having PBE programs.
Final reflection session of the conference.
Group photo at the end.
エコプラスの高野孝子代表理事は、2019年11月8日に米国ミシガン州で開かれたPlace Based Education Conferenceで、長年にわたっての場の教育への取り組みに対して「ドラゴンフライアワード」を受賞しました。1990年代から、アラスカやミクロネシア、日本の農山村などを舞台に、その地で積み重ねられた自然と共生する知恵と技を基礎とした学びを構築してきたことが評価されました。
TAKANO Takako, executive director of ECOPLUS, received “Dragonfly Award” at Place Based Education Conference in Flint, Michigan in the US on November 8, 2019 for her two decades long efforts for the PBE. The organizer of the conference, Mary Whitman of Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, said that TAKANO was chosen because of her efforts on PBE through adventurous expeditions and other activities in many places in the world for long years.
The conference was organized by Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, GLSI, and was the seventh meeting with teachers, researchers, academics, administrators and students from 22 states including Hawaii and representatives from Japan, Canada, and Germany. The 335 registered attendees exchanged active conversations throughout the two days of 8 and 9 November.
Nearly 90 sessions throughout the conference reported a variety of examples of PBE in formal and informal education. In Michigan, PBE is now embedded in teacher education and more than 20% students are taking PBE courses, one of the professors said.
In the session, titled “What is a priority?”, TAKANO reported her research on programs in Japanese rural villages and on a Micronesian island. Many program participants from cities acquired foundational learning linked to values through direct contact with the nature, culture and people of the place.
ECOPLUS held organic rice farming workshop called “Tanbo no I-ro-ha” or “ABC in a rice paddy,” on 8-9 June, 2019 at Tochikubo village in Niigata, Japan, having 35 students from Waseda University in Tokyo.
Time Lapse Video shows great progress. 時間短縮ビデオで見る学生たちの草取りパワー
Since we had very limited rain falls in May, some areas of rice paddies dried up and it helped weeds to grow seriously specially at our non-chemical, totally organic paddies. Students waled into the paddy with bare feet and used fully opened hands like as rakes to clear weeds.
Paddies were filled by water thanks to the rain since Friday evening but in most of the paddies the soil was so solid because of long dry condition that it was difficult to push fingers in the soil and we needed to pull out each weeds. Started the work at 9 am on Sunday, it took 4 hours and more to finish two rice paddies which size is over 1,000 square meters.
Talk by a villager, 村人がここで暮らすこと、を語ってくれました。
A farmer’s lecture of rice farming now and then. 農家の一人が、米作りの過去と現在を説明してくれました。
Machines and chemicals are just introduced in past 40 years or so. 機械や農薬が導入されてまだ4-50年のことです。
Beside weeding in rice paddies, villagers gave them lectures, and a specialist conducted nature tour. Through those students had a chance to feel the relationship between nature, life and community. They left comments like, “I strongly leant the true meaning of to live”, “I understood the hardship of farming”, “I should have more appreciation on food”.
ECOPLUS hosted a group of students from University of Michigan from 19 to 20 May in Minami-Uonuma for their learning on the relation with environment, life and culture through experiencing rice planting, weaving and other activities.
The trip was conducted by the relation with Ms. Leslie Pincus of University of Michigan and TAKANO Takako, executive director of ECOPLUS, as a part of their 3 weeks long tour to Japan.
On 19th, they strolled around the village of Tochikubo which is located on the slope of around 500 meters elevation. They were deeply impressed by the scenery of mountains covered by white snow and young green, saying “this land might be so expensive.” They also encountered an old lady who was drying mountain vegetable called “Zenmai.”
On 20th, they experienced traditional rice planting by hands. They screamed a bit while they put their bare feet in the muddy soil of the paddy but later they acquired how to plant young seedlings in line and they finished the work in three hours.
Traditional sitting loom, called “IZARI-Bata,” or いざりばた
On the last day, 21st, they came back to the city area, “Shiozawa,” to learn about the local ramie cloth called “Echigo-Zyofu,” which has over a thousand year history. Specialists from Echigo-Jofu technique preservation association demonstrated how to get fibers fro the skin of the plant, how to dye the yarn for patterns, and how to weave. Some of the students experienced actual works by their hands.
Through the three-day stay, they seem to deepen the understanding on the relation with life and nature, like getting fuels from the forest, drinking water from the spring, making the water system running around all the terraced rice paddies.
ヤップにいた時の姿になって報告する参加者。Students wore clothes which they used in Yap. 2018年12月1日土曜日の午後2時から、東京都千代田区の神田橋区民会館で、ヤップ島プログラム2018の報告会が開かれました。
プログラムに参加した9人のうち、海外遠征や学業などで都合がつかなかった2人を除く7人が、家族や友人ら約30人を前に、体験を語りました。
On December 1, at a community center in Chiyoda, Tokyo, the reporting session of Yap-Japan cultural exchange program was held. Among nine participants of the program, excluding two who are in an expedition in Costa-Rica and in busy study before exams, seven university and high school students were gathered in front of family members and friend, in total of close to 30.
During the session, the word, “Love”, was repeatedly mentioned. “I was strongly held by armes when I was slipped over the floor”, “The family made me local medicine when I got sick at home-stay period”, and other stories were told. In Japan, those students are surrounded by smart phones and convenience stores. For such spoiled life, direct communications seeing each other in Yap was so impressive.
スライドを使って現地の様子を報告、Showing slides, each participants told their deep experiences in Yap. 一人ひとりがそれぞれの感想を語る場面では、「愛」という言葉が繰り返されました。
滑って転んだ時に、大丈夫かと心配されてぎゅっと抱きしめられた、雨の中で作業中に大きな声で歌が始まった、ホームステイ先で体調を崩した時に地元の薬草を煎じてくれた、など現地のみなさんの力強い思いやりに、強く心を打たれたようでした。
日ごろは、スマホとコンビニにくっついて、画面越しのコミュニケーションに追われている若者たちが、目を見つめあっての意思疎通に、強く感動したようでした。
おしゃべりは事務所に戻っても続きました。Chatting was continued until mid night at the office of ECOPLUS 遠く高知県や大阪府から駆けつけた参加者もいて、報告会の後は、二次会、三次会、終電である一人のアパートに戻って、さらに話が続き、翌日は一緒にディズニーランドと、離れがたい時間だったようです。
ヤップ島プログラムは、終わってからが味が出てくる、ということに気付き始めたみなさんでした。
Family members told that “I believe surely that they had very significant experiences in Yap”, or “He had so exciting days, I am feeling” after hearing their presentations.
Some participants came from far away, like Kochi or Osaka. They kept talking just before the final train and the day after, many of those spent fun time at Tokyo Disney Land together. They did not want to be separated again. They look like understanding that the real program would begin after the whole activities in Yap.
We really appreciate strong support of people in Dechmur village and Yap island.