The beginning of the school this week has been accompanied by a debate about how and to what extent it is better to wear screens or return to textbooks and paper. But and return to nature? It is the proposal of the Foresto de Cerceda, a unique center in Spain, where children follow the official curriculum in the midst of nature, use sticks instead of chalks and are pertrected with their field notebooks.
The project turns ten years old, but where did the idea come from?
The founder of this story is me. In Germany I met that methodology, I fell in love and I brought her. This forest is the first and unique free school school in Spain, but in Germany there are more than 3,000.
What is the way of teaching?
It is a school from Monday to Friday, from September to June … The hours of schooling are the ones that have to be, the contents that the Community of Madrid marks, only here we are all day and all year outdoors, to me that it rains or snow. The classes are done with what surrounds us. The earth is our board; You work hard with sticks to form words or play riddles. The sticks attract children and you can imagine that we are not missing (laughs). We also work music and body. Teaching requires creativity of the teacher who has to invent stimuli, because there is no slate or chips. For example, with the frost of the first snowfall you can make figures on the floor and work geometry with the boots.
What is a class day like?
We are at the nine hill of La Cabaña (which serves as a refuge) and we give the first classes. Then the children take their backpack and we go for the Dehesa every day. Each child has a field notebook and a ball to practice the stroke, put numbers … things like that. They find a pen, because they can take the pen, put it in the notebook, maybe they want to draw it, and put the word pen below. We talk about simple words and short phrases, because they are children who are not in primary. When we arrive from the excursion, we make a picnic to gain strength and there are always two hours of spontaneous game that serves to explore the environment, under the tutelage and surveillance of the teachers. Thus they develop their autonomy, independence and entrepreneurial spirit. They have no toys so they come together to do projects: a bridge to cross the river, their cabañitas …
And what reception does this teaching have among the parents?
Very good, we have the full course and there are always families calling. In fact, now we are going to make an extension; They have given us some more places from the Community of Madrid.
And how is the security issue with 25 children in the field?
We must create the link and the relationship between students and teachers very well, to promote respect and responsibility, important things to live in the natural environment. Here you have to pay attention to the teacher because the obstacles in the pasture are real … if you do not put your boots, you get your feet. Putting on the coat, as the teacher says, here it makes all the meaning.
Do you have first -day tantrums?
Here the start of the course is usually beautiful, because their classroom changed, different from how they left it in summer; Now other plants have appeared, those of autumn, and that generates curiosity. It is a school that they don’t want to leave. In fact, families for the snack meet in the afternoon. The space is so open and playful that they have a great time. The natural environment makes adaptation very easy.
And when they arrive primary at a standard school, don’t you cost them?
The truth is that the experiences that the primary schools tell us are very positive, because in three years they have developed all their motor, cognitive, emotional skills, the responsibility … they enter the primary with the full kit, they take the teacher very seriously. Teachers tell us that they are very autonomous children and very curious.
Do you have many constipated?
Here they also take their constipated (laughs), but as we are abroad, the probability of infection is lower. We notice that there are less. The immune system is reinforced by oxygen and movement they make.
What values does it provide in nature?
The natural environment offers many possibilities to play and explore. This generates a consciousness towards the environment, but also helps to cognitive, emotional development and motor skills. Children for more and more hours in front of the screens, but the field is full of stimuli: they can climb the trees, climb, smell aromatic plants. Many options to develop balance, audition and learn respect for plants, animals and their classmates.