Now that we’ve reached the halfway point, I’m beginning to realize that I’m learning without noticing it. Not only this, but it feels as though I’m being equipped, rather than simply taught.
Being a student is very easy for me. I tend to excel in the traditional academic setting; tests and papers are my friends. So, what happens when the traditional academic setting is scrapped? The classroom is very different here. Tests are replaced by peer-facilitated discussions on environmental topics. Papers are replaced by reflective pieces after long hikes.
One of the emphases of the CELL program is on community-building, which I expect will prove to be the most valuable skill for navigating the twenty-first century as our needs change and our capacities become more localized. It’s also one of the greatest challenges of the CELL program for me, because it’s unlike anything that I’ve ever had to practice as a part of my academic coursework.
This is a different set of tools I am being given, which couldn’t be more appropriate for our generational tasks: enduring and reversing catastrophic environmental damage, protecting the poor and vulnerable from the consequences of same, and restructuring our lifestyles and societies in ways that would prevent this from happening again.
Kellen Mahoney