From bullets to batik: Olympia offers all forms of learning

posted 06:39 AM 11/18
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I was raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., where tidy houses were arrayed on lawns separated by well-trimmed hedges, with wilderness seemingly worlds away.

My father, who grew up in India, was a Hindu, so meat made only rare appearances in our family meals.

That upbringing was hardly conducive to the practice of hunting, so I had little background from which to draw when I decided to go deer hunting this fall. Never having sighted a rifle on a living mammal, I needed education on guns and wild game. I was pleased to learn that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife provides this, both online from their Web site and as classes taught by volunteer master hunters to ensure that hunters know about gun safety, hunting regulations, and respect for the wild animals we pursue. Education just as I needed it.

As a faculty member at The Evergreen State College, I am familiar with the term “education,” which comes from the Latin word “ex-” meaning “out” and “ducere” meaning “to lead.” So education leads people out of somewhere to somewhere else — from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light. In addition to the South Sound’s institutions of formal higher learning – Evergreen, Saint Martin’s and South Puget Sound Community College – diverse educational opportunities exist for informal learning, opportunities created from the love of sharing, expertise, experience and ideas with others. That hunting course I took is just one example of available education, a phenomenon that enriches our quality of life in quiet, often unacknowledged ways.

Care for boating and water sports? The United States Power Squadron offers classes that are taught by volunteers who share their love and knowledge of power boating through classes on navigation, boating safety and use of GPS.

Certain seasons in Olympia provide specific educational flavors. April will bring trained volunteers to serve at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites to help low-to-moderate income working families take best advantage of complex new federal tax credits. Spring brings preparations for the Procession of the Species, our beloved celebration of nature, in which hundreds of people create costumes of their favorite life forms to wear in the downtown procession. All kinds of workshops – taught by volunteers – show Olympians how to create a big batik flag, participate in making samba music, or stump around on a pair of stilts for the downtown extravaganza.

Education is freely offered on spiritual as well as physical and recreational aspects of our lives.

My neighbor, Tom Joldersma, heads the education program at the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation. He asked me to lead a class on trees and spirituality. Their current offerings include voice classes, spiritual explorations of other faiths, knitting, and how to reduce our household carbon footprints. Other faith-based communities also have such programs.

This month, for example, the Unity Church on Fern Street offers a class on “Practicing peace in times of war.” Drawing on Buddhist writing, the discussion offers practical techniques any of us can use to enhance peace in our own lives.

Note that teaching is a part of learning. One opportunity for that lies on this page of this newspaper. Participation in The Olympian’s Board of Contributors is a way for you to share your own experiences, expertise and opinions with the broad readership of these pages. The invitation to write a regular column is open until Dec. 4 by contacting the editorial staff (news@theolympian.com).

As a contributing columnist whose term is now ending after two years of sharing my ideas with readers, I recommend it as a way to participate in the learning and teaching in our community.

Nalini M. Nadkarni studies trees and forest canopies as a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College and is president of the International Canopy Network. A member of The Olympian’s Board of Contributors, she can be contacted at nadkarnn@evergreen.edu.

Comments

Historic trees often grow - and die - unrecognized

posted 06:49 AM 09/09

Last week, I answered my phone to recognize the slow-speaking voice of Ray Gleason, a former forest ecology student of mine at The Evergreen State College. Gleason was seeking ways to save a member of our community, one whose history is intertwined with our region in ways that few other living entities can claim: the George Washington Bush butternut tree, which grows near the Olympia Airport.

Hillsides of dead trees may become inspiration

posted 07:05 AM 07/01

Seated in a silver tube of airplane 30,000 feet above the ground, I return to Olympia from Jackson Hole, Wyo., a town nestled in the shadows of the Great Teton Mountains. I had presented a public lecture on my forest ecology research in Costa Rica.

We view and value our natural world on a daily basis

posted 07:11 AM 04/22

Earth Day — today — was created in 1970 by Wisconsin state Sen. Gaylord Nelson to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s organisms and environment.

Each of us needs to decompress, and find a little peace and calm

posted 07:01 AM 02/11

I recline as far back as I can in the cramped seat of my red-eye airplane flight, on the final stretch home from a scientific conference on the East Coast. I feel jet lagged, grubby and weary — the state that inevitably accompanies the jumping of time zones and stretching of awake-time to maximize the information and conversations at gatherings of my tribe.