Heike Freire-Recommended Conference

Hi, artists!

Today I come here to comment you a very interesting conference I went to. My teacher recommended it to me and I decided to go with a friend and I do not regret it. I took from there a very valuable lesson that I want to share with all of you.

The conference was called La magia de la naturaleza and it was led by Heike Freire, a referent to the "Green Pedagogy" that stands up for the advantages that the relationship between education and nature can bring to the society. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

Heike Freire
Retrieved from: https://www.elmundo.es/ciencia-y-salud/ciencia/2018/09/28/5bad1b0aca4741c7728b45ed.html

The first aspect that surprised me was the way we started the class: we closed our eyes and had to imagine one of the best moments in our life. Can you do it? Close your eyes, control your breathing (inhale, exhale and throw off all the bad thing in your life). Do it again. What do you see?

In my case, I imagined myself in a beautiful park my family and I went to visit. I live in a place full of nature, but that place really impressed me and I spent time with the ones I loved contemplating the nature. It was a nice day. I wish they were all like that.

The fact is that she told us that most people's best memories are in the nature and that shows where we come from. The memories we have in the nature favour concentration, attention and memory.
She also said something I found really interesting: we, human beings, have an instinct of survival that tells us that we need to have the choice to escape, which the closed classrooms we are used to, do not let us feel.

She says that we are "protecting" in an unhealthy way kids. When do teachers go outside to teach about the nature instead of doing it with pictures in the classroom?

She also mentioned that TDAH is very related to the pollution.

Schools do not allow basic needs like breathing fresh air or for children to be able to move and develop their motor skills.

There was an advertisement of detergents Persil that really expressed how little time children spend outside right now and that impacted everyone. Here I let you the video:

We need nature for our healthy development and because the contact with reality can motivate us. Sometimes what we learn in the classroom does not seem to have any relationship with the real world. Does it?

Deficit of nature can lead us to allergies, to myopia, obesity, problems with attention...

There are two words she mentioned that are very interesting:

-Biophilia (bio=life + philia=love)

-Biophobia (bio=life + phobia=fear)

I think we do not need to mention in which of the two are schools located right now.

Nature lets us develop aspects like friendship, autonomy, community...

In the end, teachers that went there to learn more from the Green Pedagogy asked Freire what steps should they follow to implement more her ideas. She said:

1. Convince the other teachers.

2. Find allies outside the school ("Red Estatal de Educación Física en la Naturaleza", for example).

She explained everything in a very understandable way and she started with the breathing exercise, which helped create a good environment for the rest of the conference.

What did you find more interesting? Do you believe everything she said in the conference? You can comment down below.

Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/EducacioUAB/status/1049929146590253056

Melanie Smith

Hi, artists!

The teacher told us that everybody who wanted, could come to the exposition called: "Melanie Smith: farsa i artifici" and I went there as I was intrigued to know what was the exposition about.

I have to admit that when they put me the video at the beginning I was a little bit confused, but after that, the two guides explained very well that the video recorded by Melanie Smith wanted to explain the confrontation between the Mexican identity (the nation), and the Globalisation represented through the Coca-Cola advertisement.

Then she followed that idea but expressing the cultural shock between her culture (English culture) and the Mexican one through a video in which she is trying to learn how to dance...

Furthermore, she also made a contradiction between the nature of the Amazon jungle and the technology. For example, from rubber we make the cars' wheels... In this way, she tries to explain the tension between nature and humanity.

And another aspect I would like to highlight is that one of the paintings we saw was very similar to "El Jardí de les Delícies" by Bosch. We also saw a giant ear that, of course, has taken its base in Bosch. Here you have some photos:

It was very interesting to go and see how Smith makes us think about which is the place of nationalisms now that we are in a globalised world, specially now that a lot of conflicts are because of this (here in Catalonia there are people who want to become independentist and the Spanish politicans are constantly using the word: "nationalists"...).

It can also make us reflect about human action in the environment.

It can make us think about the changes we are facing and about how ideas are constructed and deconstructed.

It was a really good expositions with very good guides. I just wish we had had more time as there was a lot to see.