Being Here Now: Reflections on Place Based Learning and Mindfulness

Abstract

Place-based learning is not a pedagogy of privilege, rather the opposite. It is the free curriculum at the edge of every schoolyard. It begins with the idea that everywhere is worthy of our interest, everyplace matters, and any place, if we go deep enough, will connect us to many others. If we can encourage students to consider each person they encounter in the same way, we have made some progress toward a mindful world. If we want to “de-colonize the curriculum” in the most basic way, we can stop assuming that whatever lessons we have to bring to a community are better than whatever lessons are already there, waiting for us to notice.