This picture was taken on a Duke of Edinburg Silver and bonze journey for a group of Pathfinders from Williams Lake and Ft. St. James. I have always loved mushrooms for their aesthetic value. They were colorful and an image in many of the stories I read (I read lots of fairy tales). There was also a sign in my Aunt's bathroom that was rather indecorous for me growing up in a home where even the word "fart" was too vulgar to use. It said: "I am a mushroom. They keep me in the dark and feed me bullshit." As a literal-minded farm girl, this was up there with fart and I enjoyed the riskque double entendre. It was also a comment on politics, and how politicians like to lie (according to the poster). In one of my early positions I worked with a lady who was very jaded and distrustful of anything the district said. "We are just Peons" she would say. We aren't supposed to ask why, just do as we are told. And when they tell us something new, we just drop what we know and move on... (We went through more than one new initiative and at least one strike together.) Mushrooms we were, her and I.
I loved this mushroom, not only was it gorgeous, there was poop beside it. It represented so many things for me. The idea of being a mushroom and being fed prevarications, and the idea that it was nurturing the "little one" beside it. (Scientifically, it isn't, but you get the image I am sure.) An image open to interpretation...
I teach outside a lot now, and in many different areas around the community. We get to see lots of fruiting bodies (fungi, mushrooms) on our trips and I still love how gorgeous they are. I now know that they are the fruiting bodies of mycelium. I found mycelium mats this year - white, flexible, dense layers absorbing nutrients from the surrounding area. I think I am still a fungi.
I can't stay on one topic - education is too complex for that. Instead, the hyphae are branching out constantly, taking in information about reading, writing, play as learning, place attachment, occupational therapy, self regulation, neuroscience, reconciliation, belonging, identity, outdoor education, progressive vs traditional philosophies, indigenous ways of knowing, embodied learning, trauma, sensory integration, multimodal education, SEL, and service learning. It all forms part of a dense compact mat that influences what I do in my practice. (Look at me, not being literal!)
This blog is my mushroom, but far from being kept in the dark, it is seeking to 'throw up fruiting bodies to inspire others towards progressive pedagogies that see children as capable, agentic, co-constructors of knowledge in an ever changing world. If you read one thing from my bibliography by the way, read the lecture by Anne Fisher on uniting practice and theory. If you listen to one blog, listen to Free Range Humans, especially the interview with Shelly Moore and the episode with Jeff Duncan-Andrade https://free-range-humans.simplecast.com/episodes/22-duncan-andrade-5OZNphqX