[00:00] Speaker 1: (Relaxing music playing) Welcome to All Learning Reimagined. The podcast that defines convention and redefines the purpose and practice of education. Here we venture beyond institutional boundaries. Whether you're a parent, educator, or curious mind devoted to lifelong growth. This is your space to challenge assumptions and co-create a more humane and intuitive approach to education. Let's reimagine what education can be.

[00:43] Speaker 2: (Laughs)

[00:48] Speaker 3: Hello, hello, hello. (laughs) Good day and welcome to All Learning Reimagined. I'm your host Teresa, bringing you a little ray of sunshine. As together we're reimagining the future of education, one inspired story at a time. And today, I'm so excited because we're doing, um, episode six. Six of eight, for an All Learning Reimagined, like a framework that I've been designing, uh, based on going back to the natural way of learning and a natural way of life, and the natural way of just, um, being. And so far we have done, uh, quite a few things. We've looked at language and awareness, words that shape our reality. We've looked at relational learning, which is connection before the content. We've looked at the learning field, which is emergence and flow of everything around us. Um, and we have looked at passion lit learning, definitely following what lights you up. Uh, you know, what's your highest excitement? And then last week we looked at nature as a teacher.

[01:52] Speaker 3: So all of the wisdom of the natural world, so the progression from this of course is contribution and community. So this is the giving, uh, the belonging, uh, the receiving in the community. The whole takes a village to raise a child concept, and yet it's, um, it takes a village for us to learn and grow from each other. Everybody has a gift. Everybody has something to share. Uh, we all have pieces of the puzzle. No one, no one can, um, live happily or successfully, uh, on their own. Not with the way that we have been wired. You know, we are true creator beings of course, but we are also extremely social by nature. So contribution I guess over consumption is possibly the theme of today. Uh, you know, learning that actually gives back to community, and this is something that I'm very passionate about. If you've heard any of my other shows, uh, you'll know it's something that I talk about, uh, a lot, and bring up particularly some of the guests that I have on my show as well.

[03:01] Speaker 3: And, uh, for all of the new listeners out there, welcome. You are invited to go to the wonderful BBS Radio, uh, to the m- to my landing page, and you can find all of the archived shows. They're only half an hour, they're very bite-sized, they're really easy, small chunks to listen to. That's done by design, so that's something that you can just, um, uh, capture a little chunk as you go, rather than hour long of trying to get through content. Um, and each week I write an article or, um, activities or units of work. All of them have been something that is tried and true, and ha- is from direct experience. And, um, you can take it, adapt it, adopt it, and you don't have to be a teacher. Uh, you can be a parent, you can be a neighbor, you can be a grandparent, you can be a learner. You, you can have, you can be any age, it doesn't really matter, it's, it's not a one size fits all, uh, for my audience.

[03:57] Speaker 3: So if you're interested in going and checking that out, you can go to bbsradio.com/alllearningreimagined. Okie dokie, let's dive in for today. So in our last episode, we explored nature as a teacher, and the way that learning comes alive when it's really connected to the world around us. But today we're going to take the next step, so from connection to the world, to contribution within it. Because we live and breathe in this beautiful field, you know, our earth, whatever, whatever label you want to give her. Sophia or Gaia or, um, Terra, I mean there's lots of different words and names and labels that you can give this beautiful atmosphere and, and, uh, living entity that we are, um, uh, living in harmony with. But it is at that stage where we need to think, okay, we can't just give, give, give, it's giving us fresh water and fresh air and, uh, you know, the earth that we grow our food from is just constantly giving to us. What can we do to give back?

[05:00] Speaker 3: Not only to the people in our community, but also the environment and contributing, uh, to everything around us. So there's a really quiet shift that happens when learning moves from what can I get from this, to what can I give through this? And this is something that I have observed many years of working with, um, children and teenagers, is when you shift the perspective in the lens that they're seeing things through, the learning deepens, and it has a lot more meaning. It taps into their why and taps into their heart space. So it gets from the head of, "I need to do this to get a piece of paper. I need to do this to get a qualification. I need to do this to get a grade, a judgment," to, "What, what am I going to do with this information? How can I apply it, and how can I apply it to make my community, my, um, own life, my family, my circumstances, everything around me?"...

[06:00] Speaker 3: just that little bit better by adding it to your own flavor and, you know, everyone sort of says, "Oh, that's been done before," but it hasn't been done by you, your way, with your star, with your energetics, with your frequency, with your harmonics, um, it's just limitless with what, uh, particularly our beautiful children coming through have to offer, and it doesn't matter what age you are, you have something to offer. Everyone has something that they can contribute to society rather than what we have been programmed, particularly over the last few decades of, you know, take, take, take from our environment. You know, they want th- they've got handouts. They want something from the government. They want something for free. Um, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with things being for free, but there is an energetic there of the give and take. There has to be that flow, um, that yin and yang, um, with, (sighs) I guess, you know, wha- whatever you pay attention to.

[07:00] Speaker 3: Can't even think of the words right now, but that it's really important to, um, to have that balance, because if it's all take, take, take, and not taking and transforming and alchemizing to contribute, then you're going to be way off balance and, and way out of whack. So, much of this modern world, in my opinion, this is just my opinion, it's completely built on consumption, you know, the information is delivered to you. When you go to an education set- a education setting sometimes, uh, not all of them, but many of them, it's just simply information is delivered to you. And I also have noticed that there's a huge shift on the internet, even places like YouTube, there's a massive shift towards going there to get information, and I think that it's the technology.

[07:48] Speaker 3: People would call it AI, the technological intelligence that's there a- at your fingertips now, you can get information, uh, it's debatable whether it's accurate or not, but you can get information at the touch of a, touch of a button. So, why would you go to school? Why would you go to a course if you can get information anywhere? So there's a, there's a massive shift towards the fact that information is delivered, content is absorbed, tasks are gone and completed, but the thing that is missing is, you know, purpose. What do you do with it? Um, and that's where I feel like I can see a huge shift towards the online learning space at the moment, and lots of people are questioning, you know, they're saying, you know, technology and AI are going to take over all the jobs and what's our sense of purpose, and even the creative spaces, uh, music and art, it's, it's sort of edging into all of those different areas.

[08:46] Speaker 3: But that human touch and connection, that being able to apply it, being able to transform and learn together is something that, in my opinion, cannot be replaced. So, purpose is important, and I have observed that when a learner begins to contribute, like truly contribute, something actually shifts and changes in them. Like, I- I've seen it. You see their face light up. I- I've felt it myself as a learner. I'm still learning, constantly learning, um, and because you don't see yourself as passive anymore. You start to see yourself more as a creator being, not a human being. You're a creator.

[09:26] Speaker 3: Um, and I guess you really shift to seeing someone who can bring value, and that sense of hopelessness that I have observed in many of our teenagers today is just like, "Oh, what's the point?" You know, they, they, they listen with all the doomscrolling, or they're listening to the news, or they're, they're doomscrolling with all of this information out there, and sometimes they don't necessarily see the value in themselves, and that's one of my passions is to be able to bring that spark out and help people connect to their heart space and their own purpose so that they can go off and shine. And research does show that contribution has powerful effects on wellbeing, not just mental health, just (laughs) wellbeing and health all together, because it's not that dis-ease in your body. I mean, it, it's all about balance, and balance, in my opinion, is health. If everything is balanced, then you're healthy.

[10:24] Speaker 3: Um, you know, there's lots of studies on volunteering and being of service, and it all consistently shows increased ha- happiness and reduced anxiety and depression and a stronger sex- se- sense of, um, connection and belonging, and depending on, you know, the environment that you grow up in and the, the community that you happen to be, sometimes it's easier said than done, particularly if you don't have any role models around you. So, I would seek out someone who is living the life that you really are inspired by and connect and get some great mentors around you if you cannot find any within your own family or your community or even in your schooling setting. Um, rather than passively sit back and be a victim and go, "Oh, well, you know, it's, it's, it's all, um, it's all too hard," or, "I can't do that," go out and seek it, because your brain is like a h- is like an information-seeking missile.

[11:24] Speaker 3: As soon as you lock onto something that you care about and connects with your emotions, your brain will start to rewire, and of course, we know, um, that the field around us will start to arrange circumstances of what it is that feels important to us. So it's very careful, be careful what you focus and pay your attention on, because you're going to get it. So if you're focusing on doom and gloom, you're really gonna magnetize that to you.Um, blah, blah, blah, as, as we sort of know. I'm not even gonna go on that tangent, but, um, I really feel that beyond that research, we can feel this in our own lives today. I mean, many of us have turned away from traditional structures, and we have been seeking for many years now, um, particularly since COVID, lots of people have been seeking connection and, and community and a sense of purpose, you know? And there's a different quality to doing something that matters to someone else, because it carries meaning.

[12:22] Speaker 3: Um, and we also see this reflected in the idea of, you know, service learning, e- even though I personally don't like the word service, that's pretty much where it is, where education is connected to a real community need. So, if you're teaching children, for examples, uh, about your environment or recycling, which is, is added ad nauseum in Australia to our curriculum. It's just overdone as far as I'm concerned. And we all love the environment, I get it, but it's pretty much shoved down children's throats these days, to the point where it's just ridiculous. And it's still learning through theory and through the brain rather than getting them outside and saying, "Well, you know what? Let's go and have a look at our local waterway. What can we physically do? Well, let's pick up the plastics. Let's clear away all the debris from the last f- flood. What can we possibly do?

[13:14] Speaker 3: Let's plant more trees, plant more for the environment and the habitat of the animals." Uh, there are a lot of things that children can physically do, where they feel connected and they can contribute to their community. Uh, so that's just one tiny little example. There's, there's so many good examples that I could possibly give you, because learning is not actually separate from life. Learning is meant to be part of life every day, and there's nothing better than contributing to the environment that you actually live in, whether it's, uh, you know, the beach, or the city, or a forest, or the outback. Wherever it happens to be, there's still something that every single learner can contribute.

[13:54] Speaker 3: I, um, I think of stories where individuals come together to contribute to something greater than themselves, and I've been trying to think, "Oh, how can I choose something that's sort of in popular culture, that children can r- relate to?" Um, and Avengers, the Av- The Avengers Marvel movies, is actually one example, because each person in the Avengers brings a completely different strength, a completely different sket of- set of skills, and I find that both genders, um, uh, seem to be attracted to that because y- both are representat- represented, and there's lots of different perspectives from all of the characters in The Avengers. But at the end of the day, those movies are about everyone contributing, and when they all contribute their own, um, skillset or, um, a perspective, uh, gift, or their (laughs) superpower in some cases, it really creates a whole. And then when they're working as a team and they're working together, they're able to do really powerful things.

[14:59] Speaker 3: And I think that things like this, analogies like this where children can transfer and go, "Okay, well, let's have a look around at the people around me. What do they contribute? What's their skillset?" Because it's really important to get people in the right lane, uh, and not necessarily become an all-arounder. What's, what's truly your gift and, and let's nurture that Um, and that is where the learning b- can become really powerful. I mean, y- not everyone's (laughs) the same, um, but everyone brings something definitely unique. And, uh, I mean, I imagine a learning environment, you know, that a young person might grow food and then they share it with others, and another one might build something that's useful for the community. Another one might write or create or play music to entertain everyone when they need that downtime or to motivate. Some people can communicate. Some people are gifted and inspiring.

[15:53] Speaker 3: Um, others are really gifted at caring for animals, um, and support, or some are really great listeners and just supporting people who are in need. It doesn't have to be something that you've gone to a university or to a college, um, or a formal, um, education setting to get a piece of paper to say you have that skillset. We all have natural gifts. It's just a matter of what you choose, um, to practice. You know, you gotta, you've gotta have that (laughs) repetition and that muscle and build it. Um, and if you're not exploring and playing in a lot of spaces, you might not, you might not even know some of the hidden gifts that you have. Um, and, you know, all of this I feel is not separate from learning in, in my opinion. It, it is learning. It's absolutely integral to it. Uh, because when contribution becomes part of the process, um, what I have seen is that the skills, um ...

[16:54] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, I think it's the skills definitely deepen Um, they get stronger, and the confidence definitely grows. You see children just absolutely glow because they're so happy they've managed to contribute something, and people f- they feel appreciated. They feel seen, they feel heard, they feel connected, and this really does strengthen their identity, not of, um, the label of, you know, you're a baker, you're a, (laughs) a butcher, you're a, I was about to say candlestick maker, but, um, or you're a mechanic. It doesn't have to be labeled as an identity of what you do, it can happen, it can help them to label their own strengths and their own values and h- how they see themselves. You know, they don't have to ask, uh, "Am I good enough?" Um, and they don't need anyone else outside of themselves telling them that. It's that internal, um, validation, I guess.

[17:51] Speaker 3: You know, they're experiencing that, "Ah, I can make a difference." Um, and it's probably not what should they achieve, it's that sense of..how can what they're learning contribute to the world around them? And there's so much that shifts just even in that question. And I, sometimes I forget when I'm working in a day job, and you're going to a school and working with childrens, really often easy to fall back into the pattern of, "This is the unit of work that I'm expected to do. This is the deadline that I have to meet it by before I do this." And sometimes the how are we going to use this, why are we even learning this, what's the purpose of it, gets pushed back to the wayside. And having that reflection time and really tapping into that why, and applying that information where possible and connecting to real community around you, is a really vital step. So, I'm going to give you an example now of one that I have observed, uh, in the, in recent years.

[18:54] Speaker 3: And this was a small group of learners, and they were given extremely simple opportunity, and basically, they were just given an unused patch of land, um, and it was beside their, um, well, I won't say school. Let's just say it was a learning space. But instead of leaving it just empty, they decided that they were going to transform it so that the, the learners, they, the children of all different ages, um, they planned, they researched, and then they came and they built garden beds. They planted seeds. Uh, some of it was a mess, some of it was not, but they decided not to use pesticides. They wanted to use organic gardening where they had certain plants planted next to other plants to get rid of insects and a- all of the stuff. You know, there's just so much there that you can really unpack. And at first, it just was an experiment, but over time, uh, it was amazing what emerged, because the garden, you know, obviously started to grow, and then they did too.

[19:54] Speaker 3: They started to measure, um, they, they calculated things. They were thinking about how much, uh, fertilizer will we put in that, how often do we need to, um, to water, which plants need sun, which need full shade, which need partial shade. They really did a lot of research, and they steam- seemed to, um, really come alive with this. And it was beautiful to see them working together. You know, they were solving problems, and they were sharing their ideas. And then, of course, they got to harvest. You know, they got to eat. And they had so much food, they could not eat it. I still remember the tomato plant was just out of control, um, and (laughs) and it, and they had to give some of it away, so to families and to neighbors, basically anyone who needed it. They had all of this abundance of food that they could share, and just seeing their little faces. I shouldn't say little 'cause some of them were actually quite grown up, but, uh, to me, they were little.

[20:52] Speaker 3: Um, in that moment, it was just my heart was singing. It was beautiful because it wasn't a project. Um, it was, it was just contribution to community, and the learning that came from it was phenomenal. I mean, if I was a math teacher, that would be something I'd be so proud of because of the amount of measuring and, and, um, oh, gosh, building and everything that they had to do, it was real life in action learning. Uh, and the wellbeing that came from that contribution, you know, the ch- the tru- there was no depression. Everyone was skipping to get there. They couldn't wait to, to get involved. At first, there were a couple that just wanted to go inside and play on their devices and, you know, "Why do we have to do this?" That, the, the typical grumbles that you get started for some of the children, but as soon as things started to grow and started to shape, they just couldn't wait to get out there, because it was theirs. They had that ownership of the space.

[21:52] Speaker 3: And, uh, I still, I just still remember it. I must go back and visit actually and see how they're going. I haven't been there for a while. But, uh, it was a really valuable project to observe, and something so easy to do, and it didn't cost a lot of money because a lot of the wood that they used, uh, for the garden beds and a lot of them were donations. A lot of them were things that other people were throwing away. They did not need to spend a lot of money, uh, to get it up and running. They, they had a lot of people in the community that were starting to say, "Oh, well, thank you very much for the food. Here, let me give you this." And it sort of started that reciprocal, um, uh, giving and receiving process, which, you know, is like a service learning model, I guess, you know, a community-based model with that practical application. It was, uh, just magical.

[22:48] Speaker 3: And it really shifted the learning from passive to active, um, from receiving to contributing, and from learning about something in a classroom where you're learning about it, to actually learning through it, the learning through the doing. And I know, I know for a fact that particularly the younger children, they'll never forget it. They've now got skills that they can apply, um, at any given time all through their life. They're, they're fully aware you can't unlearn that stuff. So, uh, and I'm imagining you could really take this to, sp- you know, starting a community market, or, you know, my bartering barn idea, which I talk about, you know, every second show. I keep talking about having bartering barns, a barn or a place where children and people in the community can, can go, and you don't need money. You can simply have an exchange of goods and whatever it is that you value, um, and it doesn't even have to be goods. It can be skill-sharing as well.

[23:47] Speaker 3: You know, I will give you these eggs if you can come and fix, um, uh, something. Watch this space, whatever it happens to be. And the beauty of this is it's intergenerational. It's not everyone at the same age has to go out at the same time. You can have all different age groups learning and growing together, and it's not just the younger children learning from the older, um-... the older teenagers or the adults. Uh, it, it's vice versa. There's always something that you can learn regardless of age group and regardless of their background. And (exhales) it's almost like growing an ecosystem in the community, uh, is probably the word that I would, I would think of. And so the article that I've written this week has got a couple of ideas of things that you can do to get started, um, and some really practical ideas. There's things that you can build and contribute, so garden beds for the community is an obvious one.

[24:47] Speaker 3: Um, but you can do things like creating seating for an area or for a park. Uh, these days in Australia, you need council approval for everything. But there are still lots of ways that you can go about doing these things, building shelters. Um, I have seen a group of country kids building shelters for their cattle (laughs) out in the middle of fields, uh, out of all sorts of bits and pieces. They just go out, and then if it falls down, it doesn't really matter, because it's, uh, there's sort of no one there, but the animals usually did go f- um, go for it under the shade. So, you know, you could repair, you could repurpose items. There's lots of different things that you can do regardless of, um, your circumstances. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Um, growing and sharing, of course, is another example, growing food and sharing and trading, um, particularly herb gardens. So if you're in a city, sometimes growing a garden is not necessarily possible, but you can simply have pots.

[25:42] Speaker 3: You can have pots of herbs, um, and you can, you can dry the herbs. Um, you can ground the herbs. There's a lot of different things you can do. You can make jams. There are still things you can do if you don't have a lot of space. Um, you can do seed saving, so this is a great idea. Once you've harvested, you can get children to save the seeds, um, and then label them in the little, tiny, little envelopes and, uh, the type that it is and what sort of plant it is, and then you can distribute the seeds. Distribute them everywhere. There's just abundance everywhere. Um, another thing, which is nothing really to do with food, is you could have contributing to community through, um, communication and through creating things like newsletters or stories. Uh, you, you could get them to start a podcast or a blog or even just creating awareness pan- campaigns on something that they have been learning about, um, and they can go out into the community to sort of raise awareness.

[26:44] Speaker 3: Uh, you can volunteer at animal shelters or, um, create care packs. Care packs are fun. Children can... I love making care packs and being able to go and give those care packs out. Um, you know, you can support elderly or isolated community members. There's so much need there, so much need there. Um, arts and crafts, handmade goods. You can fundraise for causes, and then, of course, there's lots of bartering and exchange. So there's just so much in this contributing and community. I'm gonna, I'm gonna wrap it up there. I feel (laughs) like I've said the same thing, and I don't wanna go on ad nauseum, but I would really love... So drop me a line. Uh, you know, go to BBS Radio, uh, forward slash All Learning Reimagined. Oh, bbsradio.com/alllearningreimagined, and there, you can actually send me an email, um, and communicate and let me know what you're doing in your community. I'd really love to share some success stories, and I'd really love to be able to hear what's going on.

[27:46] Speaker 3: Because I've observed there's so much going on, and yet there's so much that's not. There's so many people that can, um, take a step back and go, "Oh, it wouldn't take much for me to just take it that one step further to apply what it is that we're learning." So yeah. Yay. Beautiful. Love it, love it, love it. And so that's all we have time for this week. Thank you for joining me on All Learning Reimagined. Until next week, (laughs) uh, go out and live learning. Thank you everybody.

[28:21] Speaker 3: (instrumental music)

[28:36] Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on All Learning Reimagined, where passion illuminates the path forward. Remember this, the future of learning doesn't arrive from above. It begins within. You are the spark, the shift, the living answer to education's silent call for transformation. So stay curious, stay awake. Let inspiration be your compass, because how we learn today is not just personal. It is profoundly generative. It shapes the very architecture of tomorrow's world. We are not separate from the system. We are its evolution. Until next time, trust the wisdom of your own unfolding and let your life be the lessons that light the way for others.

[29:30] Speaker 1: (baby laughing)