8) Vision Quest Education

EDUCATION

Indigenous people and are original ancestors worldwide developed 'education' (Latin = 'to lead forth from within') based in mentorship of the young in apprenticeship by elders.  Youth were also encouraged to go beyond mentorship, celebrated for their own unique callings, if their voice or vision did not find reflection in the present knowledge relations of adults or elders.  Mentorship was based in the extended Multihome dwelling and community clustered village arrangements as well as the Production Society.  The priority of 'domestic' multihome economies empowered elders, women, handicapped, youth living and collaborating easily in proximity so as to animate economic interaction.   The grouping of talents into Production Societies with accounting for contributions in progressive ownership from youth to elder in disciplines such as medicine, accounting, food-service, gardening-orcharding, clothes making & repair, child care and raising of children integrated a huge economy without artificial institutions.  This empowered base including and accounting for women's labours of all sorts gave a strong popular basis to society as well as  forming checks and balances to industrial and commercial economies.  Families, Extended Multihome dwellings such as Longhouses were divided into apartment-like areas for family privacy.  Pueblo were more like townhouses of today.  All dwellings and the village outlay were designed with solar charting for the sun's rays, plant based bio-digestion of fecal, urine and collective kitchen food cuttings.  Communities were interactive enabling multiple generations to interact and contribute their complementary gifts to each other.

VISION-QUEST

Typically when a child turned ten they would be encouraged to begin a Vision-Quest of discovering their inherent personal gift for society.  Such a vision-quest depended as well upon the child's inner direction as to how it would unfold so as to be different for any individual.  Elders would help the child perhaps with the telling of their own story of Vision-Quest or other methods of guidance but always without coercion.  Some youth on their quest might stay within the largely urban village built environment.  Other youth may leave habitations on walk-abouts, taking time to reflect away from their homes.  Some youth may fast or any number of paths to enable their inner voice to speak with clarity.  The vision quest literally lasts the course of one's entire life, with emphasis on each person engaging their free will.

TRUTH-SEARCH

Mohandas Gandhi described this for his own life in his auto-biography, My Experiments with Truth.  Coupled with the realization that; we are all searchers for truth, none with surety, is 'Satyagraha' (Hindi = 'truth-search') whereby we reach out to our fellow searchers to see, hear and feel different perspectives.  As we engage with others in our search, we gain the advantage of their perspectives on issues.  When we have conflict, we benefit from hearing from the other-side particularly those who we have diminished or are alienated from.  Gandhi, as a lawyer trained in dialectics, would ask both friend and foe, "What are your best intentions and how can we help you fulfill these?"

LIVING 'VILLAGE' (Mohawk = 'Kanata')

These village environments were typically replete with Polyculture Orchards woven throughout the buildings soaking up rain and snow water, providing habitat for other creatures who each played a role in the life of the community.  Because of Polyculture Orchard Food Production, water was conserved in the abundant biosphere, creeks and rivers were held in steady state flows across huge continental habited regions. Children had abundant diversity of plant and animal species all around them at all times vertically in the 3-dimensional tree canopy, vast root systems and lush productive vines and ground cover.

APPRENTICESHIP

The apprenticeship process begins with complementary connection with a mentor and the task at hand.  Flows of energy and purpose are largely complementary in human society so it is built into us as social creatures to look for these.  We are all equal before the task of life and complementary approaches celebrate the fresh vision of youth with the skilled application of masters.  Typically the youth apprentice is simply just present with the mentor.  Indigenous 'economies of scale' in multihome dwellings enabled mothers and fathers to be present with their children during the course of the day.  The youth could therefore simply 'hang-around' the elder and participate in contributing to the task at hand with small acts including the act of observation.  The youth in apprenticeship and cultural learning is not only observing the process of fulfilling an 'objective' but as well the 'subjective'.  Are the adults he or she is with enjoying themselves?  Are they in good health?  Are human relations with others healthy?

OSMOSIS

Much of apprentice learning process is through 'osmosis', one can describe as 'a master's movement of knowledge to the apprentice through his or her culture, intensity, integration and relationships for employing the knowledge'.  Knowledge-in-motion is akin to the cultural laboratory, where one learns from observation of a host of factors. The master's knowledge is as valuable as the community relationships built around its employment.  Facts do not exist in silos by themselves but in their relationship of creating livelihood and life for community and all creation.  This cultural process is what the apprentice learns.  The mentor, Production Society and community celebrates each youth for the gifts which she or he are uniquely cultivating.  Its considered by many studies (eg. Petr Kropotkin Mutual-Aid, a factor of evolution) that; indigenous peoples worked only one hour per day. The abundance of 3-dimensional Polyculture Orchards and integrating all gifts through nature, meant that these societies were rich and had the latitude to cultivate gentle human relations.

INSTITUTIONAL EDUCATION