We have removed the cities from nature, we have torn green and replaced it with cement, we have limited it to domesticated areas, and we have interrupted the transmission of knowledge of the field that previous generations had, as the interviewees told us. “For many years the trend towards asphalt has been imposed, as it is more comfortable, flatter, cleaner… Now we are turning around, environmental awareness is increasing, but at the same time all those middle years have done harm: “How can we convince the public that it was green and that it has been paved to see it again?” says biologist and professor Iñaki Sanz. There are many children who do not walk fields in their daily lives, but we know that nature is an inexhaustible source of health, well-being, learning and creativity: mobility, autonomy, self-control, balance, attention, safety, personal skills and potentialities, limits and interests are perfect allies to naturally develop mud, land, trees, grass, leaves… Children who interact directly with nature live more relaxed. School curricula have also assumed the responsibility of transmitting knowledge and the relationship with nature, but nowadays, in general, this transmission is carried out within the classroom and although many concepts are given, students are made abstract because they do not see, touch, smell, test, investigate and explore in reality.

The solution is to use parks and green areas of the city, for Iñaki Sanz and for the teachers of the forestry school of Kutxa Ekogunea, Maialen Sistiaga and Irati Andoño. The key, as is the case in many countries in northern Europe, would be to reach agreements with the City Hall and incorporate the educational perspective in the management of the park, so that if a part of the park is oriented towards educational purposes, the wild and natural herb can be allowed to grow without cutting it, for example, and to maintain the native flora and fauna. “There is always an old wall around, filled with ivy and leaves, with lizards circling. Or some pasture by itself, with the basalandars… We can take advantage of those resources,” says Sistiaga. After all, the education system does not allow you to go to the mountain, except on a tour that takes place once a year: The subject of Nature has a duration of one hour, we have to give many contents and a class of 30 students cannot be mobilized remotely in the day to day, but yes in the park next door. “The excursion and the park can be complementary: If you go to Aiako Harria, you’ll see more habitat and biodiversity, but at that point you’ll only see how it is, and the day to day gives you the chance to see evolution: how flowers go, the seasons, the evolution of nature throughout the day…”, explains Sanz. Compost in the school itself, put the orchard, the chicken cooker or the greenhouse, build pastures for birds in the amusement yard or keep wells, create houses for the bugs with the branches and throw beer (to come to the bugs), put pots or plant flowers… Sistiaga and Andoño tell us that they are an easy way to bring nature to school, but they are an artificial option. “It will never be like going to the mountain or leaving the four walls of the school and approaching the natural environment.”

Dead wood, forestry supermarket

From an educational point of view, we asked the interviewees what the urban park should have. At least, they say, a meadow that has been allowed to grow as it is and that has not been cut incessantly with indigenous flowers. Trees and fallen logs of trees, dead woods, are also appropriate, as the forest supermarket is dead wood: it attracts a lot of insects, even fungi. From there, as the food chain goes up, the rest of the living things start to appear. The sand itself is an ideal resource and we have a beautiful coast in Euskal Herria, beaches and rocks. “Ideally, a park should be within the city, as far as possible connected to the green areas of the environment, that it should be a bioplural ring and not an island, and that it should design a route or corridor, and if it is from the center itself, better still. If it has many different habitats that preserve the native species, such as the pond, the small creek, a sketch, a field… And there are parks of this kind,” says Iñaki Sanz. The question is, have we ever argued that city parks are an appropriate tool for local schools to take advantage of? It often seems to us that parks are no more than a space for walking and leisure, and the point of view is to expand a bit, the interviewees say: the more conscious they are and the more suitable they design in parks, the more likely their use will be for educational purposes.

“Parents and teachers have been curious and eager to leave, but after leaving many times we don’t know what is in front of us, we don’t know plants and trees, what kind of bird it is, if it is a duck or a claw… and that gives us a lot of insecurity to adults,” says Sistiaga and Andoño. The first step is teacher training, and for that Ekogunea offers courses.

Sanz also tells us another concern: the management of the garden model. Or, in other words, you're cutting the grass and changing the flowers over and over again. “If you let your flowers grow in an area of the park, you’ll have a colored prairie for the whole spring, but I don’t know how much we appreciate that. What we understand by aesthetics is the essential thing: we think we have to knock down old walls and make new ones, but I find it wonderfully wonderful that it has an old wall, moss and hanging herbs. We have a very sharp aesthetic line, based on order, and what comes out of that scheme seems to us to be chaos and dirty. It would be changing the chip.”

What if it rains?

For anyone who thinks that the climate of Euskal Herria may be the limit to going abroad, Sanz tells us his experience. They've just learned plants, and to do so, they've taken the students to the next camp for three consecutive weeks, about three times a week. “I told the students, ‘I’m going to ask you the minimum, bring umbrella, jacket and I know of socks and slippers to change here.’ We have had no problem. It’s nothing more than creating that dynamic and bringing appropriate clothing for Physical Education.” It is common in many schools in northern Europe, which have areas of transition outward (and inward), including the Katiuskas and suits suitable to cope with the harsh weather. For the forestry school that has been set up in Ekogunea, the children have taken special clothing, such as the divers that fishermen tend to wear, in order to enjoy the time it does outside. “In addition, bad weather is an amazing learning process for children: discovering a puddle, playing in the rain…”, Sistiaga says.

Unexpectedly, the cirauna

To actually see it worked in the classroom, to work on nature's issues in nature -- a goal that's so simple, but often so unusual. From there, other topics can be worked on in the natural spaces. “Teaching basic concepts is easy, but if you live them close, the result is much more enriching,” says Sanz. We've worked the plants, and there's been a big difference between those who've made the presentation in class and those who've done it in the garden: in class they've been talking about the parts of the flowers, without having the flowers in front of them, and in general they haven't been understood, they haven't internalized. The presentation of the gardens has been much more practical, not abstract.” The atmosphere also influences the class: they have seen the strawberry come out of the flower, “and it seems silly, but I told a student once the tomato came out of the flower and was astonished, I would wager that it is not the only one”. The other time, in the garden, the circus appeared to them, they cut the class and took advantage of it to talk about the mermaid. “Everyone was very attentive, and we had learned the circus in class, but I’m sure that after the garden experience they won’t forget what we’re talking about. After all, these trips to reality are ideal to generate curiosity; you may not give all the contents, but if you have been interested in the subject, you have a long way to go.”

In fact, it's not the same to spend the hours sitting on the board as playing in the field. When they started going out in the garden, Iñaki Sanz tells us that the students were very agitated because it was new to them, and for the teachers it can also be uncomfortable to leave daily control, but as more days go abroad, teachers and students have acquired the habit of moving with total normality and tranquility in this type of spaces.

Place a couple of logs in the city's amusement park

Also in out-of-school hours, of course, a lot can be done, and transforming the amusement parks uniform, gray, disconnected from cities would be an important step. There is already a movement claiming other greener and fresher amusement parks in the neighborhoods. According to the interviewees, adrenaline, challenge, balance and coordination between dead wood and the process of ascension to the tree can be as much fun as the rocker. Put a couple of logs, the soil in different reliefs, and the game dynamic will change radically, even because natural resources are neutral; in nature there are no toys for boys and girls: roles are confused, creativity is awakened, individual and directed games are abandoned… That’s right, “the child will get more dirty – remember Sanz – and you’ll have to consider it as a father: Do you deserve it? Maybe yes, the child is so comfortable trying out other interactions and games.”

The interviewees have a joint message: that the school is not an island isolated from the environment, that it is an outer space and a classroom, and that this environment has the green. Maialen Sistiaga makes it clear: “The transition is needed by adults, children adapt right away.”

GREEN EXPERIENCES

The interviewees have told us that there are not too many examples and that, when there are, they are often personal bets of the teachers. We have collected some models and for this purpose, in addition to the interviewees, we have been helped by Ane Abarrategi and Manuela Abasolo of the Tipitik group, which is based on architecture and design.

Transforming the school patio

The fact that the center itself is a field, a natural space or a garden is a treasure, and it is aware of this, more than one school has launched some project of transformation of the patio. In the ikastola Kurutziaga of Durango, for example, the proposals to study and renovate the patio have been made by the children themselves through drawings, and in the works of the students have seen with clarity: “Green predominates.” They have ordered ropes to climb the trees, Tibetan bridges, orchard… and in that direction they have renovated the patio. Once the natural space has been achieved, schools tend to take advantage of playing, researching and relating to the learning process: They have created the Trivial game to identify the trees and leaves of the garden of La Annata de San Sebastian; they have built canteens for the birds of El Pilar de Irun in the garden of the school…

In Ereñotzu, pond instead of slate

In Germany, some centres have the habit of taking care of some wetlands in the area and moving there to study the lessons. Following this idea, they created an interesting initiative at the small Txirrita school in the Ereñotzu neighborhood of Hernani, in collaboration with the Society of Sciences Aranzadi: they recovered what once was a well, but lost over time, in the 2013-14 academic year, waterproofing and adapting the area. They managed to recreate the Zepadi well, now a protected area, and in one year aquatic plants and numerous amphibians appeared. The well became the perfect resource to address curriculum issues: What did mathematics have to do? Did they have the number of frog eggs or the well surface, which because of the heat the well had been reduced and the red frogs had stopped depositing the eggs? They had a unique example of climate change, and it also served them to work on cartography, toponymy, metamorphosis of animals ... The Ziraba project was delivered to a didactic unit and nowadays students maintain a link with the well: parents organize excursions and activities.

Nature School in Oiangu

Following the paralysis of the controversial project to turn the Oiangu de Ordizia Park into a golf course, it has been decided to reuse the green area. At the initiative of Aranzadi and financed by the City Hall, two schools in the town have used this course for the first time as Nature School. Students between the ages of 10 and 12 have worked on the relationship with nature and have dealt with different topics. “Living nature and creating a positive relationship is the same goal and achievement,” says Yoana García, who drives the initiative. Now it is about extending it to more ages and, if the teachers show a positive and proactive attitude, increase the frequency to work the content in the open air”.

Recommendations for improving the Oñati Park

The students of the Zuazola-Larraña Institute of Oñati, after working on the basic concepts in the classroom, have visited the park of San Martín de the locality and analyzed the environment, focusing on biodiversity. Young people have developed a detailed diagnosis of fauna and flora and, aware of the diversity of the park, have proposed measures to assess, protect and improve it. Among them, to plant more trees, to identify the different species well, to condition a wide field, to keep the oak logs dead, to make habitats for birds, bats, sea urchins and insects... In May, a series of recommendations were presented to the mayor to be taken into account by the municipal plenary for the regeneration of the park.

The School of Forestry, a growing model

Schools with the classroom itself are a model rooted in northern Europe (there are more than 1,000 forestry schools in Germany, for example) and in the Basque Country there have also been splashes. In Ozaeta, they have three courses working the curricular contents in the natural environment, without the need for a closed classroom: they welcome more than 20 students from the area in the Plisti Plasta educational center. The Bihotz Inguru Association wants to show that it can live in the city but grow in nature: In the forest of Ulia de Donostia, four years ago the space of forest games aimed at boys and girls between 3 and 6 years old was born. Starting with the next course, a standardized educational proposal will be launched from Monday to Friday, which aims to implement a “pedagogy that meets and respects the real development needs of our small and small”. In Orendain, the initiative is similar.

With the aim of socializing the model of forestry schools and extending its offer to all public education, Ekogunea has launched an ambitious project. Three public centres are participating in the pilot project: Worker of Hernani, Amara Berri de Donostia and Alkiza. This is a child from 3 to 5 years old who has been doing the time to work outdoors with clothing put on (see photo). “First, we explain the foundations of the new space – Maialen Sistiaga tells us. For example, students choose a tree to take as a reference in case of loss. At the beginning of the day, we met to talk about the themes of the day as they would in class and in passing to talk about themes related to nature (what time ago, how flowers and trees are, at what time of year we are...). ). We follow the dynamics of the classroom, but adapted to nature and nature. Instead of paper, they can paint on the ground with the stick or climb up the tree instead of up on the wall. We combine free play and more guided activities (for example, when we go to the garden or to the animal area)”. In the future, the aim is for schools that wish to do so to provide the full course in forestry school, using the green areas around them. Ekogunea would like to advise the centres that opt for the methodology and therefore has this pilot experience in place.

Utikan Grey and Sad Amusement Parks

Driven by movements that demand more natural amusement parks, parks can be found with recycled materials and nature’s own resources, designed for children to play freely. Without reaching New York's stunning adventure parks: GroundNYC or Plas Madoc of Wales, there are also interesting examples in the environment, such as the Tertanga Amusement Park in Amurrio or the Lakunza Amusement Park, arising from the children’s own initiative. Recently, on the basis of the proposals of the children of the area, a maze has been carried out in the park of Atotxa (Egia, Donostia) with the collaboration of neighbors and neighbors, students from different educational centers and various institutions.