Transition Culture

8 Jun 2007

Transition Tales – introducing Peak Oil into Schools. Part 1.

**Introducing Peak Oil into schools – Session 1, setting the tone.**

I have already described the second and third sessions we did on the recent visit to KEVICC school in Totnes, here, courtesy of **Transition Tales** co-ordinator Tamzin Pinkerton, is the write-up of Session One. This was led by Chris Holland, a bushcraft educator and storyteller from the organisation Wholeland. The idea of this workshop was to set the tone by introducing themes of nature, place and transition to the group. We decided it would be interesting to not tell the class about who we are and what we do for this first session, to retain some of the mystery about what was in store for them. We also did not want to give anything away that might spoil Rob’s bag of tricks activity on day 2 (we had strict instructions to not say the ‘o’ word!) The rain managed to hold off so we were able to take the group out into the school grounds and away from the familiar confines of the classroom. Chris took the group through the following activities….

1. Health and safety rules decreed that the lighting of a real fire was not possible…so Chris asked the kids to construct a pretend one instead, using anything they could find that reminded them of fire. Yellow leaves, twigs, and (flame shaped?) grasses were gathered and a bonfire was built.

2. Next, Chris told an aboriginal story about the origin of the stars – that they were termites blown from the end of a didgeridoo. He was very effective in holding the kids’ attention and drawing them and their ideas into the story, and in captivating them with his didgeridoo playing.

3. This was followed with some rummaging around in the undergrowth trying to find something that represented how they were feeling at the time. They went around in a circle explaining what their ‘finds’ represented (which included the inevitable string of “I feel normal