Trees and Rain

Soft persistent rain today. The ground is in good shape - plants are growing, flowers are blooming, trees feel like they've been in full leaves for weeks now. -- that being said, I have no doubt farmers are rejoicing about the rain. It hasn't rained here for more than 5min (rarely, that!) in something like 3 weeks. The last serious precipitation here was snow.


So back to the trees - yesterday's education class was a walk through several different ecosystems within a 15min walk of campus. We saw a "grazing area" (a wild meadow), a section of dead forest (storms), old forest, new forest (perhaps from older storms?), and a bog.


The bog was the coolest. The wow factor of jumping up and down on 'ground' and feeling it move yet remain solid was undeniable. (Also, cranberries grow as ground cover, blueberries grow on tiny little plants and sphagnum moss really does grow in the wild - and is apparently used in packing wounds in Germany after being dried and sterilized)


We spent the most time in the meadow - educational exercises, learning birdsongs (no, I can't perform any of them), learning to interest kids in the specific aspects of nature that we're loosing. The teacher for this class was a guy who has written books and many articles aimed at educating adults as well as children about nature. In addition, he takes pictures and has had a bunch of those published too. He's dynamic, interesting and engaging.


The 'dead forest' wasn't actually dead, just short on 'big' organisms. Moss, lichens, grasses and little white flowers were everywhere. There was a storm in 2006 (the worst ever) that uprooted an entire year's timber (link to PDF) and damaged even greater numbers of forests (I've heard estimates of 40% loss, but am not finding sources for that number). I've heard from several people (but am not finding English-language sources online) that suicides skyrocketed as some farmers (40% of forests in Sweden are family farms) committed suicide. Also, twisting the tragedy of this story further is the knowledge that storms will increase in severity due to climate change. (Link is also source for picture below)


Our guide told a story that I want to retell here. It's the story of his favorite early spring water bird. He demonstrated it's call and told us how he listens every spring for it's formal arrival announcement as exemplified by this water bird. He described running along the lake, starting in late winter, keeping an ear open in the hopes of catching it. He described this year, watching spring arrive in full force and still listening, hoping it was just late this year. The story ended with his hopes that it will be back next year.


I'm not sure if he tells this story to children, but for adults - it was a pointed and timely reminder of the consequences of our own actions. As much as I feel veterinary public health is my passion, I'm curious if there's a way to 'do' public health (particularly veterinary pubhealth - I'm picturing farm runoff!) in a less environmentally disruptive way. While this is an issue close to my heart - it's not 'mine' except in the personal decisions, personal responsibility and feeling of shared responsibility for the consequences discussed above.


(Note: the rain started yesterday - our nature walk was dry - but we got soaked on our walk home - and there was hail!)

I've visited the most controversial primary school in Vaxjo, Sweden and had a great time. Since I spent most of my time with 6yo kids in 1st grade and their time was similar to what I remember doing in first grade, it wasn't too exciting for me.


In contrast, I watched slightly older kids learning multiplication tables... in a music class.

Music? Multiplication? How?

They sang little songs composed by their music teacher that were catchy lists of numbers (they didn't even *realize* that they were learning math!) - I didn't hear any students asking why, as they were enjoying the singing and not concerned with the reason they were singing 'the threes' or 'the twos'!

The class ended with a spontaneous dance with a handful of boys doing the robot, the teacher doing a modified 'walk like an egyption', several girls marching in place, another girl taking large steps back and forth to the rhythm of the music, some kids clapping their hands, etc.

I also watched fight between two six-year-olds. I was shocked by their maturity, self-control, and calm. One boy teased another boy (I forgot the insult), the boy retaliated by drawing a green marker line on the other boy's hand, and the first boy hit the second boy (lightly). The second boy ran to tell the teacher (calmly, without yelling). She said OK, called the second boy, asked for his version of events (standing next to each other), told them they were both wrong, and that they should go back and behave.

They walked away calmly, the event apparently forgotten, to the other room where they painted and drew with other students without incident. The teacher continued to sit on a couch in an adjacent room, speaking quietly and casually with the few students left in the room. She was utterly unconcerned with the room full of students painting, drawing, writing, and reading going on in the room behind her.


This is not to suggest that she was lazy (for sitting down or for not observing the kids visually at all times), but that Swedish kids, even at a very young age, are expected to be independent. And they are.

In addition, while I expected this unsupervised activity to gradually increase in noise-level, chaos, and off-topic activity... I was quite wrong. The noise level remained steady (quiet!), the kids put on and took off painting shirts, hanging them up *and cleaning up after themselves* all without reminder, direction, or observation by the teacher.

"Present-day children see films, listen to the radio, watch television, read serial strips - this can all be quite pleasant, but it has very little to do with imagination. A child, alone with his book, creates for himself, somewhere in the secret recesses of the soul, his own pictures which surpass all else. Such pictures are necessary for humanity. On that day that the children's imagination no longer has the strength to create them, on that day humanity will be the poorer. All great things that have happened in the world, happened first of all in someone's imagination, and the aspect of the world of tomorrow depends largely on the extent of the power of imagination in those who are just now learning to read. This is why children must have books, and why there must be people... who really care what kind of books are put into the children's hands."

(Something, 130) Astrid Lindgren; 1958

Children are allowed to close doors in preschool here.

They are allowed to play outside of direct adult supervision behind closed doors.

It doesn't sound like much - but think about it. In this post-Columbine school environment - the idea that students would spend any time at all unsupervised, except by accident, is shocking!

There's a reading room with a bed in it. I saw the (male) preschool teacher throw no less than three children on the ground and spank them (in fun, outside in the snow, during some inventive variant of 'tag').

Outside I watched children hide behind bushes, play alone, in groups, on jungle gyms, throw snowballs, wedge themselves between a fence and thick bushes, and run wildly in circles. Inside two boys closed themselves in the block room and proceeded to throw toy trucks across the room (not at each other). Another child sat at the kitchen table and played a memory game by himself.

Other children played with blocks, legos, barbies, and one boy spent 15min pushing a baby buggy with a doll in it past the exchange students smiling at us the whole time.

There were 4 preschool teachers and 32 children from 1-5 years old. We watched them sing songs, dance in a group and alone (hen dance for girls and a cock dance for boys), hear stories about magic eggs and farmers and play bongo drums while being accompanied by their classmates in song. After this high-energy music extravaganza, lasting 20-30min, the children were 'free'. Most chose to go outside and play in the snow. Some chose to stay inside, unsupervised (or perhaps the instructors were relying on us to supervise?).


In my observations about yesterday, I am most struck by the free and comfortable touching that happens between teachers and kids and the incredible freedom that children are given to choose what they would prefer to do. In addition, though everything was brand new and the school is considered quite prosperous (nicer neighborhood, music specialty profile), there was an amazing (to my jaded American eyes) disregard for what we'd call "safety".

I didn't see anyone get hurt and only heard one child cry, once, for 10seconds because she discovered that an exchange student that she fancied was leaving. Children played with incredible restraint, even the truck-throwing boys (they played only in the block room and only with the door closed and never threw anything at each other).


I'm not quite sure what conclusions to draw from this. The preschool students look far healthier, happier, engaged, interested, and creative than any preschool I've seen in the United States. However, the safety standards here are obviously far different - with apparently the result of producing healthy, safe, creative, independent children and adults.

I don't understand.

First first-hand Swedish school experience today. We didn't teach, but talked to and observed some classes (w/o preparation) in a Swedish High School. It was a medium size HS with 400 students and was located just outside of town. As such, it was particularly "Swedish" with only two non-Swedish (immigrant) students in the whole school.

The school was a long low building, one level, in a straight line. The cafeteria was a separate building behind the school (and the lunch was *vile*, though free for all students and staff, including us). I didn't take a picture though I was tempted - mashed potatoes (w/ ketchup), a bowl of sweet relish, and what I can only describe as huge salty spam hotdogs served by the 'slice'/spoonful. Also, hard biscut-crackers with butter/margarine and milk or water. And shredded carrots without dressing, which some students actually took.


The students in classes were engaged, actively, which was a huge change from my experiences of American schools. Some students asked questions, others paid attention w/o coercion, and other students made occasional quiet comments to their neighbors (the most 'acting out' that I witnessed). The students have an incredible amount of freedom - 10-20min between classes, completely unsupervised in the hallways (the teachers retire to the lounge for coffee and sliced bread with butter). There are only 20-22 students per teacher in class and the power dynamic between teachers and students is far more balanced than in the United States.


Democracy and the democratic process were mentioned countless times, both in reference to classroom progress and in reference to the incredible (to us) freedoms we witnessed. Teachers look relaxed and do not yell at their students - I am unclear on what punishments are available or what other method they use to obtain obedience... perhaps none, if the headmaster's claims are to be believed. Also, teachers look to students for approval of teaching methods and feedback about presentation of material in a way I would normally associate with the power dynamic between office colleagues.

I haven't died, gotten ill, or fallen into a ditch - though I haven't posted in a while or taken many pictures.

Nor has my brain rotted in my head - wheels are still turning, cultural adjustment is taking place, and I'm still making observations.

However, I feel slower about these - not quite sure of my conclusions. Still percolating.

Two subjects at the moment: the Swedish school system and their astounding focus on individual choice and democratic decisions as a basis of their process in a way that I can barely picture or comprehend. The school visits we'll be making next Wed and Thurs should be instructive in this area.

Secondly: drinking. There's a very different cultural expectation than I have experienced elsewhere on the subject. I am curious about this area both from my interest in discovery as well as from a public health and addiction perspective. I'm curious how addiction is defined, treated, and handled socially and culturally and what/if there are public health repercussions of this cultural model of drinking (which involves fantastically heavy drinking on the weekends and complete sobriety during the week - and I'm not talking only about college students).

There seems to be a pervasive refrain of 'trust/listen to the child' here that sounds mundane but in experience is quite extraordinary. I am curious how this intersects with a medical process whose first step (in the US) is a highly coercive manipulation of the patient into accepting both the medical definition of their situation as a 'problem' and the medical treatment for the situation which involves a period of dependency and external rule-making.