Lowell
Young and his wife Christie have lived in California’s Napa Valley
for over 40 years. Mr. Young taught high school biology for nearly 40
years before he retired. The class that evolved into Biodesign was a
creative, collaborative project where the roles of teacher and
student were often reversed. It was well known by the students that
although Mr. Young represented the physical nature of the class,
Christie’s silent spiritual guidance was often felt in their
classroom circles, as well as along the many miles of trails they
walked. The Biodesign class may be the only one of its kind taught in
a public high school in the country.
Genre:
Nature/Ecology
Publisher:
Outskirts Press
Book
Description:
Going
for a walk should be fun. So should studying biology, after all,
without it we wouldn't be alive to experience the rapture, sorrow and
mystery of the universe. Biodesign Out For A Walk, is a story of how
spirit-sensitive students reprogrammed a left-brained biology teacher
and took him on a 24-year odyssey. Following the footsteps of John
Muir, they slept on the top of Yosemite's famous Half Dome. They
followed Loren Eiseley and John Wesley Powell to the bottom of Grand
Canyon. Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck led them into forests and tide
pools of California's beautiful Mendocino coast. Abraham Maslow
challenged them to redefine science and religion. Ralph Emerson
challenged them to write their own Bibles. They traced the origins of
human spirituality back 100,000 years. The class was dedicated to
studying biology by exercising the illimitable freedom of the human
mind. Plato urged them to actively search for truth, beauty and
goodness.
They studied the works of scientists, sages, poets and saints to add to their growing concept of Mother Nature. Many synchronicities were discovered that were either playful, mysterious or scary
Socrates', "The unexamined life is not worth living," and Thoreau's, "I went to the woods to live deliberately," became mottos. Although each class lasted one academic year, the teacher was guided by students for 24 years and his adventure ended when a modern-day Moses mysteriously met him on top of Half Dome.
They studied the works of scientists, sages, poets and saints to add to their growing concept of Mother Nature. Many synchronicities were discovered that were either playful, mysterious or scary
Socrates', "The unexamined life is not worth living," and Thoreau's, "I went to the woods to live deliberately," became mottos. Although each class lasted one academic year, the teacher was guided by students for 24 years and his adventure ended when a modern-day Moses mysteriously met him on top of Half Dome.
Praise
for BioDesign:
"Digging
deeper into the book, there are plenty of reminders that these are
real experiences with only a few anecdotal ideas relative to genuine
observations.”
Steven
Burgess, Amazon Reviewer
"As
you travel with Lowell, you will meet many amazing teens as they go
out for a walk.”
Phroncie,
Amazon Reviewer
"I
recommend this book for anyone who wants a good read, especially one
that is thought-provoking.”
geochrim,
Amazon Reviewer
“A must read for every high school
teacher!”
Mark Salvestrin, Amazon
Reviewer
Excerpt 1
Going for
a walk should be fun. So should biology. After all, without it, we
wouldn’t be able to experience the rapture, sorrow, and
mystery of the universe. The “strange and wonderful magic” that
created the Velveteen Rabbit is not confined to nurseries; it
occurred at St. Helena High School, in the heart of California’s
Napa Valley.
A
scattered group of rebels magically overthrew my teaching style and
curriculum and created an advanced biology course with a spiritual
component. Each year, they traveled to Yosemite, the Grand Canyon,
and California’s Mendocino Coast, discovering themselves and their
role in the world.
The
birth of the class was not unlike the birth of a baby. Therewere
moments of elation and sorrow, triumph and frustration, hope and
despair. No one, especially me, realized that the students were
responding to an ancient call which predated Christianity, perhaps by
100,000 years. Like Henry Thoreau, they were seeking a spiritual
rebirth. Bloody palms, horrifying fear, and a battered ego were not
included in my job description. They were, however, prerequisites for
entering the uncharted wilderness of the teenage soul.
Lettie
was dissecting a fetal pig when she suddenly paused, looked up, and
asked, “Mr. Young, is this really important?”
I discovered later
that her question was a matter of her spiritual life and death. While
discussing evolution, and the now discredited story ofthe wolf/dog
wandering into the ocean to become a whale, Matthew shouted, “Wait
a minute! What the hell do we believe, anyway?
Did they
think their way back into the ocean to become whales?” I discovered
later that he was asking the most profound question that a
person can ask. The collective human response
will likely determine the fate of
mankind.
These
educational rebels elected to sit in a circle and rejected the
traditional learning method of massive memorization of minutiae.
Instead, they replaced it with an emphasis on critical thinking,
communication skills, and problem solving. The focus was always
biology, but collateral topics of natural history, evolution, the
wilderness ethic, politics, sexuality, and religion were open for
discussion. They understood the gravity that many had died so they
could study and grow in an environment without fear, bitterness, or
humiliation.
Some
began to contemplate the immensity, horror, and glory of the human
journey. Evolution, they discovered, often involved bloodshed, and
they pondered over the hundreds of millions of people who were
stoned, clubbed, burned, or nailed on crosses for what they believed.
Their
class discussions were often lively but could not compare with the
three, sixday field trips that they took. They tested Emerson’s
adage, “The whole of Nature is but a metaphor of the human mind,”
and often discovered wonders, even miracles, in Nature, themselves
and each other. They learned that Albert Einstein and Loren Eiseley
agreed that every branch of science was cloaked in mysteryand it
would be their challenge and privilege to contemplate those
mysteries.
The
theme for the class was defined by John Muir; “I only went out for
a walk … and found that going out was really going in.” They were
invited to read the accounts of scientists, scholars, sages, and
saints to see how they viewed Mother Nature. Many learned how to cope
with the physical, mental, and spiritual blisters that they
encounteredalong the way. Some learned to look for Jungian
synchronicities and found them to be amusing, inspirational, or
frightening.
Each
year, hundreds of ideas were born, some resulting from close
encounters with death
I
have selected nearly 100 quotations which include scores of ideas
from seekers whose thoughts and deeds have improved humanity. I felt
that my deepest calling was not to “teach” but to share these
designs with young, curious, and flexible minds and let them decide
which ones they wanted to incorporate into their personal biblioteca
(library).
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