DennisMerrittJungianAnalyst.com
DLMerritt@cal.berkeley.edu

 

 

Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People

 

Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

 

            Near the end of my training at the Jung Institute in Zurich, I had one of the most powerful and simple dreams I have ever had.  It was a single-image dream of a typical upper Midwestern landscape.  There was a meadow with very green grass, flowers and possibly alfalfa. The topography was gently rolling with trees on the horizon.  Insects flew above the meadow.  It was a beautiful sunny day with puffy white clouds in a blue sky.  What was most remarkable about this simple scene was that it shown with an inner light.  Every atom in the dream was alive.  Despite having seen some of the most beautiful scenery in the world—California, the Grand Canyon, the Canadian Rockies, Switzerland, etc., I have never seen anything as beautiful as this simple meadow scene.

 

            This is an example of what the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung called a numinous dream—a dream with an inner light and a sacred sense.  I contend that no indigenous person has had a more sacred dream of the land.  Every human is capable of experiencing this sense of the sacredness about the land.  Long ago Jung recognized this archetypal need of a connection to, and love of, the land.  E. O. Wilson calls this “biophilia”.

 

            When one has such a dream, the challenge is to let it lead one’s life and direct one’s conscious orientation.  To follow such a dream’s inspiration is to walk a path with heart.  Having grown up in Wisconsin, I knew the state affected me deeply, but I had no sense of just how deeply until this dream.  I began to look at all elements of the Upper Midwest more closely—its soils, topography, flora and fauna, seasons, etc.  To deepen this process and help convey this sense of the land to others, my wife and I set up a week long summer institute in 1991 called Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People.  The Institute was so well received we ran a second one in 1992, followed by a reduced version for the University of Wisconsin Extension in 1994.  The talks I gave at the Institutes became the genesis of the book I’m finishing, The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe--Jung, Hermes and Ecopsychology.  To convey my sense of an interdisciplinary environmental education program, I am reproducing the contents of three brochures announcing the Institutes.

 

1991 Madison Summer Institute

Education for the 21st Century

 

SPIRIT IN THE LAND, SPIRIT IN ANIMALS, SPIRIT IN PEOPLE.

 

From the Director….

            I grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin where I spent many hours of my free time wandering the hills and marshes with my dog.  A deep connection was forged between the land and my psyche, much deeper than I realized.  After spending many years away from the Midwest, working on a doctorate at Berkeley in the late 60’s in Insect Pathology (microbial control of insects), then a Masters Degree in Humanistic Psychology from Sonoma State College, California, and finally training to become a Jungian Analyst in Zurich, Switzerland, I was led by a series of powerful dreams to return to the land I have felt so connected to.  I also became involved in sweat-lodge, vision quest and Sundance ceremonies of the Lakota Sioux of the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota that added a depth of relationship to the environment I could not have imagined otherwise.

 

            It is out of this background that I have put together a series of speakers and workshops that embodies a unique, multidimensional approach and experience of our relationship with the environment.  The didactic, Western scientific content of the program will be put in perspective in such a way as to enhance, not distance ourselves, from “all our relatives”: the four-leggeds, the standing brothers (trees),etc.  The aesthetics of our relationship to nature will be experienced by hearing from artists, writers and poets, deeply influenced by their ties to the land.  In many ways and forms the Native American experience will permeate the program, including a guided tour of Madison’s fascinating Effigy Mounds with their astronomical alignments and hearing tales from a Winnebago Indian about the land and the animals of this area.  There will be a strong emphasis on the intrapsychic dimension of our connection to the environment as revealed by dreams, myths, synchronistic events, shamanistic techniques to discover our spirit animals, etc.  Madison Mayor Paul Soglin will discuss hard reality issues he faces in trying to preserve the environment via effective legislative and land-use planning.

 

            The entire program will be framed in a Jungian, symbolic, archetypal perspective, yet the contributions of the varied and talented presenters will offer perspectives and experiences beyond this limited framework.  New models for education will be explored as this 1st Annual Summer Institute is an aspect of a broader model being developed for the University, entitled Education For The 21st Century.

 

            We have the perfect environment for this program on the beautiful 135 acres of St. Benedict Center overlooking the shores of Lake Mendota to the East and rolling hillsides of trees and farmland to the West.  Please join us August 19-25, 1991, for this week long Madison Summer Institute—Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People.

                                                                                    Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

 

 

 

PROGRAM

 

Monday  Aug. 19           Registration 1-2.00pm

 

            THE SPIRIT IN NATURE AND JUNG’S CONCEPT OF THE SYMBOLIC LIFE

                                                                                                DENNIS MERRITT Ph.D.

            THE ICE AGE AND ITS IMPRINT ON OUR ENVIRONMENT

                                                                                                LEE CLAYTON Ph.D.

            WOODLAND TRADITIONS    Artist’s slide show

                                                                                                TRUMAN LOWE MFA

Tuesday  Aug. 20

 

            AN ARCHETYPAL VIEW OF THE MIDWEST ENVIRONMENT

                                                                                                DENNIS MERRITT Ph. D.

            CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SOIL  Slide show, violin music and songs

                                                                                                FRANCIS HOLE Ph.D.

            WALKING IN THE SPIRIT OF NATURE      Nature walk

                                                                                                MARION MORAN

            ZEN GARDENS;  ART BORN OF NATURE’S POETRY

            Multimedia presentation, meditation

                                                                                                BRYAN WALTON

 

Wednesday  Aug 21

 

            MEETING MYSELF COMING ‘ROUND CORNERS  Nationally

acclaimed author

                                                                                    BEN LOGAN

SPIRIT, EROS AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF RELATIONSHIPS  Includes video clips from operas

                                                                                    JOHN HAULE Ph.D.

SEASONS OF THE SOUL--

ARCHETYPAL PATTERNS IN WEATHER AND CLIMATE

                                                                                    DENNIS MERRITT Ph.D.

SHAMANIC IMAGES OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF SPIRIT AND BODY

Slide show

                                                                                    JOHN HAULE Ph.D.

 

Thursday Aug. 22

 

            TOUR:  NATURAL BRIDGE STATE PARK Plants used by Native Americans

            Lunch at FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT designed restaurant, Spring Green

            TOUR:  HILLSIDE HOME SCHOOL—TALIESIN.  Frank Lloyd Wright’s

            Architectural School and Grounds.                

                                                                        Tour Leader…BRYAN WALTON

            TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION IN AN INTEGRATED ELEMENTARY

            SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM

                                                                                                HERB MARTIN Ph.D.

 

Friday Aug. 23

 

            ANIMAL FROLICS AND OTHER CHINESE EXCERCISES  Exercise-T’ai Chi

                                                                                                DONNA SILVER

            WINNEBAGO ANIMAL TALES AND MYTHS

                                                                                                KAREN MARTIN

            FINDING YOUR SPIRIT ANIMAL  Workshop– drumming

MYRON ESHOWSKY M.S.

            THE MENDOTA EFFIGY MOUND GROUP  Slide presentation

                                                                                                GARY MAIER M.D.

 

Saturday Aug. 24

 

            Morning in Madison – State Street, Farmer’s Market, John Muir Exhibit,

            Woodland Indians Exhibit, Boating on the Lake, etc.

            TOUR:  EFFIGY MOUNDS  Eagle, turtle, deer, etc.

            And Frank Lloyd Wright Unitarian Church

                                                                        Tour Leader…..GARY MAIER, M.D.

BANQUET – Address

            AESTHETICS, LAND-USE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

                                                                  Mayor of Madison - PAUL SOGLIN LL.B.

 

Sunday Aug. 25

 

THE BLACK MADONNA--THE DARK FEMININE, AN IMAGE FOR THE EARTH

                                                                                    FRED GUSTAFSON D.Min.

CLOSING CEREMONY    11.00 –11.30 am

HEDWIG WEILER M.S.N.,R.N.

 

 

PRESENTERS:

 

LEE CLAYTON, Ph.D.

Geologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.  Special interest in the glacial geology and history of the Ice Age in the Midwest.

 

MYRON ESHOWSHY, M.S.

Psychotherapist in private practice in Madison and teaching faculty member of Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies.  Has taught shamanism workshops across the U.S.  Much of his current work involves the integration of ancient shamanic methods with modern psychotherapeutic practice.

 

FRED GUSTAFSON, D. Min.

Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and an ordained Lutheran minister.  Practices in Watertown, WI as both Jungian Analyst and Pastoral Counselor.  Contributing author of Betwixt and Between and author of The Black Madonna.  Sundancer for the last 4 years at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota under the leadership of Medicine Man, Norbert Elmer Running.

 

JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

Doctorate in Religious Studies from Temple University.  Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and practicing Jungian Analyst in Newton, Massachusetts.  Faculty member and ex-President of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts, where he has been on the training board for a number of years.  Author of Divine Madness —Archetypes of Romantic Love.

 

FRANCIS HOLE, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Departments of Geography and Soil Science.  Author of Soils of Wisconsin, co-author of Soil Genesis and Classification  and Soil Landscape Analysis.  His main interest before and after retirement is in the soul and the connection to the soil.

 

BEN LOGAN

Nationally acclaimed author of The Land Remembers—The Story of a Farm and Its People.  Novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher and writer/producer of films and Emmy award winning network television.  Born in Southwest Wisconsin, he has remained rooted in that hill country.

 

TRUMAN LOWE, MFA

Wisconsin Winnebago and a UW-Madison Art Professor specializing in environmental art.  Past director of the Native American Studies Program at UW.  Recipient of numerous awards.  Has exhibited throughout the US, in embassies, in Canada and the Palais de Nations, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.  His environmental sculptures are personal investigations into the peoples and traditions of the Great Lakes and Plains.

 

GARY MAIER, M.D.

Head of Forensic Psychiatry at Mendota Mental Health Institute, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UW-Madison and a national consultant on aggression management.  His longstanding interest in Native American culture goes back to his childhood.  Since being in Madison, he has developed a particular interest in the mounds of this area.

 

HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

Assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education at California State University, Sacramento.  Has won awards for teaching excellence at Louisiana and California State Universities.  Specializes in world cultural mythologies and their application to multicultural education in elementary education.  His cultural heritage as African-American and Cherokee provides a more personal insight into these topics. 

 

KAREN MARTIN

A Wisconsin Winnebago and graduate from UW-Madison in Consumer Science and Financial Planning.  For several years Karen has been doing outreach programs in Wisconsin public schools sharing her culture with children through myths, tales, dance, music and art.

 

DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D. [DIRECTOR]

Doctorate in Insect Pathology, UC-Berkeley.  Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and a Jungian Analyst and sandplay therapist in private practice in Madison.  A contributing author in The Analytic Life, “Jungian Psychology and Science—A Strained Relationship.”

 

MARION MORAN

Naturalist, previously associated with the UW Arboretum and the UW Environmental Resource Unit.  She provides courses and environmental programs across Wisconsin, with an emphasis on the interdependent relationship of all living things.

 

DONNA SILVER

Has been practicing T’ai Chi Chuan since 1977.  Has taught T’ai Chi and other forms of Chi Kung exercises for nine years based at the T’ai Chi Center in Madison.

 

PAUL SOGLIN, LL.B, Mayor of Madison

Graduate from UW Law School.  A student activist when elected to the City Council in 1968.  Served as Mayor of Madison 1973-79.  Left office for a private law practice.  Elected Mayor in 1989 and re-elected for a second four-year term in 1991.

 

BRYAN WALTON

Has traveled the world as a professional photographer.  His focus has been on helping people of different cultures achieve mutual understanding through art.  He established a craft and training center in Auroville, South India and was one of the founders of the International Community at Global View, Spring Green, WI.

 

HEDWIG WEILER, M.S.N., R.N.

Has been a practitioner in health care, mental health, healing and teaching for over 30 years.  In private practice at Midwestern Psychological Services, she is founder and Director of the Psychosynthesis Center of Wisconsin.

 

LOCATION

 

ST. BENEDICT CENTER, WISCONSIN

Provides comfortable lodging in a pleasant rural setting.  Facilities include an outdoor swimming pool, hiking trails, volleyball, badminton, tennis, baseball and basketball.

The Center is located 15 minutes away from the Dane County Regional Airport which is serviced by 6 major airlines.

 

 

 

                                         1992 Madison Summer Institute

                                        Education for the 21st Century

 

SPIRIT IN THE LAND, SPIRIT IN ANIMALS, SPIRIT IN PEOPLE

 

From the Director…

 

            We hope to build on the success of last years Institute as we continue to develop the themes of an integrative approach to environmental education and an experience that incorporates Jungian depth psychological and Native American perspectives.  The contributions of science to our understanding and appreciation of the world around us will be respected and placed in perspective.  The spiritual dimensions of our relationships to the plants, animals and the land will be explored by looking at Christian, Buddhist, Native American and Jungian world views.  It is necessary to examine how our conception of the human psyche affects our relatedness to the surrounding organic and “inorganic’ realms.  It is not enough to talk about the environment—we must also experience being fully in the environment.  Music, dance, ritual, poetry and art are integral aspects of relationship to our bodies, each other and the world—“we are all related”—at many different levels.  Personal experience and knowledge forms the basis for consideration of new models for our educational systems and avenues to pursue in the political arena.  These themes and ideas will take form during a week long program in a beautiful glen near one of the oldest landforms on the continent—the Baraboo Hills.  We will also be privileged this year to tour the land and hear from a daughter of one of the giants of ecology—Aldo Leopold.

 

            We received a grant to develop a program for satellite teacher inservice education—“New Approaches to Environmental Education K-12”. It will air nationwide on October 7, 14, and 21, 1992.  Three of the presenters from last year’s Institute, Prof. Francis Hole, writer Ben Logan and Dr. Herb Martin will each present two hour interactive programs via satellite TV…We have applied for ECH credits (32.5 hours) for the 1992 Institute…A one day workshop has also been developed incorporating the three talks I gave at last years Institute.

 

                                                                                    Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

 

PROGRAM

 

Monday June 22                      Registration 1-2.00pm

 

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY—A JUNGIAN APPROACH

                                                                        DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

 

HO CHUNK (WINNEBAGO) DANCES (Group participation)

                                                                        JIM GREEN

 

THE HO CHUNK RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENVIRONMENT—PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

                                                                        JIM GREEN

 

Tuesday June 23

 

            PSYCHOLOGY, THEOLOGY AND DENDROLOGY (TREES)

                                                                                    LARRY COLLINS

 

            NATURE SPIRITS AND THE HUMAN PSYCHE (Part I)

            Includes video clips from operas                    JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

 

THE NATURAL AND HUMAN HISTORY OF DEVIL’S LAKE (“SPIRIT LAKE”)                                             KEN LANGE

 

NATURE SPIRITS AND THE HUMAN PSYCHE (Part II)

                                                                        JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

 

Wednesday June 24

 

THE OJIBWA CONCEPT OF THE FULLNESS OF LIFE—PRACTICAL ASPECTS                                          LOUISE MAHDI

 

EARTH SCULPTURES  Experiential   LOUISE MAHDI

 

EVENING of meditation, poetry, music, drumming and yoga

 

Thursday June 25

 

FREEDOM OF THE SPIRIT IN RESPONSE TO MOVEMENT, MUSIC AND COLOR                                   KAY ORTMANS

 

THE WORLD OF INSECTS—AND OTHER ANIMALS

                                                                        DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D.

 

            INDIAN EFFIGY MOUNDS AS EARTH WRITING

                                                                                    GARY MAIER, M.D.

 

THE MEDICINE WHEEL—THE WHEEL OF LIFE, AS USED IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SETTING

            HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

 

SUMMER NIGHT WALK              MARION MORAN

 

Friday June 26

 

            TOUR—THE INTERNATIONAL CRANE FOUNDATION

 

            TOUR—THE ALDO LEOPOLD FARM AND “SHACK”

 

            THE FATE OF THE EARTH                     NINA LEOPOLD BRADLEY

 

            WALKING the Leopold farm trails           MARION MORAN

 

Saturday June 27

 

            MATTER ENSOULDED—REFLECTIONS ON INDIAN COUNTRY

                                                                                    FRED GUSTAFSON, D.Min.

 

            THE POLITICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

                                                Secretary of State  DOUGLAS LAFOLLETTE

 

            TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT

                                                                                    GESHE SOPA

 

            OUTING to the Gustafson Farm—Singing, drumming, barbecue

 

Sunday June 28

 

            MEDICINE SHIELD PRESENTATION (Group)

                                                                                    HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

 

            CLOSING CEREMONY

 

PRESENTERS:

 

NINA LEOPOLD BRADLEY

Daughter of Aldo Leopold.  She and her husband are in charge of the research done on the Leopold Reserve.  She continues her father’s attempt to restore the land.

 

LEE CLAYTON, Ph.D.

Geologist with The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.  Special interest in the glacial geology and history of the Ice Age in the Midwest.

 

LARRY COLLINS

Ordained Presbyterian minister.  Dendrologist and lecturer at Grinnell College Summer School, Iowa.  Owner of the Riverside Nursery and Arboretum in Mazomanie, Wisconsin.

 

JIM GREEN

Wisconsin Ho Chunk and member of the Bear Clan.  Outreach in local schools, pow-wow dancer and artist.  In the tradition of the Bear Clan of maintaining law and order, he is training at the Madison Area Technical College to be a policeman.

 

FRED GUSTAFSON, D.Min.

Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and an ordained Lutheran minister.  Practices in Watertown and Milwaukee, WI as both Jungian Analyst and Pastoral Counselor.  Contributing author to Betwixt and Between and author of The Black Madonna.

Sundancer for the last 5 years at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota under the leadership of Medicine Man, Elmer Running.

 

JOHN HAULE, Ph.D.

Doctorate in Religious Studies from Temple University.  Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and practicing Jungian Analyst in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.  Faculty member and ex-President of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts, where he has been on the Training Board for a number of years.  Author of Divine Madness—Archetypes of Romantic Love.

 

DOUGLAS LAFOLLETTE, Secretary of State

Gained a national reputation during post-1970 Earth Day for articulating our environmental population resource crisis. Doctorate in Chemistry from Columbia University and was Asst. Prof. at UW-Parkside.  Founded Wisconsin’s Environmental Decade, served in the State Senate and is currently Wisconsin Secretary of State.  Has worked as Public Affairs Director for the Union of Concerned Scientists.  Asst. Director of the Mid-American Solar Energy Complex and national board member of Friends of the Earth.  Member of 1990 National Earth Day organization and author of The Survival Handbook:  A Strategy for Saving Planet Earth.

 

KEN LANGE

Naturalist at Devil’s Lake State Park for 26 years.  Author of several books and other publications on the park and Sauk County.  Worked for the Smithsonian Institution and attended UW and the University of Arizona.

 

LOUISE MAHDI

Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich.  Practicing Jungian Analyst in Illinois.  Founder of the Temogami Vision Quest Camps in Canada.  Editor of Betwixt and Between and The Reality of the Psyche Series of Open Court Publishing Co.  Producer of a film in progress of adolescent dreams of nuclear holocaust, filmed in Russia, Japan, Europe and USA.

 

GARY MAIER, M.D.

Head of Forensic Psychiatry at Mendota Mental Health Institute, Clinical Asst. Prof. in the Dept. of Psychiatry at UW-Madison and a National consultant on aggression management.  His longstanding interest in Native American culture goes back to his childhood.  Since being in Madison, he has developed a particular interest in the mounds of this area.

 

HERB MARTIN, Ph.D.

Asst. Professor in the Dept. of Teacher Education at California State University, Sacramento.  Has won awards for teaching excellence at Louisiana and California State Universities.  Specializes in world cultural mythologies and their application to multicultural education in elementary education.  His cultural heritage as African-American and Cherokee provides a more personal insight into these topics.

 

DENNIS MERRITT, Ph.D. [DIRECTOR]

Doctorate in Insect Pathology, UC-Berkeley.  Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich and a Jungian Analyst and sandplay therapist in private practice in Madison.  A contributing author to The Analytic Life, “Jungian Psychology and Science—A Strained Relationship”.

 

MARION MORAN

Environmental educator for 25 years.  Naturalist, previously associated with the UW Arboretum and UW Environmental Resources Unit.  She provides courses and environmental programs across Wisconsin, with an emphasis on the interdependent relationship of all living things.

 

KAY ORTMANS

Founder-Director of Well Springs Foundation.  Trained at the Royal Academy of Music,  the Dalcroze School of Eurhythmics, London, UK and the Rudolph Steiner School in Germany.  Taught at Teacher Training Colleges in England, University of British Columbia, UC-Berkeley and San Francisco State.  Won Canadian National Radio Award for her programs for children.  Received Holistic Health Achievement Award in 1983.  Currently involved in the Well-Springs Discovery House Pilot Project in Madison, WI.

 

GESHE SOPA

Tibetan Buddhist and spiritual teacher at Deer Park Tibetan Center, Oregon, WI.  Chair of the Board of the Deer Park Corporation.  Born in Tsang province, Tibet and began his monastic training at the age of nine.  Formal education from Sera-Je College, Tibet.  Professor in the Dept. of South Asian Studies, UW-Madison.  Escaped across the mountains to India with the Dalai Lama in 1959 after the Chinese invasion.  Asked by the Dalai Lama in 1963 to accompany three lamas to America.  Awarded a Fulbright to study in India and Tibet.  Author of The Wheel of Time and The Practice and Theory of Tibetan Buddhism

 

LOCATION 

 

DURWARD’S GLEN, WISCONSIN

A unique place, a monastery in a canyon, provides seclusion and natural beauty with its springs and flora that date from the Ice Age.  The log building is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and new accommodation center provides comfortable lodging close to the Wisconsin River and Devil’s Lake.  The Glen in located one hour away from the Dane County Regional Airport which is serviced by 6 major airlines.

 

Thanks to the Van Waveren Foundation, New York for a grant to help in funding and support of this years Institute.

 

 

 

                        UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN EXTENSION PROGRAM

                                                “SPIRIT IN THE LAND”

 

            Because of the success of the week-long “Spirit in the Land, Spirit in Animals, Spirit in People” programs described above, my wife and I were invited to arrange a program for the University of Wisconsin Extension Education.  We chose several presenters from the seminars and reduced the program to two days.  This meant we had to eliminate most of the experiential dimensions of the program.  My wife and associate director, Chris Merritt, arranged an art exhibit to accompany the program with the theme “Spirit in the Land”.  The “early birds” were able to venture out on the morning of the second day of the program to a buffalo farm to see and learn about these magnificent animals.  A tasty farmer’s breakfast was served atop a hay wagon that included grilled buffalo meat.  The fifty people, mostly teachers, who attended the program gave it one of the highest ratings ever for an extension program.  What follows is the content of the brochure advertising the program which will give readers a sense of my concept of interdisciplinary environmental education.

 

                                                Spirit in the Land:

 

     An Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Education

 

                  Monday, June 20, 1994             Tuesday, June 21, 1994

                  8:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.                8:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m.

 

                                                Wisconsin Center

                                                702 Langdon Street

                                             University of Wisconsin

                                                  Madison Campus

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

From the Director…

 

            The rapid rate of environmental degradation challenges us to learn more about environmental problems and cultivate new ways of relating to nature.  This two-day workshop meets the challenge in a holistic manner, integrating the dimensions of science, art, music, depth psychology, politics, Native American perspectives and storytelling.  Experiencing a variety of perspectives encourages participants to develop an ecological way of using various disciplines and the arts to educate themselves and others.  The focus will be on approaches to teaching and an awareness of educational resources that teachers can draw upon to enrich both their personal lives and their school curricula.

 

            The workshop is designed for all teachers and community members—not only those in the sciences and environmental education.  It is hoped that this affective dimension of teaching will reach across subject area boundaries.  Participants will explore new ways of perceiving and relating to the environment that provide the foundation for our attempts to save it.  They will learn about the excellent resources of the Environmental Awareness Center on the UW-Madison campus and the UW Arboretum’s training program for teachers and students on Prairie Restoration for Wisconsin Schools.  Each presenter embodies a different mode of environmental awareness and will provide handouts, reading lists and suggestions for classroom activities.

 

            The Spirit in the Land experience will be augmented by an art exhibit and special video showings in the evening.  The Madison setting will serve as a wonderful locus for “placing” this instruction.  In addition to its beautiful physical setting, Madison was a center of Indian mound building and has the excellent resources of the University of Wisconsin with its rich legacy of leadership in the area of environmental concerns and education.

 

                                                                                    Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

 

A two-day workshop for

 

·      K-12 Classroom Teachers

·      Teachers of Psychology, Art, Science, Music, Drama, Language Arts, and Social Studies

·      Curriculum/Learning Coordinators

·      TAG coordinators

·      All People Interested in Environmental Education and Issues

 

Program

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Monday, June 20

 

  8:30 a.m. Registration (Coffee and rolls)

 

  9:00           Welcome

                  Linda Shriberg, program manager

                    UW-Madison School of Education

 

  9:15          New Approaches to Environmental Education

                  Dennis Merritt

 

 10:30          Break (Beverage refills)

 

10:45           Mythical Dimensions of Trees:  Their Impact on the Human

               Psyche As Revealed by Dreams, Myths and Cultural Attitudes

                  Herb Schroeder

 

 12:00           Lunch (On your own)

 

  1:00 p.m.    Indian Effigy Mounds—Their Function As Symbolic Earth

                Writing, Astronomical Calendars and Nodal Points for

                Connecting People to the Earth

                Gary Maier

 

  2:15             Break (Juice and soda)

 

  2:30              Visit to Environmental Awareness Center and Indian Effigy

                 Mounds

 

                 Regional Design for Sustainability—A Vision For Sustainable

                 Natural and Urban Systems in the Upper Midwest

                  Phil Lewis

 

  4:30               Dinner Break (On your own)

 

  6:30               Art Exhibit and Video Showings 

 

                  Art ex