Journeys School fall 06

The week before I went to shoot in LA two representatives from Bhutan came to Journeys to explore place based education. They came to be known, despite their advanced degrees, as Pema and Tashi because Journeys is on a first name basis all the way around.
Place based education is the concept of Jack Shea of The Teton Science Center and Journeys, in addition to being an amazing school for the fortunate children who attend it, it also set up as a model of the concept. The axiom is connecting people through nature.
On one of the days that Pema and Tashi were visiting I noticed the preschoolers out on the wooded hill adjacent to the playing field. Thier assignment was clearly to find and collect natural things and to gather all of the information- including smell ( see above)!- they could think of about these things.
Even though I have previously spent a good part of a year shooting at Journeys, I learned a tremendous amount more about it's approach and will pass some of what I learned on to you tomorrow.