Last December four members of the Out of Eden Learn team visited Paul Salopek in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he is currently hunkered down for the winter. It was a moment to take stock of where we are in our respective journeys and to learn from one another. Two members of the Abundance Foundation, which to date has generously supported Out of Eden Learn, were also present.
Out of Eden Learn is an initiative of Project Zero, a research center based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We began collaborating with Paul while he was planning his walk as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, drawn together by our shared interests in slowing down, storytelling, and the ways in which our individual human lives connect to bigger historical narratives.
What started out as a small-scale pilot study has since grown into a robust and extensive online learning community, which aims to promote thoughtful cross-cultural inquiry and exchange among children ages three to eighteen. We place classes from around the world into small learning groups to complete a three- to four-month “learning journey” together. Students complete activities inspired by Paul’s slow journalism, post their work on our social media-type platform, and leave comments for one another. To date some 20,000 students from 52 countries have taken part in Out of Eden Learn.
While we were in Bishkek, some participating educators and students engaged in a conversation with Paul via a special Google+ Hangout. The topics discussed ranged from the serious to the lighthearted. Paul also took the time to review and provide written responses to a portfolio of students’ work, making connections between his own work and that of the students. In addition, with Paul’s indispensable local guide Sergei acting as translator, we visited a local school to make a joint presentation and participated in a session for journalism students at the University of Central Asia.
But during our time together in Bishkek we were also engaged in the kind of learning that reflects the very experiences we are trying to facilitate for young people on Out of Eden Learn. Most of this learning occurred on foot.
Documenting the Everyday
For example, we were fascinated by everyday life in Bishkek, which none of us had visited before. We took note of the local bread and the way in which the local bakers impressed their own design on their wares. We noted how people commuted around town, how they paid for goods, and how they chose to dress on unseasonably warm December days. While there was much that we only superficially understood, Sergei provided us with important contextual information, and we enjoyed hearing about his own background and life experiences.
Carrie James
Similarly, as part of the Out of Eden Learn Curriculum, we invite young people to complete an activity called Documenting the Everyday. Students choose to share their daily school routines, family meals, the responsibilities of their part time jobs, or how they take part in extra school activities. Young people are naturally interested in the lived experiences of other young people. We also take the opportunity to nudge them away from viewing culture as something necessarily exotic or high-end. Students are asked to consider what someone unfamiliar with their culture might find interesting, even while it might seem ordinary or banal to them. Of course, Paul pays attention to such details throughout his foot-level reporting, including in “1 Bucket of Wheat + 1 Candy Bar”, a piece popular with our students. It is also worth noting that Out of Eden Learn asks students to interview family or community members to hear their stories and get their perspectives, just as we tried to do in our interactions with Sergei.
Connecting Everyday Objects to Bigger Systems
We also looked closely at everyday objects and wondered at their role and import within bigger systems. For instance, where was this pomegranate grown and how was it transported to Osh Market? How expensive was it relative to other produce? When did pomegranates first appear in local Kyrgyz and Uzbek cuisines?
Carrie James
Similarly, as part of the Out of Eden Learn Curriculum, we invite young people to complete an activity called Documenting the Everyday. Students choose to share their daily school routines, family meals, the responsibilities of their part time jobs, or how they take part in extra school activities. Young people are naturally interested in the lived experiences of other young people. We also take the opportunity to nudge them away from viewing culture as something necessarily exotic or high-end. Students are asked to consider what someone unfamiliar with their culture might find interesting, even while it might seem ordinary or banal to them. Of course, Paul pays attention to such details throughout his foot-level reporting, including in “1 Bucket of Wheat + 1 Candy Bar”, a piece popular with our students. It is also worth noting that Out of Eden Learn asks students to interview family or community members to hear their stories and get their perspectives, just as we tried to do in our interactions with Sergei.
Connecting Everyday Objects to Bigger Systems
We also looked closely at everyday objects and wondered at their role and import within bigger systems. For instance, where was this pomegranate grown and how was it transported to Osh Market? How expensive was it relative to other produce? When did pomegranates first appear in local Kyrgyz and Uzbek cuisines?
Sarah Sheya
In parallel, one of our learning activities, Connecting Everyday Objects to Bigger Systems, asks students to choose a familiar object, look at it slowly and carefully, and generate a list of questions about it. They are then asked to explore the different systems of which it is a part and to create a diagram that shows how the object fits into that system. This video shows some examples of the diagrams students create. Again, Paul’s reporting—such as his piece “Electronic Oasis”—provides exemplars in terms of connecting single objects or phenomena to bigger systems.
Global Forces in the Everyday
Exploring what was novel to us about Kyrgyz life, we also came across the familiar: aspects of Western life that reveal the nature of the interconnected world today. As we sampled traditional Kyrgyz dishes such as Boso-Lagman in a Bishkek restaurant, the radio played the hits of George Michael and other Western pop stars. And on our last night in Bishkek, we ventured out to a restaurant called the Obama Bar and Grill, where we dined on American-style fare: quesadillas, burgers, and smoothies.
Photographs by Carrie James
Out of Eden Learn students are also asked to notice Global Forces in the Everyday—including the flow of goods around the world and the influence of often distant cultures on life in a particular place. Similarly, Paul’s Milestone 31: New World points to how distant, even global, economic forces are evident in a small town in Azerbaijan.
Taking a Walk
Finally, a highlight of the week was heading out into the mountains for a collective hike.
We got to re-experience firsthand the camaraderie of the trail and the joys of walking in clean air and wide-open spaces after the confines of being in a town, as well as the mental space that it can open up. We slowed down to look at the world with renewed wonder and inquisitiveness, just as we hope our young participants from around the world do by participating in Out of Eden Learn—by taking a walk in their neighborhood, commenting on one another’s work, or engaging with the stories of a solo journalist as he walks across the world.
To find out more about the program and curriculum, visit Out of Eden Learn, check out our gallery of student work on Instagram, watch glimpses from the classroom and other videos on our YouTube channel, and follow us on Twitter.