The Hole

The toad in tHe hole

Today was our first day in the actual, real, physical space of The Garden since mid December and it was glorious; a day of industrious high energy and big feelings. All welcome of course.

One of the highlights was finding this toad in The Hole, which was charming in the way that it always is to encounter wildlife, but right now I’m really interested in talking about The Hole.

The Hole is just that; a hole, in an area of The Garden that was once called The Fortress but has been diplomatically renamed as The Clearing. It started as a small hole and has gradually, over time, become quite a significant one.

There’s no explicit learning objective here; no ultimate plan, at least as far as I can tell. Just a person who wanted to dig a hole and others who liked the idea and wanted to join in.

I could wax lyrical about all the amazing skills and capacities that are being developed by the work on The Hole, perhaps collaboration, motor skills, tool use and safety, strength, judgement, conflict management (ahem).

The reality is that all these are just guesses. I have absolutely no idea what the young people are really getting from this endeavour and, to be frank, it’s really none of my business.

Being a facilitator of autonomous education requires trust and that trust must come from a fundamental faith in humanity. Young people know what they need. If nothing else, those young people will remember the time they wanted to dig a hole and the adults simply said “Ok, do you need anything from us to make that happen?”

Artemis D. Bear, Founder of The Garden