Stable Strength

The Cause

What if there was no longer a dark past or uncertain future, only the magic of a moment? My idea builds future generations (children/youth) through character education for both work and play. The program facilitates learning and growth through experiential learning and self-exploration into thoughts, feelings and actions through their natural environment. The classroom, our learning ground is our natural environment; the setting is resourced for interactions between nature and animals, nurtured by interactions and interplay of human to nature, human to horse in relationship to humans and their herd. Along with the co-operative hands on learning, there is focus on the collection/creation of their personal skills for life self-portraits and quest for strengths. Each youth works across the 7 themes and is partnered with their own horse. Another concept for this program is bucket filling; the bucket is our mental and emotional self and the difference between "filling" our and others' buckets with kindness/caring through our words and actions or "dipping" into the bucket(s) with disrespect with a need to "repair? " The project topics range from horse care - horse sense with group work, storytelling, journaling and games all in play; theme examples of cooperation and celebration.

To think like a horse is to live in the moment, be fully present; horses don't have rationale for the past, horses cannot conceptualize the future, so what they have, are mere moments in time. To feel like a horse is to live in angst; horses are prey animals, they characterize fear. To act like a horse, is to react to that fear; fear tends to be quickly remembered yet seldom forgotten. "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of the man." Winston Churchill

Who Will it Benefit?

This project idea promotes leadership with possibilities for increased awareness of community, citizenship and contributions. Our communities benefit in that we support our children to build their characters and be committed to capacity building and collaborations. Our workplaces will benefit in that we will be supporting the growth and learning of 21st century skills for life. Our environment will benefit as these children will feel a commitment to change and sustainability. Our children will be responding to concerns of others (humans and animals alike), contributing to their families, society and global impact. They will learn to celebrate small successes for self, value the differences of each other and see that as a complimentary partnership rather than a reason for conflict. We will be reiterating new ways to "teach" through simulated work and play, skill development and much other. There are environmental, economic, political, social and humane lessons within this project idea if executed. We are open to either consider groups of children and partnering with agencies.