Transitions and Rights of Passage Learning for At-Risk and Disable Youth
Hello and thank you for this opportunity to support your integration of traditional rites of passage (RoP) learning. This lesson plan is nothing groundbreaking. Nothing unusual. It’s not complicated understand. What follows is a simplified description of how to develop a rites of passage learning program for a student or a small group of students. This lesson is intended for use within high school psychology and environmental education classrooms. This Lesson Plan can also be personalized to support the learning of a young adult that is not having success in school, or whose transition to adulthood appears locked up.
Although this lesson plan has been used successfully supporting at-risk youth in transition from being homeless, please feel welcome to use this lesson plan as a theoretical exploratory student driven lecture for a classroom setting.
A young person’s transition and renewal into their adult selves is something to get behind. The intention of RoP learning is to formalize and honor important learning benchmark moments. This work is to be supported by a mentor, teacher, or parent, that is committed and able to facilitate a supportive “container” in which a young person feels safe facing their deep life questions. RoP work oftentimes directly and quickly opens to some challenging emotions and thoughts within the student(s). Because this work often reveals unexpected and surprising results, genuine support during all phases is required. Because this work approaches deep personal learning experiences, activities are to be spaced over a series of weeks. The pace should depend on the individual’s or group’s drive and ability.
At LandformEd, participants develop their’ own RoP Ceremony and plan a supported and supervised 24-hour solo retreat as a concluding project. This takes sustained careful time and attention. It is recommended that this learning process should be considered a Fall to Spring unfolding experience. Supported by the Seasons, this lesson invests in the notion that we are nature, and that a healthy relationship to the earth impacts our psychology. This work honors the natural world as a lasting life support. Developing a sense of ecological identity and a relationship to landscapes and ecosystems is to have a healthy relationship with ourselves. We are drawn to special land forms and landscapes, where we recognize our inter-being and ask questions. When we are not separate from nature, something surprising and valuable happens.
Youth that thrive in this work are commonly independently spirited individuals who are searching for an alternative means of developing themselves. This work is, by design, voluntarily. After traditional therapies (talk therapy, reward-based programs) some find RoP in nature supports learning in an authentic way.
LandformEd aims to be with wilderness, with landscapes, and at special landform locations. We aim to know our natural world more closely, to care about the earth, and to enjoy looking into ecological meanings around us. Together we study the changes happening in our landscapes. Through mentor ship, and with the lens of Nature, we look to produce a more conscious individual. Bringing to focus the unconscious parts of the human experience through Archetypal learning gives a students a deep psychological view into themselves. The maturation process of our most at risk youth can be challenging, until we are educated by it. LandformEd skillfully asks challenging questions, and holds space for today’s at-risk youth to come forward and be heard.
Teachers support youth as they develop their own learning intention and make strides toward an adult role within their school, family
Respected and Influential References:
Zimmerman, & Coyle. (1996) The Way of Council. Las Vegas, NV: Bramble Books.
Kessler, R. (2000) The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion, and Character at School. ASCD: Dansver, MA
Foster, S. and Little, M. (1992). The Book of the vision quest: Personal transformation in the wilderness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Fireside.
Dass, R. & Gorman, P. (1990). How can I help?: Stories and reflections on service. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Jung, C.G. edited by Meredith Sabini. (2008) The Earth Has a Soul: C.G. Jung on nature, technology, and modern Life. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Lowenthal, W. (1991) There are no secrets: Professor Cheng Man Ch’ing and His T’ai Chi Chuan. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Ojai (2011) Retrieved from http://www.ojaifoundation.org/ Council Practice.
Shamita Vipassana, principles as taught by Tibetan traditions. Sitting Meditation.
Basic Rite of Passage model:
- Severance Phase identifies what the individual would like to let go of. This reflective and contemplative time leads to gathering thoughts and feelings around owns own identity, one’s own strengths and weaknesses, one’s place and purpose in their families’ and communities’ eyes.
- Threshold Phase utilizes intentional time-in-nature meditation assignments, studying current life transitions and needed changes. Witnessed by nature, participants formalize their shedding of the “old” and the initiating of their “new”.
- Integration Phase is supported with practice, patience and preparation. What is learned returns and is shared with the family, school and community.
Content Outcomes / Learning Standards for Public School Educators:
Access Skills – the underlying skills students need to reach. Specific indicators for content standards, life outcomes, career membership and community membership:
1. Communication and basic language skills -the giving and receiving of information. Attending. Listening. Interpreting meaning, Responding to others. Expressing self. Following and giving directions. Consistently attaching meaning to symbol. Using alternative communication methods.
2. Decision making and problem-solving. The process by which a student identifies goals, recognizes problems, considers and evaluates alternatives, and devices and implements a logical plan of action. Utilizing conflict resolution skills, setting goals, planning to act. This self-determination. Transitioning from one environment/activity to another.
3. Self Advocacy/Self Determination-the process by which a student can access support to get their needs met within the learning, working and living environments. Asking for and/or accepting support. Assessing situations for equal access and asking for adjustments when appropriate. Expressing physical needs. Expressing personal preferences and choices. Expressing simple feeling states. Expressing others’ feeling states. Expressing understanding of difference. Describing personal learning limitations. Evaluating the effectiveness of a variety of learning strategies and making adjustments as needed. Developing and maintaining a supportive network of people. Acting independently based on knowledge of personal needs and preferences. Advocating for others as well as issues and ideas.
4. Physical- Maintaining acceptable appearance to situation / environment. Managing physical and
5. Cognitive Clarity – Building a supportive community and supportive student climate. Meditation, Sensory awareness, physical and personal wellness. Demonstrate factors important to participation in physical activity. Movement competence, competency in physical fitness, emotional and social wellness.
6. Inter / Intra personal – Successfully uses of communication culturally and situation-ally. Appropriate verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors to express viewpoints and across the roles, responsibilities, and social contexts that are associated with the expectations of age-level peers. Demonstrating socially acceptable behaviors for the situation. Demonstrating appropriate behavior to the group. Cooperatively working with others in group situations. Demonstrating social amenities. Using self-regulation techniques. Engaging in sustained participation. Applying conflict management techniques. Dealing with change.
Purpose of lesson:
Improve relationship with local wilderness and oneself as nature. Build a sense of place and purpose within the community through practices such as deep listening, meditation, and storytelling. Build a safe student community through developing council practice and transpersonal service learning methods.
Instructional Objectives:
Lesson preparation includes determining space to sit and walk together; weather permitting outdoors! Through storytelling, structured sharing, and deep listening, we improve relationship to the natural world. Educators document anecdotally. Lectures and all phases of instruction include time-in-nature guided meditation. Facilitation includes finding opportunity to be quiet, for listen deeply, and for participants to be in their bodies and in the space around them fully. Students name something that is happening in their lives and within their bodies, for their community to witness it. Teachers deeply value listening as participants tell their story. Create a formalized and ritualized “container”, which includes the rules of council practice, school rules, and appreciating what diversity brings. Continuous reminders to all participants and teachers of respect, confidentiality, and mandatory reporting.
Instructional Procedures:
Pre discussions, Readings, and Assignment
Guided Practice:
This lesson plan is both for an individual and a small group. Periodical small group work is a supportive element. Time in C
Closure and Transitions:
Applaud and thank those for sharing. Reminder that it takes bravery to turn and face what is happening sometimes. Confidentiality reminders.
Post Lesson Documentation:
Assess individual student’s communication content skills and participation in the activity. How was the effort to feel deeply? How was their effort to listen deeply? Are students in touch with the concepts of grief, joy, courage? Is there a sense of support and community developing? Are students taking this as an opportunity to be heard? Document communications and sharings, including what supports the group dynamic emotionally and socially. Revisit expectations of respect and the “forms” in which we are honoring. What important details must be verified and shared with a participant’s support team?
Possible Individual Assignment Elements:
- Deep Ecology expression assignment for the student that is driven by Activism and Social Justice.
- Archetypal Journey instruction, assignments, and check-ins. Advanced Ecopsychology instruction.
Certain Individual Elements:
- Challenging work for the brave. Threshold and Integration Instruction includes “Taking responsibility. Mourning the deaths that feed new life.”
Classroom Messages:
The fields of Environmental Education and Psychology are changing. “Compost” is the common
After years of service, after so much pollution, natural disasters, as populations reach critical levels, we are all left with a haunting question, “what can be done?” Even for those of us that have no “give up” are asking “how can I help”. There is an army of us. The RoP in nature learning draws us to the transitions and renewals in our local landscape that are happening now. The personal and contemplative nature of this work, means that the learning comes from us and from our transpersonal ecopsychology.
Pre-Discussions:
Always start with a guided physical and internal check-in. Introducing topic of discussion. Setting time agreements together, facilitating discussion, initiate and close discussion formally.
It is always nice to allow anyone who would like to share their positive experience regarding something learned when it is ready to come out, even if it is different from the tentative schedule. Follow-up discussion regarding habits and how to encourage change.
Follow-up discussion regarding the health benefits of meditation and having a somatic sensory awareness practice routinely apart of life.
Guided Practice:
Follow-up Transition discussions for all phases, assignments. Framing location, landscape or land form, learning intention, where we’ve been and where we are going…etc.
Check-ins with guided meditation at the beginning middle and end of each lesson.
Council Circle meditation facilitation. Transpersonal Service Learning facilitation. Discussions are facilitated and guided by the instructor and psychologist but is student driven.
Closure and Transitions:
Applaud and thank those for sharing. Make a statement about how: “it takes bravery to turn and face what is happening sometimes.” Confidentiality reminders. Encourage sincerity and “going further”.
Post Lesson Documentation:
Assess individual student’s communication skills and participation in the discussion. How was the effort to feel deeply? How was the effort to listen deeply? Are student in touch with their personal relation to health? Is there a sense of community developing? Are they using this as an opportunity to be heard and held.
Communications with Teacher Team:
Determine what is important information to confidentially be shared with each teacher supporting the learning of the individual. Share what staff need to support the student’s physical needs, emotionally and socially needs. Inform them of subtle discoveries happening within the coarse work. Report any health concerns that does not violate the student’s personal right to confidentiality. Report any critical indications the team should stay aware of and listening for.
Confidentiality:
In school lessons require administrative, psychologist, and counselor awareness and support. Follow-up de-escalation interviews support successful conflict mediation. Inform all involved that confidentiality will be maintained within the circle, except in the case of a social situation that is continuing and may result in physical violence, social or emotional violations. Also, all information regarding issues of anorexia, bulimia, cutting, drug use, weapon possession, or violent fantasies must be documented and reported.
All licensed LandformEd personnel are bound by mandatory reporting regulations. All LandformEd staff recognize the same standard of reporting ethics. All pertinent mandatory reporting is shared directly with social services and the parents of participants under the age of 18.
Instructional Support Materials:
LandformEd’s RoP Assignments and Guided Instruction Indications
LandformEd’s Simplified Four Shields Indications
LandformEd’s Simplified Council Circle Indications and Instruction for young adults