Learning+Parties

Learning Parties
The Sustainable Living Arts School in Vancouver hosts learning parties where the subject is anything that helps us to live more lightly. We're inspired by permaculturists, 100 mile dieters ('cept for chocolate etc), slow foodies, herbalists, alternative energy folk, natural builders and thrifty, handy, food-growing and food foraging people everywhere.


 * Together we aim to find out what it means to live sustainably in the city**.

More learning party photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keiramc/tags/learningparty/

//"What shape should humans learn in? Once we took away the four walls of a classroom, some basic truths unfolded. Humans learn well in short bursts, before thirst, hunger and a full bladder distract us. We learn well when we are happy, unafraid, and are using all our senses to absorb information. We learn well when we can laugh and ask questions and take time to absorb a particular truth."// Robin Wheeler, Sustainable Living Arts School

//"This is non-commodified, non-institutional, non-credentializing, non-evaluated learning. We value accessible, joyful, empowering, collective learning in the spirit of consuming less and relating more richly to humans and the biosphere!"// Andrew Rushmere, Free Folk School

The Challenge: Social fragmentation/time pressure + Skill Loss
===Our Answer: Learning parties, where the experience of learning together is as friendly and welcoming as possible. We want **people to enjoy themselves so much that they're inspired to continue with their friends and families.**===


 * **Experiential: often designed around a simple technique or skill that people can start practicing right away.**
 * **Conversational**: The "theory" behind what we're doing tends to emerge conversationally through stories, question & answer
 * **Sharable**: We want to encourage people to share what they're learning in whatever ways call to them: with their friends and family, as teachers of a future learning party and via the web (sharing pictures, reserach links and blogs).

Free Folk School
Learning Parties take their shape based on the Sustainable Living Arts School and Free Folk School model of financially and intellectually accessible-workshops for regular folks to help re-skill one another. Andrew started the Free Folk School as part of his Masters research. The idea of the Free Folk School workshops was not to have experts deposit knowledge into passive students, but to work together to learn a skill or solve a problem, guided in part by the experience of a workshop facilitator, but allowing room for all to share their skills and knowledge. Learning Parties are basically workshops celebrating and drawing on local people, local knowledge, and local resources.

2007 Learning Parties
In 2007 in Vancouver through Sustainable Living Arts School and the Free Folk School we've offered:
 * How to make a solar water heater
 * How to identify, harvest and prepare edible kelp
 * How to identify wild urban edible plants
 * Saving garden vegetable seeds
 * Getting to know your organic backyard garden soils
 * How to make cheese and paneer
 * How to ferment foods and beverages for winter storage
 * Living Sustainably in Community: a conference co-sponsored by Langara College and the Yarrow Eco-village society. We put on a [|fermentation workshop with Andrea Potter.]
 * **[|Start your food garden now]** with Dan Gibbs, a sheet mulch learning party
 * Backyard Permaculture Workshop with Gregoire L'Amoureux of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute. More photos of the day at: [|http://www.flickr.com/photos/harry/tags/permaculture/]

//__**Coming this spring:**__// Garden learning parties (to take us through the seasons) More Nourishing Traditions food learning parties i.e Fermentation: Kim Chi Beer-making Cheese-making Bee Folklore Herbal teas Solar Water Heaters Natural Home Birthing Sewing machine repair and thrift store design

With every learning party a "curriculum" evolves, a beginning sense of what we need to know and how we can best learn it.

 * The Garden/Growing Arts
 * Nourishing Food Traditions
 * The Healing Arts
 * The Fixit/Buildit/Makeit Arts
 * Gentle Art of Repair
 * and perhaps just Art and Craft? Doittogether Culture (as opposed to DIY). Example: [|Seamrippers] (now defunct?)