Curriculum Elements OLD w minor changes

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Core Elements & Specific Topics

Mind, Body & Wisdom
Interpersonal & Relationships
Leadership
Entrepreneurial &
Creative
Ecology  & ReGenerative Science
Media, Technology & Communications
Business & Financial
Community Organization &
Social Justice
Professional & Occupational Cores
  • Local Food Systems
  • Permaculture
  • Soil regeneration
  • Indigenous
    Agricultural Approaches
  • Nutritious, Delicious Food Prep
  • Herbal Medicine

Overview - A Design Focus and a Narrative Approach with Universal Program Contexts, Core Elements, and Specific Topics
Components of a life wide curriculum

Each of our programs incorporates an educational course of study that may extend from a week to a year or more. That curriculum is given an added boost by our Legacy Mentoring triads and our Integrative Apprenticeships, or in shorter programs, integrated work experience.

The educational course of study will be organized in a variety of ways depending on the focus and duration of that particular program. Different programs will draw on a variety of the Core Elements listed in the column to the right.  Regardless of the Core Elements included in any particular program, each of the Specific Topics (each Core Element includes a variety of Specific Topics) will be offered in light of the four Universal Program Contexts, Lenses, or key questions that recur as we journey from birth to death.

Each program no matter which Core Elements and Specific Topics covered, from accounting to emotional intelligence, from soil science to leadership, from deep natural agriculture to integral spirituality, from living systems design to permaculture, from hospitality to coaching and beyond is set in the context of the 4 key questions we face on life’s journey.

1)   How does this study impact the ways I make sense of life?
Using this lens participants will focus on developing their capacity to maintain
a state of “relaxed alertness”, in which their ability to sense and perceive information becomes both more powerful and more refined. Students will learn to access and interpret this “multi-sensory” intuitive knowledge through the three main centers of intelligence: the head (intellectual), the heart (emotional), and the “gut” (instinctual). Students will also cultivate self-awareness in relationship to themselves, others, culture, and nature.

2)   How do I stay healthy and vital in the face of life's challanges?
Using this lens participants will better understand the role of the physical dimension of the body-mind system, particularly the key factors that influence the way our bodies hold and express the primal energy of the life force. This includes:

     > Nutrition and physical health
     > The impact of social norms and cultural beliefs about body image and what is good for us
     > Our capacity to directly experience sensations in the body without getting caught up in the emotions or thoughts that come along with them
     > Discriminating between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, fight/flight vs. relaxation
    > How body holdings and trauma play a daily role in our life and influence our habits, tendencies and automatic behaviors
    > How biology reflects biography
    > Dimensions of reality from Physical to Etheric, to Astral, to Soul, to Spirit or Matter to
Body to Mind to Soul to  Spirit
    > Learning to engage the “felt sense”

This lens will lead to a deeper understanding of how our behavioral patterns and states of mind are driven by impulses that arise in the body and the ways our body take in nutrition and respond to energy. 

3) How do I communicate in ways that maintain and deepen my relationships?
Using this lens participants will better comprehend the energetic field that emerges when two or more people come together. This "field" contains a vast amount of information that is not noticed by most people in most situations. Though we normally do not give much conscious attention to this level of our experience, it has a profound effect on our internal state and our behaviors. By attuning to the patterns that emerge in these fields, we can more easily modulate our energy and stay present, rather than reacting from unconscious or automatic habits. Aligning with this intention creates an opportunity for wisdom to emerge from the collective, and allows us to simultaneously feel more authentic as ourselves and more connected to others.

4) How do I earn a living, participate in society and leave a better world for future generations?
Using this lens participants will develop their ability to discern the healthy from the unhealthy aspects of modern life. As they more clearly sense which of society’s structures are outdated and need to be replaced or regenerated with more functional alternatives, their energy to make a difference will arise in a natural yet powerful way. Learning how to manifest new structures, how to use the system to change the system, and how to earn a living without sacrificing what truly matters will be important perspectives that grow through this lens.  This focus will empower participants to pioneer a new levels of cultural development through impacting various social systems – economic, education, energy, food etc., while making their way and joining others in creative partnerships. Participants will develop a clearer understanding of the rules of each system or organization, how they have evolved through history, and the pervasive influence they have on our lives in sometimes subtle, but always powerful ways. 

5) Do I view my life in a new light based on my experiences in the program?
Each program as a whole will be synthesized in terms of how it impacts and alters our fundamental life narrative. This integrating conversational dialogue, and the associated reflective expression, will guide us to recreate our life narrative based on the new perspectives we have encountered in our program.  That new narrative will seek to integrate our consciousness, body, relationships and work, in a seamless whole that makes sense and is filled with purpose and authenticity. Participants will consider how their personal story has a larger context within the universe’s story, and to see that each transition in life is an opportunity to step into a wider perspective and a new level of accomplishment. From that stance we can more gracefully receive what life may offer, more creatively respond to every challenge, more easily through each twist and turn, and in the end have a positive impact on the social and natural worlds that we inhabit.