What We Learned On SabbaticalAfter a year and a half, the Field Academy is emerging from its sabbatical. As individuals and as an organization, we needed rest, reflection, and a chance to explore the relationship between the work of the Field Academy and the wider political, social, and environmental context that we live in in this world, at this moment. When our sabbatical began, we were asking ourselves questions like:
At this juncture, looking back and looking forward, we wanted to name some of what we’ve learned and seen through new eyes this year:
There is so much more we could detail here. We learned new skills for serving as allies to youth leadership and new models for teaching about carbon and capitalism. We pushed ourselves to experiment with new styles of teaching, facilitation, and coaching. We worked in deeply intergenerational communities and learned our periodic references to Kanye West and Taylor Swift are less relevant for many of our older allies and partners. ;) Perhaps the most important thing we’re realizing as we look towards the future, is that if we - Heather and Jen - learned all of this and more from the past year of challenge and experience… this learning community has experienced and learned at least 25x as much. Even writing this now, we feel goosebumps at the possible implications of learning this deep, this broad, and this intersectional. When we envision what it takes to create the healthy and just world we believe in, this is the kind of capacity we know it takes - people from Birmingham to northern Wisconsin each engaged as deeply as possible in the work of healing our world. Teachers, students, community tax preparers, artists, organizational leaders, start-up founders, activists, health care professionals from completely different walks of life co-imagining and co-building other ways. This is what we know the Field Academy can offer this country right now. So, our first step out of sabbatical is to bring that wisdom together in the same room, held and guided by these same questions. Catalyzed by our partnership with YES!, we’re excited to offer a Field Academy Community Jam to hold space for our wider community and these questions. We also want to encourage you to send in reflections on what you've learned from this past year. We'll add it to this list! Drop us a line and share your reflections here. With love, Jen & Heather |