I love to teach every single age. I love to be taught by every single age. I've learned over the past few years how much one becomes the learner when stepping into the mentorship role, and how much I LOVE to be in a real life, nature-based educational atmosphere with people of ALL ages and ALL walks of life. I think I can safely say, everyone at Bread & Butter Farm shares a similar sentiment.
Upon first arriving to Bread & Butter Farm, my dream was to work with teenagers. Corie aptly reminded me that the best way to find those teenagers, is to develop trust and friendships with kids. And when those kids grow up, there you have the teenagers you've been waiting for. Well, here we are. We have those incredible teenagers...perhaps you, the reader are one of them. And additionally, we have the new beautiful generation of kids coming up right behind them. And it's a cycle we at the farm are humbled and crazy enthusiastic to be swirling within.
These kids and teens light up our life. I love their quirky ways, their questions, their hesitations, and their realness. Teenagehood was a time during which I truly struggled and yet, my struggle has become one of my greatest sources of light. I hope to be there to lift up, light up, and support the teenagers in our community to fly and find their own powers and light. I am a firm believer in giving our children and teens places to be seen, heard, and places to take on real life responsibility, acting as leaders to one another and learning how to become the best versions of themselves that they can imagine. I strive to be there to step in and and hold up some of the most capable demographic in our community, to support them in finding their strength and voice, and to guide them to love and maintain the spark they were born with.
Perhaps all of this can help to pave the way for more learning from and with ALL ages and walks of life here at Bread & Butter Farm.
With love,
Bekah
Edjumakayshin
a Poem by Bekah Gordon
Education.
How has this dry word come to symbolize something so whole, so out of this world?
Let's redefine learning. Jumble up the paradigm.
Call it Edjumakayshin!
Learning here at Bread & Butter Farm is the creation no, the manifestation of a whole startling planet of things that I can only begin to name:
Unconditional trust, yes this is one of them.
A safe space to fly, yes this too.
Building friendships, and vulnerable hearts.
It is pushing buttons, boundaries, paradigms.
It is a stew of elderly reminiscing, catching whiffs of a time past and
the young, sparkling with wonder and racing thoughts.
The teenagers testing the waters and the middle aged turning to new chapters.
It is a quilt of beings which unites families that surpass genetics and blood lines,
religions, affiliations, gender, race, and preference.
It forges ties through soil, toil, weather, and shared experience.
From baby to elder, the moments of spark and learning never stop.
Day in and day out, every interaction plays a role.
The senses are open to each other and to the landscape.
Questions opening doorways to more questions.
Coyote tracks and square dancing,
Baking and seeding,
Chewing, carving, digging, and building,
harvesting, meetings, good mornings and sunsets,
calm, fast, sunshine, and rain.
Sometimes planned, mostly not.
Edjumakayshin. That sounds more like it.
Learn more about all of our education programs here.
