How to provide outdoor education in South America in a popular way

Abstract

There has been an “afternoon school” called Imagion in Pucallpa on the Ucayali River for the last 8 years. The goal of this school in Peru is not to substitute primary education, but to nurture a relationship to the wilderness. The author (with permission from Dr. Jan Dungel from Vracov) has used approximately 300 of his excellent paintings of wild South American fauna. These unique pictures have not only an educational value, but are also poetic. They are installed within a labyrinth which has about 400 possible paths through it – their placement imitates the jungle. Children go through the maze with a guide, with their friends or alone, and learn to recognize different species. They also put on theater performances in the school from the Amazon’s very rich mythology. Overall, this “teaching” is directed, inter alia, against prejudice, gossipy spiritualism and shamanism. In 2016, the project will move to one charming town under the eastern foothills of the Andes mountains in the jungle. In Satipo it will offer decent accommodation at cost price to about 20 European teachers for any length of time. And then an international Imagion campus for environmental and other types of schools will be patiently built there over a number of years.