CAMINANDO – FINANCING THE EDUCATION OF TOMORROW FOR OUR CHILDREN

Caminando is a french primary school with a difference, a school immersed in nature. We need your help in order to carry on with this adventure!

In search of new educational solutions in a changing world, Caminando is a primary school that has been operating in tune with nature's rhythm since 2013, in the Drôme region of France.

After seven years rich in practical experience, the school follows its path. It offers a solid educational foundation linking children and nature on a daily basis.

Created in 2013 Caminando is one of the projects supported by the association EPNS: École Pratique de la Nature et des Savoirs (roughly translated as Practical School of Nature and Knowledge). It is a school that teaches children of primary age, from CP (Year 2 – 1st Grade) to CM2 (Year 6 – 5th Grade), following the official curriculum of the French National Education system. It is unique in that its teaching methods are based on the principles of the living world, in line with the rhythm of the seasons, including in its school calendar. It places great emphasis on environmental education. At present, steps are being taken to sign a contract with the French National Education Department, but this will take time.

Teaching is structured around a cooperative project-based methodology in which the children, according to their rhythms and talents, are the actors of their own learning.

Immersed in the experience of nature and its cycles, they gradually become aware of the importance of connections between things and people in order to live harmoniously on our shared planet.

In this preserved setting, frequently outdoors, the children blossom together and discover the basics of life in society.

At a time when our Western society tends to compartmentalise and confine, it seems essential to change the way we think. In order to face today's challenges, more than ever before, we need a global way of thinking that is able to grasp the complexity of the world and adapt to uncertainty.

The sociologist Edgar Morin, patron of the EPNS association, writes on this subject in his book Les sept savoirs nécessaires à l'éducation du futur. He says that it is a question of "replacing a thought that separates and reduces with a thought that distinguishes and connects".

"The unknown nature of the human adventure such as it is now should prompt us to prepare minds to expect the unexpected in order to face it."(Edgar Morin)

Caminando, " along the way ", continues to search, experiment, explore, and innovate in this direction. Today, certain elements are beginning to emerge from this daily practice. It aims to be a school of the Living: a school where one learns to live, and to live together, as a prerequisite for all other learning. It is nature that teaches us to cultivate this bond.

"Nature teaches us to learn," said a child at a philosophy workshop.

In this methodology of connection, children develop the link to oneself, the link to others, and the link to nature, all of which are interdependent and fundamental to the possibility of a humanly sustainable life on Earth.

For more information, visuals and videos: https://www.ecolenaturesavoirs.com/caminando/

What will the money collected be used for?

In spite of this educational foundation, the road travelled in a few years, the Caminando adventure remains fragile in its financial aspect, and the health crisis due to the coronavirus threatens the school more than ever. It is in order to perpetuate this project and allow it to blossom further that the school is now asking for your support.

The proceeds will be used primarily to..:

• help pay the teachers in order to ensure a supervision ratio that allows a teaching method of proximity,
• fund educational materials,
• participate in the rental charges of this beautiful setting in the middle of nature.

The purpose of this fundraising campaign: To support the financial situation of the school, so that children may receive an education that makes sense in today's and tomorrow's world.

Thank you for your support!

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NB: Your donations will be managed by our fundraising body at Klub Terre (https://klubterre.com/)

"Klub-Terre Agir Ensemble" is an endowment fund declared in the prefecture. An endowment fund is a non-profit-making legal entity under private law.

Its management is disinterested, the administrators are volunteers, it can freely receive and manage any property and rights of any kind that are brought to it free of charge by donation, bequest, or gift.

The Klub-Terre Endowment Fund financially supports works and missions of general interest. It monitors the projects financed, facilitates the emergence of projects during participatory forums, and proposes projects to its donors.

Any legal or private person can become a regular or occasional donor. Each donation is traceable, the accounts are public, the management is done in full transparency. The Board of Directors undertakes not to allocate more than 15% of donations to the structure's operating expenses.