Being a book-loving, tree-hugging family, we jumped at the chance to go on a Tolkien ‘reading walk’ with Dr Dion Dobrzynski and Professor John Holmes at Ruskin Land in the Wyre Forest. On a warm late summer day, Dion and his students led us along forest tracks and through orchards, occasionally stopping to read passages from The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. The words glimmered differently in this context, and the trees were just a bit more mysterious and strange to my imagination than on an ordinary walk.
Dion’s project is a good one: he is interested in how we might engage each other in the problem of climate change, beyond just in the scientific and technical realms. Contemplating the changes we need to make to become less energy-hungry as a society, it’s clear that the challenge is political and co-operative as much (more than?) technical – and that harnessing the imagination and the heart is crucial. In an approach which is in harmony with Ruskin’s thinking, he brings together art and science, walking and reading, nature and artifice to make an experience that is both simple and profound.
I loved taking part in this walk and as the Principal at King Edward VI College in Stourbridge, I immediately wanted to bring my students so that they could share in it too. With the support of Companion of the Guild John Iles, we organised for three groups of students to participate in a reading walk in Ruskin Land.
First to go were our chatty and imaginative English students. They took to the walk like the proverbial ducks – discussing texts is second nature to them and the opportunity to do this whilst discovering the quiet beauty of this part of the Wyre Forest was grasped with joyous enthusiasm. Talking to one of the students afterwards, she said she wanted her whole year group to come as it had been such a sustaining day, perfect for minds stressed by oncoming A level exams.
Next, we took our biologists and then our geographers – experienced in field work, combining reading with investigation of nature was definitely a little strange for these students! The texts chosen by Dion – ranging widely in genre and age – opened up a lot of space for thinking, and John’s knowledge of the forest and its cultivation over time added both a practical and intellectual dimension. Some highlights: standing by a meander in a sudden burst of sunshine and listening to a poem about parks and hiding places; biologists inspired by the forest, talking and making vivid charcoal drawings; learning about charcoal-makers in the Wyre Forest; for all of us, taking time out of busy and pressured days to listen to the wind and the words, with grades, assessments and meetings firmly off the agenda.
At King Ed’s, we are inspired by reading walks and delighted to add them to our curriculum – for wellbeing, for interdisciplinary thinking, and for a holistic way to talk about climate change. A big thank you to John Iles, Dion Dobrzynski, and John Holmes for introducing us to these wise ways. We say with Wordsworth, ‘Come forth into the light of things,/ Let Nature be your teacher.’
