April 25th, 2018
During the Junior class field trip to New Mexico, one of our activities was a calm trip down the river guided by a Native Pueblo man, accompanied by a delicious Pueblo meal. This was called the "Float and Feast", and was my favorite part of the entire New Mexico trip. As we floated, our guide spoke passionately about the river environment and explained some of his personal philosophies and culture. This experience fits into the pillar of "Investigate the World" because I learned so much from his talks about Pueblo culture and the environment, things that I might never have known about otherwise. One thing that really stuck with me was his connection with nature. He showed us how patterns like the spiral and wave are, pointing it out several times around us being shown in the river, and then showing us how we can see both patterns in our hands too. A closed fist, when looked at from the thumb side, shows a spiral, but if you look at your fist from the top, you see the waves. He also showed us another connection between people and nature, in how his hair is a tribute to water. In his culture, for special occasions he braids his hair to emulate the way that water "braids" itself when you pour it out from a pitcher. The women in his culture leave their hair down and straight, to mimic rain falling straight down from the sky. After listening to our guide, I began to see the spiral pattern everywhere, and appreciated what he meant when he said we are all connected. I saw it especially in math, in The Golden Ratio and within fractals. It seemed only natural that a math concept known as "the divine proportion" would be seen in nature everywhere. Futhermore, the float down the river supported the concept of this pillar in it showed me a new way of looking at the world, and seeing the connections. However, the most important part of this experience was our guide's answer when I asked him a question relating to my overarching question. I asked him about the Pueblo youth, and specifically if his people felt any pressure to look "American", or if they felt they needed to conform to European standards. His answer was unexpected, but made total sense. Our guide said that some young people may try to look or dress in American ways, but they know and everyone else knows that it is not the way. He explained that the Pueblo people are proud of who they are, and understand their place in the world.
During the Junior class field trip to New Mexico, one of our activities was a calm trip down the river guided by a Native Pueblo man, accompanied by a delicious Pueblo meal. This was called the "Float and Feast", and was my favorite part of the entire New Mexico trip. As we floated, our guide spoke passionately about the river environment and explained some of his personal philosophies and culture. This experience fits into the pillar of "Investigate the World" because I learned so much from his talks about Pueblo culture and the environment, things that I might never have known about otherwise. One thing that really stuck with me was his connection with nature. He showed us how patterns like the spiral and wave are, pointing it out several times around us being shown in the river, and then showing us how we can see both patterns in our hands too. A closed fist, when looked at from the thumb side, shows a spiral, but if you look at your fist from the top, you see the waves. He also showed us another connection between people and nature, in how his hair is a tribute to water. In his culture, for special occasions he braids his hair to emulate the way that water "braids" itself when you pour it out from a pitcher. The women in his culture leave their hair down and straight, to mimic rain falling straight down from the sky. After listening to our guide, I began to see the spiral pattern everywhere, and appreciated what he meant when he said we are all connected. I saw it especially in math, in The Golden Ratio and within fractals. It seemed only natural that a math concept known as "the divine proportion" would be seen in nature everywhere. Futhermore, the float down the river supported the concept of this pillar in it showed me a new way of looking at the world, and seeing the connections. However, the most important part of this experience was our guide's answer when I asked him a question relating to my overarching question. I asked him about the Pueblo youth, and specifically if his people felt any pressure to look "American", or if they felt they needed to conform to European standards. His answer was unexpected, but made total sense. Our guide said that some young people may try to look or dress in American ways, but they know and everyone else knows that it is not the way. He explained that the Pueblo people are proud of who they are, and understand their place in the world.
