Schools

Sense of Place, Education Connect in Concord

Local naturalist and educator offers field explorations and natural history programs for homeschooled students.

Sense of place is important to Cherrie Corey.

A naturalist, photographer and educator in Concord, Corey roots her work in the town’s historic landscapes, like Walden, Great Meadows, Estabrook Woods and Gowing’s Swamp. And this sense of place permeates her projects: A picture made because she was in the right place at the right time, a walk planned precisely when the roosting egrets align like a pearl necklace laid upon the tree line and a conversation that doesn’t stop with What, When and Where but invites Why and How.

It’s the name of her blog, and a key tenet of the homeschool natural history programs she’s offered in recent years and is now publicizing for the first time.

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“I enjoy doing sense of place programming in Concord because of the incredibly rich natural history and historical relevancy the town has,” said Corey. “But the sense of place teaching that I do—both for children and for adults—really comes from a passion of connecting people more intimately with the environment and community in which they’re living.”

Watch the video above to hear Corey talk more about her “Sense of Place Teaching.”

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For Fall 2013, Corey is offering a “Weekly Natural History Program” and “Monthly Natural History Adventures” for homeschooled children and has limited space available in both.

The idea behind the programs is to explore natural areas around Concord, to learn and form connections by observing how flora and fauna adapt to changing seasons and delving into the history and ecology of these places.

Many of the landscapes on the lineups for her homeschool programs—places like the Emerson-Thoreau amble, Brister’s Hill and Gowing’s Swam—have been explored and documented by Concord naturalists past. It's here, in these places, that Corey feels somehow kindred with Thoreau. 

And with her homeschool programs, too, she finds common ground with man who became perhaps the most famous among Concordians. Consider this quote--from Henry David Thoreau's "Journal"--which sits atop a recent blogpost on Corey's website: 

We are all school masters and our schoolhouse is the universe. To attend chiefly to the desk or schoolhouse while we neglect the scenery in which it is placed is absurd. -- Thoreau, Journal (October 15, 1859)

For detailed descriptions, rates, dates and registration information for Cherrie Corey's homeschool natural history programs for Fall 2013, check out her website


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