In todays solecast I sit down with Nancy Munson from Running River School. Nancy is my wife’s former boss and for years ran a radical nature based experiential school outside of Boulder. This year Nancy closed Running River down and will be spending the next few years in New Mexico to reflect on what they have learned and where this approach to education needs to go next.

In our interview we talk about how important play is as an aspect of learning, how getting kids in nature invigorates all their senses and how to promote agency in early childhood. We talk about the impact of technology on developing minds and how vital feedback and incorporating the parents into the educational process is to healthy development. Nancy talks about how her life spent living in intentional communities has helped shape her philosophy about education, why running & regular exercise is so important and how vital it is for parents to remain open and vulnerable to promote those same values in young people. In this interview you will find tons of nuggets about child psychology and how children actually learn, as opposed to the military training they get in public education. So whether you are a teacher, a parent or someone like me who didn’t pay any attention to this stuff till I actually had a kid… even us up-tight adults can gain something critical from Nancy’s approach.

Reach out to Nancy through the Running River website