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The Harmony Project

The Harmony Project is a way of learning that is underpinned by Nature's eternal principles of Harmony that teach us how to live sustainably

This approach to education is delivered through meaningful enquiries of learning. Each enquiry is underpinned by a principle of Harmony and each principle is drawn from Nature and what it can teach us about how to live sustainably. For example, the principle of the cycle teaches us that Nature's systems are cyclical and never stop. They create no waste. They go on forever.

Shortlisted
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Overview

HundrED shortlisted this innovation

HundrED has shortlisted this innovation to one of its innovation collections. The information on this page has been checked by HundrED.

2015

Established

-

Children

8

Countries
Updated
July 2018

About the innovation

What is the Harmony Project?

The Harmony Project is an innovative approach to education that uses Nature’s principles of Harmony as guiding principles for a way of learning that can lead us to a sustainable future. These eternal, universal principles of life set the context for our learning. They remind us how the natural world works, and they provide a starting point for how we, too, can learn to live sustainably and well.

Too often, sustainability is seen as an add-on to learning, something done through a one-off environmental day or week and something that can be easily lost or forgotten with other more important, measurable demands of the curriculum to focus on.

What this approach does is to frame all learning through enquiry-based projects with each project linked directly to one of Nature’s principles of Harmony.

The inspiration for this work has come from HRH the Prince of Wales’s book Harmony. In the book, the Prince tracks the history of cultures, civilisations, religions and indigenous peoples over time and highlights how they have always understood the need to live in harmony with Nature. Then during the Industrial Revolution, we started to disconnect from this way of seeing the world, not appreciating enough how incredibly dependent we are on it for all our resources and food. This disconnected approach has led the majority of us to live in ways that don’t understand the impact of the choices we make every day, be it our food sourcing, the energy we use or the throw-away culture we have created. Indeed, it has led us to the point where human impact on the systems that sustain us now threatens the very fabric of life itself.

So, we need a new model for education that can inspire a much more sustainable way of living that works with Nature, rather than against it.

Implementation steps

First Principle

The principle of the cycle and an understanding that Nature works in never-ending, self-sustaining cycles that create no waste or pollution. This is the ultimate model for a sustainable way of life.

Second Principle

The principle of interdependence and an appreciation that everything is connected, nothing is separate, so for every action we take, positive or negative, there is a consequence, positive or negative. It reminds us that just as Nature works systemically so we need to teach systemically, joining up

Third Principle

The principle of diversity and a recognition that diversity is a strength and a good thing, and that the more we promote and value diversity in all things, the better.

Fourth Principle

The principle of adaptation and a reference to how brilliantly Nature has adapted itself to its place and how important it is for us to reference our place in how we learn, focusing learning on the local and building a strong sense of community.

Fifth Principle

The principle of health and a realisation that health should underpin the process and the outcome of all that we do. Natural systems are inherently healthy. How can we do the same?

Sixth Principle

The principle of geometry and beauty, and a deeper understanding of the patterns and symmetries that exist in the world and in us that teach us that there is an order and a beauty to life that we instinctively resonate with because it reflects the patterns of who we are.

Seventh Principle

Finally, the principle of oneness and a realisation that all these principles are ultimately one and that we, too, are part of this oneness of life. We are Nature, however we understand that. This final principle focuses on a more spiritual dimension to who we are and how we live.

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