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AUTHOR
AS AN EDUCATOR
Twin Rainbow-Irwin has worked extensively
as a writer-teacher-naturalist with
a culturally and ethnically diverse
population of youth and adults of
all ages. As a master teacher, he
developed what became known as the
Organic Approach
to curriculum development. At one
point he was a member of an alternative
U.C. Berkeley architectural/education
group called "Farallones Design"
that taught University of California
extension courses entitled "Changing
The Learning Place" which led
to the publication of an educational
resource manual for teachers entitled
Farallones Scrapbook. He was
the Teacher-In-Residence
of the Park South Teacher Center in
the San Francisco public school system
where he developed laboratory classroom
explorations in self-structured community
education and an
outdoor
environmental education program
that was a precursor to later 'Urban
Pioneer', 'Urban Adventure' programs.
His organic classroom learning process
was featured on the front cover and
in the text of Building A Teacher
Center, published by
the Teachers College Press at Columbia
University. These explorations led
to the establishment of a Corbett
Street Community School Project that
was the precursor to what eventually
became the Rooftop Community K-8th
School movement. |
Twin
Rainbow-Irwin with his Aussie soul-mate,
Beverly Ann, who he heralds as "My
Mentor-Mistress-Muse." |
At various stages in his career as an educator,
Twin Rainbow-Irwin taught
in-service "American Indian
Education" courses and participated
in social study task forces in the development
of Native American curriculum guides. He
has lectured in a number of diverse venues
that include: the development of native-based
curriculum at the elementary, secondary
and adult levels on the Crow Creek
Sioux Reservation in South Dakota;
Education Director for the Centre of Action
Research at Colorado University to develop
an Oglala Community College on the Oglala
Sioux Reservation; served as a
member of an educational team that assisted
the T's' Zil Indians, who
were the first native people in British
Columbia to take control of the operation
and administration of their school system;
developed native-based curriculum for learning
disabled native youth of a pilot Ts'Zil
high school; and served, as well, as a naturalist
and Indian Resource Specialist at a number
of wilderness-nature camps.
AUTHOR AS A HEALER
As a Hospital & Rehabilitation Teacher,
he developed a pilot project to determine
the educational therapy needs of youth-in-care
in Human Resources assessment Centre &
group homes in British Columbia, Canada.
He also was the Teacher-In-Residence at
Vancouver's Alma House Assessment &
Treatment Centre which led to the creation
of an alternative education program within
the Vancouver school system.
Twin Rainbow-Irwin has
practiced his educational-healing arts in
a number of venues in Canada and the United
States: as the co-leader of a community-based
residential treatment coed group home; as
a Learning
Disabilities Specialist
in middle and high schools; a Home–Hospital
Teacher of a mental health team that designed
a nature-based pilot project to implement
within a Mental Health Adolescent Day Treatment
Center; as a Nature & Indian Lore Resource
Specialist with Children with Learning Disabilities
through various wilderness Programs; as
an Assistant Director of Residential Community
Life at the college level, with an emphasis
on diverse multi-ethnic/cross-cultural/creation
spirituality education; as a naturalist
Indian Resource Specialist in a YMCA's Wilderness
Camp & Conference Center; developed
a pilot outdoor Education "Web of Life"
Adventure program adaptable to inner-city/gifted
youth, adults and seniors; served as an
Earth Wisdom Guide with an Outdoor Discovery
Program; developed various Native American–First
Nation pilot "Rediscovery" wilderness
and multi-cultural programs; developed "A
Rites of Passage Experience" curriculum
for community immersion/multi-ethnic/inner-city
settings, that utilized Native American
forms of traditional and spiritual healing
techniques; created "Artist-Writer
as a Spiritual Voyager" workshops for
continuing adult education.
AUTHOR AS A WRITER
As an investigative reporter, Twin
Rainbow-Irwin traveled between
Canada and the United States to monitor
the intense debate within the U.S. Congress
over the reauthorization of its Endangered
Species Act, and equally furious debate
within the Canadian Parliament over its
National Public Consultations on Endangered
Species Conservation. After six months of
intense research, the result was a fifty
page monograph, entitled A
Voice In The Wilderness; San Bruno Mountain's
Struggle For Survival which was eagerly
sought after by various local, regional
and state environmental groups, university
libraries and historical societies. He also
authored an original treatment for a Screen/Teleplay
Documentary, The Great White Pine Mushroom
Gold Rush; A Modern-Day Wild West.
Research was conducted in the field while
immersed in wilderness nomadic 'bush camps'
in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia
with the Lil'Wat Indian Nation.
Twin
Rainbow-Irwin also produced a video
entitled The Natural Rediscovery
Process; that was part of a Squamish
Indian, Rediscovery Nature Guide Demonstration
Project.
Click here to review highlights of the video
in
QuickTime Movie Format.
AN IDEAL SELF
Of all the accolades
and awards Twin Rainbow-Irwin
has received over the years, the ones he
treasures most are the simple words that
people have scribbled into his journals,
or said 'round a campfire, about the 'Johnny
Appleseed' moments of magic and mystery
they've shared together in Nature. Words
like, "I'm going to miss you a lot.
I thank you for telling me things I never
knew about Indians and Nature…"What
I'm really trying to say is deep in my heart
Î am going to cry before I leave"…"I'm
having a hard time withdrawing from the
Indian songs we sang. Thanks for the memories.
If you are ever desperate for a camp ground,
I have a few acres of eucalyptus for you
to throw your bedroll under"…"Thanks
for teaching me all that fun stuff like
going on night hikes and going to the sacred
circle to watch the stars."…"The
funniest thing we did was get up early in
the morning and go down to that creek and
put our heads under that waterfall."…"Thanks.
I never knew you could eat wild plants.
They taste hecka good"…"Following
you through the forest, seeing lights turn
on in youthful eyes as doors closed momentarily
to their crazy "ping-pong" world,
I discovered new secrets and beauties in
my life. Most important was the way young
people readily accepted this old woman of
a different age that I am. I was now a companion
who had shared with them a magic experience."
Perhaps the best award
of all was a rap that one group of students
wrote in Twin Rainbow-Irwin's honor that
goes:
It's time to rhyme
and get in line
And talk about this favorite thing of
mine.
It's called nature
So listen up y'all.
You could be in the mall
But you're here
So we'll tell what we saw.
We saw deer, newts and salamanders, too
But there's not only things to see
There's things to do.
You can run, swim or even take a hike
'Cause U have a lot more things 2 like.
U can kiss a slug, and if you did,
Give yourself a hug.
We think you're nuts
But that's OK, 'cause you've got guts.
We have to go
Say bye 2 the 'hole.
Now that we have deepened our soul
Thanks to the naturalists, especially
Jerome,
We can bring nature into our home.
AHO!
When asked to ascribe
to himself the title that best suits his
life's goal, Twin Rainbow-Irwin
simply says, "I aspire to nothing
greater than to be known as a wandering
'Johnny Appleseed-John Chapman' mendicant.
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