Storytelling and Officinal Herbs: An Educational Approach

What is natural is considered detached from childhood, even through legislation that hinders, when it does not prevent, the child’s relationship with nature. This progressive and inexorable removal of the youngest – and consequently of entire future generations who have lost the ability to deal with nature – from natural environments deemed dangerous because they are never completely coercible and manipulable, takes place both in formal and informal educational contexts. The same narrative addressed to childhood, in fact, often ends with the reiteration and confirmation of current educational models. Educating to nature, also through the knowledge of herbs – and, more generally, of cultivated and spontaneous plants – and their properties represents a sort of holistic process, since it involves every aspect of humans, be they physical, sensory or emotional. In addition to a concrete act, that of cultivation, represents a powerful educational metaphor in showing how care allows one to draw out (e-ducere, indeed) the best things, to explain what is hidden, to exploit unspoken potential. It shows what is usually implicit and implied in educational processes. Being a metaphor, then, it does not need to be revealed or explained because everyone is able to read it, interpret it, make it one’s own. Whether you are in formal or informal contexts.