Today we returned to the bank of the pond where we (re)encountered the geese. We watch them swim, a passive observation until they begin to approach the shore, and once again they make it known that our presence is disruptive. They advance toward us and once again we retreat to the pathway. How might we trouble animal-child relations by returning to the pond? How do our responses shift when the geese communicate their desire for us to move on? How does encountering geese in a way where we must retreat disrupt logics of freedom & exploration in childhood? Here, a pedagogical insistence on returning (and retreating) is working to disrupt the anthropocentric logics of control, of unfettered access to land, to water, and to “nature”.
