People get downright angry when speaking of the public school system here in the US, to say they're frustrated is mild. It seems to us sight has been lost when working to keep the US atop the educational mountain, we've more than slipped from our self-proclaimed spot at the top. It's quickly becoming a thing of the past when one speaks of driver's education, gymnastics and the lot being experienced in school. Today, we're not here to decree why or how things got to where they are. We're here to discuss what we can do, how we can improve the situation for our children, what we can expose them to in order to help offset the losses in the classrooms.
Eliminating everything but core subjects (English, social science, math and science) from our schools and the experiences our children have is not what's best for the development of healthy, positive citizens. This new practice of teaching "to the test" and attempting to standardize national testing is not creating better classrooms or educational experiences. Administrators pressure teachers to get the students to pass the tests so no one is punished for not meeting National Standards. Again, we can argue the need for a concrete measuring device but the continually sliding results cannot be argued.
Do you remember having to bring a bag of school supplies for donation to your classroom? I'm a product of the 1980s public school system and my parents never had to send to school paper and pencils. Now however, parents are given a sheet of paper with the required items needed for each child to donate to the classroom. More often than not the teacher sends a supplemental list for additional items they'd like to have for the school year.
Course after course is cut from our schools as budgets are downsized. Each time a course is removed, the opportunity for your child, for my child, to take that course, to have that experience is taken away. In California we don't have gymnastics in our schools, we don't have driver's education courses in school any longer, we don't have home economics courses. Say what you will but each of those courses has something to offer children as they prepare for the next step in life.
Look, we trusted our politicians, our representatives to make smart choices and represent us on a whole. While cost of living keeps rising, we've needed to pay close attention to our incomes. We did the right thing, we sent our children to school but we did let up on the scrutiny of our politicians. Thus, we're at fault, ultimately. We can rectify the situation by going in mass to make the changes we need for our children. Until this happens however, there are choices we can make now, for our children. There are programs available now to counteract the void in our schools and this is what we'll look towards, here.
Introducing the experiential education opportunities that are available. Around the US and the globe, there are schools and centers of education focusing on outdoor education. These institutions understand the importance of this type of learning. Studies report schools and programs implementing outdoor education see an increase across the board in student performance. Here, in the US, more often than not, these schools are private schools and most households simply cannot afford the costs of tuition.
Thus, as proactive parents, we need to find places to help supplement our child's learning. The outdoor/adventure style summer camp is a great place to start.
Experiential outdoor education programs help in a great many ways, here are a few main points of impact this type of education will have on a student:
1. An environmental / ecological awareness
2. Physical challenge and accomplishment positive for both the physical and emotional well-being
3. Self-awareness / empowerment
4. Interpersonal relations, communication and leadership skills
5. Socialization and community development
One of the difficulties supporters of experiential education have is trying to relay the positive results from these experiences. The reason lies in the subject matter. The impact outdoor education has is intimately personal. It's difficult to create a rigid methodology to study, score and result the impact. In more rigid subject matter this is not an issue, if we teach addition to a child and then ask the child, what is 2+2 and the child replies 4, we know the teaching worked. Rarely, if ever is the answer 4, when dealing with the outdoors. While there are many studies to be found on the internet regarding the positive influence of these types of programs it still proves a difficult sell to the government entities. Parents and campers/students are quickly believers once they see the outcome.
Precisely because we cannot produce a neat diagram, a test result, for these types of courses, they're the first to go in any budget cutting process. It's much easier to kill the community garden project than it is cutting a biology class.
If nothing else, we should all agree, having a children who are aware of themselves and the world in which they live, have a belief in their physical ability to achieve, are self aware and strong enough to defend the safety of their person in an ever violent world, are able to communicate effectively and confidently as well as have a sense of responsibility and understanding of groups and their interpersonal dynamics is a very positive endeavor. Look to an outdoor, adventure camp for your child this and in the upcoming summers of their adolescence.
This was part I of this II part look into outdoor / experiential / environmental education. Part II will delve further into each of the 5-benefits above and provide hands on examples of positive changes made in the lives of summer campers.
Eliminating everything but core subjects (English, social science, math and science) from our schools and the experiences our children have is not what's best for the development of healthy, positive citizens. This new practice of teaching "to the test" and attempting to standardize national testing is not creating better classrooms or educational experiences. Administrators pressure teachers to get the students to pass the tests so no one is punished for not meeting National Standards. Again, we can argue the need for a concrete measuring device but the continually sliding results cannot be argued.
Do you remember having to bring a bag of school supplies for donation to your classroom? I'm a product of the 1980s public school system and my parents never had to send to school paper and pencils. Now however, parents are given a sheet of paper with the required items needed for each child to donate to the classroom. More often than not the teacher sends a supplemental list for additional items they'd like to have for the school year.
Course after course is cut from our schools as budgets are downsized. Each time a course is removed, the opportunity for your child, for my child, to take that course, to have that experience is taken away. In California we don't have gymnastics in our schools, we don't have driver's education courses in school any longer, we don't have home economics courses. Say what you will but each of those courses has something to offer children as they prepare for the next step in life.
Look, we trusted our politicians, our representatives to make smart choices and represent us on a whole. While cost of living keeps rising, we've needed to pay close attention to our incomes. We did the right thing, we sent our children to school but we did let up on the scrutiny of our politicians. Thus, we're at fault, ultimately. We can rectify the situation by going in mass to make the changes we need for our children. Until this happens however, there are choices we can make now, for our children. There are programs available now to counteract the void in our schools and this is what we'll look towards, here.
Introducing the experiential education opportunities that are available. Around the US and the globe, there are schools and centers of education focusing on outdoor education. These institutions understand the importance of this type of learning. Studies report schools and programs implementing outdoor education see an increase across the board in student performance. Here, in the US, more often than not, these schools are private schools and most households simply cannot afford the costs of tuition.
Thus, as proactive parents, we need to find places to help supplement our child's learning. The outdoor/adventure style summer camp is a great place to start.
Experiential outdoor education programs help in a great many ways, here are a few main points of impact this type of education will have on a student:
1. An environmental / ecological awareness
2. Physical challenge and accomplishment positive for both the physical and emotional well-being
3. Self-awareness / empowerment
4. Interpersonal relations, communication and leadership skills
5. Socialization and community development
One of the difficulties supporters of experiential education have is trying to relay the positive results from these experiences. The reason lies in the subject matter. The impact outdoor education has is intimately personal. It's difficult to create a rigid methodology to study, score and result the impact. In more rigid subject matter this is not an issue, if we teach addition to a child and then ask the child, what is 2+2 and the child replies 4, we know the teaching worked. Rarely, if ever is the answer 4, when dealing with the outdoors. While there are many studies to be found on the internet regarding the positive influence of these types of programs it still proves a difficult sell to the government entities. Parents and campers/students are quickly believers once they see the outcome.
Precisely because we cannot produce a neat diagram, a test result, for these types of courses, they're the first to go in any budget cutting process. It's much easier to kill the community garden project than it is cutting a biology class.
If nothing else, we should all agree, having a children who are aware of themselves and the world in which they live, have a belief in their physical ability to achieve, are self aware and strong enough to defend the safety of their person in an ever violent world, are able to communicate effectively and confidently as well as have a sense of responsibility and understanding of groups and their interpersonal dynamics is a very positive endeavor. Look to an outdoor, adventure camp for your child this and in the upcoming summers of their adolescence.
This was part I of this II part look into outdoor / experiential / environmental education. Part II will delve further into each of the 5-benefits above and provide hands on examples of positive changes made in the lives of summer campers.
About the Author:
For loads of free information on summer camps and what you might expect from a camp, videos of camp-life in action and photos, visit our summer camp page. Action Whitewater Adventures has been providing quality raft trips to families and youth groups for 20-years on the South Fork of the American River.
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