Director of Middle School Blog "Go Outside"

Jamie Napier
The April issue of the Silvis Magister is publishing near Earth Day 2018. Since the title of this newsletter is “the woods as teacher,” which is about as close as we could get in Latin for “nature as teacher,” it seems especially appropriate to look into Earth Day.
[Read about Orchard's Earth Day Celebration Here.]
 
To best meet the cognitive development of middle school students, I almost always opt to start on the opposite end of the spectrum from where one might expect. Therefore, let’s explore the bad side of earth day. Not that I am anti-earth, quite the opposite, but often the best way to gain appreciation is to start with the opposition. Typically, when I take a group of youth hiking, we will spend the first fifteen-minutes or half-mile of the hike working on the best whines to use later. Why are all these trees here? Is it uphill the whole time? Why did you pick a trail with bugs? When do we eat? What time is it? Why is the dirt so dirty? Will you carry me? It’s too cold. It’s too hot. We’re never going to get there! My elbow hurts. My ear itches.
 
You get the idea. Strangely this tactic often works later with tired, sweaty, and hungry youth as you can remind them they have already used a that whine.
 
So how does this serve “nature as teacher”?
 
One of the main epiphanies an early teen will have on the journey to adulthood is to read the variance between values expressed and values lived. P.J. O’Rourke, a fairly brutal satirist wrote about Earth Day in the late ‘80’s for Rolling Stone Magazine. “If the outdoors are so great, how come the homeless don’t enjoy them more?” One can easily take offense from P.J. O’Rourke, and many did; but before trashing his question as simply offensive or discomforting – does he have a point? We spend significant resources NOT to be outside. The care most of us take keeping the outside separated from the inside of our homes is a behavior not lost upon our children. We at best visit the outside and often in controlled or planned excursions. Have you ever started an outdoor adventure with, “It’ll be fun!” and concluded with, “Let’s never do that again!” In short, the children are watching carefully for the variances between the values we express in words and values we live in deeds.
 
There is beauty in nature, but there are also rotting animal carcasses. The spring flowers smell lovely unlike the dead skunk on the highway. Those huge clouds rising majestically in the setting sun – run for the car! If you dedicate your imagination, it takes but the briefest of moments to come up with a perfectly good reason not to go outside for recreation. In case you hadn’t thought about it, the bugs actually are trying to kill you. So why go? What lessons do “the woods as teacher” have to impart? If you get lost in nature you just might find yourself - or die.
 
Many folks say they like going outside to increase their appreciation for being back in civilization. I confess, this does hold an appeal to me and I agree with it personally. I become more anxious about applying it to others without their consent. I am also a swimmer; after a long moment underwater, one certainly appreciates the return to breathable air. However, when I teach swim lessons (and I have taught thousands) it is usually bad form to hold aspiring swimmers underwater with the larger goal of getting them to appreciate breathing air. Similarly, dragging unwilling and miserable teens through the forest, dirt and bugs to get them to appreciate beds, showers and window-screens is typically not a winning strategy.
 
So, if not to increase one’s appreciation quotient, then why suffer through disconnecting from soft beds, hot showers, electronics, and quality food?
 
We have become accustomed to things working. Often as adults we work fairly hard to ensure things go smoothly especially in front of our young. We want to show them there is no reason to worry. But if everything has already been worked out for you, if something doesn’t go smoothly, what’s wrong with you? That question is why nature as teacher is vitally important. If everything doesn’t go perfectly, what’s wrong with you? In the woods, nothing goes perfectly. Typically, in the woods, what you expect to happen doesn’t happen. In the woods things are hard – for more or less everyone. Experience matters, it matters a lot. But often woods-experience merely means you have come to understand what a realistic outcome in nature truly is.
 
For students, or more to the point, for developing young adults, there is a desperation to test oneself against the elements. To ask honest questions and get honest answers. They (the maturing adults) almost never ask parents these questions, because parents will lie. Of course, you are brilliant, beautiful and competent! It is in this way that outdoor programs are often called leadership training. A visitor to the outdoors needs to plan, anticipate, and deal with setbacks, as well as solve problems in real time. The trick is to let students do things for themselves and learn from mistakes as well as successes.
 
If you need a fire – just rub two sticks together. If you’re hungry – just gather some roots and mushrooms*. All green leaves are probably poison ivy. Cutting a tree down with a hand saw is no big deal. That looks like a trail – let’s follow it. The bag said tent – how was I supposed to know to look for poles or stakes? I thought all maps were waterproof! You’re paranoid – I pour Kerosene on campfires all the time*. What do you mean where is my water bottle? It’s not my fault, the packing list said rain gear is optional. Don’t distract me, I’m trying to think of a way to kill every mosquito on earth. Do you know how to remove a tick? . . . No, I can’t show you where the tick is! Why shouldn’t I throw rocks at the snake?* I’m sure the tornado is going the other way. Rub some dirt on it and it’ll be fine. A full pound of beef should easily feed like ten people.
 
I am sad to report every one of these are actual quotes. My point is that every line above is a learning opportunity. And far more important than the specific knowledge of how much meat is needed to feed ten hungry people, is the general knowledge of how to ask and answer the question. It won’t be perfect. It is in the imperfect way that we stumble into wisdom that one becomes a leader and gains maturity.
 
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