Passages NW
Next week, I will be heading out to the desert with a group of sophomore girls for the second year in a row. I wrote about it last year and I hope for it to be as good this year. Mostly, I am really looking forward to some camping and being outside. I am hoping to go into it with the idea of just modeling excitement about being there, and less intent to actually “teach” anything. I think I am moving further and further away from the idea that kids need to be taught. Mostly, they learn exactly what they need to if you can just create space where adults will step back and let them learn. And also model that the “cool” thing to do is to learn new stuff. The more I learn about skateboard culture, the more I realize that these kids are incredibly motivated to learn new things and strive to attain goals. No one has to force them or grade them or ground them if they don’t practice for a certain number of hours every day. And mostly that’s because people that they like and respect have modeled for them that skating is cool and worth pursuing. People who make money on skate-related products do so because they utilize the voices of those role models to encourage skaters to keep pursuing their goals.
I think educators could learn a lot from those marketers. And I realize what a crazy thing that is to say.
So anyway, I’ll be out in the desert camping and climbing for the next week. Possibly there will be stories when I get back. Also possibly there will be pictures of knitting and spinning that I will be working on during the drive. Also possibly there will be pictures of the garden that I started this morning.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I’m so excited you are doing this again! I loved the stories from last time. And I am reminded how much you are my role model and I just want to do all the cool stuff you are doing! I skate and knit… so I guess I need to start doing this wilderness stuff.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Hey Sarah, I’m not sure what you have for wilderness skills stuff in your town, but you can check out Wilderness Awareness School’s home study course if you want. I’ve finished levels one and two, trying to start level three.
Here’s the link
http://wildernessawareness.org/home_study/kamana.html
And I have a copy of Kamana One that I could loan you if you’re interested. You don’t really need the Reader’s Digest Guide that they recommend, you can get most of the info online or from other field guides or the library or whatever. I have the actual course book and the Seeing Through Native Eyes CDs if you want to borrow it.
But you’re pretty cool even if you don’t want to borrow it
And you are going to be able to skate way better than me after living with Malachi for a few months…
You should also think about coming up to volunteer with summer camps for a week this year like we talked about last year. I’m only working two weeks of summer camps, so if you’re interested in taking a week off to do that, we should talk about schedules. I’m working towards the end of July.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
[…] like an uptight Presbyterian surrounded by people speaking in tongues and writhing in the aisles. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I would be working as a camping/climbing instructor for a group of sophomore girls. You can […]