Step 1

Step 1: Touch the nature.

Many of you know that I work for an outdoor environmental education facility. Kids from ages 10 to 15 come and learn about nature. They get to take fun classes which focus on place based learning and hands on activities. For example an hour and a half class about Frisbee would talk about physics for about 30-40 minutes and then play ultimate Frisbee for the next hour. Now you might say, wow not a lot of learning goes on at this place. But the day starts at 8am and ends at 9pm. The educational pieces are interspersed throughout the day instead of happening only between 9am and 3pm. The children also come to this place and sleep there at night. Similar to a very educational summer camp, only for your schools classroom.

Children come from many different types of backgrounds, some are urban areas others are suburban, some children are less affluent than others. The one thing that they all have in common is that they are severely lacking in natural education. I was asked today by a 10 year old which tree was a pine tree. The biggest thing that can happen to these children while they are here is to know that nature is a place that has importance and should be valued.

The way that I first start my field group is I have the kids sit on the ground. Squatting is unacceptable, sitting on a jacket/ backpack is unacceptable as well as sitting on your feet. I will wait until everyone has their butt on the ground. Now when I was a kid and we were asked to sit in the grass at school everyone just did it, without thinking twice. But I suppose that not everyone grew up in rural Vermont. I tell the children that this is step one, touching the nature. It is often times sad to me how many children have never felt a tree, let alone played in the mud. Many times when I take children on a hike it is their first. A 15 year old going on their first hike to the top of a hill is a big step toward appreciating our natural world, but it all needs to start at step one, touching the nature.