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IN FOCUS: ARTICLE |
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Cool Schools
by Chris Hayhurst, 08.31.04
"I used to like to kill bugs and stuff, but not anymore!" |
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Summer's almost over, and that can mean only one thing: it's time to go back to school. Sound boring to you? Not if you go to one of these three places.
Inch by Inch, Row by Row
David Shor loves school. Not for the math he's bound to learn, or for the homework he has to do. No, he could skip all that. David, an eighth-grader at Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School in Berkeley, CA, loves school for one simple reason: it lets him work in the dirt.
Thanks to a program called the Edible Schoolyard, David and his classmates spend time each week in the school's one-acre organic vegetable garden. "I used to like to kill bugs and stuff, but not anymore!" says David. "You gain respect for those things when you work in a garden." Students plant seeds, weed, and harvest the food, then they take everything to their classroom kitchen where they cook it up and eat it.
According to program coordinator Chelsea Chapman, the Edible Schoolyard was designed to help city kids make the connection between what they eat and where it's from. "It's a chance for them to do something with their hands," says Chapman. "To go into the garden or kitchen and come away remembering how something tastes so good or smells so nice ... it's a great way to get out of the everyday classroom."
Into the Wild
Speaking of classrooms, how's this for a change: a 12,000-foot peak high in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by wildflowers and bighorn sheep. Welcome to NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership School, where students learn everything from how to use a compass to how to sea kayak, canoe, ski, or rock climb in the world's wildest places.
NOLS takes teens on wilderness-based courses lasting up to 28 days. "In the field, you're taking care of the blisters on your feet," says NOLS instructor and ex-student Janeen Hutchins. "You're pitching your own tent, cooking your own food. You build the self-confidence to do challenging things."
When a student on a backpacking course, for example, tromps 120 miles in less than four weeks and survives, there's no telling what she'll do next. "You accomplish something like that and say, 'Hey, I can be president of the student council,' or 'I can be a doctor,' or 'I can do whatever I want to do,'" says Hutchins. "You learn life skills you can take with you anywhere you go."
At the Zoo
Life skills are one thing. But where can you learn to care for red wolves, a ring-tailed lemur, or a python? Try the Trevor Zoo at Millbrook School, in upstate New York. Millbrook's 240 students share space on campus with more than 120 animals, including seven endangered species.
At least 40 students have jobs at the six-acre zoo. There they feed and water the animals, maintain the facility, and help design and build new exhibits. "Working at the zoo is a great way to learn about responsibility," says zoo director Jonathan Meigs. "If you don't do the job right, the consequences are immediate."
Not all students with an interest in the zoo actually work there. Many visit the zoo for classes like biology or photography. Even writing and poetry students turn to the animals for inspiration for assignments. Almost everyone at Millbrook graduates with an understanding that the world is a fragile place and its wildlife must be protected. "They take away an attitude which they carry with them for the rest of their lives, no matter what they do," says Meigs. "If you take a conservation ethic to Wall Street, that's a good thing!" |
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