Relearning the Language of Nature
by Rich Hatfield, who teaches Science in the high school and also coordinates the Outdoor Education. He recently received his Wilderness Responder Training.
Our students in grades Pre-K through 8 encounter a wide array of experiences that enrich our school’s curriculum and our student’s development. In the high school, our goal is to build on these experiences and begin to draw a distinction between education outdoors (learning curriculum outside of the class room) and Outdoor Education (learning a skills based curriculum to enrich a student’s experience of the out-of-doors). While of course these two modes of learning are often combined, we have been explicitly creating a developmental education around the outdoors since the foundation of the high school.
Never before has human culture been so far removed from the natural order of things. Our cities are getting larger, while wilderness and wild places get further away. As such, part of the intention of our Outdoor curriculum is to relearn the language of nature and reestablish a living relationship with the world within which we live. This education gives our students an opportunity to ground themselves on the planet, provide the time to step outside the daily rhythm of a modern life and gain perspective on themselves and nature.
We take each high school grade on an outdoor experience for a week of school. The goals of our wilderness curriculum and field trips are to:
- Help students explore the ecological/economic implications of our use of natural resources and examine whether these pathways are healthy and sustainable
- Engender in students a sense of responsibility toward our natural resources
- Help students gain an appreciation of the nature of reciprocity - i.e. how we affect the natural world and how it affects us
- Give students tools with which they can examine physical phenomena
- Provide opportunities for students to engage in self-reflection through the experience of nature.
Ninth Grade: Survival Skills
This 5-day trip usually takes place in the fall and most recently has been combined with the geology morning lesson. Newberry Crater National Volcanic Monument has provided an excellent place for our students to learn both geology (education outdoors) and survival skills (outdoor education). Students learn the importance of shelter and shelter building. Students experience the time required to build a debris shelter and also the important knot and rope skills to build a tarp shelter. Students also experience different techniques of fire building and learn basic orienteering and map skills. These experiences meet the ninth grader’s growing sense of self and help them to find comfort in their place. In a sense, they are learning how to become independent, and provide their own basic needs. In addition to the practical survival skills, the ninth grader is also learning to hone their observation skills and learning to get comfortable with themselves and time; no distractions.
Tenth Grade: Looking Outwards
The tenth grade explores the question: What else is here and how can I find out? Each student begins an in depth investigation of Naturalist skills and practices. They learn the importance of journaling and observation while learning to track animals and recognize animal sounds and language. This program takes place at Oxbow Regional Park with two local naturalists.
Eleventh Grade: Backpacking Trip
For five days the students travel with everything they need for the week on their back. Students participate in meal and menu planning and learn the importance of appropriate and comfortable gear. Students also can become group leader for a day which includes map reading and route planning. As our trip takes place on the coast of Olympic National Park, students get experience with planning group travel over difficult terrain as well as timing river and headland crossings associated with tidal influences. The students also continue their exploration of their surroundings as they investigate the animal and plant life around them. Students learn many of the native plants and trees and focus on the ethnobotany of the Olympic Peninsula.
Twelfth Grade: Solo Sit and Culmination or program
Students apply all that they have previously learned to a 24-48 hour solo experience. After working for several days with experienced solo leaders to set intentions for their trip, the twelfth graders step out of their circle of friends to spend time in the wilderness alone. During this experience, students often start by establishing a shelter and then proceed to observe the natural world and live with experiences as they come. In this setting they work with their stated intentions, or find new ones. This time for seniors is significant because they can experience the skills that they have learned over their high school career and provides the opportunity, time and space to find a deeper relationship to themselves in nature. A framework to ask the questions: Who am I? What can I offer? What is my unique contribution to the whole? Immediately after the solo, the students gather as a class to work with the guides. Each student shares their story and the guides offer reflection, questions and support to each student. What began as an individual journey ends as a collective experience as each student bears witness and provides support to the other.
Rudolf Steiner was troubled by the difficulties created by the separation of Science and the Humanities. He was concerned that it separated the human being from the world that created us. Spending time in nature bridges this gap for our students. They are encouraged to blend scientific inquiry with a natural human wish to celebrate our collective, as well as individual, journey. At a time when it seems that cultural pressures demand more and more time inside, we need to reconnect with the earth to engage our heart, head and hands. Our goal in Waldorf education is to allow our students to develop a creative relationship to the world in which they will enter, while also having the freedom to find one’s true self.
