Lessons from nature

Sunday, May 1, 2005

By HEATHER OSBORN
Register Staff Writer

Outdoor education. The name itself conjures the best memories for thousands who count themselves as alumni, those who remember seeing their first banana slug and meeting the counselor with a long beard and tall tales from travels abroad. It's a magical time that's been a rite of passage for more than four decades in the United States.

Last week, 80 fifth-graders from Bel Aire Park Elementary School had their outdoor education experience, and it didn't disappoint. "There's lots of stuff to explore, that's for sure," said Easton Bresee, on his first day, thumbing through bones and feathers in the nature center. "This is exactly how I imagined it. It's the best."

The students traveled from the Napa Valley to Westminster Woods on Wednesday morning, camping for three days and two nights in cabins nestled among the Sonoma County coastal forests. "These are going to be the best days of your life," promised Stacy Eichner, one of three teachers who planned the trip.

Eichner, along with teachers Stacey Abeyta and Andy Tarap, had been laying the groundwork since the fall. That's when they started fund-raising campaigns and began collecting small payments from parents to go towards the $200 cost per student. Although the school serves a significant percentage of low-income families, only a few students needed scholarships. Money didn't prevent anyone from going, teachers said.

Fifth-grade. It's a time when watching a banana slug trudging across the forest floor is completely enthralling, and when reducing the amount of food wasted and trash produced at mealtimes is a worthy accomplishment. It's an age when a ropes course and challenge games -- activities that promote teamwork and trust by forcing a group to work together on a common goal -- can change the way a child views his classmates and community.

"It really is transforming for the kids," said Tony Cockrell, a Westminster staff member who goes by the name Rooster. The staff at Westminster -- each with a nature nickname -- enthralled the campers, calling them cats instead of kids and creating a magical atmosphere where each child was encouraged to speak up. No idea was dismissed. Known as naturalists, they're always a big draw, funny and smart, hooking the kids into science and ecology through "experiential learning."

The campground -- located on 200 acres, 20 minutes from the ocean, with the Dutch Bill Creek running through it -- is a popular site for Bay Area schools to book for outdoor education. Two Bel Aire teachers went there as kids. In the summer, it's a Christian camp, but it's mostly public schools use its secular, environmental education program during the school year.

Three-day outdoor education trips are a staple at many schools in the United States, although they aren't available everywhere. Most elementary schools in Napa offer it, although the cost has made it too challenging for some. When Napa's sixth-grade moved from elementary schools to middle schools two years ago, some parents bristled at sending their fifth-graders away. (Sixth-graders used to go.) Still, this year, 14 out of 21 elementary schools in Napa Valley Unified School District were scheduled to send their fifth-graders.

"It's the experience of a lifetime," said teacher Eichner. "The community. The togetherness. The singing. The friendships. It gives them a stronger bond going into middle school next year, and hopefully they won't lose that."

The Register journalists who followed Bel Aire, a photographer and a reporter, camped overnight with the group, spending more time on one story than normal, immersing themselves in the world of fifth-grade. It's a world where crushes are OK but girls are gross, and a world where the teacher is the next best thing to mom or dad.

The kids piled onto yellow school buses Wednesday morning, the excitement palpable, ready for funny campfire songs, night hikes and new friends. Many were leaving their families for the first time. One mother whispered that her son had packed his baby blanket.

By the time they got back Friday afternoon, they were exhausted, but still giggling and glowing from a few days away from their normally hectic lives. They had bonded during the trust fall, a popular activity for campers that requires one person to fall off a ledge, backward, staying as straight as possible, arms folded across the chest, into the waiting arms below.

They had laughed during an impromptu American Idol singing contest by the campfire.

They had loved the moments in their cabins at night, each one mixed kids from different classrooms, parents and teachers serving as chaperones. "We got a little loud last night," admitted Hannah Hawker, an animated fifth-grader on the first morning, but she estimated that they had been asleep by 10:09 p.m. There were only three bathrooms and three toilets for 40 girls, but that only heightened the sense of adventure. No one complained.

For Rudy Solorzano, this was a first-time experience. He had never been camping before, and leaving contraband at home, specifically his Gameboy, had been wrenching. When he arrived at the campsite, he said he was worried about the prospects. "There wasn't much stuff to play with. It looked like it was going to be boring. But it's not. This is fun."

The teachers had a beautiful rapport with the kids, formed through hundreds of hours together in the classroom and hours playing soccer at recess and working on projects together. "You're going to remember this moment in 10 years," Tarap told two students as they posed for a picture with him. The teachers knew who was allergic to bees, who had asthma and who was homesick. They talked often about how everyone was faring, concerned about each one, but giving enough distance to help them feel independent and enough attention to make sure they felt safe.

Several of the staff members at Westminster, known as naturalists, have teaching credentials, but they come from diverse backgrounds. All of them have college degrees, in subjects ranging from science to philosophy to psychology to art. A former classroom teacher, Jeanette Jones, said she was drawn to the hands-on method at Westminster because it easily reaches kids of all backgrounds -- English-language learners, students with special needs and those with low IQs.

But, as Dave Holocher, a Westminster naturalist, put it, "The model is endangered."

So is outdoor education. The pressure of teaching state-wide standards, heavily tilted toward math and English-language arts, has caused some schools to slash it. With the tougher standards to meet and the federal education law No Child Left Behind forcing schools to surpass certain testing benchmarks, teachers are under pressure, Holocher said.

"Team building and community building? That's not on the test," he said. "Ecology? That's not on the test either. Teachers have to work hard to make (it clear) this is a legitimate use of their time." And fewer schools can afford to send students to outdoor education because of budget cuts in California schools, he added.

But, for Eichner, it's something that must happen every year, and the "experiential teaching" used is important. "I wish it was something we could do more often, but teaching isn't like this anymore," she said. Teachers don't get paid for the extra hours spent during outdoor education, their union contract not requiring them to go. But they do go, year after year.

By nightfall on the first night, the photojournalist and reporter were already honorary members of fifth-grade, affectionately given nicknames, Jessica for him and Heath for her. See, in fifth-grade at Bel Aire, that's what everyone does, the boys getting girl names, and the girls getting boy names. "It's complicated unless you're in our class," explained Erica Facey, otherwise known as Eric.

Back in Napa, students said the trip was "awesome" and "fun." They signed each other's T-shirts, most of the boys ending up with "kick me" on their backs. They talked with new friends, reticent to go home with their parents and grandparents.

"This was a turning point, a transition from school to the real world, and a whole new way of looking at things," said Lauran Hawker, a parent chaperone.

Westminster Woods 2005. It was a trip to remember.