There was one unforgettable week during my sixth-grade year without television, Nintendo or computers. During that week, I learned to take part in the formal ceremony of raising and lowering the American flag, created my first tie-dyed shirt and learned some lessons in ecology and environmentalism. It all happened at Outdoor School, an annual sixth-grade event for most Oregon students.
Outdoor School was an event that the entire sixth grade looked forward to for the entire school year, and it was probably the only time that seventh and eighth-graders were actually jealous of those on the lowest rung of the middle-school food chain. We prepared by constructing name tags from pieces of wood strung on a necklace of colored noodles and learning songs that we would sing for meal times, the flag ceremony and at campfire.
Unfortunately for many Oregon students, the fun of Outdoor School may never be a reality. As the state continues to cut more and more dollars from the education budget, Outdoor School has been placed high on the list of programs to be cut. In the Multnomah School District, this will be the last spring that Portland’s 12-year-olds will leave to spend a week in the outdoors with their peers.
And that’s more than unfortunate. In this day of limited family interaction, Outdoor School is often the closest thing to camping many kids will experience. Not all parents have the financial resources to provide their child with the opportunity of attend camp during the summer.
My own memories of Outdoor School are one of the things I remember most clearly from my awkward middle-school years. Not only were all of the educational activities and games such a contrast with what I had experienced in the classroom, but I also got the opportunity to spend time with older kids — college and high school-aged counselors — and as a 12-year-old, I looked up to them with awe and respect.
In fact, I so fondly reminisced over the five days spent at the camp in Eastern Oregon that I decided to sign up as a counselor through the University’s Community Internship Program. I wanted to be on the other side of the experience, to utilize the opportunity to be a role-model for a group of young girls.
To take away that opportunity for kids is to take away an experience that is more important than a history lesson or mathematics test. Outdoor School provides a real experience for students to actively engage with each other and adults in a positive setting and in an environment they rarely have the opportunity to be part of.
So much has already been taken away from our educational system in the form of school sports and art and music programs. These programs are an integral part of helping our young people develop into well-rounded adults, and they allow school to be an interactive and yes, even fun, experience. Losing Outdoor School is a blow kids shouldn’t have to experience.
E-mail columnist Rebecca Newell
at [email protected]. Her opinions
do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald.