Another great day! Getting outside and doing things that you do not usually do is a lesson in its self. "Experience is the best teacher". I have been contemplating the size of this park and its proximaty to our nations largest cities. There are people that have lived their whole lives never leaving the concrete "borders" of where they live. This shocks me. Sometimes it is because of $, sometimes not. To get to the Delaware Gap from NYC is a short distance, but people don't do it, even many who are able to do so.

I love the idea of bringing kids from urban areas to experience parks like the ADKs. While brining students here is a great idea, it does not have to be so far away. An afternoon trip in nearly any direction (except east) will get you to a park or a small wilderness area. The benfits of exposing people to this is exponential; awareness, expereience, health, observation skills, cooperation, making connections between nature and their own selves and lives...

Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) describes taking a group of urban students to a small field and meadow, not far from there school. They had never been there, when they arrived a teacher asked Louv what pland he had and where/what should the kids "do?"

"Nothing", he said, "just let them explore". Even some students wanted to know what to do. He gave them no instructions. It did not take long before the kids, and adults, were finding bugs, rocks, grass, discussing what types of plants they were, could animals come here? etc. they students talked about it for weeks, they wanted to go back but the admin istration thought it was to risky and a waist of "academic time", they haven't a clue about what real "academics" are.

When I teach I take my students outside as often as possible, even when the school nurse gripes about it (thankfully my principal also loves Richard Louv, Jim Trelese (Read Alod handbook) and many Alfie Kohn's ideas). My students are always asking to be taken outside to read or be read to. I

I cannot see the risk, or "waist of academic time" in any of that. I am just missing something?
My experiences here will be discussed, modeled, shared and taught as long as I can remeber them.

Josh