Beyond The Classroom: Why Ridgeview’s Outdoor Education Program Complements a Classical Education

Dec 4

In this episode, we sit down with Mrs. Carvalho, our Outdoor Education Coordinator, and Mr. Lautenschlager, a Ridgeview parent, to discuss the growth and impact of Ridgeview’s Outdoor Program. They share their backgrounds, what brought them to Ridgeview, and how the program has evolved over the past decade. Together, we explore the benefits of time spent in nature, how outdoor experiences support student fitness, character, and academic growth, and why these trips complement our classical curriculum. We also highlight the value of parent participation on trips and why the program is meaningful for all students, not just those who consider themselves outdoorsy.

00:06:30 – Outdoor Education and Classical Education Working Together
00:16:00 – Why Outdoor Education Matters in Northern Colorado
00:19:30 – The Lasting Impact of Outdoor Education at Ridgeview

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[MUSIC]
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Hello and welcome to Hoplite Radio, an educational podcast by Ridgeview Classical Schools,
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which explores the importance of classical education in a modern era.
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My name is Derek Anderson, I'm the Headmaster at Ridgeview Classical Schools.
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And today, we are joined by Kristen Carvalho and Ford Lautenschlager, a parent at Ridgeview.
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To talk about the outdoor program and how this fits with a classical education and
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what it means in terms of the development of our students.
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So we'll begin with Mrs. Carvalho and give a little bit of an overview of her background
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and how she came to lead the outdoor program.
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So Mrs. Carvalho, when was the first time that you set foot on Ridgeview Property?
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Well, I first set foot on Ridgeview Property as a sophomore.
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I think, I came to do a tour with Peggy Schunk.
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My family had moved to Fort Collins from a tiny little mountain town called Westcliffe,
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Colorado, where I had grown up on a ranch.
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And we were looking for options because my parents were a little bit worried about me going
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to one of these big schools here as a new-to-town kid.
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And so we came to the tour.
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Loved what we saw.
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I was super excited to get started.
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And since then, I went away to CSU, got a degree in microbiology, did some work in about
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11 other schools that were in different districts around the state.
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And then I really realized there was a huge value to being a teacher at Ridgeview and I came
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back as a science teacher, worked as a science teacher for I think about six years.
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And then we started doing the outdoor program in the summer.
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I loved going on those trips just for the fun of being with the students and getting
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to know them in a different way, getting to take them on hikes and things like that.
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And so in 2020, when we shifted the program to become more of a curriculum at Ridgeview
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and I was able to apply to be the full time Outdoor Ed Coordinator, I obviously jumped
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at that opportunity and that's kind of how we got to where we are now.
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The program didn't initially start in an effort to be a program.
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So I think that some of my earliest memories of your involvement in what now is called
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the Outdoor Program was really just me convincing first your husband and then you to go on trips
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with us.
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Can you talk... I guess just give a general outline for people about how that program looked
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in its earliest years because I think students now talk about it as though it had always existed
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and been a part of what Ridgeview is, but that you and I know that's not true.
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Yeah, for sure.
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It looked very different.
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I think some of my earliest memories were... we were doing sort of all sorts of
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things from paintballing with the juniors to a seventh grade trip at that point in time.
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was just a trip to City Park pool because really our focus at that point was how do we
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get our students to know each other since we're not a neighborhood school.
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We took a couple trips that were really just short hikes.
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And we remember we have both laughed a lot about our trip to Fern Lake.
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We did, it's like a seven and a half mile hike.
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And with the group of students we did, it took us like 10 hours.
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And I always remember one of the boys packed four sandwiches and he was like, it's not
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enough-
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I'm starving, Mrs. Carvalho.
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So yeah, it's come a long way.
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I think we've built it obviously into more of a cohesive program because our objective has
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shifted.
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So before I go to Mr. Lattinslager,
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What would you say the pros and cons are in terms of if you were a strictly biology teacher
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in the way that you once were versus leading the Outdoor Program?
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Which of these would you prefer?
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Well, luckily I prefer what I'm doing now.
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But I think one thing that I do miss is when you're a classroom teacher, you see your students
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every day.
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And so for a long time, I taught sort of that revolving spiral, I taught fifth grade,
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seventh grade, and ninth grade, which means I saw students every day for multiple years
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at a time.
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And so I really, really got to know them.
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I think the class of seniors now is the last class that I taught in that sort of spiral.
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And my relationship with them is just something that I can't match outside.
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I can come as close as I can.
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You know, I get to know kids for six days out of a year.
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And that I miss that kind of everyday relationship with students.
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I also miss the content.
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I love teaching biology.
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It's obviously my favorite subject.
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So I miss being able to have that classroom experience where you can build on what you taught
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from day to day to day.
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Nice.
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Well, thank you.
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Mr. Lautenschlager,
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So how did you come to be at Ridgeview?
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Yeah, so we know about Ridgeview since we moved to Fort Collins in about 2014.
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My wife is a public school teacher.
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So we have products of public schools.
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She's in the system.
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Kind of felt very comfortable with sending our kids there.
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I've liked the ideas that I knew of a Ridgeview from very early on.
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But we were like, well, it's good to try and see how it goes.
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Had a good first year experience.
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Second year, there was some issues just with lack of standards, seeing him digress and his
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handwriting, some other issues within the school that kind of led to lack of enjoyment
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in school and filling kind of that safety in the environment.
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So, for several reasons we kind of made the decision.
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We need to look at other options.
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We felt comfortable with Ridgeview.
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We looked into Ridgeview.
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We looked into a few others.
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And then we got the call for that he had got the lottery spot.
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And we met, toured the school, listened to Hoplite Radio.
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And here we are.
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So it's been a really great shift.
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His love of learning has returned.
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The conversations he's had at home have been amazing.
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I remember like a month or two into his second grade year,
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my son was talking to my younger son who was not in school the time about poems he learned
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at school.
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I was like, oh, this is the coolest thing.
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Like the discussions he's having are so much better than where he was previously.
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And so in and again, I mean, the handwriting now is like his handwriting was one of the
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things that he had to digressed.
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And now it's like through the roof just so much better.
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So we've been very happy with the experience.
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I absolutely loved it.
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Very good.
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And you and I have had some conversations just about the outdoor program piece of that
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specifically in that you had been involved in some outside things where it was evident
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that this was an important part of what you wanted for your children's childhood to
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contain was some outdoor experiences.
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So what do those look like both outside of Ridgeview and what do they look like so far inside
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of Ridgeview?
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Yeah.
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So I mean, that's one of the things my wife and I we when we moved out here,
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we love the outdoors,
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we love seeing the mountains and going out there as much as we can.
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So that is something that was important to our kids.
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I was a military brat.
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So for a period of time, I lived in the Colorado Springs area on the Academy and going
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out and just roaming the foothills was like the best part of my childhood.
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And I want to give that to my kids as well.
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And so we found out about an organization called Trail Life.
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It's essentially like Boy Scouts.
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My son's been involved in that for now three years.
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And it's been really interesting seeing, you know, so we'll do family hikes,
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we've done some family camping recently now at my younger son's older.
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And so, you know, he's had the experiences of learning some outdoor stuff at Trail Life.
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But it's, you know, they they cover so much and they're covering it with a big group of
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kids and they're kind of hitting points every other year or so.
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So yeah, he when he came to the Ridgeview, he was familiar with the compass, but he did not
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know anywhere near as well how to use it as he was taught last year in second grade.
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And not only did he not know as well, but the things that he, I mean, for only going on
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two trips last year, you know, he learned that compass, the first one, the refresher on the
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second one.
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And then we just went on Tuesday and he did not need a refresher.
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He knew exactly everything.
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This is where I need to stand.
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This is how I need to do this and that.
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So the two programs that he's been in both outside of school and then at Ridgeview, you have
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common with each other and have strengthened it.
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He had compasses when he was a first grader at Trail Life.
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And then again, now this year, and I think this year he's honestly teaching the group everything
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he learned here.
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So it's been great just kind of seeing the airplane and how they work together.
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Very good.
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And I think that the, it's interesting, right?
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As you mentioned, something about the elementary participation in the outdoor program.
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I think a lot of times, whether because of the photos or videos and things, usually who
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we hear back from our students about upper school trips.
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And of course, the upper school students, as we found out the other night on our full moon
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ruck, they would be very happy to make all of those trips more and more extreme.
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But that is an element.
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The elementary element is an element that is new.
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And Mrs. Carvalho, maybe you could speak a little bit to that.
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How has that been developing it?
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Because that is part I don't get to experience as much firsthand as I do the upper school
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piece of it.
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Yeah, I think this has really been kind of a wild ride as how I would describe it because
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I don't know of a place that does what Ridgeview does with kids as young as we have.
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And so I think certainly not in a formal school setting.
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And so when we started these elementary trips, it was
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really a question of what can be done.
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We didn't know what we could do, what we could teach to kids that were that young.
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We didn't know if they would absorb how to use a compass or how to read a map.
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And then just logistically, we didn't know if some of this stuff could be done.
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So I think the first time we left on a trip, we had an alumni working for us, Daisy
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Yates.
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We were planning this elementary school trip and we were going to take 62 first graders
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and their parents camping.
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And I'll always remember the morning we left, like I ran into you in the parking lot and
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you just sort of waved at me and you were like, "you got this?" and I said, well, I certainly
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hope so.
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Because we really didn't know what that was going to look like.
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So we had obviously put a lot of thought and planning into it.
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We found a campground that could actually accommodate 120 people, which is in and of
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itself a challenge.
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And then we invited all these parents to see if they would be willing to come out and
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join their kid for a night of camping, learn some skills.
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We focused on really simple things like how to use the compass.
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We do a little bird watching with the first graders.
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We do some nature art with them.
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And then we also just wanted to create time for them to spend time with their parents.
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So I think we have parents leading stations.
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We have parents telling campfire stories.
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We all have a big pancake breakfast in the morning because one of the points of those
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trips was also to continue building that community and to get parents involved in what their
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child was doing so that they could continue that at home because six days a year isn't enough,
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right?
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I think everybody is going to need parents like you know, doing things with their kids.
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They're going to need to continue that.
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You know, do you still remember how the compass works?
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All of those kinds of things.
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And so we're basically giving parents a jumping off point where they can enter in and keep
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those things going on at home.
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We provide, you know, something to get them started at each grade level, but it's helpful
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for them to participate as well.
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And how- one of the things that you and I have gone back and forth on is how integrated
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kid we make the outdoor program with the rest of the curriculum.
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And you were telling, I think, a good story the other night when we were on that ruck which
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was sort of about the geologic characteristics of the area and you said it would almost
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couldn't have been better if you had designed it.
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Maybe you talk a little bit about that because I do think that you could just repeat the whole
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conversation you had with me, because I think that that's one of the things that when parents
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hear about an outdoor program, I think that they worry that this is just a kind of diversion
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instead of being something which is integral to the rest of the curriculum.
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Yeah, I think there's actually two places like that that I can just kind of quickly talk
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about that have incredible connections to the Ridgeview curriculum.
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And I think Lori State Park, they have this whole just perfect geological classroom is
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kind of what I would call it.
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We take that there are graders, actually, Mr. Perkins is out there with them right now.
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And we walk from basically the bottom of the Arthur's Rock Trail down to Horstooth Reservoir.
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And on the way down there, it's just a fun hike.
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So we let them get all their energy out, we skip a bunch of rocks, we let them kind of
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have unstructured play time.
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And then on the way back up the hill, we tell them, hey, we're about to travel back in our
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time travel machine.
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We're going to go through geologic history.
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And so we start there at the base and we talk about the younger rock that's down there
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by the water.
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We walk up to the top and it's incredible how this is laid out.
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Like I said, you couldn't have possibly done a better job if I had had control over it.
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But there's the Lyon's Formation is there.
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And so you can see this sandstone that's yellow, that's about 250 million years old.
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You travel back.
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And then it's very easy for the graders to see the rocks change color.
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And now all of our rocks are bright red.
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So we can talk about, okay, this is a different kind of rock.
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It's a different layer of rock.
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It's got different minerals in it.
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And so we see this difference in coloration.
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And then we walk a little bit further and now we're in an ancient stream bed and we can
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see, now we have conglomerate rock.
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We have a whole bunch of rocks mixed together.
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And then we cross over the road and we can say, okay, now we've gone back about 800 million
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years.
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And this rock is the oldest rock that we have and it's black and gray.
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And so we can see these very clear differences.
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And I think that is the sort of thing they're learning about rocks in class and they've been
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learning about them from a textbook, but to be able to take them outside and have them
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actually put their hands on the things that they've been learning about, just you can kind
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of see them come alive and they're so excited to participate in it.
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I think the other one that's really neat is that there's a settlers cabin at Bobcat
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Ridge that is the- some of the first settlers who came to Fort Collins.
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And our second graders spend the whole couple of months leading up to that trip.
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They're learning about Westward expansion and early settlers in the United States.
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So we take them out there and they can actually play around in the cabin, which is still set
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up for just like free play.
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It's got all of the original artifacts and it was just pretty neat.
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And they can kind of walk on the trail and see the original farm.
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And so I think you can't beat those sort of interactive experiences outside of here.
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Nice.
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And Mr. Lautenschlager, I think kind of a question for you would be, and this is pertains
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the outdoor program, pertains to the curriculum is one of the things that I worry about particularly
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when we do informational meetings and other things is that we talk about Ridgeview as we
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would like for it to be rather than as it is.
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And so oftentimes when people come up to me after an informational meeting or at a new parent
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meeting, and then they're very excited.
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And my comment usually imparting with them is, you know, be sure to let me know if we're
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not living up to what I just told you we're going to do.
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So my question for you, whether with regards to the academics or regards to the outdoor program
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is Ridgeview living up to what the way that we talk about it?
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Yeah, well, this was set up very well because Mrs. Carvalho just mentioned the only two trips
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I've gone on, so
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That works really well!
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No, but I remember talking to family members and stuff around the time that we decided
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that we were going to bring our kids to Ridgeview.
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And saying like, you know, if they fulfill half of what they say, this is going to blow
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us out of the water.
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This is going to be the best possible experience.
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And I would say that has been exceeded.
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But specifically in talking about, you know, the outdoor education aspect of it, you know,
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in addition to just learning the history of the Westwood expansion, they're also reading
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Little House on the Prairie.
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And I imagine, you know, my son sitting there and trying to talk with him and trying to
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figure out what's going on in his head is he's discussing this book.
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And I'm like, can he actually figure out what it would be like to be in a house that doesn't
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have AC or doesn't have electricity or running water or all these sorts of things?
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It's like you can try to picture it as best you can.
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But if you have no experience actually even seeing what that looks like, you're not really
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going to get it.
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You know, you might be able to be like, okay, my house had no lights
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it would be kind of like this.
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And maybe you think of like a power outage or something.
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But you're still thinking of a big modern house.
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You're not thinking of this little tiny cabin and thinking of an entire family fitting
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in there.
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And so I think that, you know, with the outdoor education program, it is giving just a context
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that can't be taught.
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It has to be experienced.
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You have to be there for it.
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And again, I mean, just so just Tuesday when we went to on that third grid trip that, you
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know, I was just described, you know, Mr. Perkins was like, okay, kids, sit on the rock, feel
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the rock, feel how easily you can break it with your fingers and with your hands.
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Like knowing, like when they're studying those rocks and they, they read about like,
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well, this rock is harder than this rock.
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And my son's like, it's a rock.
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It's hard.
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You know, I mean, he specifically was telling a younger brother after the trip.
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I didn't know that I could just break a rock open with my hands like it was, you know,
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made out of foam or something.
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So I think that again, yes, I mean, on the, the promise of, you know, the outdoor education
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program and how it complements with their learning in the classroom, it's a much deeper
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experience.
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And it's, it's very, I think, grounding for them.
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That's good.
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I think, yeah, that's absolutely true.
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When we see students correspond things in a science class, for instance, the geology, they
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correspond with things that are in history, or a literature segment, back to these things.
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I mean, my one experience with this was being in Massachusetts and they had one of these,
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you know, rigged saleships that was at the time crossing the Atlantic or whatever.
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And obviously, it's a replica that's been rebuilt and everything except until you're in that
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hold, that cargo hold or in the quarters of that ship and to see how tight everything
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is and how big those timbers are and how much movement sway there is in that.
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And when it's in the water, it's really hard to think about crossing the Atlantic or why
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that would have been as daunting as it's depicted in history books.
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And I think that thing happens just like Mrs. Carvalho was describing that settlers cabin
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in the early days of the year.
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These are great first-hand experiences for the students.
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Are we valuing, and I realize this is supposed to be not just a connection to curriculum, but
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it's also a connection, I think, to nature, which is very grounding, I think, for the students.
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How important is it that these kids are in nature?
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Mrs. Carvalho?
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Is it important?
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Well, I think it's critically important.
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There are, I think, a number of reasons that we could point to as to why they need to be
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out in nature.
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I think a couple of things that I always have in the back of my mind are just the health
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benefit alone of being in nature.
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There was some interesting research in Japan that was done for people that spend 30 minutes
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outside each day.
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And they did this for adults, not even children.
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But for adults, it's doing things like lowering their cortisol,
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It's reducing rates of depression in their population,
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It's lowering blood pressure.
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I think it's doing things like we know in America kids who spend 30 minutes a day outside have
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20% lower obesity rates.
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So you could cite all of these health reasons that we need to be outside.
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And I think those are real, and we need to pay attention to them, especially when it's
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30 minutes a day.
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And you'd think about 30 minutes a day being outside.
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What's interesting to me is, right, it's been determined that for prisoners to be
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meeting their constitutional rights, they need an hour outside five days a week.
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And I think a lot of people aren't making sure that their children get that much time outside,
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right?
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And so we've determined that it's obviously so critical that we think it's a constitutional
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right.
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But we might not be making sure that our kids are getting it.
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So I think just from that perspective, it's hugely important that kids have time to be
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outside.
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I also think there's just rising concern about teens not having experiences.
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They're not actually living out in the real world, right?
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And you could point to a number of reasons why it could be cell phones, it could be other
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forms of entertainment.
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It could be this rise of safety culture that we've said for a long time that safety was
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our first priority and it turns out it probably actually isn't our first priority, that we
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want people to actually go out and have experiences.
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And I think the concern with teens who aren't out there having experiences is that the teenage
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brain is wired to seek sort of this experience and to challenge itself and to see sort of
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what are you made of.
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And if you don't have good places to go out into nature and to say, hey, can I climb this
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mountain?
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Can I bike down this on my mountain bike and knock over the handlebars?
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You're not answering those fundamental questions about what is the stuff that you're made of.
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And if you don't have those experiences, your brain's wired for that dopamine and you're
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going to find it somewhere.
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And I think that has also come out in teenage experiences that teenagers are using their
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phones for that dopamine or they're vaping or you could put any number of things in there,
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right?
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They're trying to replace that fundamental experience.
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And so I think nature is a great place for them to get that because it's unstructured.
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Adults aren't making the rules in nature, which I think is also another really important
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component that we could talk about.
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But it gives them sort of this place to test themselves and to learn and both kids and
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teenagers absolutely need to do that.
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If I can piggyback off that real quick, I think one of the things that makes nature very
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special and unique is really the only place left in our society that isn't curated in
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some way, shape or form.
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I mean, yeah, we talk about taking the kids out to just do a quick hike.
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There's nothing really strenuous or crazy there, but then a snowstorm comes through or then
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they see a rattlesnake.
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These are things that are truly random that can happen to them.
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One of the only places in the world where they are still able to truly just experience
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something like that.
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If they're on their phone, the worst thing that can happen is the battery is going to
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die and they can see that coming.
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So more of they're playing a video game, they can kind of follow the story and be like,
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okay, now is time for me to fight a boss or whatever it is.
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Everything about what we're doing is tailor made and set up and designed by somebody else.
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But when you go out in the outdoors, you're actually tested for the first time of like,
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how can I respond to something that doesn't make any sense?
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It just happens and I just have to deal with that.
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For sure.
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Why do you think there's such a cultural resistance to it?
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I mean, it seems like we are about as ideally situated as a group of people could be to
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go out and do that.
400
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,520
But you and I talked about particularly during the early years of the outdoor program.
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00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:13,480
We would, I mean, I think we actually recorded numbers for several years about how many
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00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:19,000
kids we were taking out for an overnight or a two or three night trip who had never spent
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a night outside and they lived in Colorado their entire life.
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00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:27,640
So culturally it doesn't, it seems like we are attracted to living in places in which one
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00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:32,680
would have access to the outdoors, but not culturally inclined to take advantage of it
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necessarily.
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00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:38,200
Yeah, I think there's a couple of reasons that you could point to for that.
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00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,760
And one might be, I think the outdoors is a place where apprenticeship culture is still
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alive and well in which if you don't know how to trad climb or you don't know how to
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00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:52,280
backcountry ski, you shouldn't read a book to learn how to do it, right?
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00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:56,280
You're going to need to find someone who can take you out there and say, you know, that's
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not exactly quite where I'd place that piece of gear or, you know, this snow looks suspicious
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to me.
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I wouldn't go over there.
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And they're trying to impart to you years and years and years of experience.
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So I think there are probably a lot of people just in Colorado that would love to be outside
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more that aren't able to either make the time for or define sort of a mentor to be able
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to guide them through that process.
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I think also too, safety culture is a real thing.
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Like we, I think growing up in the late 80s, early 90s, like we were told that there were kids
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on milk cartons.
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If you walked somewhere by yourself, you were going to end up on a milk carton, right?
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I think we were stranger danger, right?
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It was alive and well.
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And I think preached to us.
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I think one of the stats I heard is that 56% of parents biked or walked to school by
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themselves.
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And now they self-report only 30% of them would allow their own child to do that.
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And so I think there's this idea, like we experience something ourselves as children, but we
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still feel unsafe about letting our children do it.
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And so I do think that factors into it as well.
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And I think the last one, and probably maybe the most impactful for a lot of families is
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time.
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It's really easy to let a week get away from you, you know?
435
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I think even just as a mom of two children who loves to go outside, who loves to be outside
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with them.
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00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:24,720
If we're not super intentional in our family about setting time to go outside, it can just
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not happen.
439
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:31,640
Yeah, I would echo all that matches my experience.
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My wife being a teacher by the time the week rules around, she is completely exhausted.
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If I haven't planned this like a month in advance and bought some special stuff to put some money
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into it, she's like, this is not happening.
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So we definitely have that.
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But also, you know, it's, you make the point that people move to Colorado because of the
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access to this all this wonderful, great stuff.
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00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:54,800
Well, you know, I used to go backpacking after college in Virginia.
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And if I made a mistake out there, it really didn't matter.
448
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,080
You know, like Virginia is a very forgiving outdoor wilderness.
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You are going to get terribly sunburnt.
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You run out of water.
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Maybe not the best drinking water around, but there's water around somewhere that you can
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get.
453
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,240
And you can get your little life straw or whatever and everything is fine.
454
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:13,760
You make a mistake out here.
455
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:15,360
You know, it's a, it's a bigger issue.
456
00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,640
And I can say like my wife and I when we moved out here, we did make mistakes and come down
457
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:25,040
from doing Gray Rock pretty much completely dehydrated, having some problems.
458
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:29,920
And so I think again, like the need for an apprentice is huge.
459
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,920
And I can tell you right now, I wouldn't know where to get one.
460
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:37,080
And part of one of the reasons why I make it a very huge emphasis and point to try to be
461
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:41,440
on all of the outdoor education programs for my sons is because I want to learn the things
462
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:45,080
that I want to need to reinforce to them because I don't trust that I know them.
463
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:50,480
And so I think it's one, great that they have access to this through their school.
464
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,320
But it's also it's great an opportunity for the parents to learn some of that stuff too
465
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,960
so that they can incorporate into their family because there's a lot of things that, you
466
00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:01,760
know, my kids are going to be able to do as long as we stay at Ridgeview that I wouldn't
467
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,480
even know where to begin.
468
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:04,800
Yeah, sure.
469
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:08,040
And I think that is one of the things that I've tried to make really clear to parents over
470
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,840
the years too is there are always trips that you could come on.
471
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:16,400
And even if it's your very first time going for a hike or camping, you know, I wouldn't
472
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:22,000
recommend jumping in on the ninth grade ski trip if you've never done any of that before.
473
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,480
But there are trips where it's really easy to enter in and to start learning those skills
474
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:28,160
and start practicing those things.
475
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,880
So I do encourage parents to sort of use the outdoor program that way as well as sort
476
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:37,600
of that apprentice program where they can learn things to teach and do with their own
477
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:39,600
kids.
478
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:47,200
So I have said more and more recently that school is a mindset rather than a place which has
479
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:51,200
proven to be unexpectedly controversial.
480
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:53,520
I didn't say it to be controversial.
481
00:28:53,520 --> 00:29:00,680
I said it because I was trying to explain how this complemented the rest of our curriculum.
482
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:07,160
Do you end up with parents volunteering on trips or end up talking to parents who think
483
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:16,000
that this is little more than a enrollment hook or photogenic diversion from what we should
484
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:17,000
be doing?
485
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,000
And if so, how do you bring them back to maybe giving it a chance?
486
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,600
Yeah, I think I haven't so much explicitly have that conversation but how it does come
487
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:29,960
out sometimes is we'll be on a trip and parents are going, wow, I mean, I thought we were
488
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,520
just going to come out here and, you know, like do a hike and take some pictures and then
489
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,960
go home and they're like, but we actually learned like real things today.
490
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,320
And I think, yeah, that we should have.
491
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:46,000
I think the idea that school, I mean, I hope school is a mindset and not a place, right?
492
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,960
Because then as adults, we're all out of luck, right?
493
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:56,240
So I think where people get that criticism or what concern they're trying to express is
494
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:04,240
that they don't want us to give up the intellectual in favor of the experiential, right?
495
00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:09,120
And I think that is the biggest thing that I think I'm trying to combat in the outdoor program
496
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,520
is they go together, right?
497
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:19,440
We're looking for sort of that renaissance man that was physically capable, strong enough
498
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:24,520
to go out and learn these things outside, but was really interested in how things worked,
499
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:25,520
right?
500
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:30,800
And I think if you look at the American mountain men, they were really interested in science.
501
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:39,240
I mean, some of the research they did on animals and waterways and how all of that ecology
502
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:46,000
functioned we're still referring back to them, even though we have better tools and, you know,
503
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,840
more objective data.
504
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:51,680
Some of the research that they did, just while they were out there in the mountains for 120
505
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:56,240
days by themselves, is still some of the best stuff that we have out there.
506
00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:03,320
So I think the idea that we can combine those things and I think also the learning that takes
507
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:09,160
place outside of the classroom is different because our motivation is different.
508
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:11,920
It really, when you're on the outdoor program, you have to learn the thing for the thing
509
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:16,040
itself because we don't give you a grade, we don't go home and say, hey, you've got to B-
510
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:18,320
in outdoor education today.
511
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:23,960
You're a little slow on the hike, you know, could have paid better attention.
512
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:27,520
If you want to learn to rock climb, you've got to put in the time and effort, right?
513
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,120
And it gives you that immediate reward.
514
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:31,800
If you get to the top, that's great.
515
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:36,480
If you get higher than you have ever gotten before, that's also great, right?
516
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:40,320
So I think they learn to do the thing for the thing itself, which is, I think one of the
517
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:45,160
main things we'd want them to pick up about learning is that it's not for this external
518
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:49,080
motivation or somebody rewards you and told you they did a good job.
519
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:55,760
It's for doing the thing and enjoying the experience and enjoying having the knowledge.
520
00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:00,320
I would say also, I think it's important to just keep the idea of schools and mindset there
521
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:05,800
because you don't want learning to end in the classroom at any age.
522
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,160
And you know, so again, going on the third grade trip this past Tuesday, I had kids coming
523
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:11,360
up to me and being like, well, how old is this quartz?
524
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:15,160
I'm like, well, that's not something to ask me to go talk to Mr. Perkins.
525
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:19,040
But I love that they're out there and they aren't just answering the questions that
526
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:20,920
have been presented to them.
527
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,400
They are taking that and saying, oh, we are out here to learn.
528
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:25,880
Let's just learn about everything.
529
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:32,520
You know, we're fostering an idea that they can, whenever they're presented with anything
530
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:34,400
new, they should want to learn about it.
531
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:37,680
They should want to be like those mountain men who came before them and say, I'm here.
532
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:38,680
I see something.
533
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:39,680
I don't understand it.
534
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:40,680
Let's learn.
535
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:42,040
Let's figure this out.
536
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:43,040
And I think that that's huge.
537
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:46,600
But, you know, and aside also from the academic aspect of this, I think we also need
538
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:52,520
to consider just kind of the character building aspect of being out there and in taking, again,
539
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,800
the character pillars and all the things that we want them to learn and putting it in that
540
00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,080
unique chaotic environment.
541
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:03,520
You know, again, on the third grade trip, they had climbing some of the granite face of
542
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:04,520
the wall there.
543
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,520
And, you know, I think that's probably the steepest thing my son's ever climbed because
544
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:10,160
that's not something that we necessarily do.
545
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:15,760
But I remember when I was in fifth or sixth grade in Virginia, we went on this like wilderness
546
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,880
obstacle course type of thing and they had a zip line.
547
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:20,080
I refused to do the zip line.
548
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:21,560
I would not do it.
549
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:23,760
And I regret that to this day.
550
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:28,280
And I just think it's great that like, well, that was my first experience at a school doing
551
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,120
something like that and being forced with it.
552
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:31,120
And I turned away.
553
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:32,120
I'm not afraid to admit it.
554
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:33,120
I'm sad.
555
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:34,120
I'm not afraid.
556
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:41,240
But, you know, as a third grader, my son had that opportunity in a much smaller, much
557
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,920
more comfortable way to be like, oh, this is a hard thing that could go badly.
558
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:46,480
I'm going to give it a try.
559
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:47,880
It went well.
560
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:52,200
Like we are teaching those types of things of taking on the challenge and, you know, seeing
561
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:57,000
what's presented in force and going forward exploring it and being curious about it.
562
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,000
Seeing can I do this?
563
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,320
Can I push myself in this way?
564
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:05,240
And so again, I don't know how you get that in a classroom.
565
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:10,320
Do you, I have to imagine particularly with a wife who's a teacher, you have to get questions
566
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,760
from friends who do not have kids at Ridgeview.
567
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,320
Like, what are they doing over there?
568
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:21,360
This looks like a, I have to, I mean, I sometimes I write about it or I think about what we're
569
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:22,360
doing.
570
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:25,560
I think this is a very eccentric project.
571
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:30,680
Does it look eccentric from the outside to the outsider or how do you talk about it with
572
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:31,680
them?
573
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:37,480
I'm sure it probably does look eccentric, but when I explain it to people, you see the lights
574
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:38,480
go off in their eyes.
575
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,200
Like in an excited way, you know?
576
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:45,280
I have the ability in my job to go around and talk to a lot of people.
577
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,880
I have other groups and communities that I'm a part of where they are.
578
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:51,960
I'm talking to men who have young kids and they'll be like, you know, I don't know what to
579
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:52,960
do about school.
580
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,000
Should I send my kid to this private school.
581
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:56,000
There's multiple charters.
582
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:57,640
There's the public schools.
583
00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:58,960
Like, what are you guys doing?
584
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:01,080
And when I tell them, like, yeah, it's really, really cool.
585
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,320
My son was reading Little House in the Prairie and learning about Westward Expansion and
586
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:08,000
they went to this place and they got to see what a prairie actually looks like and they
587
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,000
got to experience the smells and they got to feel this and that.
588
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:15,440
And see how small the cabins were and see how hard it would be to pull something up
589
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,080
a well on a little pulley.
590
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,240
Like, they get it.
591
00:35:20,240 --> 00:35:24,760
You know, when you explain, like, I think part of maybe the Ridgeview experience is you
592
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,520
can explain a piece of it.
593
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,400
You have to explain it in and how it all comes together and how its totality is.
594
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:34,400
Because like you said earlier, if we just look at the outdoor education experience and
595
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,840
you see all the beautiful Facebook posts and all these great things that you guys do,
596
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:39,880
you're like, okay, this is a photo op.
597
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:45,600
You know, they just wanted to show some kids on a rock face, on a cliff and good for them.
598
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:51,880
But again, when you understand and see like, oh, well, they're actually really focused on
599
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:56,240
making the things that they read about make sense and they're focused with, you know, some
600
00:35:56,240 --> 00:36:00,680
of the physical education aspect on making sure that you have kids that are capable of just
601
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:05,520
moving through these types of projects and being able to say, oh, I want to do that.
602
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,880
Well, I'm physically capable so I can.
603
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,240
It all comes together at all.
604
00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:13,840
Like, even when I talk about it with people, I'm like, listing out all the things that you
605
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:14,840
guys are doing for my kids.
606
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:20,280
I'm just like, how can they do all of this well?
607
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:24,640
But again, it's not that you're doing like, you're focusing on doing everything well, you're
608
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,040
focusing on doing it all together.
609
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:29,120
And that's how it works and that's how it makes sense.
610
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,840
And I mean, I have a lot of people that I don't know that are necessarily going to
611
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,320
send their kids here because we have one of them lives up the canyon and
612
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:38,320
613
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:39,320
And that's a little far for him.
614
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,920
But I talk to him about it in like every time he sees me, he goes, what are your kids doing?
615
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,560
What's happening right now?
616
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:50,080
So I mean, it's, it's probably hard to understand from the outside, but if you can even get
617
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,360
a glimpse inside from somebody, I think it makes sense.
618
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:54,360
Good.
619
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:58,080
Well, in the physical, you bring up the physical ability to do the thing and physical
620
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:03,640
fitness has definitely been something that's been at the front recently.
621
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:07,560
How does that play into the Outdoor Program?
622
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:14,720
Do we see kids kind of coming into a realization that I really want to enjoy this thing, but
623
00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:21,800
in order to actually enjoy it, I'm going to have to be, I'm going to have to step it up physically.
624
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,280
Yeah, I think that absolutely has happened.
625
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:29,640
And I think for me, in my own personal life and in my conversations with kids, one of the
626
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:33,880
things that I feel strongly is that you, you know, you don't have to go to the gym every day.
627
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:38,360
You don't have to, you know, you don't need to do that, but you do need to be functionally fit.
628
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:41,980
And you know if you're functionally fit, as long as your fitness is never the thing that's
629
00:37:41,980 --> 00:37:45,280
stopping you from doing the thing that you want to do.
630
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:52,840
And so I think that is a place that we get with students where we're, and this is hard
631
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:53,840
for everybody.
632
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:54,840
Like this is a really big challenge.
633
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:56,960
We are going to go up a 14er.
634
00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,600
We're going to get to 12,500 feet.
635
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:01,280
None of us feel great.
636
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:05,720
I mean, maybe one or two, you know, if we took Dr. Freese out there, I'm sure she would be
637
00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:07,520
powering up.
638
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:09,320
But none of us feel great, right?
639
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:11,360
We're all working hard.
640
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,000
But for it to be a choice to keep going is what's really important.
641
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,080
And some kids get there and they realize they don't have the choice, right?
642
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:20,520
Their body is making the choice for them.
643
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:22,080
And that's always hard, right?
644
00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:26,640
We don't want to be in that spot where we can't choose because we haven't prepared our
645
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:28,560
body for those types of things.
646
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:34,520
And so I think that's a conversation that we're having with students earlier on in the Outdoor
647
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:37,680
Program because the challenges are smaller, right?
648
00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:42,400
And I think your example of coming up against a zip line is a big challenge, right?
649
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,680
If you've never had an experience like that before and all of a sudden we present you with
650
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:50,320
this tiny wire and we want you to jump off something, that's a big challenge.
651
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:54,960
But if you're in kindergarten and we say, hey, we're walking one mile around the Environmental
652
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:56,280
Learning Center.
653
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:59,960
And one mile is a long way for your kindergarten legs.
654
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:04,200
But you can do it and you're strong and Miss Elliott is going to be here with you and we're
655
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:07,120
going to stop halfway through and we're going to tell you a fun story.
656
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,800
We're going to have some lunch.
657
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:11,520
All of a sudden it's approachable, right?
658
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:14,200
And then they get to the end of that mile and what did they learn?
659
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:17,360
They learned that their body was strong and then they could do it and then it might have
660
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:21,520
had hard parts but it didn't kill them, right?
661
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:25,480
And so I think over and over again and we repeat that and we say you can push yourself,
662
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,520
you can do something hard.
663
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:32,160
It will have it's unpleasant moments but it'll make your body stronger and stronger and
664
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:33,560
stronger.
665
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:37,600
They learn that in those smaller increments so that hopefully we're not in that place where
666
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:41,720
your body is making the decision for you.
667
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:46,240
A beautiful thing about that that I just kind of was thinking from the trips I've been on
668
00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:52,680
this year is like, you know, Ridgeview has this this outside aura of being, you know, rigid
669
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:56,560
and rigorous and difficult and all that and I'm not saying it's not challenging.
670
00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:00,280
I mean, we wanted to be challenging on some level but I love that.
671
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:04,840
You know, again, on that third grade trip, you guys get like an hour to skip rocks.
672
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:06,480
Like I saw kids struggling.
673
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:10,920
I mean, that when we went on Tuesday, it was uncharacteristically warm and everyone,
674
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,360
everyone was overdressed for this trip.
675
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:20,040
But I don't believe that any single kid that went with that trip on me on Tuesday is not
676
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:22,520
going to remember the fun they had.
677
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:29,200
You know, there are things that as a parent, you try to expose your kid to and you can see
678
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,520
it's not going well and it's like, okay, is this the time where we need them to push it
679
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:37,600
out and to challenge themselves and to show that they can fulfill a commitment or whatever.
680
00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:42,000
Or you know, with my younger son who's five and is a kindergartener here this year, there's
681
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:46,200
things that he's doing outside of school where we're like, you know, if we keep pushing on
682
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:49,320
this, he's just going to hate everything about this and he's going to want to quit.
683
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,840
We're experiencing that with Jiu-Jitsu right now.
684
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,760
And I see that in reflection with the outdoor program and how it's relevant is the fact
685
00:40:55,760 --> 00:41:00,980
that I can't imagine a single trip based off the few that I've been on where you have
686
00:41:00,980 --> 00:41:04,960
kids that are like, I want nothing to do with this.
687
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:08,040
Like you know, the kindergarten trip we went on, they got to climb trees, they got to look
688
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:12,360
at squirrels and all this sort of stuff, everything was fun.
689
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:15,320
And yes, they're going to get more challenging and there's going to be more hard aspects
690
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:16,320
to that.
691
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:17,320
But the fun is still there.
692
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:21,680
The fun is, again, on a certain level built in, the free play time is there so that
693
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:26,480
they can find what it is that's going to make that a positive memorable experience for them.
694
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:27,480
Sure.
695
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:30,880
I think that's an important part of it too is that we have those parts of the day, which
696
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:35,680
I think some parents would point out is like, this is a place where learning wasn't happening.
697
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,320
Like, we were just down at the reservoir.
698
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:39,560
We're skipping rocks, right?
699
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:44,000
But for us, we're intentionally building that time into the schedule because that's where
700
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:49,400
we get our buy-in from the kids because they can choose something that they want to learn
701
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:50,400
about.
702
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:51,400
We're just skipping rocks.
703
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:55,120
Yesterday, we had some boys that were just trying to dig up a giant rock.
704
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:59,320
They were moving all this sand and they just wanted to know, can we, if we can dig up this
705
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,160
rock, will we be able to move the rock, right?
706
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:06,080
And I think like, they're learning about something that they choose to learn about, which
707
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:08,000
they don't get to do very often, right?
708
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,640
They don't get to just decide what it is that they're going to do.
709
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:15,800
And then they also learn about how to get along with their peers out there because if
710
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,640
we're going to dig up a giant rock, then we each have to have a job.
711
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:21,880
And we have to get along and we have to work together.
712
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:26,640
And so they're doing these things that we can't, we could try to structure a lesson, but
713
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:28,400
it would ring completely hollow.
714
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:31,000
Yeah, well, and you have 17 kids.
715
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,840
So letting them all find the lesson that's going to ring true to them is helpful.
716
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:38,400
And you know, another thing with skipping rocks is like, oh, that's just a silly thing.
717
00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:42,640
Well, half the kids, they throw their first rock and it just goes plunk and sinks right
718
00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:43,640
in.
719
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:47,480
But they all see, you know, Mr. Perkins or some of the dads out there skipping 12
720
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,440
times and they're like, I'm not quitting.
721
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:53,760
And that's a beautiful thing to see too.
722
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:58,440
So I mean, the thing that's interesting about the physical fitness piece is that, you know,
723
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:00,160
we didn't have to worry about the athletes.
724
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:04,480
I think the athletes were taking care of, but again, even in a, even in a larger school,
725
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:09,240
it would be the minority of students who are training for a competitive athletic thing.
726
00:43:09,240 --> 00:43:16,240
My hope has been that the outdoor program would catch the other 60% and bring them along,
727
00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:20,200
right? attention would be given to them in a way that it wouldn't be otherwise.
728
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:25,400
However, I think parents see scholarship dollars and all sorts of other things attached
729
00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:31,800
to athletic prowess and the training that is required to be competitive in that.
730
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:36,840
But they see the outdoor program and they ask basically whether we're training recreationists
731
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:43,360
or, you know, like I said, we're a ski school that's just training kids on the hobbies that
732
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:44,880
they will have as adults.
733
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:46,040
Is it more than that?
734
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:49,840
Are we doing more than simply training recreationists?
735
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,640
I certainly hope we're doing more than that.
736
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:59,200
I think, you know, for me, my experience was not at all growing up a recreationist.
737
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:01,320
I mean, my parents never took me.
738
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:05,320
I think I went skiing a handful of times as a kid and that was with my grandparents.
739
00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:08,080
They were the ones who really wanted me to learn how to ski.
740
00:44:08,080 --> 00:44:10,520
For me, being outside was a livelihood.
741
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,200
Like that's how, you know, I grew up on a ranch.
742
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,160
My dad built houses like being outside was how we lived.
743
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:23,680
And I think you can have an appreciation for the land that is Colorado if you've seen
744
00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:25,120
it and you know that it exists.
745
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:31,280
So I think it's hard to say like, yes, I think it's important to be able to see... moose if
746
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:34,000
you've never seen a moose in your life.
747
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,360
You don't know what you're missing out on, right?
748
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:37,560
I think the same thing is true.
749
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:43,600
If you've never been to the, you know, pick a place, the Gore Range or something like that,
750
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:47,200
you have no idea what it is that you're missing out on.
751
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:48,200
You don't know what that.
752
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:49,920
It's just a word on a paper to you.
753
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:53,960
And so I think one of the things that I think we're teaching is we're teaching stewardship
754
00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:58,920
and maybe not so much by intentionally teaching it so much as showing kids what it is that they
755
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:00,640
have access to.
756
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:04,120
And I told them all, you have no idea how lucky you are.
757
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:07,000
I sometimes like to joke, you know, some people were born in Ohio.
758
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:08,000
That's where I was born.
759
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:09,640
So I can say that.
760
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:11,560
They were born there and they'll never leave, right?
761
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:14,480
They won't ever see all the things that you've seen.
762
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:19,240
And so I think we're teaching stewardship just by taking kids out to places.
763
00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:25,760
I also think we're teaching them skills that they can pass down to their children, right?
764
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:29,760
And that might be, how do you build a good campfire so that you don't look silly the first
765
00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:35,040
time you take your family out camping and you can't get the logs to start on fire, right?
766
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:40,680
It might also be like, how do you safely use a tool and how do you put it away or how do
767
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:42,760
you sharpen your knife? The other day
768
00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:48,600
we had the ambassadors leaving for their trip and I were walking them to a vehicle check,
769
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:49,600
right?
770
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:53,320
And they learn things like how do you know if your tires are properly inflated?
771
00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:58,920
How do you know if you have enough windshield wiper fluid, which container under the hood
772
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:00,880
holds the windshield wiper fluid?
773
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:03,080
I mean, these are important questions, right?
774
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:04,560
That you'll have later on in life.
775
00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:09,840
So I think they're getting a variety of functional skills in addition to, of course, what I like
776
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:15,440
to call the candy for every trip, which is, yeah, it's fun to slide down a hill on two skinny
777
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:16,440
sticks, right?
778
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:18,000
That's a really great time.
779
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:24,080
So hopefully we're getting a good mix of those fundamental skills in there too.
780
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:28,720
So another, I think, big thing that parents maybe have some confusion about is, I mean,
781
00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:33,160
and again, this maybe goes to the eccentric nature of the school and the program is they
782
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:39,480
don't think about a chaperoning a trip as a typical way of volunteering for their kids
783
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:40,480
school.
784
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:44,360
And they definitely don't think about a chaperoning a trip that their kid isn't on as
785
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:50,040
a way of contributing to their community and their school.
786
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:51,040
What do you tell them?
787
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:55,920
How do you entice them into this?
788
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:58,360
Do you just offer prizes?
789
00:46:58,360 --> 00:46:59,800
How do you trick them into this?
790
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:01,800
I make them bacon, Mr. Anderson.
791
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:04,600
I'm still waiting for my bacon, by the way.
792
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:05,600
As am I.
793
00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:06,600
I'm sorry.
794
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:15,660
No, I mean, I think part of it is what I alluded to, which is that you can go on a trip and
795
00:47:15,660 --> 00:47:16,900
not be experienced.
796
00:47:16,900 --> 00:47:21,860
So I think removing sort of the barrier to entry of that you need to have a particular
797
00:47:21,860 --> 00:47:23,700
skill.
798
00:47:23,700 --> 00:47:26,640
I think that's one thing that we've tried to do for parents.
799
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:31,560
But I think the other part is that most people, if you tell them that you need them, will
800
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:32,560
come.
801
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:39,160
And so I think this year our marksmanship trip was a perfect example of that, right?
802
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:41,800
Marksmanship is definitely one of those things where you need an apprentice.
803
00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:46,320
If you've never done it, it's incredibly intimidating.
804
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:51,000
And so we had a couple of dads come out who have a ton of experience.
805
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:52,000
That's their wheelhouse.
806
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:53,200
It's what they're really good at.
807
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:54,640
It's what they do for a living.
808
00:47:54,640 --> 00:48:01,000
And I, some of them, and I think they came and they taught the students and parents what
809
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,080
it was like to engage in this activity that they loved.
810
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:08,960
And that really for me is like the height of the parent volunteer experience is that you're,
811
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:13,640
there's a skill out there that might become a lost skill if you don't teach it to somebody
812
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:14,640
else.
813
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,240
And all we're doing is I didn't teach a single bit of that marksmanship, right?
814
00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:21,480
I taught safety before we left and that was it.
815
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,560
And other than that, it was parent chaperones who were doing that.
816
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,800
And they're passing on a skill that they love that might be extinct if no one does that.
817
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,960
And I think that is true for anything, right?
818
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:38,840
We have other parents who are phenomenal skiers who don't mind skiing a green run 27 times
819
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:41,200
in the same weekend.
820
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:43,640
And they're good teachers and they're patient.
821
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:46,000
And so we can invite them out to teach that skill.
822
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:50,480
So I think the other thing is trying to know our community well enough to know who has
823
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:55,880
the skills, you know, to teach what and to come in and to really help out with that.
824
00:48:55,880 --> 00:49:03,400
I think the other part too is like, I talk specifically to dads for a second, is 3% of early education
825
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:05,320
teachers are male.
826
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:12,960
So that means that if your kid is going to have a good male role model in elementary
827
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,480
school, it's going to be a parent chaperone.
828
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:20,040
It's probably not going to statistically be a teacher at Ridgeview.
829
00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:25,800
And so we especially need dads to come out when those kids are young, because for a boy
830
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:31,880
to have the experience of seeing somebody's dad skip a rock 70 times is really cool, right?
831
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,760
He's like, oh man, that parent is so cool, right?
832
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,280
And we see the same thing on our upper school trips too, right?
833
00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:43,840
Is it's really important for us to have, you know, both dads and moms out there because
834
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:49,880
the flip side of it in high school is having a mom who is willing to go out and camp in the
835
00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:57,160
snow for four days and isn't going to be afraid of it and, you know, shows that sort of power
836
00:49:57,160 --> 00:50:00,440
over circumstance that we're trying to teach the kids.
837
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,400
That's equally as valuable for all of our girls to see.
838
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:11,240
And so I really just would encourage parents to come out and be that role model on those
839
00:50:11,240 --> 00:50:14,560
trips because it really does make a huge difference.
840
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:19,000
I think the kids spend more time talking to me about things that they saw from certain
841
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:24,320
parents than they are talking to me about Mr. Perkins or talking to me about me.
842
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:30,600
They really have memorable experiences with their parent's chaperones.
843
00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:35,320
And I would add, I mean, I think the role model aspect is really great and I think parents
844
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:40,000
sharing what they love is better than a teacher who happens to be able to teach it but doesn't
845
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,000
have that same passion.
846
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,080
So I think that's really important.
847
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:47,440
But the thing that I love as somebody whose chaperoned as many trips as I've been able to
848
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:49,440
is, is the community.
849
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:54,280
Like I love talking to other parents and, you know, finding out what their road to a
850
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:58,160
review was and what their experience is and all of those sorts of things.
851
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:03,760
So I guess another aspect too with, you know, we've seen from multiple sources the kind
852
00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:11,600
of crisis of a lack of community in our world and we've specifically saw that in COVID times.
853
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:17,200
And on the flip side, you know, we our family comes to Ridgeview
854
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:22,200
and there's so many opportunities to be part of this community and to plug into this community
855
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:25,560
if you're willing to attempt.
856
00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:28,720
And I think that it's good for the kids to see that.
857
00:51:28,720 --> 00:51:32,200
Like yes, as a parent, it's good for me to be able to come to my kid's school and be like,
858
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:33,200
"Okay, I know that person.
859
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:35,720
I've talked to this person about this, whatever."
860
00:51:35,720 --> 00:51:37,120
That's great for me.
861
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:38,840
But I want my kid to see that.
862
00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:43,520
I want my kid to see like, "Oh, I don't have to worry about stranger danger."
863
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:48,320
You know, like we can kind of unprogram them from that kind of mindset and seeing like,
864
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:52,880
"Okay, I go to this outdoor trip and I learn how to skip rocks from this random dad that
865
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:57,400
I've never met before or I learn how to shoot from this person or, you know, all of these
866
00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,080
different things."
867
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:01,920
And they realize like, "Oh, it's important to have different people in different community
868
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,200
because mom and dad are great."
869
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,800
And they, you know, are the most important adults in my life right now.
870
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:11,240
But there are other adults who can contribute and can help with that and I can trust them
871
00:52:11,240 --> 00:52:12,480
in that pursuit.
872
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:17,280
You know, that's one of the things where I mentioned earlier about the trail life thing.
873
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:20,600
I love that I can take my kid there and be like, "These are all great dads that you can
874
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:22,560
learn from because they know things that I do not.
875
00:52:22,560 --> 00:52:23,560
And I'm going to be hands off.
876
00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:24,560
I'm going to be there.
877
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:25,560
I'm going to watch.
878
00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:27,560
I'm going to make sure everything's good.
879
00:52:27,560 --> 00:52:31,560
But I can allow those interactions and allow those relationships to build where my son
880
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:37,600
can be around other men and they can explore manhood in that way because they aren't just
881
00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:39,240
looking to me to be the ideal man.
882
00:52:39,240 --> 00:52:43,440
They're looking to all of these men who can contribute to what that is.
883
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:48,120
And the more parent volunteers we have, the more that, you know, the young boys, the young
884
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:50,560
girls can get that from the people that they see.
885
00:52:50,560 --> 00:52:51,560
Yeah.
886
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:55,120
And I think you used an interesting phrase there where you said, "I'm hands off."
887
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:56,120
Right?
888
00:52:56,120 --> 00:53:00,980
And I think I had a funny conversation with one of the moms on the third grade trip this
889
00:53:00,980 --> 00:53:05,080
week and she said, "Hey, if I need to stop chaperoning my kid's trips, will you tell
890
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:06,080
me?"
891
00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:08,400
And I just looked at her and I said, "100 percent."
892
00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:09,400
Right?
893
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:15,600
Because there is also a value in not having your parent really close by from time to time.
894
00:53:15,600 --> 00:53:22,560
And so I think by getting parents to chaperone trips that their students aren't on, they
895
00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:26,280
open up that opportunity for other people's children, right?
896
00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:31,440
To have an experience with an adult who is not their parent, which gives them so much
897
00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:35,160
experience for how the real world works because we all go out, right?
898
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:38,000
And we learn, "Oh, I'm just a person, right?
899
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:42,760
I have to be responsible for my own character and my own first impression.
900
00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:47,120
I don't already have all of this credibility that I built up with my parent.
901
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:51,200
Really just my actions in this moment determine what this person thinks of me."
902
00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:54,440
And then also, I have to solve my own problems, right?
903
00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:57,560
And I think that starts even in second grade.
904
00:53:57,560 --> 00:54:01,360
It's really nice when your parent isn't there and you have to carry your backpack for a mile
905
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:04,440
and a half and your backpack's pretty heavy, right?
906
00:54:04,440 --> 00:54:07,280
If your mom's there, you might say, "Mom, can you carry this?"
907
00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:10,480
But if your mom's not there, you just tough it out, right?
908
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:15,680
And that's what we learn about students is that they will definitely rise to the challenge
909
00:54:15,680 --> 00:54:18,520
if there isn't someone there to rescue them.
910
00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:25,840
And so I think we need a variety of parent chaperones to be able to provide that experience
911
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:30,440
for students so that everybody's kid gets a chance, right?
912
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:32,440
To have that experience.
913
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:37,200
Well, and I'll say too, you know, when I chaperone trips, I stay away from my
914
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:38,200
son.
915
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:43,800
You know, it's like when we had lunch on Tuesday and he ran down to the beach at the reservoir,
916
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:47,800
I'm like, "I'm staying far away and I will talk to other kids and I will do that because
917
00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:52,060
I want him to have that independence and to feel that comfort on his own around the
918
00:54:52,060 --> 00:54:53,720
other adults and around the other kids.
919
00:54:53,720 --> 00:54:55,720
I don't want him to feel like I'm intruding on his space.
920
00:54:55,720 --> 00:54:58,840
So if somebody is listening to this, it's like, "Oh, yeah, that sounds really good.
921
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,400
I'm just going to let my kid go off with all these other people to learn from them."
922
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:04,640
It's like, "Well, no, you can still be there and still give them that opportunity."
923
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:08,480
If you think your kid is going to be one of the ones who wants their backpack held, well,
924
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:10,400
send them to the front of the line and you stay in the back.
925
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:11,400
Right, right.
926
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:13,880
Yep, that's a great point.
927
00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:19,680
Well, in wrapping this up, I think I would thank you, Mr. Lautenschlager, and other parents
928
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:24,600
like you for, I think, being a in-person part of a community.
929
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:29,200
I think that's becoming increasingly rare to actually be in this building, be at book
930
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:37,160
groups, be a part of the community, go on trips, and genuinely be a part of and understand
931
00:55:37,160 --> 00:55:40,960
the kind of education you are giving your child.
932
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:45,440
And it's a, I think, huge honor and a privilege to be a part of people's lives in that way, because
933
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:52,280
you are working with the aspect that is absolutely most important to them, which is their child,
934
00:55:52,280 --> 00:55:56,760
which is a huge trust, obviously, and hopefully we live up to it.
935
00:55:56,760 --> 00:56:04,640
And to Mrs. Carvalho, thank you for taking a fledgling program that we didn't know what was
936
00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:07,840
exactly going to become of it when we started it.
937
00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:13,040
And obviously you've done a tremendous job, and Mr. Perkins has put in his share as well.
938
00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:18,960
I know he tries to take more than his share and push you out too early.
939
00:56:18,960 --> 00:56:21,080
We won't let him do that.
940
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:25,200
But you both are doing a tremendous job with that program.
941
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:27,400
So thank you.
942
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,480
And thank you for listening to "Hoplite Radio."
943
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:31,480
If you enjoyed this episode
944
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:36,600
please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I Heart Radio, or you're prefer listening
945
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,760
app. For more information about Ridgeview Classical Schools.
946
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:42,360
Please visit our website at Ridgeviewclassical.org.
947
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:52,360
[MUSIC]
948
00:56:52,360 --> 00:57:02,360
[MUSIC]
949
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:12,360

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Beyond The Classroom: Why Ridgeview’s Outdoor Education Program Complements a Classical Education

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Beyond The Classroom: Why Ridgeview’s Outdoor Education Program Complements a Classical Education

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The Bookshop Recommends: The Correspondent

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