JOHN PAUL YOUNG
Many nations with highly ranked childhood educational systems have improved themselves by incorporating the many benefits of outdoor education. These benefits include team-building and social skills, hands-on experience of biological, chemical, and physical processes, improved physical and mental health through gentle exercise and structured play, and practical knowledge of one’s surroundings.
Learning in a new setting allows many children to discover interests and talents of which they were unaware. The ongoing Covid pandemic offers schools in Caddo Parish, both public and private, an ideal opportunity to test and expand outdoor learning.
Caddo Parish schools are also in a fine position to expand outdoor learning curricula. Unlike schools in dense urban centers like New York City or San Francisco, Caddo schools each sit on at least two acres of green space, mostly lawns at the moment. Some crowded schools in big cities have no outdoor space for children but a paved basketball court or a tiny patch of grass.
The pandemic has showed many Shreveporters the huge value of having an ample yard. In a time when many social gathering places are limited or risky, a yard is an opportunity for relaxation, gentle exercise, cultivation of beautiful or delicious plants, and the peaceful observation of wildlife. The same value exists at our schools and our many public parks.
Students can learn biology by observation in the field, learning to classify animals and plants in binomial nomenclature. They can directly observe mathematical phenomena like the Fibonacci sequence and complex forms of vasculature in leaves. These discoveries may lead some of our youth toward scientific and medical careers or even, in time, to important discoveries of their own.
They can learn about the complex interrelationships of plants an animals known as symbiosis, and they can quickly learn the enormous economic value of topsoil through simple efforts at gardening and tree planting.
School gardening also creates the possibility of fresher, healthier foods for students, and gives them a skill that they can use at home to benefit their families and neighbors.
Learning to fish and safely use a bow and arrow are also excellent ways to develop a love of the Sportsman's Paradise that we call home.
Not only does outdoor education increase students’ knowledge of science, it also improves their physical and mental health. Movement is one of the best medicines, and in a parish with high rates of childhood obesity and diabetes (serious risk factors for severe responses to Covid and other ailments), what could be more beneficial? Outdoor spaces that allow for adequate distancing are among the least likely to facilitate the spread of coronavirus, and also make a great balance to online learning at home.
Children have huge amount of physical energy that can be incorporated into a world class learning process, once they get away from a desk. I have personally lead students at Fair Park Middle School and Southfield School, which are pretty different from one another, in digging gardens and planting trees.
Despite superficial differences in the schools, the teachers said almost exactly the same words to me during the lesson: “I’ve never seen my kids stop fighting with each other and work together like this. I’ve never seen them so engaged.”
The upcoming school year is a golden opportunity to expand our approach to educating and learning, while adapting to new conditions and capitalizing on our parish’s biggest asset: the outdoors.
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE July 31 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.