Family Camping
TRUANCY IS NOT A PROBLEM. PHOTO: TANYA MACGREGOR
[ BASECAMP ] Higher Learning
We live in a small town. How small is it? The public school has only 132 kids spanning junior kin-
dergarten to Grade 8. There are only nine kids in my daughter Kate’s Grade 3 class. This means when she graduates, she will have a choice of three boys for prom (there are actually five boys in her class, two of which we’ve already agreed would be poor choices). There are few of the extra clubs, sports and trips you’d find at larger city schools. Mr. Roberts was the principal of the country public school I attended. He
wore a suit and tie every day. He was all business, all the time. My mom had sent me to school with a note letting my teacher know
that my father would be picking me up early. I would be missing my afternoon classes. “Sit down, Mr. MacGregor, please,” said Roberts pointing to a chair in his
office. He looked both ways down the hall and shut his door. I was sure I was going to get it. When he sat down at his desk, he leaned forward and whispered, “I wish
more parents would take their kids to the Sportsmen’s Show.” The secret was out and I waited for the catch. There wasn’t one. “You’ll learn more this afternoon at that show than we can teach you in
this place all week,” he said. He told me how important he thought it was for his students to look out-
side school to experience different things. Today, elementary teachers would say that Roberts understood cognitive theory and subscribed to schema learning.
Children use schemas, an organized pattern of thought, to construct an
understanding of the world around them. When they experience discrepan- cies between what they already know and what they discover, everything in- side gets juggled and their understanding of the world changes. The more schemas or bits of information or experiences we’ve logged, the better. Alpine skiing. Catching frogs. Portaging. Baiting hooks. Rock climbing.
Playing in the ocean. Fire building. Summer camp. It all adds to their under- standing of the world and their ability to thrive within it. When I was home visiting my parents this past Christmas I was digging
around in my old bedroom. Tucked in the back corner of my closet I found a plastic bag full of dog-eared canoe brochures and camping catalogs. My dad is a hunter and fisherman, not a paddler. My mom has never
slept in the woods. If not for the blessing of a progressive school principal and annual trips to spring tradeshows it’s unlikely I’d have had the interest to take an outdoor education credit in high school. It’s unlikely in univer- sity I’d have had the confidence to transfer from an engineering program to an outdoor recreation degree. It’s even more unlikely I’d have created Canoeroots magazine. We know that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood
development. What we don’t know is which little bits of knowledge or experi- ence will be the building blocks for their futures. And really, who cares? That’s for them to figure out along the way. Our job as parents is to have fun with our kids sharing all the things we love. Scott MacGregor is the founder and publisher of Canoeroots magazine.
www.canoerootsmag.com | 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68