Station Maine

Moments

2012-03-10T02:42:00.002-08:00

Experiential education is about personal moments. The moment of courage you find when you actually step onto a tippy boat for the first time. The moment you are the one giving the orders from the coxswain’s seat, hoping in your heart that you’ll get it right and that everyone will think you’re capable. The day you’re the one who has to leap from the bow of the boat to the shore with a line in your hand. The moment you recovered your oar when it got stuck in the water, and you didn’t miss a beat.

Within each of those moments is built a shot of belief in oneself which, in the minds of most young people, is replayed over and over again.

How can that be anything but good?

Academic and Experiential

2012-03-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Experiential education is often about self discovery. It’s about moment after moment of often small, insignificant victories, all of which add up to “I can”.

A school system that blends experiential and academic education often hears teachers playing to student victories. “You had the courage to command the gig today. Of course you have what it takes to figure out the area of a triangle. You can do anything.” Kids believe comments like that because, at least for a moment out on the water, they accomplished something that they themselves thought they couldn’t do.

Academic and experiential working together. How do we accomplish this?

One Size Education

2012-03-08T02:38:00.000-08:00

A colleague mentioned to me the other day his frustration in teaching kids advanced math, a skill which the system requires, but which teaches them so little about life. I am reminded of my own high school math classes and of the hours of frustration. I have never found a use for math beyond balancing my checkbook and purchasing wood to build my home.

I was once tempted to stop the story there and leave a silent self righteousness behind. But one of my young rowers is exceedingly good at math. He thrills to solving difficult equations. Yet he runs screaming from the room should I happen to even begin to recite one of the dozens of poems that I have memorized since childhood. These poems have been solace to me for decades. How can anyone distain them as I distained math?

I wonder how long it will take the school system, worldwide, to figure out that one size doesn’t fit all.

Working for the community

2012-03-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

Real means a lot to kids. OK, they get the part where they need to learn and projects are created to that end. But Station Maine needs a new trailer, and the Metal Fabrication students at the Mid Coast School of Technology are putting out work, real work, with a level of skill and maturity that matches the highest level shops on the coast.

I have always known that the students at MCST are held to high standards. But I believe their smiles, and the smiles of their instructor, reflect the community nature of this particular project. Their task is to build a trailer that will be used for years to come taking Station Maine's boats, and the kids of this community, on adventures. These welding students will be able to look at this trailer for years to come and know that they were a part of it. They will probably be able to point it out to their children, when they have children, and tell the story of building her.

A community that functions well can have projects where everyone wins. The welding students have a real world project. Station Maine has the best trailer that can be made. The community is made stronger because experiential education is real on the coast of Maine.

Coaches

2012-03-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

We had a coach’s meeting out on North Haven this weekend. I was struck by the differences of the cultures we each serve. The islands are microcosms. Transportation isn’t much of an issue there, nor are there hundreds of distractions and opportunities for their children. Station Maine struggles with those issues, but living on the mainland with thousands of youth we have an endless population of kids for whom open water rowing might be the perfect sport. On the ferry trip home I extended this view to the many inner city programs in Boston and New York. Issues of gangs and violence, racial and economic differences.

We all love the boats and the kids or we wouldn’t be here. We all want to win the races because we’re human. But beyond that, at a deeper level, I can’t help but notice that we all, every man or woman who coaches Open Water Rowing, want something more for our kids. More than just the winning title we want them to have opportunities beyond our individual communities. We want them to be able to expand their circle of friends. We want them to know that there is a bigger world out there and we want them to be prepared for it. We want them to know that they can be or do anything that they set their minds to.

You get the idea. We're all different, but it's our similarities that have pulled us together to coach Open Water Rowing.

Changing the World

2012-03-05T01:21:00.005-08:00

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Three Rules of Seamanship

2012-03-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

In Station Maine we have three rules of Seamanship.

1) Hit is bad.

Hitting rocks, hitting the dock, hitting each other’s oars, fill in the blank.

2) Cover your mate’s back, because some day he’s going to have to cover yours.

Everyone coxes, everyone pulls every position, and everyone makes mistakes. A wise crew takes care of each other on and off the water.

3) There’s always something you can do.

Don’t tell me that the wind was against you and the rocks just showed up and there was nothing you could do. Do something. Hold water. Back water. Throw an anchor. Get out and push. The sea has no time for victims. The ones who survive are the ones who don’t give up.

Even if our students learn nothing else, if they understand and embrace these three rules their lives will be different.

Possibilities

2012-03-03T04:19:00.002-08:00

Sometimes we don’t know what we want til someone shows us the possibilities.

School could be that. School needs to show kids what’s out there. They need to see what having an education can actually do for them. Kids from limited backgrounds especially have no clue what math or science or history can do for them. Math or history, in their mind, might prepare them to be a math or history teacher. Science might prepare them to be a scientist because they’ve seen scientists in all the James Bond films, but what, exactly does that mean?

What if part of every teacher training was vocational awareness? What if every teacher, on the way to becoming a teacher, learned about the career paths associated with each subject? What if every text book contained chapters describing career opportunities and “day in the life” scenes of successful individuals in the field?

The mantra of get “good grades, go to college, get a good job, make a lot of money, be happy” has been found to be a lie. Students need to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s our job as educators to shine that light.

One Size Education

2012-03-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

We need programs for the Jims of the world. He’s a big lad, big enough for his uncle to have taken him ground fishing. When we rowed past a dragger he came alive with information on how the deck was shaped and why, what all the gear was for, and his glorious plans for the future. Unfortunately he’s stuck in school. He can’t wait to get out and move on with his life.

Why isn’t there an apprentice program in place for the Jims of the world? I don’t think he should forsake all other learning and go to sea. I think that we should take his ambition seriously and tailor an education towards that real and genuine goal. His math should be directed towards how to run a small business, his boat for instance. His science should be centered on why what fish feed where and be peppered with original research gleaned on his uncle’s boat while he was learning the trade. This kid could blossom in school. Why does education have to be one size fits all?

We decry the lack of ambition in the younger generation. Shouldn’t the system be forced to make a place for students with genuine ambition to prepare them for the future that they have chosen?

Avanti Salon

2012-02-29T03:55:00.000-08:00

I’m not a big Reality TV fan. I’ve never much cared what the Tribe speaks or what the Real Housewives of anywhere have to say to one another. But flipping channels the other day I came upon Tabitha’s Salon Make-Over. Tabitha goes to failing beauty salons all over America and makes them live. OK, I probably know less about Beauty Salons than I do about Reality television, but she caught my eye when she brought the staff of Avanti’s Salon to the Harvard boathouse to learn to row and, more importantly, to teach the owner to lead.

Sometimes we miss the transferable skills that rowing offers our kids. It’s intimidating to have to stand up in the stern and take charge. There’s nowhere to hide. The well groomed young stylists who pulled an oar in the Harvard boathouse saw almost instantly the analogy between rowing and working, between coxing a boat and leading a business.

We talk about teaching leadership in schools across the country. I wonder if that’s even possible without putting kids in the position of actual leadership. I allow myself to hope that when it’s time to lead their own office or team out in the work force, or when it’s time to support their leader, my kids will remember the lessons they learned rowing a boat together in Station Maine.

Observing

2012-02-28T04:46:00.001-08:00

I think it was DaVinci who adjured us to learn from nature.

A trick I learned years ago was to take a piece of string, maybe three foot long, and tie it in a circle.
Each child gets one circle and a pad and pencil. they put their circle down on a random piece of lawn
or forest floor and write down all the things they see within that circle, then write intelligent questions
that come from their observations.

All of the observations and questions are shared with the group at the end of ten minutes.

Adventures don't necessarily need to invoke a boat or foreign shores. Sometimes they are inches away from your nose if only you can take the time to look.

What One Emphasizes

2012-02-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

The trick is what one emphasizes.

We either make ourselves miserable

Or we make outselves strong.

The amount of work is the same.

Carlos Castaneda

Inquiring Minds

2012-02-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

On of the serious joys of taking kids on the water is that the lesson is different every single day. Kids are encouraged to ask intelligent questions and are given intelligent answers, to which they genuinely listen. In a single day we can cover world history, local history, physics, seamanship, mathematics, marine biology, natural science, and a host of other subjects. Our lessons drift with the tide, literally and metaphorically, but in our brief 45 minutes we are able to include dozens of learning moments. These moments excite me as much as the kids and we feed off each others’ energy.

A child’s mind is naturally inquisitive. Given a rich environment and supportive companions the questions come naturally and learning flows. There is so much to discover.

Courage

2012-02-23T05:07:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Belfast

2012-02-22T05:20:00.000-08:00

Station Maine doesn't live alone on the coast of Maine. Our good neighbors and ardent supporters in Belfast have an amazingly strong and successful adult rowing program. Check out the great article in the Portland Herald.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/pulling-together_2012-02-21.html#addPhotos

Lord of the Rings

2012-02-21T04:25:00.000-08:00

We watched a Lord of the Rings marathon today. All three films in ten hours, all of us crowded into Katie’s living room which her family kindly turned over to us for the day.

I’m not sure how I can qualify watching a movie marathon and eating junk food as education, but something in me knows that it is. Cheering for the Hobbits, laughing at Gimlie, collectively hating the Orks is so much fun when we’re together. Maybe Californians are right and a movie needs to be a shared experience. Shared with friends. Good friends. And doing something outrageous like a movie marathon is always a plus.

Of course I don’t recommend sitting in front of a flickering screen over hiking, rowing, creating, or doing in all of its forms,. But occasionally on a cold winter day with friends, a movie marathon can bring a group of close friends even closer.

Old Chinese Proverb

2012-02-20T03:44:00.000-08:00

Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it.

Experiential Learning

2012-02-17T02:35:00.001-08:00

Experiential Education isn’t all about experience. Sometimes it’s about a new setting that makes a student more willing to learn.

At low tide one of my students asked how the pier was built. We in Rockland have a wonderful history of Working Waterfront that offers much and varied maritime architecture. This particular pier was formed with a crib built against pilings and filled with loose rocks. With that as our motivation we set off rowing to look at different pier construction in the south end.

The kids noticed, almost instantly, the next pier over at Rockland Marine was built of well formed granite blocks. They were fascinated as I explained the island granite industry that provided so much of the building blocks of this country. As we rowed over to a cribbed pier that has long ago collapsed we were lucky enough to meet a gentleman on an adjoining dock who remembered from his childhood that this had been Steam Boat Pier. He remembered train tracks going right out to the end of it and the trains unloading grain, wood, and stone on to waiting boats. It its day they had been steamboats.

Not one of us on that boat was anything less than fascinated at what we were learning. It’s all written in a book somewhere, I guess. How much more interesting is it to be there, to touch the stones, to discover, and then, when your interest is peaked, to be taught.

Launching

2012-02-16T03:23:00.000-08:00

Launching a gig is generally a simple affair. Back the trailer down the ramp, float the gig off, and you’re away. With Middle School kids, though, launching offers a plethora of learning opportunities.

The beauty of this particular boat and ramp is that because of her size and the angle of the ramp we don’t put the rudder in until she’s floating. Or, in this case, not at all. Putting the gig dockside without a rudder is simple for an experienced cox. It is amazingly scary for the young and inexperienced.

Rocks on one side, an inconveniently placed large boat on the other, students had to truly focus, drawing on weeks of training. They had to truly depend on one another. The crew needed to trust the cox. The cox had to know that the crew would be sharp on their commands. Four students maneuvered delicately towards the dock as I pushed the gig off the dock again and again and put different students in “the hot seat” of command.

Red Jacket sits comfortably in her slip in Rockland’s south end, a tribute to the courage of seven 12 and 13 year olds, and the community that recognizes the value of launching a gig as education.

Valentines Day

2012-02-15T02:43:00.000-08:00

I got a flower for Valentines Day. The Student Council at the Middle School decided that everyone, staff and students, should have a flower on Valentines Day. Having made that decision, they acted, asking the new flower shop in town, Snapdragon, for their help. Snapdragon agreed to donate 250 carnations to the cause.

Station Maine does not hold all the cards on Experiential Education. The Student Council encourages kids to become involved with their school and their community with the understanding that young people who learn early that they can make a difference will continue to make even bigger differences when they are grown and running this community and this world.

I feel privileged to live in a community that understands that.

Dogs

2012-02-14T03:01:00.000-08:00

I’m convinced that every experiential program out there, every program that deals with kids in general, needs a well mannered dog. I laud schools in Maine that now permit teachers to take keep their dogs in the classroom.

Dogs are forgiving and understanding. When a kid has misbehaved, when he feels like he’ll never understand fractions, when her best friend won’t talk to her, when nobody in the world understands, the most normal human reaction is to go hug the dog. Those few moments of tenderness, happiness, warmth, or just quiet while you scratch the furry ears or allow your hand to be licked can bring the whole day back into perspective. And studies are back, children with asthma who are raised with a dog in the home are found to be less likely to be asthmatic as adults.

Sometimes we all need a break from the human race.

Changing the World

2012-02-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
...Margaret Mead

The Lighthouse

2012-02-12T01:53:00.000-08:00

We rowed all the way to the Rockland lighthouse today with Alt. Ed. That’s about a mile and a half each way. I won’t call it an Olympian feat or anything, but for these kids in an open boat in the middle of winter it was an unimaginable triumph.

The best part about this triumph from my point of view, was that I didn’t do it. I suggested it at one point, weeks ago, and dropped the subject. The kids took the ball. They set a goal for themselves, one that from their perspective, was challenging. The leadership within the crew rose up and pulled the others along. When the wind came up from the east, as it will in the mornings, they became more, not less determined to fight it and win. Blissfully, that same wind helped to blow us home in time for the bus.

The crew came back elated. The endorphins from the exercise, of course, kicked in to do their magic. But these kids have had very little success with the school system or in life. Here they set a serious goal, they pushed hard for that goal, and they succeeded. They were triumphant and they should have been.

Any wise adult can now ask them, quietly, “Look at what you accomplished because you set a goal and worked for it. Imagine what else you can do.”

Wave Theory

2012-02-10T04:20:00.000-08:00

We felt the waves of vibration coming from the tug boat today. The vessel was just running its generator, but waves, as my physics professor lectured so many years ago, travel. As college students we watched the diagrams and yawned through the films in physics. We dutifully memorized the necessary “laws” and promptly forgot them. But today we weren’t even all that close to the tug boat, and the vibrations carried through the iron hull, across the water, into our own hull, and right through the seats of our trousers.

There is, of course, significantly more theory to waves traveling than we felt in our trousers. A good teacher, and we have many in Rockland, will make that point, and will connect it to those vibrations. But we will remember them, we will remember wave theory, because of what we felt out on Rockland Harbor.

Beauty

2012-02-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

I don’t think we need to be taught to see natural beauty. We know. I’ve seen dogs and cats transfixed at the sparkle of the sun on snow. I’ve seen deer tracks, fresh every morning, on the rise above my home best suited to watching the sunrise. We seem to need in our culture to be given permission to see and acknowledge beauty. We are subtly disapproved of in the Western world for taking a moment to smell the roses, or, worse yet, attempting to share that magic moment.

Our kids deserve better. No matter how rich or poor we are the sunset is ours. The sparkle of the frost on the brown grass, the lace like patterns of branches against the blue sky, the colors of the sea, the waving tendrils of a sea anenome, the sweet smell of wood smoke are all a natural part of our day here in Maine. More important than teaching our kids to appreciate “fine art” we need to give them permission to appreciate the world around them.

Their world, and ours, will be better for it.

Courage

2012-02-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

Courage, by its very nature, involves fear. We all aspire to courage, particularly our young people who are barraged by a never ending array of superheroes, Jams Bond, Nikita, and video games. Our kids want to know if they have courage, but in our sanitized lifestyles, where is courage to be found?

We found it on the gig today. The assignment was to back up into the tugboat and touch the tire without actually touching the boat or letting the gig touch it. For a thirteen year old cox, this is a serious challenge. The wind blowing. The behemoth sized vessel looming up on us, the responsibility of steering backwards. It’s a lot to manage.

Of course she succeeded. She slapped the tire and pushed us off. Were we in any real danger? Absolutely not. That’s not the point. The kids, especially the cox, felt danger. She felt fear. And she faced that fear and accomplished the task at hand.

That, in any culture, is the definition of courage.

Responsibility

2012-02-07T03:55:00.000-08:00

Kids need responsibility. Genuine responsibility. Our middle America lives make this hard. There aren’t cows to milk or fences to mend so the sheep don’t get out. Parents work hard, but they do it quietly tucked out of sight making that work a useless tool to educate their children. Somehow setting the table and vacuuming the rug doesn’t much cut it for a child.

Youth programs in the physical world are important. The more physical, the more important, the more real the responsibility, the stronger is the lesson that will last for the rest of their lives. I’m not quite ready to put a thirteen year old at the helm of the Titanic yet, but to put a fourteen year old in charge of a crew of experienced rowers is almost a no brainer. The responsibility is physical, visceral, and nobody can take it lightly. The child grows. Kids begin to believe in themselves.

People who believe in themselves can do anything.

The Senses

2012-02-06T02:47:00.000-08:00

In life, and consequently in education, sensations (what we receive through the senses) are of greater importance than ideas. They are not only more reliable, and far more enjoyable; they are also far more penetrating and profound. They touch, when properly received, the core of man’s existence. Erich Meissner

The Starfish

2012-02-05T04:07:00.000-08:00

We had Mixed Rowing today. It’s challenging getting people together in the winter to go out on the water in an open boat. Only the hearty need apply. Yet four hearty Mainers braved the cold and we were off.

The glory moment, for me, came after we had finished our row and were on the dock. A twelve year old had spotted a starfish under the dock and wanted to retrieve it. He stuck his skinny little hand in the icy ocean fearlessly and came up with his prize, just at that critical time when the starfish was feeding. Starfish, as you may know send their stomach out after they have opened whatever delicacy they plan to consume. Many of us have studied this phenomena. Few have actually seen it.

The older members of the crew listened politely, genuinely interested while this youngest rower showed us his starfish and explained what we were seeing. Everybody saw it as the perfect blend of academic and experiential. None of us would have had this unique opportunity had we not been outside, living life, doing something real.

Yes, I know it’s “officially” a sea star. Old habits die hard.

Talent

2012-02-04T04:58:00.000-08:00

Talent is a funny thing. We all search for it in our children, that spark of magnificence. But the chance of anyone's talent coming to life in a vacuum is exactly zero. Mozart was exposed to music from birth. Tiger Woods was playing golf as a toddler. So many people who are talented in wildly remote areas of life can go back to a time in their childhood when they discovered something so amazing that they just had to pursue it.

This is our job as educators. It needn’t involve a huge outlay of funds, but it needs to be real. It could be something as simple as a parent turning a lathe in class or one of the teaching staff playing the accordion. We can see thousands of skilled and talented individuals on line, but when an actual human being who is standing in front of you right now is moving his hands over that piece of wood and making magic it becomes real. It becomes possible.

Is not the point of education to open new vistas for our students?

Successful people

2012-02-03T04:52:00.000-08:00

I chanced on an interview television the other day. Successful people by most standards that we use to measure success, interviewing other successful people. A common thread in their success seemed to be that each had hated school as a child, and each for a different reason. Most of us know people with similar stories. Many of us have similar stories of our own. It's not that the teachers were bad. We've all had many caring compassionate teachers. It was that some aspect of the system stifled us and kept us from blossoming. Systems have that tendency because one size almost never fits all.

How can we as teachers and as caring human beings lead our students towards discovering their passions instead of locking them into programs that just don't fit? How can we open doors towards new experiences in the classroom and out? How can we give our students the courage to explore new skills and new ideas?

I ask myself these questions every day. I expect, or at least hope, that most teachers are doing the same.

Hypothermia

2012-02-02T03:15:00.001-08:00

It was too icy to get on the boat safely this morning with Alt Ed. I taught a hypothermia/frostbite class instead with the understanding that although not everyone in that class will be a seaman, all of us live in the State of Maine. Winters here are every bit as harsh as you read about.

The class sat in rapt attention for all of an hour, listening ardently, asking intelligent questions, bring relevant life experience into the conversation. Their attention was drawn by the fact that they were preparing to save lives, their own or someone else’s, some day. This is 100% relevant to their life experience and so it is important to them here and now.

There are so many things to know in this world it boggles the mind. Can we not somehow find ways to teach things that are genuinely relevant to our students while making them aware of pathways of learning that they can access later, when they are ready? I don’t know. Grist for the mill.

Oops

2012-02-01T03:21:00.000-08:00

While we were carving ice this weekend one of the chisels slipped at the same unfortunate moment that someone else’s knee slipped. The cut wasn’t serious. I got the call and ran back from my meeting with a parent to find the crew continuing on their carving as if nothing had happened. They had found the first aid supplies, cleaned and bandaged the cut, and moved on to the important work of finishing their sculpture. When I asked why they had called they reminded me that standing orders were to call me if anybody gets hurt. They didn’t need me. They just needed me to be in the loop.

Every experiential education program teaches their students first aid. Once our kids are trained, and fully understand the limits of that training, they need the opportunity to actually use that training. I couldn’t be prouder of the crew of Station Maine. The knee will be just fine. The strength of character learned from the incident has grown even stronger.

Winterfest

2012-01-31T03:46:00.000-08:00

Station Maine carved ice this weekend. Winterfest in Camden makes it possible for groups and individuals to learn this skill for just the cost of the block of ice. If one intends to be a chef this is the skill that can make all the difference in catering an event. For the rest of us it is a reminder, once again, of who we are. Mainers. We live in the north. You don’t see many ice carving events in North Carolina.

For the youth of Station Maine Winterfest more than reinforced this strength of cultural identity. Ice carving put another skill in their young hands. Another opportunity to say “I can”. Another reason to walk taller. A deeper sense of belonging that is offered by a community who understands education in a sense so much deeper than standardized tests.

The Mind

2012-01-30T04:11:00.000-08:00

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” -Plutarch

We are Not Alone

2012-01-28T04:05:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from an Open Water Rowing coach's meeting. There was a lively exchange of ideas and dreams, but the thing that struck me the hardest was how un-competitive we all are. OK, things can get a little exciting in the middle of a race, but as a collective body all these coaches want is to help our kids. We want them to believe in themselves. We want to empower them to lead happy and productive lives.

We are not along. I am willing to believe that there are thousands of groups of adults who sit from time to time just like we did and discuss how they (we) can support each other and grow programs where kids can blossom.

Knowing that makes it lots easier to get up in the morning.

A New Outlook

2012-01-26T02:27:00.000-08:00

Most of us believe at some level that kids need to know the things that we ourselves have found worthy in our own education. My fondest memory of seventh grade English, actually my only fond memory of seventh grade, is memorizing poetry. We were required to memorize a verse every week of a chosen poem, all of which I can still recite and all of which have made my life richer. Yet can I in good conscience impose that education on today’s youth?

We need to think past our own prejudices and put ourselves back in the technological world, the "real world" where these kids live. In this world every fact, and every great poem, is a Google search away. Let's get to the core of "doing" things through which they can discover a few passions of their own rather than force on them the education that we may or may not have found worthy in our day, but which is, sadly, the education of another time.

Real Work

2012-01-25T03:31:00.000-08:00

We hauled our gig this afternoon for maintenance. The seventh grade did it. Of course I helped, but they did all the work. Samantha volunteered to cox, understanding that it would be the most challenging maneuver she had yet seen. My place was backing the trailer down the ramp. The kids brought the gig over, we hooked her up, and pulled her out. It really was that simple.

For anyone involved with boats hauling is just one of those routine things that you do. For these kids it was an opportunity to see how it’s done. An opportunity to try something challenging that has real world need and real world results. When she was out they asked intelligent questions because they were genuinely curious.

This simple act is experiential education. These kids will be a part of the reality of running this world some day. We owe them as many real world experiences as we can possibly offer them to prepare them for that time.

Education and Physical Activity

2012-01-24T06:59:00.001-08:00

In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means man can attain perfection. …Plato

Competition

2012-01-23T03:27:00.000-08:00

I play tennis occasionally with friends. Doubles. We’re not quite ready for Wimbledon yet, but we’re getting better. I noticed at one point in the game my partner was anxious. “If we lose this point” she told me “we’ve lost the game”. I laughed, and told her OK, whatever. I’m here to have fun. She laughed. She relaxed. We won.

America loves a winner and, don’t get me wrong, it feels really, really good to win. Competition is good. It focuses our attention and makes us play better. But if we allow competition to drive us, or worse yet drive our children, we have taken away far too much of the joy of any game.

I want my kids to be the best they can be at anything they put their hands to. But, more than that, I want them to take pride and pleasure in their own growth, enjoying every moment of the game, feeling their bodies move and their hearts pound and feeling themselves as whole human beings, body, mind, and spirit. If they win, that’s great too. Next week we won’t remember who won which game of tennis. We’re there for the fun of it.

Polar Plunge

2012-01-22T03:12:00.000-08:00

http://knox.villagesoup.com/place/story/oceanside-polar-plunge-set-for-saturday/480255

Check it out. Thirty students and community members plunged into the icy north Atlantic today. The temperature was about 15º. The chill factor was considerably less. I try not to think about the water temperature. The show was short. Smiles, a count down, the rush of bodies and the froth of water. And screaming. Lots of screaming.

Parents were there with blankets to receive the shivering students and hustle them into cars with the heaters running. Friends were there to cheer. The EMTs and ambulance were there, just in case. All of which says the community turned out to support and encourage this madness.

The point, in theory, is to raise money for Project Graduation. The reality, I believe, is that this plunge is its own education. Today those kids learned something priceless. Forty years from now these they may have forgotten the prom, at least the details, but they will never forget running into that frigid ocean with their friends. And they will never forget the community who helped them make it happen.

Community

2012-01-21T04:22:00.000-08:00

Running an experiential education program becomes considerably easier when you live in a community that understands and supports your efforts. For Station Maine, Rockland is that community.

Our trailer, after eight years of hard use and abuse is showing its age and needs major repairs. The project is being taken on by the Welding/Fabrication class of our local Voc/Tech. Ed Lee, the welding instructor, suggested that we need to know what paints are state of the art to give this rebuilt trailer its best start in life. He sent me to Rockland Marine.

Rockland Marine, our neighbor, hauls and paints some pretty serious vessels on her ways, and has done so for more than a hundred years. John didn’t just recommend a strong, industrial grade epoxy primer and undercoat. He donated two gallons, insisted on delivering them himself, and suggested E.L.Spears, our local hardware store, for a good solid enamel top coat.

Spears was quick to recommend a top quality enamel to finish the job. And even quicker to donate it.

Belts are tightening all over Maine. The economy is no easier here than elsewhere. It’s just that we live in a community that understands the magic that happens when you put a kid in a boat. We live in a community that supports that effort however they can.

Sledding

2012-01-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we go sledding with our crews. No apologizes here. Our facility is right next to a park that boasts the best sliding hill in town. Once or twice a year when the kids arrive right after a fresh snowfall we take advantage of that hill. The spontaneity, strenuous exercise in racing back up the hill, the sheer joy of doing something so crazy all work to send the kids back to school refreshed and ready to tackle anything.

Do I recommend this for every day of school? Absolutely not. But for a mid-winter day on the coast of Maine where the snow may yield any minute to the tempering effect of the Atlantic ocean, I recommend it as the most worthy education activity in the world.

Bright Futures for Maine

2012-01-19T03:59:00.000-08:00

We had a mini article posted on Bright Futures for Maine. Check it out.

http://brightfutures4me.wordpress.com/

Maine Education Plan

2012-01-18T03:33:00.000-08:00

I was sent this press release today from the Maine State Department of Education.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a582edd6473e477ef6307c769&id=295ab3b36a&e=e2f6e5ed0e

It's a worthy read. The State of Maine is trying to listen and make education for our kids more "user friendly". I'm not sure what will change, but I'm encouraged that the people at the state level aren't so recalcitrant that they can't hear the rumbling around them. Having figured out that No Child Left Behind translates into No Child Permitted to Advance, we are searching for a solution to education that prepares students to make their way in the world and that holds schools accountable for that education. Of course it's not a magic bullet, but we're off to a great start.

The Tide

2012-01-17T04:20:00.000-08:00

A while back I took one of my seventh grade rowing crews down to the boat. The tide was particularly high. I pointed it out to them, how normally the tide doesn't come up so far. See how big the South End looks right now.

One of my young charges piped up “Is that why it’s not all, like, Jack Sparrow like last week?” He was deadly earnest.

It took a minute for me to translate and respond. Jack Sparrow is, of course, the captain in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. He is surrounded, or opposed by a wild array of slimy sea creatures. The only way this young boy from the coast of Maine could find to describe low tide was to liken it to a film. He had personally spent so little of his time by the shore that tide was something spectacular.

Of course that troubles me. But rather than worry about who’s to blame and what’s to be done I think I’ll just take pride in the fact that, at least in Rockland schools, kids row as a normal part of their schooling. They may be seeing, or noticing the tide for the first time, but at least they are seeing it.

Work

2012-01-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Work is the universal language. Everywhere I’ve traveled I may not speak the language, but if I can do a day’s work with my new friends we will find ourselves bonded beyond language. We will have each others measure. We will understand each other deeply. This is the ethic I teach the crew of Station Maine before we go anywhere.

I grow tired of hearing how this generation lacks a work ethic. I often respond by asking who has shown them how to work, because how to work is something that is much more effective when it is shown rather than “taught”. Who has got out and shoveled the driveway with them? Who has pulled the weeds alongside them? Who has shown them through example that you put your hand to the rake and you don’t stop til somebody comes out of the house with lemonade and calls break time?

It takes a certain amount of maturity to figure out that when you focus on the task at hand and actually DO the work it will get done. It takes a certain amount of adult guidance to get kids to that point. If we give them that, real work and real partnership in getting it done, we will have given them a gift that will guide them for the rest of their lives.

Arctic Sea Smoke

2012-01-15T07:45:00.000-08:00

It's bitter cold out this morning. Zero in Rockland and less inland. The beauty of waking up on the coast of Maine today is the sea smoke. It's a sort of fog that comes to cold areas when the temperature of the water isn't as cold as the air above it. Sea smoke rises and floats in little wisps which are stunningly beautiful in the morning light. I remember studying about Arctic Sea Smoke in some science class in school and wondering if I would ever see something so exotic. Today is was mine to enjoy.

I hope parents and schools can find a way to show this wonder to their children somehow this winter. I get it, it only happens on bitter cold mornings when we're all fighting to get the house warm and praying that the car will start. Still, for many of us, all it takes is a swerve by the ocean on the way to school, shopping, church, or wherever people go early in the morning with their children. It is a magical experience worthy of the trip.

A beginning

2012-01-14T05:06:00.000-08:00

My hope with this blog is to begin a conversation about education, particularly experiential education. Please join me in sharing your ideas and comments of how we can provide a better education and a better life for our children. My focus is on the coast of Maine, but these ideas, and I hope your ideas as well, are transferable to any place in the world. Let's see what happens.

The first post!

2012-01-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

The Station Maine blog is back!