World We Dare to Imagine Part 3

     In my first excerpt for this project, I discussed the camp I attended as a young man. For ten formative years, I learned how to live with the land and off it. I learned survival skills, how to navigate the water, how to provide for myself, and how to make new friends. The social and environmental know-how gleaned from this experience is second to none. While summer camps are an incredible opportunity to distract kids from their devices and reset the clock, there should also be solutions during the school year. So, I would like to pitch a semester school for high and middle schoolers that focuses on healthy living, environmental studies, wildlife, survival skills, and personal growth. While there are other semester schools out there, they do not focus on farming the land as well as living on it. The sustainable farm will be the touchstone and focus of all life at semester school.  

    The basic fact is that kids no longer get outside enough. They don't take their shoes off and get dirty. They don't take the time to dig in the mud or look up in the trees. Through my semester of school, I hope to reinstall that natural curiosity. Living the cabin life hardens the body and the mind. You have to rely on others and make true friends. Without trust between individuals, no one can succeed. I believe that these are attractive skills to sensible parents wanting to make their son or daughter a winner in life. 

    The semester school would consist of a general slate of core educational requirements to keep students on track with their schools back home, as well as a variable set of elective and core environmental and exploratory classes and activities. Work on the farm would be mandatory. While this sounds like tough physical labor, one appreciates seeing something they have worked for on the dinner table. Moreover, working on a farm establishes a connection to the land. One grows close with the animals they tend to and the other farmworkers they operate with. This is my vision for how to keep kids green.