T
Tramper Al
Guest
I heard a little something about this trip in the planning last winter. This group succeeded in their effort to ski up the length of Vermont on the Catamount Trail, build a canoe, and paddle back down the Connecticut.
Who among us could do this at high school age? Who could do it today? I find this really inspiring.
Kroka's 'Vermont Semester'
Story on VPR site
Brattleboro Reformer story (Also pasted below)
Students use wilderness as classroom
By CAROLYN LORIÉ
Reformer Staff
NEWFANE -- In January, high school students at Kroka Expeditions got the ultimate word problem: If seven students and three teachers embark on a four-month journey that entails cross-country skiing, winter camping, canoe building and paddling down the Connecticut River, how much food should they pack, what kind of tent should they build, and what supplies must they carry?
And then they lived the answer.
"In this type of school, learning is life," said Misha Golfman, co-founder and director of Kroka.
The Vermont Semester, as it was called, went like this: Students spent January hammering out details, strengthening their bodies and gathering and making supplies for the trip. In March and February, they skied up the Catamount Trail to the Vermont Leadership Center, just shy of the Canadian border.
They rested a bit in April, and then built a canoe that they guided up and down the Clyde, Nulthegan, Connecticut and West rivers. On May 28, they lifted their boat out of the water and carried it three miles back to the Newfane base camp.
"It was awesome," said Emily Turner, a 15-year-old from Starksboro. "I've done so many little trips, they've all been building up to this one, big trip. It was the culmination."
The students received credit from their high schools for the experience, which demanded the study and practical application of math, physics, meteorology, craftsmanship, geography, and most importantly, diplomacy.
"I've lived in a community before, but never this tight-knit," said 17-year-old Stephan Hofer-Fay from Kimberton, Pa.
Hofer-Fay said he had some concerns about what it would be like to spend every minute of every day with his fellow travelers.
"In the end, it was very good," he said.
So "very good," in fact, that since returning to the base camp, the students chose not to re-inhabit their separate sleeping quarters. Instead, they constructed a communal shelter in the woods. They continue to work, cook, eat, study and play together.
The connection is not an accident -- they needed each other.
"We didn't have the option of not being friends," said Turner.
A running joke on the trip, she adds, was how, all at once, the student felt themselves to be brothers, sisters, best friends and, for better or for worse, married to each other.
While the trip fostered inter-dependence among the students, it also gave them a glimpse of what it is like to be free from the trappings and burdens of modern existence.
"All by their own power, they went all the way to northern Vermont and back," said teacher Ashirah Knapp, pointing out that such a feat chisels out an inner strength that will stay with the students long after they've returned home.
Which is what 15-year-old Christian Clarke was looking for.
"I just wanted to do something different from public school," said the native of Campton, N.H. "It was hard and quite interesting and all of it was enjoyable."
Even the struggles -- which for some students included frequent toppling over as they learned to cross-country ski with supplies weighing a third of their body weight on their backs, wrangling with the geometry necessary to design a winter-worthy tent, or agreeing to eat meat after many years as a vegetarian for the sake of maintaining enough body fat -- were enjoyable.
Teachers and students alike benefited from the experience.
Although Golfman has been teaching for many years, he said the opportunity to work with the students around the clock was intensely gratifying.
"It was great. It was one of the best things I've done for a long time," he said. "They are like my children."
The students, who will be returning to their homes in the next week, are already planning a reunion.
Emily Turner, however, will not be going home quite yet.
After six months of living her education, she finds she can't stop and will not be returning to the Burlington preparatory school she attended.
Turner plans to spend the summer working in Kroka's garden and making the beautiful, functional things she loves. And one day, she hopes to study music in Scotland.
She credits the trip with giving her the clarity to choose this path.
Golfman isn't opposed to more conventional forms of education; he believes that some students can thrive in such an environment.
But for others, word problems can only be solved by sewing tents, crafting canoes and testing their limits.
"For these kids, this is the right kind of education, right now," said Golfman.
Who among us could do this at high school age? Who could do it today? I find this really inspiring.
Kroka's 'Vermont Semester'
Story on VPR site
Brattleboro Reformer story (Also pasted below)
Students use wilderness as classroom
By CAROLYN LORIÉ
Reformer Staff
NEWFANE -- In January, high school students at Kroka Expeditions got the ultimate word problem: If seven students and three teachers embark on a four-month journey that entails cross-country skiing, winter camping, canoe building and paddling down the Connecticut River, how much food should they pack, what kind of tent should they build, and what supplies must they carry?
And then they lived the answer.
"In this type of school, learning is life," said Misha Golfman, co-founder and director of Kroka.
The Vermont Semester, as it was called, went like this: Students spent January hammering out details, strengthening their bodies and gathering and making supplies for the trip. In March and February, they skied up the Catamount Trail to the Vermont Leadership Center, just shy of the Canadian border.
They rested a bit in April, and then built a canoe that they guided up and down the Clyde, Nulthegan, Connecticut and West rivers. On May 28, they lifted their boat out of the water and carried it three miles back to the Newfane base camp.
"It was awesome," said Emily Turner, a 15-year-old from Starksboro. "I've done so many little trips, they've all been building up to this one, big trip. It was the culmination."
The students received credit from their high schools for the experience, which demanded the study and practical application of math, physics, meteorology, craftsmanship, geography, and most importantly, diplomacy.
"I've lived in a community before, but never this tight-knit," said 17-year-old Stephan Hofer-Fay from Kimberton, Pa.
Hofer-Fay said he had some concerns about what it would be like to spend every minute of every day with his fellow travelers.
"In the end, it was very good," he said.
So "very good," in fact, that since returning to the base camp, the students chose not to re-inhabit their separate sleeping quarters. Instead, they constructed a communal shelter in the woods. They continue to work, cook, eat, study and play together.
The connection is not an accident -- they needed each other.
"We didn't have the option of not being friends," said Turner.
A running joke on the trip, she adds, was how, all at once, the student felt themselves to be brothers, sisters, best friends and, for better or for worse, married to each other.
While the trip fostered inter-dependence among the students, it also gave them a glimpse of what it is like to be free from the trappings and burdens of modern existence.
"All by their own power, they went all the way to northern Vermont and back," said teacher Ashirah Knapp, pointing out that such a feat chisels out an inner strength that will stay with the students long after they've returned home.
Which is what 15-year-old Christian Clarke was looking for.
"I just wanted to do something different from public school," said the native of Campton, N.H. "It was hard and quite interesting and all of it was enjoyable."
Even the struggles -- which for some students included frequent toppling over as they learned to cross-country ski with supplies weighing a third of their body weight on their backs, wrangling with the geometry necessary to design a winter-worthy tent, or agreeing to eat meat after many years as a vegetarian for the sake of maintaining enough body fat -- were enjoyable.
Teachers and students alike benefited from the experience.
Although Golfman has been teaching for many years, he said the opportunity to work with the students around the clock was intensely gratifying.
"It was great. It was one of the best things I've done for a long time," he said. "They are like my children."
The students, who will be returning to their homes in the next week, are already planning a reunion.
Emily Turner, however, will not be going home quite yet.
After six months of living her education, she finds she can't stop and will not be returning to the Burlington preparatory school she attended.
Turner plans to spend the summer working in Kroka's garden and making the beautiful, functional things she loves. And one day, she hopes to study music in Scotland.
She credits the trip with giving her the clarity to choose this path.
Golfman isn't opposed to more conventional forms of education; he believes that some students can thrive in such an environment.
But for others, word problems can only be solved by sewing tents, crafting canoes and testing their limits.
"For these kids, this is the right kind of education, right now," said Golfman.
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