The parents of students in the Environmental School are excited that their kids will now be able to attend their unique classes right though to graduation.
Maple Ridge’s environmental school, which sees students attend classes among the trees of the UBC Research Forest, is being expanded from elementary school to secondary.
Environmental school vice-principal and administrator Clayton Maitland talked about the new development while students explored erosion on the North Alouette River, caused by the heavy rains of the past week.
He talks with confidence about “real, lived experiences” as being important to learners, about the value of place-based learning for children, and the ecological pedagogy of his school.
The school was developed and opened in 2011, with the help of community partners and a $1 million federal grant. It is a self-guided, project-based, hands-on learning experience.
The secondary environmental school is a pilot project, and there is no model to copy. The secondary program will be built using principles proven at the elementary level, and borrowing from some education programs that embrace the same values. It will start in September.
“It might be ambitious, but I think it’ll work,” said Maitland.
It’s not a simple matter of taking traditional high school classroom work outside.
“You have to look at learning, instead of looking at the work that’s done,” said Maitland.
Students will be challenged to find ways to learn through experiences, and apply it to the provincial high school curriculum. They must meet all the required graduation standards.
“I think the students are going to have to work harder, not less,” he said.
True academic rigour occurs when students “take on things with a passion, and start learning about it,” he asserts
He expects the effects of the environmental school that he has observed in elementary students to continue for those in secondary grades. They become more of problem solvers and critical thinkers, said Maitland.
“The kids become more and more resilient. And as a group, they help each other with problem solving.”
He said the environmental school model can work for anybody, but is generally a popular option for parents who home school their children, or kids who take online education.
“We get lots of interest from people who want to do things differently,” said Maitland. “Those people have been asking lots of questions,” about the secondary environmental school.
He said there are always talented and smart children who don’t thrive in the traditional school system.
“There’s a need for this.”
Parents of the elementary school students were excited by the decision by the school board on Wednesday night.
Craig Cerhit is a documentary filmmaker who produced Found in the Forest about the environmental school. With time off, he was following his son, who is now in Grade 4 in the school.
Parents can be as engaged as they want to be with the school, he said. Cerhit started filming and produced a two-hour feature.
He’s glad his son will have the option to continue his education the way it started.
“It’s great to have that choice. I’m happy to see the school board continued with being open to having a lot of different ways to look at education,” he said. “And it’s working for my son.”
He expects continuing the environmental school will be a popular choice for most with elementary students enrolled.
“We see a good thing happening, and we want it to continue,” he said. “They’re outside and engaged, and learning through experience.”
Environmental school parent Melanie Gaudet has three boys in Grades 1, 2 and 7. Her oldest applied to attend Thomas Haney, which they felt offered some of the freedom he had at the environmental school, but he was assigned to Garibaldi. So the new secondary environmental school will be a better fit for him, she said.
He attended the environmental school from Grade 3 onward, and she watched him become more confident and excited about learning.
“The way he’s been learning is inquiry based and promotes independent learning,” she said. “It’ll prepare him better for life and for university.”
They will take a close look at the new program.
“I want to make sure he meets all the core requirements for high school.”
Her two youngest are well suited to an outdoor classroom, as well.
“They’re little boys, and they’re busy-busy.”
Shannon Hyde has a son in Grade 11 and a daughter in Grade 9 who both graduated from the environmental school to regular high school. Her son adapted well, but her daughter wasn’t happy with the system in her Grade 8 year. She has been home schooling her daughter in a child-centered approach she recently learned is referred to as “unschooling.”
Hyde said her daughter is happy to be able to return to the environmental school program for her remaining high school years.
“Kids need daily social contacts.”
