The Why of Educating

When a friend shows up for a week, the work doesn’t stop.

Fortunately, my friend, Katie, is game for whatever task I have in mind.

Our first job was to visit two new charter schools in Kalispell. As a member of the Montana Board of Public Education, I get to see firsthand how schools are using innovative teaching strategies to help kids learn.

Katie has been a high school English teacher for 30 years so she is interested in innovative education, too.

One student was already almost done with a semester of math. At the PACE Academy, he could work as quickly as he wanted as long as he didn’t get behind.

This student was motivated to get ahead.

Once he had completed his year of math, he planned to use that time to learn even more about music. After school, he worked construction. His charter school was organized so that he could go to work after lunch if he wanted and still complete the credits he needed to graduate.

In another class, the students were learning personal finance by pretending to day-trade stocks.

Some of them bought stocks at 13 cents because those stocks were cheap – and most likely would get cheaper – but they also had some blue-chip stocks in their portfolios.

I asked one girl if she thought about how the wars in Gaza and Ukraine were impacting shipping routes and how riskier shipping might affect corporate profits.

She looked at me long and slow, then replied “I’m a sophomore.”

I took that as a no. The consequences of compromised shipping routes must come later in the class.

At Rising Wolf charter school, the administration touted block scheduling, which allowed teachers to collaborate to organize an outdoor school.

The teachers were proud that they take students on field trips where they could teach stream ecology, the physics of fly-fishing and how the book A River Runs Through It ties ecology to outdoor recreation.

I heard nothing about using livestock to manage land and water.

Katie said the teacher’s eyes glazed over when I suggested he bring the kids to the ranch to see how livestock are tools for land management.

I kept talking anyway.

I’m pretty sure I saw glimpses of awareness when I offered to come talk to the kids about how ranching improves the land.

Katie said I shouldn’t expect a phone call to set up a visit.

Both of these schools were trying different systems, but I missed the Why – why should a student care about learning?

We needed time to analyze all that we had seen so, ironically, we went for a hike the next day.

It took a few tries to find the trailhead.

We didn’t start up the rocky creek bed trail until 3 p.m.

Still, the day was clear and the wind was calm.

I suspect it has been too warm for grizzlies to hibernate, but we chatted loudly – mostly about how to scale up innovative teaching strategies -- as our main defense against potential attacks.

The waterfall at the end of the slot canyon was well worth balancing on slippery rocks as we crossed back and forth across the creek.

By the time we returned to the ranch, I realized we had used several innovative teaching strategies during our hike – blocked schedules so we could take a deep dive into a subject, learning by doing, and tying together several different subjects in one activity.

We found the Why, too.

We care about the natural world because it is the foundation for every other aspect of life.

The trees, sky, boulders and coyote scat didn’t need to lecture to us.

We absorbed their lesson through the soles of our boots.