Monday, September 28th, 2009
During the second week of school this year I took my 5th grade class on a 3-day camping trip to Project Adventure in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Project Adventure is a company that is known for its exciting ropes courses and climbing challenges, and every year myself and a few other teachers bring the 5th and 6th grades to Project Adventure for 3 days of community-building.
On the afternoon of Day One I found myself trying to balance on a large wooden plank with half of my class and one of our guides. Heavy, jolted movements caused the plank to tip one way or the other and I noticed that when we bent our knees it helped us to balance, versus standing upright. After 15 frustrating minutes, the plank continued to tip on its fulcrum and touch the ground as we all moved around.
Our guide told us that to achieve balance would mean that no sides of the octagonal plank would be touching the ground. It was hard for me to imagine how this might be possible, since several people on the plank were absorbed in their own movements and not paying attention to the group dynamic.
Suddenly, one of my students raised his hand.
“I have an idea,” he said. Our guide got everyone’s attention.
“What’s your idea?” he asked.
“Why don’t we all hold hands and stand with our heels closer to the edge?” he answered.
There was some snickering and eye-rolling as my fifth graders considered the idea of holding hands, but before I knew it, we were all linked together and shuffling backwards towards the perimeter.
When we got there, another student spoke. “How about we shuffle one step to the right in a clockwise direction as we hold hands, to keep up the momentum,” she said.
The transformation was amazing. In one gentle movement it felt as though the plank lifted off the ground and that we were hovering in the air, low to the ground. I took in the sight of everyone holding hands and felt the lightweight sensation of the plank in balance as we moved together. It was awesome.
The experience is one that stands out in my mind and will not be forgotten. It was a powerful metaphor for the way in which we can achieve balance in our own lives when we work on it together. Likewise, when one person is self-absorbed, connection breaks down because they don’t notice what’s going on around them.
Without a doubt, the plank touched the ground and got unbalanced a few more times. But we had found a way to keep the plank more or less successfully balanced, and when I looked around the circle at my students’ faces, they were smiling.
I think this experience can also be applied to the larger question of sustainability that Greenfox Schools seeks to address in educational settings. It is necessary to recognize the interconnectedness of all living things on our planet, and to realize that this is why we need to implement long-term environmental solutions in schools that benefit the environment and teach our children how to be stewards of the earth.
Thanks for reading.
-Kristen von Hoffmann
Posted by kvonhoffmann 