Today our world has a different view of children than the one held for nearly 100,000 years of humans living on this Earth. Back in the day, we never needed a manual, a book or a guide about how to raise our kids.
What's changed? Well, for the most part we're raising them alone. Not only is it difficult without the Aunties and Uncles or the Grandmas and Grandpas you once found in a real village, but compounding that loneliness and isolation is the fact that children no longer spend time outside immersed in the complexity and simplicity of nature.
There's a wound left behind when we're not allowed to catch frogs in the pond, when we're unable to sit under shady trees on a summer afternoon and when the double-paned glass of a school window separates us from the spring robins hunting for worms in the grass.
Nowadays, just like every other human need unfulfilled by our modern culture, there exists an entire philosophy, movement or industry that replaces this urgent desire to connect to the natural world. While camps, curriculum and science field studies are well-meaning, outdoor education only acts as the band-aid to seal off a passion inherent to our very DNA.
Thus, we require more than a plan, more than a program, much more than a school to turn back the overwhelming tide. We require a brand new story to tell to the world, one where we stand up to the mediocrity and fight back against the cages imposed on our children. This is not a mission for only educators, journalists or child psychologists. No, this one needs to be led by parents, by those Aunties and Uncles, by our Grandmas and our Grandpas. In this race to save the Earth we must see families truly leading the charge.
Featured programs...
Spring Open HouseMarch 27 Come meet June Rzendzian, our new Portland Youth Program Director. Also, chat and play games with all our Trackers youth staff. Tony (me) will be baking cookies and Mary, our Executive Director will teach kids yoga at 10am. Please contact Molly to RSVP for kids yoga, otherwise simply show up between 10am-2pm.
How do we get to a real Village? Where will we find a place of deeper family connections and roots?
Before I lay this out, remember the old axiom, "All models are wrong, and some are useful." Like every plan, it needs to adapt with the land and people involved. Just because a map to leads you somewhere, it may not cover every tree, rock, creek and stream you'll find along the way.
You get to the Village by…
1) Connection through the land: Notice that does not say, "Connection to the land." Why is this important? Why can't we have a global village where we're all buzzing through cutting-edge communication tools? Because then we stop needing the land and needing each other. Limits often tie a group of people together far more effectively than ideals. This is the nature of being rooted and harvesting from where you live and breathe.
2) Families making their livelihood together: We may not enjoy our co-worker at Widget Inc. but we may spend more time with them than our own family. We need both quality and quantity of time. When we blur the lines between feeding each other and family time, we end up understanding that play and work can be synonymous.
3) Sustainable, better yet, regenerative flow: This may seem obvious but sustainable has many interpretations. It is often translated, "not as much waste or pollution." Regenerative could mean, “Life evolves over time, yet remains stable.” A truly healthy and sane village (and family) wants to make sure the bounty and beauty continues to exist for their children, grandchildren and even far beyond. The human race once excelled at this and it allowed us (Homo sapiens) to live on this planet for 100,000 years as hunter-gatherers and horticulturists.
Why is this information useful? Well, if you care about building fidelity and legacy for family, these needs might be important to address as you plot the course. Certain kinds of people may be required to make it happen. Just remember, like any idea, everything stated here is fully and entirely wrong. It’s also very useful.
Featured Spring programs...
Free DayLearn about our Spring TermMarch 21 Our full time TrackersTEAMS program offers a Spring Term where you receive your Permaculture Design Certification, learn about edible plants and train stealth, invisibility and intense nature awareness. Join for a free day to learn about this term and more.
Edible Spring GreensMarch 28 or April 11 Take a journey through the world of plants, food and the wild. This class acts as a foundation of study in wild edible plants.
I really enjoy walking in the woods with my friend David. While I know he holds an incredible breadth of skill and awareness, it's more that his knowledge blooms from constant awe and attentiveness. When I track with David, it feels like we're having a conversation with the animals, land and what's wild around us.
When I track with self or officially certified naturalists, trackers or wilderness skills instructors they seem mostly there to measure, explore abstract ideas and prove they're well their way to knowing it all (even if they make alms to the contrary). It bores me when someone sounds more like a field guide/professor and less like the wild they should be following.
Ironically, despite his skill, David never wants to teach. The only validation he requires is being in the woods with good people. Because of the mature caring and competence he represents, David is truly an unsung founder of Trackers and what it aspires to become.
Please Note David Jacobson is not really a Gnome but the reference made sense for the title.
Featured programs…
Full-Time Program: Try a DayMarch 21 We shuttle you to the Trackers Homestead. Track bear with us, train survival skills and learn more about our TrackersTEAMS programs.
Build a Kayak for LessApril or May Our traditional kayak building courses used to cost $1250. Now they're only $875. We accomplished this by finally owning our own woodshop (rent costs less overall) and transitioning to quality recycled and salvaged materials (we got a planer and a chainsaw mill for driftwood).
Many parents still have questions about our Houses & Guilds curriculum…
What is the Rangers Guild? Rangers train wilderness skills such as survival, invisibility, navigation and tracking.
What is the Wilders Guild? Wilders (a homage to Laura Ingalls Wilder) learn village skills such as fiber arts, how to grow gardens, caretaking for wildlands and tending to the heart of the village.
What are badges? We have a video for that. It was made at our first ever badge ceremony for our Rangers….
What are Houses? This is a way for families to steer the course for how Trackers helps mentor their children. It all begins at our Nature of the Village Family Camp July 19-23, 2010. A a momentous week indeed.
Where can my child become a Wilder, Ranger, Mariner or Artisan? A couple programs...
Where do I learn more? Come to our Open House on March 27. Meet all your Trackers instructors, program directors, executive director and have some of my homemade chocolate chip cookies. Visit our Camp Open House
