Outdoor Education

      From time to time in my posts I have mumbled about being involved in Outdoor Education. Three of us taught the program and Mike was the guy who had the passion for outdoors and developed the program.

      We covered things like food, clothing, shelter, safety, first aid, map reading,orienteering, cooperation and a few other good things to know when you're enjoying the great outdoors. The highlight of the course were the two field trips each class took. We would take one trip that involved backpacking and a second that involved cross country skiing or snowshoeing. Usually we overnighted in a rustic hostel or tented.  For November tenting we didn't go too far away from home.

     We usually had about 35 students with two teachers and a couple of parents for supervision. 

     The photos are from the top of Coliseum Mountain. The leader would start the hike and make numerous stops for rest and water. My favorite spot was to be the last. Of course , I had the little guys who were incredibly slow and out of shape. I got most of these little guys to the top. Going down was the same except worse. By this time the little guys were more fatigued and became fairly weak. Sometimes the feet had started to blister.They were slower downhill than uphill. Sometimes the other kids had been waiting on the bus for a long time before I got there.  

    I've talked to former students about this course. They enjoyed it but one stands out in my mind. One of these people became a lawyer and was on the library board with me. One day he told me that Outdoor Ed was the "funnest " course he ever took. His Mom and Dad never took him camping. He found it hard as he said I was a little short, fat kid with a big pack and it was hard but fun!"

    I think I was up Coliseum Mountain 17 times and the sister peak 12 times.

On top of coliseum before going down one of the teachers would tell the kids that they did a very challenging activity that day and to be very proud of what they did. We then asked kids to go to a separate spot and meditate on the activity for two minutes and then we started down.

We always carried the school flag and had the mandatory photo.

A happy group.

    

Hand Written Letters

       A columnist in my local paper had as a topic writing letters by hand.  It started me thinking.

       When was the last time I wrote a letter by hand? I can't remember. I've had a computer in the house since 1997. Before that, I can't remember who I would have written to. When I first left home in 1957, my Mom wrote me every week and I replied. My Mom and Grandma exchanged letters every week. There were many friendly letters in our local rural mailbox. The letters were newsy and always exciting to receive. Mom would read the letters to us many times. Am I about to sit down and write someone a friendly letter? No!  

      Now I know I receive at least one written letter per year. My sister-in-law hand writes every Christmas. She writes a very good letter.

     Because of the absence of personal letters in my mailbox. I'm not the only one who's quit writing letters.

    In a slower time it was pleasant to sit down and write a  letter to tell people what was going on in my life and to inquire what was happening to another person.

     So why don't I write? Well you can guess. Email has made it easier for us to make contact quickly  and easily. Why we can phone all over the place in an instant. In the 1940's, to phone Grandma long distance would have been very expensive and I can't remember if Grandma and Grandpa had a phone.

    Now I also have to admit that my cursive writing skills have disappeared. I could probably write in cursive form but I would really have to think about it. I've printed for more than twenty years and the printing is also getting rather rough. I've been through some old mementos here and found a couple of letters I had written. It gave me a rather strange feeling to see the evidence from my hand. So the keyboard has limited my cursive writing and printing.

    Now all this comes from a retired teacher. We taught cursive writing to the kids in the 1950's and 60's. I know these kids don't use cursive writing any more. 

    So have we lost something that is a necessary skill? Do we have something that will adequately make up for our lack of cursive writing? What's next? How will technology influence our handwriting or printing? How will our letter writing be influenced?

    There's been  an unbelievable change in the last twenty five years. 

Now I have to admit that my talented daughter wrote my poem beautiful lettering

Hundredth Anniversary of Daylight Saving Time

         This year marks the hundredth anniversary of daylight saving time being first implemented in a country. Germany and Austria put daylight saving time into effect on April 30, 1919. The modern version of daylight saving time had been developed in 1895.

       Now many parts of the world have tried daylight saving time. People have discussed the topic forever. There are pros and cons. Farmers are going to make their own decision as to when to get up and start their work. Other people will get up an hour earlier so that they have a longer evening for their activities.

      I don't care one way or the other if we have daylight saving time. Here on daylight saving time, on the longest day, the sun sets just before 10:00PM . It doesn't get dark until 11:00 PM and then we still see a glow in the western sky.

    Many people complain about the change and find it hard to adjust for the first few days. Usually the change doesn't bother me. 

     Today's change tricked me and I was confused. I usually get up at 7:00 AM. I don't use an alarm clock. Today I was awake at 6:11 and then dozed off again. When I woke up again I thought it was 7:00 Am and got up . When I'd finished my breakfast I wondered why it was 8:40. My breakfast takes about 20-25 minutes. What's going on? Did we make a mistake in setting the clock. Then it hit me. I didn't get up at 7:00AM. I'd slept longer than I thought and woke at 8:00 AM instead of 7:00 AM.

     So tonight after dinner, I was able to go for a 3473 step,

31 minute walk in bright sunshine!

10:40 PM on the north side of a house

Gross National Happiness

     This afternoon I read an article in my retiree magazine. A trip to the Kingdom of Bhutan was described.

     The Bhutanese government is based on the understanding "that each individual's well being must take precedence over the economic and political practice of materialism." Gross National Happiness, which measures the country's prosperity not by monetary value, but by the

 physical, spiritual social and environmental well being of the population.

     Each person is part of a larger whole. All people are dependent on the other.

    The article went on to say that the Bhutanese realize a certain amount of financial security is needed. They reject greed and accumulation of wealth.

    The Bhutanese have four underlying principles of Gross National Happiness: generosity, ethics, tolerance and perseverance.

     Generosity is considered very highly. We know that generosity gives one a great feeling of pride and satisfaction.

     Ethics means how we behave towards each other. Ethics means that we behave decently toward others. Just think how we would have to treat those who are different than we are.

   Tolerance is difficult for us as we have our own personal bias's .We are all equal concerning our fundamental humanity. After that, all bets are off for many of us. We find differences in each other as far as religion, language, gender, wealth and many other aspects of ordinary everyday life. We keep pushing these differences for selfish reasons.

    Perseverance means facing life's challenges and continuing in spite of challenging circumstances.

    Since we've just had an election where division was promoted so that one party could win, I thought this was an appropriate idea to consider. One party wanted only Christian refugees brought to this country. One party did all it could to stall funding to indigenous projects and education.

   I prefer politicians who promote unity. I think generosity, ethics, tolerance and perseverance would go a long way to bringing happiness to our population.

Each Peak Has Its Story

     Think of the lake and highway in my Windy Point post.  A few km down the road is Whirlpool Point. Up behind the point it looks like there is a peak.

     My friend and I had been down this road many times and always looked up at the peak and wondered if we could get up to the peak. 

     One Saturday morning we set out to see what this area was like. There's a good stopping place  on both sides of the ridge. We stopped at the first parking lot all ready to go. A large bald eagle rose from it's perch and disappeared.

    We had looked on maps and couldn't see the peak on any map. We could not find a trail so started to bushwhack. We found it hard going for 300 m and then came out on a  ridge. The ridge was a pleasant walk as it was even and a gentle rise for 3 km. This was great. Clarke's nutcrackers soared up to the top of the ridge on wind currents.

    The peak became very visible when we had a km left to go. we also found that the last 300m in elevation was steep and covered in large boulders. It was scrambling time. It was each man for himself to find a route to the top. My friend

who is much younger and more experienced got the top about 10 min before I did. I did not choose a very good route.

    Many of the peaks out here have a cairn of some sort. This peak had a rather large cairn. As my friend was making his last step to the top a huge bald eagle came up the other side at the very same time. My friend was shocked and ducked. The eagle was just as shocked and took evasive action to miss my friend. 

This is the cairn from windy point Ridge

    So the eagle had been using the cairn for his perch and just happened to be coming up the opposite side so the two were unaware of each other and shocked.

   So we met the bald eagle from the beginning again.

    Now the bald eagle encounter moved me to a poetic mood.

    We also made another discovery. What we thought was a peak was really just the end of a ridge. The ridge kept going for another three km. We kept walking on the ridge . In places it was on 1.5 m wide. There was exposure on both sides. At one point I tossed an old tin can over the edge. It was quite a while before I heard the tin can hit rocks below.

    On the way back we found a very nice trail from the ditch right up to the ridge. 

    Now we took kids up this ridge 5 or 6 times. We only got kids to the top twice as it always seemed to be very windy.

The Security Card

     Canada had a general election on Oct. 19, 2015. It was a very long campaign and over  the time a number of issues had an influence. The niqab was one  major issue and had an influence of the election outcome.

     The Conservative Party of Canada's (CPC) strategy was to divide the people so that CPC and Steven Harper would win the election with very few votes. One wedge issue was security. Security is an easy card to play. You don't have to be too careful with facts or statistics. People are vulnerable when it comes to crime and security. Canada's crime rate has been slowly going down since 1980. However CPC still claimed crime and terrorism were a problem. Solution: We'll make more jails and throw the bums in jail. They came up with one "fact" that "the rate of unreported crime had gone up." How does the rate go up when it's unreported? When it comes to crime there's only so much that can be done. We'll never be without crime.

     Criticize the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the referee when it comes to the legality of certain legislation. Bashing the court works to divide people. 

    Stoking up insecurity and tensions is an extremely negative thing to do. People are set against one another.  People separate from one another. Communication doesn't take place and they are easier prey for security fears. Energy is wasted by conflict. Groups of people begin to dislike each other and fear others. Take any group: refugees, Muslims, colors, languages. They're fair game for the security card.

    Thinking leaders should attempt to gain power from a unity standpoint. There is power in uniting. There is positivity in unity. Once elected these parties have a better chance of governing rather than continuing to stoke the security fires. Groups have to be brought together. 

    We have to learn that we must compromise. It's impossible for the complete accommodation of all points of view. The government has to work at communication to help put policies into effect that will be best for the society

    The Government elected in Canada is far from perfect. They will not solve all our problems. They will make mistakes. We have to pick the best of the bunch and run with it.

    I dislike conflict. I dislike fighting. I'm ok with good discussion.

    So let's look for politicians who will try their best to work for all of us.

The Ride Began In 1958

     I finished high school in June of 1957. Now I know many of you weren't born then but I'll tell my story anyway.

     I enrolled in a one year teacher training program right after high school. In June of 1958 at the age of 18 I had a teacher certificate which of course, allowed me to teach and get paid $2400 per year.

    Well, in no time I had a teaching position. There was a great shortage of teachers so jobs were a dime a dozen. I was hired to teach in  one room country school with and enrolment of ten students. There I was at 18 years old where I was the teacher and completely independent. I turned 19 in October. Now think about it . I was a teenager not unlike any other teenager. But I was a teacher responsible for ten students and the school itself. I had 3 grade ones, 2 grade twos, a grade three, a grade four, a grade five, a grade seven and a grade nine.

     Well, I went to work with great energy as I was going to teach those kids for all I was worth.  These kids  previously had a series of very ineffective teachers. Their background was a little weak but they worked hard. I really enjoyed teaching the grade ones. You could see how much they progressed in one year.

     The year ended quickly. I wanted to find out if I would like teaching. I found out what I wanted to know. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and decided to enter a Bachelor of Education program. the district wanted me to stay another year. The community was very supportive and really encouraged a very insecure 19 year old. The whole community supported me. I had never experienced this before but I recognized what they thought of me.

    Now when I was doing pictures this winter. I found photos of my students from Louisville school. I hadn't looked at them for years. I can hardly believe that the grade ones are turning 65 this year!

     The ride finished in 1997 when I retired. From 1958 to 1997 I managed to teach for 37.1119 years. I was very fortunate to be involved in a very rewarding occupation.