My first day of 5th grade I was taught by a intimidatingly large bellowing man that I should “always reach for the highest rung of the ladder” without exception.
I heard these words through my fifth and sixth grade years at my unconventional environmental school where I was handed an axe within my first week. I left this school with a repertoire that no other fifth graders could say they had. I built and etched a traditional birch bark canoe, constructed a log barn without power tools, repaired a wampanoag, threaded snowshoes, ran the sales department of a chicken business, painted murals, wadded through a cold pond for a night of frogging, and ended up in more ponds than I really would have liked. With this experience as my motivation and guide, I learned to incorporate a successful education with this learning as an enhancement. This was the place that gave me more unique experiences in two years than many people will ever experience in their lives. This was my foundation. …show more content…
Still, my disillusionment with the idea of “normal” did nothing to remove the memories and experiences I had acquired. Now I strived for perfection but only for empty monotonous opportunities that taught me memorization and how to get an A. What I started to learn, however, was a contradiction in what I had learned at Goodwillie Environmental School. While they taught me how to handle responsibility and grow as an individual, they had handed me all of the amazing things I had ever experienced at their school. If I wanted to “reach for the highest rung of the ladder” I needed to do more than excel in what I was required to do. If I wanted more from a typical middle school, high school, or seemingly opportunity-less situation, I had to seek it
I heard these words through my fifth and sixth grade years at my unconventional environmental school where I was handed an axe within my first week. I left this school with a repertoire that no other fifth graders could say they had. I built and etched a traditional birch bark canoe, constructed a log barn without power tools, repaired a wampanoag, threaded snowshoes, ran the sales department of a chicken business, painted murals, wadded through a cold pond for a night of frogging, and ended up in more ponds than I really would have liked. With this experience as my motivation and guide, I learned to incorporate a successful education with this learning as an enhancement. This was the place that gave me more unique experiences in two years than many people will ever experience in their lives. This was my foundation. …show more content…
Still, my disillusionment with the idea of “normal” did nothing to remove the memories and experiences I had acquired. Now I strived for perfection but only for empty monotonous opportunities that taught me memorization and how to get an A. What I started to learn, however, was a contradiction in what I had learned at Goodwillie Environmental School. While they taught me how to handle responsibility and grow as an individual, they had handed me all of the amazing things I had ever experienced at their school. If I wanted to “reach for the highest rung of the ladder” I needed to do more than excel in what I was required to do. If I wanted more from a typical middle school, high school, or seemingly opportunity-less situation, I had to seek it