Rewilding At School
A Brief History of KLT’s Nature-Immersive Education Program
In School Education. KLT recognizes that our reach is greatest when we deliver meaningful programs directly within our local schools. To this end, we have committed to offering a flexible suite of programs in partnership with local educators. Our year round outdoor education programs touch over 500 individual children per year, with over 1500 annual participant days of nature connection and outdoor programming. We firmly believe that consistent time in the outdoors is essential for the emotional, social, and physical development of our youngsters, and are committed to supporting area educators through creative and flexible partnership.
THE BIG PICTURE. Rewild the Child is KLT's outdoor education program that employs a nature-immersive education model to optimize learning and boost physical and mental health at an early age and throughout life. It aims to ensure that all children enjoy inclusive access to place-based education programs, including inspirational guidance, wild physical spaces, proper nutrition, and weather-appropriate clothing, footwear and gear.
Imagine that the standard education model includes regular nature exploration experiences. From a young age, students are led outdoors to learn, explore, and engage with the natural world. The play yard is alive with wild things growing and welcoming discovery. All children are adequately outfitted, equipped and nourished to take in lessons from the land. How would those experiences impact children, teachers, parents, families, and the community in general?
In the not-too-distant-past, children walked to a nearby rural school rather than being bussed from all corners of the county to a school in town. At recess, they played outside where the school yard consisted of a natural meadow, field, or forested area. Nature was an integral part of education.
Stump jumping to school in the Selle Valley
"After the trees were gone, all of the original homesteaders, except Charles Selle, moved on. They left behind barren, unusable land that bristled with huge tree stumps and tall snaps and land that was strewn with the debris of logging: long butts, tree tops, and limbs. Early school children in the area had a game that they played on the way to school. They would walk all the way to school (often more than a mile) without touching the ground by stepping from log to log."
-Dale Selle’s history of the Selle Valley, courtesy Bonner County History Museum.
Today, even in largely rural areas, many children do not have the same opportunities to explore the natural world. Outdoor sports, activities, and camps may not be accessible to every child. Some families are not experienced nor comfortable venturing into wild places, especially if those places are distant from where they live, work, and attend school. Living in the Northwest does not necessarily equate with being outdoors-oriented.
Kaniksu Land Trust began its education program in 2015 with 3 weeks of summer camp and outreach programs to a few Bonner County schools. After tremendous growth over recent years, the organization now participates with Lake Pend Oreille School District administrators and a University of Idaho professor in a collaborative group to consider a sustainable long-term vision for infusing outdoor education into public schools.
In 2018, KLT and Kootenai Elementary School collaborated to transform a ten-acre parcel of land adjacent to the school into an outdoor learning venue. The Kootenai Learning Landscape is now a regular aspect of the educational experience for Kootenai Elementary School students.
As the demand for outdoor programming grew, we noted how participants were impacted by these experiences. For example, attendance was higher on days when students participated in KLT programming and students naturally engaged in applied STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning by spending time in nature. Students were meeting state science standards at the same time as reaping physical and mental health benefits [this is underscored by decades of research on “forest schools” in other parts of the United States (Sobel, 2013)]. When such powerful outcomes became evident in local students we expanded offerings, but were still far from serving every school in the district. We began to explore ways of leveraging the time and expertise of KLT Education Director, Dave Kretzchmar so that more students could benefit.
“The work I do to bring kids and teachers outside to connect with nature is just a small drop in the bucket. But it's an important drop as many kids these days have seemingly lost the curiosity that used to open back doors and lead them into the forest,” he said.
“The good news is that inside every child is the past history of our species, which is a history that includes a deep connection and love of nature. We just need to tap into that.”
At one local elementary school, a technology teacher took a job elsewhere, leaving a position open. Rather than filling the position with another tech teacher, the principal hired an outdoor educator. “These kids don’t need more screen time. What they need is to get outside,” the principal said. KLT’s Dave Kretzchmar now works closely with the new outdoor educator to provide mentorship in the nature-immersive learning model. But even with an outdoor education on staff, this school is still constrained by the limitations of the available play yard.
“My preference is for teachers to bring their classes up to Pine Street Woods for a 2-3 hour program. This gives us time to settle into the land and spend some good quality time exploring and learning,” he said.
However, regularly bussing students to Pine Street Woods, is not realistic for all schools.
In 2020, a potential solution emerged. In a partnership facilitated by Kaniksu Land Trust, students from the Colorado College architectural design block worked with two Bonner County elementary schools to conceptually design outdoor classrooms on site at each school. Architectural proposals were developed in exchange for real-world experience for the design students. Renditions were based on the design students’ extensive research on the local landscape and weather patterns as well as direct communications with the elementary school students and faculty. The designs were practical, but also expensive to construct.
Through this process, the vision gained progressive clarity. Each school has unique features and inherent qualities that have the potential to inspire lessons on wetlands, forests, food production, and other aspects of nature specific to the local landscape. Could the play yards be optimized for nature discovery?
Kootenai Elementary’s Learning Landscape exemplifies the potential for utilizing natural spaces on school grounds for outdoor education.
“After attempting to provide our teachers with the tools to consistently incorporate outdoor education in their daily lessons, we realized that teachers’ plates are already overflowing and there is no space for a daily checklist on how to incorporate nature. We began to dream of placing a dedicated outdoor educator in every single school to support teachers and students directly through curriculum development. But outdoor classrooms in which to implement the curriculum were also lacking. Too many of our playgrounds consist of a flat monoculture of mowed grass. We have an opportunity to re-envision how the play yard can become an extension of the classroom in order to reawaken the imagination of the child,” Katie Cox, KLT Executive Director said.
This vision for transforming the educational landscape to include the outdoors as a foundational aspect of formal and informal learning is a lofty goal. But, we believe that every child and every adult should have access to the mental and physical benefits of time in nature.
Through a grant from the United Way North Idaho Community Cares Fund, KLT recently enlisted a design firm to assess the scope of re-introducing natural landscapes to seven elementary school play yards in Bonner County. Three schools will serve as the initial pilot projects and will lay the foundation for the remaining schools. Other committed supporters include 350Sandpoint, Idaho Community Foundation, and Equinox Foundation.
The group’s immediate focus is on ensuring that all children have access to outdoor education programming. Inclusivity is a central tenet of our education program. At school, all children are able to participate, regardless of their family’s financial status, proximity to town, or scheduling circumstances. All of KLT’s programs include a nutrition component and we continue to work to ensure that every child is outfitted adequately for outdoor learning.
WHY IT MATTERS. Nationwide studies have shown that students who learn outdoors develop empathy toward others, motor skills, self-discipline, a sense of self, independence, confidence, creativity, initiative, and decision-making and problem-solving skills. Through connection to place, students also develop stronger environmental attitudes and civic behaviors. As children discover interdependencies in nature, their awareness of their role in nature, citizenship, and personal relationships are all enhanced. Faculty from schools that have worked with us report increased attendance, decreased disciplinary issues, and extended capacity for collaborative group work on days when our programming is offered.
As school administrators grapple with accommodating the physical school building capacity in one of the fastest growing states in the country, the solution could be right outside the classroom.
“Decades of national and state education policy have overshadowed what North Idaho has in abundance — natural spaces — and as such many students in rural areas are at a disadvantage as they spend more time inside learning about places far away when they could be learning from the rich natural environment in our communities. The silver lining from the rapid campus closures associated with the COVID 19 pandemic and school campus closures is that these natural environments were once again elevated as the rich learning places they always have been,” Wargo said.
NATURE-IMMERSIVE EDUCATION. KLT’s outdoor learning model is not simply formal education taken outdoors. Children learn through discovery. As they observe their surroundings and wonder about how things work, they ask questions and investigate using a hands-on approach, often collaborating and sharing.
KLT’s outdoor education goes beyond in-school programming, with field trips to Pine Street Woods, after school programs, and Camp Kaniksu in both the winter and summer. All programs include nutritional support and every effort is made to accommodate weather-appropriate clothing and footwear. As a fee-based program, Camp Kaniksu aims to include 25-30% of participants through scholarships to ensure access for all. Children who attend on scholarship have the exact same experience as those whose families can afford the full rate. And, since meals and snacks are provided, all children receive the same provisions. In 2021, these programs touched the lives of 2,240 children.
“I find that the success of our program is that Dave is so authentic. He is himself a child at heart, still learning and in awe of the natural world. Dave learns right alongside the others, but at the same time is inspiring through the extensive body of knowledge that he shares with each child. His gift is the ability to fully immerse a child in nature through observation and discovery, opening up another world right outside their school door.” Cox said. ☐
