Weekly Message from Head of School 2022/09/11-2022/09/17
Dear Members of our Keystone Community,
Yesterday, on the outskirts of Beijing, I crouched around a small hole dug in the ground with a group of primary school students. One had a flint, and the others were carefully collecting small bits of sticks and dried leaves. They were trying to start a fire and were having a little bit of trouble. They were also looking around at their peers and who had already gotten little fires going. They thought about giving up, but they persisted through failures. They piled up a bunch of little leaves, which lit, but then quickly went out. Then they pressed bigger sticks into the smoldering hole, but there was no fire. Then, with a little instruction about how fires need air to burn, they regrouped and tried again. Next thing they knew, they were successfully cooking marshmallows over the roaring flame. They did not finish the task first, or have the easiest go at it, but they kept at it and were deeply satisfied with their ultimate sweet success!
This was just one of the countless moments of challenges accepted and overcome this week, from building shelters, to learning to bike or kayak to braving high ropes course. Many of our students went out on excursions organized by Keystone’s Director of Experiential Learning, Chris Cartwright. These experiences reflect Keystone’s commitment to experiential learning, a concept that has only been described as such since the 1970’s, even though the idea is many (thousands!) of years older.
Experiential learning is “learning by doing”. In the field of education, this can be described as “hands-on learning”. This engaging and effective type of learning environment is visible every single day at Keystone, inside and outside of our classrooms. Keystone’s Outdoor Education Program takes this a step further and places those experiences in nature-- places that do not look much like the traditional vision of “school.” We know, from research and our own experiences, that time in nature is good for all humans and the last several years have required far too much time indoors and in front of screens.
These experiences are critical for our students because, as beautiful as our learning spaces on campus are, they are insufficient for the lofty learning outcomes we aspire for our students. Learning towards outcomes such as collaboration, problem solving, persistence at difficult tasks, and self-knowledge are accelerated in outdoor education contexts; the intensity of the experience being a catalyst for learning and growth.
No one in the community says anything about this effort being easy-- from the amazing team that organized the logistics, to students on the longest hike of their life, to parents having to scramble to support shifting pandemic regulations and extra testing-- this week had challenges for all of us, and I am so grateful to each of you! But we stick with it because as a community of learners, we need practice at doing hard things if we are to be promised the extraordinary outcomes of Keystone’s mission.
Our students will reflect and tap into the learning from this week for months and years ahead. They will remember the time that they started a fire with no matches, paddled across the lake, or slept in a tent under the cool night sky. They will remember being many meters above the ground, wondering if they had the strength to jump to the platform in front of them. They will remember their incredible reserves of power and strength that they might not have known they had. They will remember that they are part of something bigger than themselves, part of a school and a community that knows the value of time spent in nature. They will find ways to protect the beautiful spaces that showed them beauty and brought them joy. The outcomes of these trips are broad and deep: learning that will endure and be transferred to the challenges to come, long after the trips are over.
Warmly,
Emily McCarren
