On a recent Friday morning, 8th-grader Kevnisha found herself a long way from the campus of Barack Obama Academy – and getting farther away by the second. She was hurtling down a steep hill in the Tennessee Valley in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, on a bike she’d never ridden before. The faster she rode, the louder she screamed“I had never been mountain biking before and I didn’t think I could make it down the big hill,” she recalls. “But I did it! It made me feel like I could overcome something hard, that I had never done before."
As part of a joint venture with the national outdoor organization Trips for Kids, founding Barack Obama Academy teacher David Hicks is leading a bike trip a month, with the excursions open to students who’ve excelled academically and behaviorally. A typical journey sees the Trips for Kids vans take Hicks and his students up to the Tennessee Valley, where they go over safety guidelines and gear up for the ride. (Depending on the experience level of the group going, the kids may design a more challenging route.) The valley trail ends at the beach, where they stop to eat lunch and relax.
For many students, says Hicks, it’s also their first time on a beach. “It’s just been incredibly amazing to see kids who might act tough and older than their age here on campus, then they get out on the beach and they’re running back and forth in the waves, grinning ear to ear riding their bikes fast downhill.”
Or, as in the case of Kevnisha, hollering. “For the students who are not that comfortable on bikes, we coach them and teach them how to shift and make it down a big hill in control, even if they’re screaming the whole way down.”
When the inexperienced bikers make it to the end of the trail, says Hicks, “They feel like they did something and overcame a challenge.” Being out in nature also lends a tangible context to the school’s outdoor education focus. “We do some environmental learning on the rides, studying resource use in the area and observing the animals,” says Hicks. “We also talk about health and nutrition."
“We’re trying to serve as a place for students who’ve experienced challenges in the past to really get to know themselves better so they can overcome difficult things,” reflects Hicks. “By experiencing new challenges outdoors, and having time to just be a kid, ask questions, and think about life, they have this opportunity to see something new. It’s an amazing opportunity for kids to reinvent themselves and build on strengths they already have."
“Man, that bloody hill was hard,” recalls 8th-grader James. “I went down so fast, but the way up was the most challenging. We all did it, though.”
“If you never thought you could go up or down a hill on a mountain bike, and then you do it, then maybe another challenge – writing a history paper, for example – won’t seem so difficult,” Hicks explains. “We talk with students, asking them, ‘Remember when we were out mountain biking, remember when you thought you couldn’t do that? That’s like this, and I think you can do it, if you work hard enough.’”
Getting the kids outdoors and breathing fresh air in nature is really positive,” says Hicks. He says the staff sees a shift in those kids when they return to school. “When we come back to campus,” says Hicks, “we have students not say one negative thing the entire day, and we see them be positive and encouraging even toward students they’ve had conflicts with.”
Stay tuned for more outdoor education recaps in future newsletters!
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