A Lake Union field trip
I made the decision last month to pull my seven-year-old daughter from school for field trips of our own. For one day every two weeks, for the remainder of the school year, we are exploring the Northwest's offerings, history, and culture.
Our latest field trip was inspired by the book Hannah West in Deep Water by Linda Johns. This book is part of a series of mysteries involving a twelve-year-old girl, Hannah West, that take place in various neighborhoods in Seattle. In this particular mystery, Hanna is house-sitting on a houseboat on Portage Bay. In Hanna West in Deep Water, there are many references to the local landscape, as well as businesses, and we wanted to search for places mentioned in the book.
Last Friday we headed off to Lake Union to look at things from Hannah's point of view. At Agua Verde Paddle Club, we rented a two-person kayak. Being total novices wasn't a problem as we stayed exclusively in Portage Bay. We paddled across the busy boating lanes; my daughter paddled furiously after I told her the big boats had permission to run us over if we got in their way. Once we made it safely across, we stuck near the houseboats and imagined what it would be like to live in one (pros: easy fishing and boating, cons: not so good for soccer, badminton, or sleep-walking). Then we headed under the 520 bridge and counted three turtles, one heron, and what we think was a beaver dam, or branches that just happened to wash up in a neat pile.
We also saw the backside of the Montlake Community Center, which we visit often, but never get to see from the water. We had no idea there was so much wildlife just steps away from soccer lessons and tennis camp. We did have a small hiccup when my daughter discovered that a large spider had hitched a ride with us in her half of the kayak. Luckily, she couldn't easily jump out of the kayak, or I might have been towing her back to land.
The line for lunch at Agua Verde was too long, so we stopped at Ivar's and ate on the outer deck overlooking Lake Union. We watched boaters pull right up to the dock and disembark for lunch. My daughter asked interesting questions, such as how much a big boat like that would cost and whether or not we could buy one (answers: don't know and probably not). Across the water we spotted a seaplane parked at the back door of a houseboat.
We then made our way around the lake to Armchair Sailor, Seattle's famous maritime bookstore. On the way in, we browsed the boat sale listings. With prices ranging from $50,000 to half a million dollars, my daughter suffered serious sticker shock as she realized there was no way her Moon Jar contents were going to buy us a boat anytime soon. We spent an hour at Armchair Sailor, learning how to use barometers and about the fifteen thousand charts they inventory (in boat-speak, maps of water are called charts). We also discovered, while perusing the selection of nautical books and gifts, that boating enthusiasts wear anchor and propeller earrings.
Even though I'm not a sailor (one morning of kayaking not withstanding), I will definitely be returning to Armchair Sailor. The shop has a great selection of kids' books by local authors. To my daughter's amazement, the sales staff gave her an old chart of the San Juan Islands to take home with her. You would have thought she had won the lottery.
The next stop would be the Center for Wooden Boats. But as I pulled out of the parking lot, my daughter asked me how the Ballard Locks work. We had heard a couple of references to the Locks that morning. I started to explain, stopped, and said "Well, let's check it out."
As Northwest natives, my kids and I have been to the Locks and the fish ladder many times. But we had never been to the Visitor Information Center. Run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Center is highly informative. We spent more than 30 minutes studying the displays and watching the movie before we ventured out to the Locks. We learned the about the area we'd explored in our kayak, Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut. Once at the Locks, we watched the boats transfer from Lake Washington to the Puget Sound with a much better understanding of the engineering mechanism. This turned out to be the best time I'd ever had at the Locks.
My daughter said it was the best day "ever," and she would go kayaking again, with the caveat that, prior to boarding, the kayak be thoroughly inspected for stowaway arachnid.
Comments:
Posted Thu, May 29, 5:54 p.m. inappropriate
The best education: This is the way schooling ought to be done. Great stuff.
Posted Thu, May 29, 8:58 p.m. inappropriate
Life on the water: I grew up in wheatfields, was never on a boat and certainly never had such a special introduction to life and activity on the water. I've lived onboard a boat now for eighteen years, though and love the very interesting lifestyle. Take a small fuzzy dust wand along on that next kayak ride. They are great for whisking spiders away.
Posted Fri, May 30, 7:39 a.m. inappropriate
Thanks: Thanks for the inspiring account. Can't wait to copy you.
Posted Fri, May 30, 10:38 a.m. inappropriate
No one asks, apparently...: Every single detail in this blog entry is delightful; it sounds like wonderful times with the kid.
No one has questioned the premise of this activity, though, and I find that quite depressing. No one has asked why all this activity could not be done on weekends, during school breaks, in the summer, etc. There are seemingly not enough free days to do these wonderful things. No, you take your child out of school, ten percent of the school time, to do it.
You teach her at age seven that school is not important, that the teacher's plans for class are insignificant, that being faithful to her need for schooling is not a high priority. In high school, you will plan two week vacations in the middle of the semester for trips to Cabo; you will, of course, expect no grade consequences. You will expect her to be admitted to the very best colleges, even though you have taught her that other pleasures come before school.
The implications of the beliefs in this blog are the despair of teachers and the ruin of children. It is great that you are having such a wonderful time with her.
Why are the comments here so affirming of the significance of this blog? And moreover, it is especially sad to see the Crosscut imprimator placed on it.
Posted Fri, May 30, 2:04 p.m. inappropriate
RE: No one asks, apparently...: Thanks for your thoughtful comments. If it helps to assuage your worried mind, let me quickly run down the "Mommy Guilt" checklist I had to overcome to make sure I wasn't ruining my daughter's future as one might think:
- Is daughter two to three levels over grade and currently not challenged at school? - check
- Do the elementary school teachers I spoke with feel that this is a great time of year to do this sort of thing? - check
- Do said teachers assure me that my daughter will not be stunted by pulling her from school six days at the end of the school year? - check (Said teachers also said they wish they had the resources to do this for their classes themselves.)
- Did we avoid pulling our kids from school for more than one day for our one vacation this school year? - check
- Did Dad, who had perfect attendance all through grammar school, think that this was a good idea? - check (and without hesitation)
- Is this possibly the last time I will be able to do this without interrupting her proper schooling (where she is actually learning lots of new things daily)? - check
- Can I, as a parent, commit to exactly six days per year as a home-schooler? - check
- As a part-time working parent of two children, can I sneak these six days in so that my daughter can feel rewarded and special without younger sibling tagging a long? - check
- Because I am pulling her during school days, do these trips offer educational opportunities? - check (We also went to the Boeing factory tour after we researched why Boeing is so important to the local economy. Not many seven year olds can tell you how many people are employed by Everett Boeing and why lay-offs of are so detrimental to the NW economy. This trip also included a sit down with her grandfather who was a 32-year Boeing veteran, where my daughter had a list of questions for him about his tenure there.)
- Do I value the worth of our two days/week of family time enough to conduct these field trips during the week to avoid the crowds? - check
- Is it the value of these "field trips" for my daughter worth the judgment of my parenting style/ability from others and myself? - check
- After three of these field trips (in seven weeks), is my daughter much happier at school? - check, plus
Next week we'll head to the International District and visit the Wing Luke Asian Museum, have lunch, and have light-hearted conversations about internment camps and Communism. We have already pulled out the maps so that she knows which parts of Asia we'll see represented when we visit the International District. Maybe you'll even be able to read about it in Crosscut. . .
Posted Fri, May 30, 2:25 p.m. inappropriate
RE: No one asks, apparently...: Your thoughtful consideration is really wonderful. My problem was not that the experiences would have been anything other than great, not only for themselves but for the parent memory you are giving her. Your blog, though, gave none of the weighing of loss and gain, and that left the whole topic open to the limited words of the first sentences, and, believe me, those words raise an awful possibility.
The fundamental issue for me is that children MUST be imbued with the highest respect and value for education. Parents must make it clear that being taken out of school for anything but necessity (i.e., dentist appointments) is not part of their culture. By junior high, students either embrace their education or dismiss it, and the bane of education is the high number of students whose parents have not held school as of the highest priority. I could tell from your blog that you were doing something wonderful for your girl; the responses to your blog bothered me a lot. "I'm going to do that, too." Unfortunately, you were the only voice that had a chance to validate the principles you were acting on, as you have done here.
Posted Fri, May 30, 2:53 p.m. inappropriate
Quality Education: This field trip plan is a great way to (1) educate your daughter (2) provide her with lasting connection and memories with your daugher and (3) give her a higher respect and love of learning. The fact is that learning need not occur in a classroom. It need not occur within the confines of a school.
There are millions of homeschooling families in our country (and many, many homeschoolers - some secular and some not in Seattle) who do just these types of educational programs every day with their kids! Must a child spend every day in a classroom with a bunch of other kids in order to learn and progress academically? The answer is a resounding no! If that were the case, then the millions of homeschoolers who succeed, win contests (national geography bees and spelling bees are often won by homeschoolers), attend collges (and Ivy League colleges in growing numbers), and have full and happy adults lives.
While there is no doubt that many children are able to accel and succeed with the model of education that can be found in a formal school setting, there can also be no doubt that many children can accel and succeed in nontraditional ways. Congratulations, Meredeth, for having the creative thought and courage to follow through on it.
I think it's safe for us to trust that you know what best serves your family's educational needs. There are any number of areas in which parents will disagree over how best to parent their children, yet it seems that so many feel they are entitled to pass judgment on educational choices. The fact is that education is just one other area of parenting and, as with discipline (spanking? time out? alternative discipline?), feeding children (organic? whole foods? processed foods?), environmental choices (spray chemicals on the lawn? compost?), toys (plastic? wood? weapons? electronic games?) and a long list of other things. While one parent may believe that watching TV is toxic for kids, you don't see the same indignant, self righteous criticism of such choices as you do when someone choosen an educational alternative that is less common or otherwise misunderstood.
I am sorry that you would feel guilty for even a moment for making a connection with your child to educate her. In fact, brain research and educational research both support your methods. It's too bad that a few others rush to judgment without any scientific basis for supporting those judgments.
By the way, Elizabeth Edwards was attacked for taking her kids out of school to follow their dad on the campaign trail. Because what is there worth learning in a Presidential campaign? (!!)
Posted Fri, May 30, 7:48 p.m. inappropriate
Lucky kid: I'm the one who is eager to copy you. Like your daughter, mine is 7 and "highly-capable." She is not being challenged in her public school class, complains of boredom, and has not been on a field trip at all this year. Her homework is 8 pages of makework: coloring, puzzles and sums.
It took us a while to see this as a set of circumstances we should challenge, not simply accept.
When I shared my concerns with a trusted educator, he suggested I take her out of school once day a week for "adventures." I was shocked, delighted . . . and dismayed, as most of the year had elapsed already.
I am not able to home school, but I can do the occasional educational adventure.
Meredith, you are doing a great service in sharing your experiences and "lesson plans." I'll stay glued!
Posted Sat, May 31, 10:15 a.m. inappropriate
The broader issue: I am not sure I can go where I want to go in this comment, as it is too complex a social issue. And, for that matter, a Crosscut reader issue.
I like Crosscut and read it daily, but I have always had a problem with what is to me a kind of social myopia that appears daily in its "pages." It seems to me that Crosscut (and we readers) are unable or unwilling to see beyond our personal lives, discussing schools, for example, primarily from the perspective of ourselves and our children (who are, of course, talented, privileged, yearning for knowledge and life). Take this thread.
I see a couple of continuing ideas in the mutual agreement of the commentators. One is the idea school is insufficient for our children, so much so that taking them out of school for "field trips" is better use of time than class time. MM seems to have acted responsibly in this area and actually explored the consequence to her daughter of pulling her out of class. I have no problem with that. I argue, though, that the principle of withdrawal from school is dangerous in its implication that children are being taught that school is NOT important, compared to all those tempting experiences available out of school, including vacations. The dismissals of "classroom" experiences are, to me, ingenuous and foolish, drawn almost entirely out of one's own child's experiences and without any respect for the reality of education in general.
Have any of you actually spent time in a normal, regular, Seattle public school? Have any of you seen the challenges of the teachers who are given twenty-seven seven-year-olds to teach, half of whom are almost totally beyond classroom management skills? Do you have any idea how many children by second grade are ALREADY trained by their parents to dismiss the importance of school, as well as the importance of the adults in school who are trying to teach them? What percentage of these children at age seven come to school with no breakfast, no learning outside of school AT ALL? They do not have the hyper-involved adults at home, adults reflected in the comments here.
The cultural involvement reflected in this thread has almost no connection with the dilemma of teachers who are teaching the actual, real, deprived children in our community.
It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the above comment about the insufficient class experience was true. The schools do have insufficient teachers. But they have wonderful committed teachers, too, who are struggling to help children -- even against the anti-education culture that brings those kids to class. I think your job as a parent is to monitor your child's class experience and constantly to validate the experience of school. Long term success in life is connected to a willingness to learn in school settings.
Finally, because of the social elitism of the readership here, we see the old "Home Schooling" phantom. It is a phantom of quality and success that is open only to the tiniest percentage of parents, probably open only to you. The dangers and risks of home schooling are enormous: unsocialized children, children incapable of learning in class, children ignorant of essential knowledge, etc. The vast majority of parents are unable to home school, don't have the ability or knowledge or time to do it. Yet it is waved around in places like this as a kind of panacea, always available when the public schools aren't up to your personal snuff.
I think you need to visit an actual elementary school and look at actual children, not your personal child, actual children with ordinary non-Crosscut working parents. And then think twice before talking about how much "richer" an educational experience you have given your child, how she is so much better educated outside of school.
Posted Sat, May 31, 3:22 p.m. inappropriate
Actual Children: My comments come from my experience with my three "actual" children, as well as the many actual children I come into contact with socially, some of whom attend Seattle Public Schools, some of whom attend private schools, some of whom attend other public schools, and some of whom homeschool. I have been inside a Seattle Public School classroom and observed teachers. I have many friends who are or were public school teachers. And I do not work for Crosscut. I do, however, support parents in making the best educational decisions for their children. There is no doubt that there are many children who do not excel academically or socially, and those children come from all educational backgrounds. But there are also many, many children who succeed with academics in the same variety of educational settings. The one thing that we know is that parents who are involved in their children's education tend to have more successful students in whatever educational setting. So, I support the author in being involved in her child's education in a way that she feels is appropriate.
Posted Sat, May 31, 4:17 p.m. inappropriate
RE: Actual Children: You are absolutely right that "parents who are involved in their children's education tend to have more successful students." There is no doubt at all the MM's daughter and your children have a high likelihood of success in school and life, especially if they are placed in environments that encourage academic success. You slid right over my point, though. If you have actually been in the public school classroom and observed the STUDENTS, then you should have seen the enormous burden placed on the teachers. Did you see the huge number of children whose parents are so disconnected from parenting that the children are hungry, dirty, attention-seeking, resistant, etc. These are kids who have been taught by their parents NOT to value education. Their parents are not YOU. All these kids have is school! They need an environment that supports the efforts of their teachers, that endlessly reminds them that what they do is of primary importance for their success in life. Blathering on about home schooling is practically a sin, when you consider the tasks of the Seattle elementary school teacher. I am talking about a social divide that won't go away just because people shut their eyes to it. It seems to me a minimal request that across that divide we agree that school is IMPORTANT, no matter how successful we may be in educating our personal children.
Posted Sat, May 31, 4:54 p.m. inappropriate
False Dilemma: Spike, I support your passionate appeal for support of schools and teachers. I have been in many public school classrooms and have seen the kids you speak of, who are woefully ill-equipped to learn, and who take so much energy away from the teachers and other students. This is a big thorny problem that seems to be getting worse, not better.
We should indeed support education and children who are not ours, and give our time and money to public schools, if only out of enlightened self-interest. There is a good blog over at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com where folks are talking about how to do that.
Of course that doesn't mean we can't also attend to our own kids' needs. If anything, talking about enrichment raises the bar for all parents. Wouldn't it be great if bragging rights on the playground and (water cooler) shifted from stuff to experiences?