Flaming Arrows On The Wild Side

“C’mon, Alex, we’re going to shoot flaming arrows to start a fire!”

Even though he’d been dragging on that early morning trip to Dyken Pond, whining about the cold Autumn weather, Alex couldn’t resist that greeting from his new homeschooled friends.  In about a nanosecond, he was gone, not to be seen again until the late afternoon pick up.

It was his first day at the Roots of Learning Tamakoce Wilderness Program where he would spend one day a week during an 8-week session in:

…a course designed to bring our children into deep intimate relationships with the environment and the animals who are so greatly effected by our lifestyle choices. Through exploration, story telling and skills based games, the children learn how to co-exist and interact in positive ways with the natural world. All this while having a lot of fun and learning ancient ways of survival.

When I picked up Alex, he was taking turns shooting the hand-made bows and arrows, while discussing plans to perfect the flaming arrow mechanism.  Not bad for a kid who most days seems to be surgically attached to his GameBoy DSi.

Ironically, just the night before, at our Cub Scout Den meeting, I’d been asking about archery programs for Alex as most of the boys had already earned the archery-related badge at the summer camp.  When I asked if I could arrange an archery class for Alex to earn the badge, I was told that this is a strict no-no.  Archery is only allowed under strict supervision at Cub Scout facilities.

I’m a big fan of the Cub Scout program, but it’s these kinds of restrictions found in increasingly hyper-supervised organizations, that drive me nuts. 

Three school years ago, when we started homeschooling, I asked, “Who wants wild children?”   At the time, I wasn’t quite ready to embrace non-conformity, and didn’t really appreciate the value of In Defense of Childhood: Protecting Kids’ Inner Wildness:

“Chris Mercogliano’s provocative meditation on childhood sets up a dialectic among maple-sugaring, swan-diving in forest pools, slingshots, and adventuring on the one hand, and the adult-supervised ‘play’ of the LittleLeague, Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Playground Movement on the other.”–John Taylor Gatto, author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

After a long period of deschooling, slowly shedding some of the in-the-school-box mindset, I’ve come to a more relaxed (relatively!) approach to homeschooling.  Meanwhile, I’ve started expanding Alex’s learning village with a view to developing the whole child, and not just his academic strengths.  

I must confess, however, that when I registered Alex in this wilderness survival class, I was only hoping he’d get a little exercise and fresh air while I got a little time to myself.

Instead, I got that, and much more.  Over the session, I’ve seen Alex mature, a little, while learning how to get along with new friends in a mixed-age setting.  I’ve also seen the triumph on his face after spending the night in a shelter that he built himself, with some help from friends.

I’m impressed, grateful, and I can’t wait for the next session!

More photos on Flickr: Wilderness Program

Related Articles:

• Who wants wild children?

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