I just wanted to take a few minutes to promote what sounds like a great new Outdoor Education School based in Troutville, Virginia. A couple weeks ago, my conservationist friend Liza Field told me about a friend of hers who is, or rather was until just recently, a teacher in Fincastle as well as being a fellow hiker and lover of the outdoors.
In addition to their normal studies, Tim Miller was regularly taking his kids outdoors and teaching them about the natural environment as well. Over time, he became frustrated by the SOL test score driven system that is predominant in the schools now and decided to branch out in another direction. Along with his business partner and equally qualified co-instructor Lisa Moyer, Tim and she have recently started their own outdoor education program in the mountains of Virginia.
While wanting to help teach kids the knowledge they need to do well on standardized tests, they also want to teach them practical skills, self-reliance (and teamwork), and how to think for themselves, as well as learn how they fit into their communities and the larger world, and what their impacts on that world are - using the challenges and setting of the outdoors as a classroom.
If you have children who could benefit from this type of learning, and any could, please take a look at Tim’s website here, and particularly at the Mission Statement, Schedule, and Courses. They can be contacted through the website or at muddysquirrelinfo@gmail.com
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