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Article Excerpt
AT 16-TOO YOUNG TO BE SO MEAN--ASHLEY Frequently let her claws fly in class. Scowls appeared at random, over slights no one could recall delivering. Her general disposition often kept the desks around hers vacant while the rest filled with students.
It was January of her junior year at Balboa High School in San Francisco, and the principal had just taken Ashley out of the communication-arts program that would have united her and two disruptive friends in the same classroom until graduation. Only 13 percent of Balboa's junior class that year scored at or above the national average on the standardized reading and math tests--results that the San Francisco Unified School District called "nothing less than a crisis." Ashley, one impediment to learning that could be easily removed, was placed instead in the two-year environmental-education program. She had no friends there, no interest whatsoever in "tree huggers" or the out-of-doors, and an inclination to punish others for her exile. She'd lost access to her girlfriends, both of whom were also African American, only to find herself in a mix of Filipinos, Samoans, Chinese, an East Indian, a Cambodian, a Guatemalan, a Nicaraguan, a Palestinian, an Anglo, and an African American. Twenty-eight students, all a constant reminder to Ashley of how little she wanted to be where she was.
"I didn't like it; it wasn't me at all," says Ashley a year after her forced relocation. "I missed my friends. I didn't pay attention. I didn't come to school. And then I got suspended.
"When she was readmitted, her exasperated teachers told her that she had to shape up, contribute constructively to class discussions, do her assignments, and come on what remained of the program's half-dozen annual camping trips. "I thought those trips were going to be a waste of my time," recalls the tall and tawny 17-year-old.
Then she had an encounter with a bear.
It was spring in Yosemite, and Ashley was sharing a tent with Iris and Seka, both Samoan and possessed of contagiously boisterous, in-your-face personalities that could stand up to her own. They weren't exactly friends, but they got along.
In the middle of the night, Ashley woke to heavy breathing near her head. She froze in her sleeping bag as a very large creature snorted outside the tent. When it passed in front of the screened flap, its furry bulk and outline were unmistakable.
She tried to wake Seka and Iris with loud whispers, fearing that too much noise would provoke an attack. They thought she was up to her old tricks, trying to cause trouble. Seka growled at her to "stop trippin'," leave them alone, and go back to sleep, then took her own advice and rolled over. Ashley remained bug-eyed till the 6:30 wake-up call. When she announced that she'd seen a bear, no one believed her. The teachers were sure she was just acting out. The students had gotten good at ignoring her provocations.
The next night, however, the heavy breather returned with her cub. They were noisy this time, breaking into the bear box and stealing the campers' food. Others witnessed the rampage and by morning the camp was abuzz. Students commiserated with Ashley about how "hella scary" it had been; teachers apologized for not taking her seriously. It was a turning point. For the first time, she begat, to feel part of the group.
Balboa's Wilderness Arts
and Literacy Collaborative (WALC) is one of thousands of environmental-education programs around the country that take an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach to learning. In WALC (pronounced "walk"), lessons include geology at Mt. Lassen and Joshua Tree National Park; precipitation at Lake Tahoe; and ocean ecosystems at parks and aquariums along the Pacific Coast.
Though the Bush administration argues environmental education is "ineffective," the data tell a different story. In four major studies for the State Education and Environment Roundtable (a group of top teachers from 12 state departments of education), researchers found that students in these programs performed better on standardized tests and had fewer discipline problems as well as an increased enthusiasm for learning.
Sounds good, but in the classroom it gets more complicated. The WALC class of2003 is full of extraordinary youth with problems no different from those of the rest of Balboa: One's father is in jail, another's food stamps run low at the end of the month. There are students with woefully below-grade reading and math skills, immigration problems, or trouble doing homework and getting enough sleep because they have jobs every day after school. One student had seen the inside of juvenile court by middle school, for stabbing a classmate in the neck with a pencil.
Given...
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