Children That Play Outside in All Weather Grow Up Resilient

Published January 10th, 2014
By Andrew McMartin, Executive Director at the p.i.n.e. project in Toronto, ON

It seems like an obvious statement, so why don’t kids play outside in challenging weather nearly as much as they used to? Why are schools keeping kids inside at recess when the temperature gets too cold? What kind of adult will this type of childhood experience create?

Most challenges, risks, and hurdles are swiftly removed from childhood in efforts to prevent anything bad from happening to the children that we love.

As Winter ebbs and flows, with temperatures ranging from minus 25 to plus 10 in the past few weeks, we’ve experienced a wonderful range of opportunities with the programs we run. Challenges and opportunities. From freezing weather with blustery winds, to rain and floods in the parks where we work, to massive snowstorms full of amazing forts and fun!

Imagine children that have grown up playing outside in all manner of challenging conditions, in all seasons of the year. Imagine how they’d be different than kids taught to come inside when it’s raining, or cold. Imagine how they’d be different from kids that find entertainment from the TV, computer or video games.

Kids who play outside in challenging weather are more positive, more creative, and more adaptable. They don’t let challenges stop them. They rise to challenges and find ways to carry on in spite of them. And that’s just their baseline. It’s nothing special to them. It’s normal.

It used to be normal for all kids.

Add mentors and role models with smiles on their faces, skills to keep everyone warm and happy(ish), challenging questions to keep children growing and children become even more incredible! Especially if parents, family, and community are all making these types of experiences a normal reality for their children, rather than preventing them from going outside in all weather.

Imagine children that have grown up playing outside in all manner of challenging conditions, in all seasons of the year. Imagine how they’d be different than kids taught to come inside when it’s raining, or cold.

Challenging weather creates real and perceived risks, and so risk creates opportunity for growth. Because risks teach. They have real consequences that ask us to be aware; aware of ourselves, others, and nature.

This type of risk is a rare opportunity for children today. Most challenges, risks, and hurdles are swiftly removed from childhood in efforts to prevent anything bad from happening to the kids we love. But this may be robbing children of life’s challenges and not preparing them for the realities of being an adult.

Kids don’t have to be positive, creative, or adaptable if there are no challenges. With no challenges, there are no consequences. What kind of adult will result from a childhood without challenges or consequences? Yikes is all I have to say.

The great thing is, it’s easy to switch this up.

One way is to just go outside. Go out in all conditions, and if you aren’t comfortable doing so, bring your kids to others that are. That’s community, and a “village raising a child”, so to speak.

Amazing things happen outside.

In one day of our programs last week, our day (five different programs for ages 4-10) included:

• Watching a Barrel Owl hunting small mammals in a meadow

• Making herbal teas from natural ingredients found locally

• Finding and exploring a Deer kill site, and the tracks of Coyotes, and various scavengers

• Finding and exploring a Muskrat kill site, and wondering who might have been the predator

• Giving thanks and gratitude for all the lessons nature provides

• Smoking a deer hide to make soft leather for projects

• Making pine pitch to glue an ax head on to a handle

• Finding an Owl or possibly a Hawk pellet and dissecting it to find clues

• Finding a birds nest and investigating whose nest it was

• Playing tons of games

• Eating snack and lunch outside

• Tracking and acting like animals to understand them better, and the lessons they teach us

• So much more I can’t fit it all in here…

So go outside. And keep going out there, no matter the weather. And keep sending your kids out there, or to us regardless of what may be happening out there. (Remember, children grow up healthy all over the world. In arctic conditions, in deserts, and in the tropics. -50C to plus 45C, and they do just fine).

Don’t let fears get in the way.

Get out there, explore, and see what you find. Sit still for long periods of time and take a break from the schedule and routine of a busy life.

Ask questions and search for answers, but don’t worry if you don’t find them!!! Just be as curious as little kids!

Go out in all weather, dress for it well, and make this a normal thing for yourself, and for children growing up. They’ll grow up resilient, adaptable, creative, positive and aware, things they’ll need to face their future in a good way.

Educating the Whole Child

What exactly does it mean to be intelligent?   Often it means something along the lines of smart, intellectually agile, or having earned high marks on tests in school.   Historically, education seemed to identify “reading, writing, and arithmetic” as the core aspects of learning, often loosely categorizing learners as tending to either be strong in math/sciences or in humanities.  

But human beings are much more richly nuanced than this.   In 1983, Dr.  Howard Gardner (a 1971 Harvard graduate, Harvard professor of education, speaker, and author) published the controversial book Frames of Mind:  The Theory of Multiple Intelligences in which he challenged the long-accepted paradigm of two “tracks” of students:  those inclined towards mathematics, and those strong in language.   Instead, in his original publication Gardner identified seven types of intelligence, and through his subsequent work identified an additional two realms of intelligence for a total of nine:  bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, intrapersonal, musical, visual-spatial, and existential.

Another perspective of intelligence comes from author, psychologist, and science journalist Dr.  Daniel Goleman.  Goleman’s internationally best-selling 1995 the book entitled Emotional Intelligence develops the argument that a person’s Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, in actuality does not reliably indicate future life success.   Instead, Goleman asserts that IQ contributes at best twenty percent to the factors that determine life success, leaving eighty percent or more to “other conditions”.  Goleman expounds upon an idea he calls “Emotional Intelligence” or  “EQ” - the ability, capacity, or skill to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups.  Referring to numerous studies that support his assertions, this type of intelligence, he explains, is the factor that allows an individual of “average” IQ to experience higher-than-average success in personal relationships, in school, in the workplace, and in the community.

Gardner and Goleman’s work, while independent of one another, is complementary in some regards.   Each body of work maintains that the human being is a more complex organism than was once believed, and consequently carries implications for what it means to be human, to work cooperatively, to communicate, or to educate.  In fact, both of these bodies of work have generated recent efforts and approaches in mainstream education in the form of “differentiated learning” and/or special classes intended to develop the “whole child,” thereby strengthening students’ emotional intelligence.

For one hundred years, Waldorf schools developed on Steiner’s insights have aimed to educate the thinking, feeling, and willing realms of the developing child, often described as an education “from the inside out.”   Long before Gardner or Goleman appeared on the education scene, Waldorf schools were fostering a wide variety of students’ individual capacities (capacities that Gardner later identified as the individual spheres of intelligence), as well as being together in a close-knit learning community that allows for - or perhaps even necessitates - the development of “Emotional Intelligence” as described by Goleman.   Even the seemingly simple act of the child making eye contact with the teacher while shaking hands cultivates something in the children that influences the manner in which they encounter and interact with their fellow human beings.   Perhaps this is why Waldorf school graduates have repeatedly distinguished themselves to college professors, secured prestigious internships, and so on.  

Many years ago, as my first Waldorf class was nearing the completion of eighth grade, I hosted a parent evening specifically to address the decision many families were contemplating:  whether to send their child to the Waldorf high school or not.   Some parents worried about readiness for college.  Some parents voiced concern about continuing to pay tuition rather than saving it for college.  One father whose eldest daughter was going through the college acceptance process spoke up. 

 “I know that we (his family) have been very fortunate to not feel we had to choose between paying for [his daughter’s] high school tuition or being able to send her to college.  But knowing what I know now about how the experience of K-12 Waldorf education has positively shaped my daughter, if I did have to choose I would choose to continue to invest in her Waldorf education.”

He went on to explain that though her grades were on the higher side of average, they were not exceptional compared to some other college applicants, but that she had been accepted into every school she applied to, as well as offered significant scholarship money in many cases.  The feedback that both he and his daughter had received from various college admissions processes was that it was her diversity of skills/experiences, the way she carried and presented herself as a human being, and the manner in which she interacted with college admissions personnel that made her stand out from the sea of applicants.  

Though the work of Gardner, Goleman, and Steiner were independent of one another, it is evident that Steiner/Waldorf Education’s approach to learning and human development hit upon something profound in the realm of education:  educating the whole child.

Submitted by Elisabeth Tarsio, Grade 2 Teacher

Honoring Doctor King’s Legacy

The Sandpoint Waldorf School celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy in multiple ways, from community service to essays and presentations.  We are in session on the holiday that commemorates his work, so that classes can engage in community service.  The school believes that community service is the best way to honor and carry-on Martin Luther King’s commitment  to helping the underserved.

Community service projects include spending time with seniors, assisting with snow removal for seniors in need, volunteering at the Bonner County Food Bank, and volunteering time at the Panhandle Animal Shelter.  We value our partnership with Alpine Vista, Sandpoint Area Seniors, the Bonner County Food Bank and PAS – we are grateful that we can help support these important area organizations.

Our assembly this Friday will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King. The eighth graders researched and wrote essays about Dr. King’s life and drew his portrait over Christmas Break.  At the assembly they will be presenting some of what they have learned.

 The portrait above was drawn by eighth grader, Briar Williams, and  below is an excerpt  from an essay by eighth grader, Ada King. Both of these capture the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr., who continues to inspire us to serve all our fellow human beings and to reach out in understanding and respect to everyone. 

In 1963, Martin Luther held a protest against the segregation of restrooms/dressing rooms and discrimination in the employment process. The Birmingham police were less lenient towards the protesters and used violent means to deter the crowd. Pictures were taken of the police brutally attacking the protesters with high-pressure fire fighting hoses, batons, and dogs. When President John F. Kennedy heard of this injustice, he introduced a bill to congress called the Civil Rights Bill, which would end legal discrimination in public places. When the public heard of this, they held rallies. The biggest of them being the March On Washington. Here, Martin Luther delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. It inspired many and continues to do so to this day.

Throughout his years of supporting civil rights, Martin Luther was concerned about the lack of representation of the poor in politics and the lack of public services to fit their basic human needs. Thus, in 1968, King Jr. made the impuissance of the poor a focal point of his protesting by creating the Poor People's Campaign. On one of his campaigns, he traveled to Memphis to protest sanitation workers' wages. This is another rarely taught about platform of Martin Luther. Not only did he want equal rights for Black or African American people, he was quite plainly, anti-capitalist. In a speech in 1966 he stated:

We are saying that something is wrong … with capitalism…. There must be better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. Call it what you may, call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.

On Apr. 4, 1968, Martin Luther was assassinated by an assassin's bullet while standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel. As if sensing his own sudden and untimely death, the night before, Martin Luther delivered a speech at a local church saying, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Racial injustice is one of America's original sins, one rooted in the very political structure of the heartland. To stand up to something so entrenched in the majority of the White American population's ideology is revolutionary and seemingly impossible, which is part of why Martin Luther lead such an inspirational life. America's racism is not merely history to remember, it still runs rampant wherever it can to this day. America must not memorialize Martin Luther's activism as something of the past, but as something that could be applied today.

 Martin Luther King Jr. left a legacy in his wake. Although he did not live past forty years, he led one of the most effective and change-bringing movements in the history of America. He made an enormous difference in the way that the issue of racial discrimination is viewed in America and introduced concepts of peaceful protest to the Western world. His persuasiveness forced legislative change that challenged the way that European American and African American people interacted. Martin Luther inspired many to stand up for their rights and continues to do so today.

We hope you will join us on Friday at assembly, and if you want to assist with any of the community service projects please contact your teacher or me.

Submitted by Julie McCallan & Ada King, Grade 8 student