Classroom Time: A Look at the Mountain School Pre-Trip Visit

by Katie Tozier.

While teaching Mountain School at North Cascades Institute’s Environmental Learning Center, it’s easy to forget the world outside of our remote community. Every Monday and Wednesday, a bus arrives and drops off fifty or sixty students, who lug their suitcases, backpacks and sleeping bags up to campus in ankle-high converse, fashionable rain boots, and sock-monkey hats. After orientation, lunch, and some gearing up, we spend the next forty-eight hours studying under the constant gaze of snow-capped peaks, western red cedars, and a Pacific Northwest mist. On the third and final day of Mountain School, we strive to connect our experiences back to the larger community and greater ecosystem – the world. But this can be challenging. Living and working in the remote community bubble of Mountain School makes it easy to forget about the world students leave when they board the bus.

Recently, I had the pleasure of leaving this community for a short time and venturing down valley to the classrooms of schools sending their students to Mountain School. Weeks before students arrive at the Environmental Learning Center, Mountain School Instructors visit them at their school, attempt to get them riled up about their visit, and share some basic ‘you-should-know’ information to help them prepare. This information (ironically enough) is conveyed through an impressive PowerPoint slideshow – packed with pictures of towering mountain peaks, cute baby animals, and students in their bunk beds! Recently, my task was to do five pre-trip presentations between Centennial Elementary School (Mt. Vernon), Samish Elementary (Sedro-Woolley), Columbia Elementary (Bellingham), and Cedar River Montessori (Renton). As I drove down valley, reviewing the slideshow script in my head, I thought I knew what to expect walking into the classrooms. But what awaited me was a little surprising.

Unfailingly, the first thing I think after walking out of a pre-trip visit is, “Classroom teachers are saints.” With the stage set for learning inside four walls, classroom teachers are constantly striving to creatively engage their students, who sit behind small, decorated desks. Contrarily, at Mountain School we are outside, hiking, skipping, hiding, and tiptoeing in an environment that’s constantly changing around us – where there’s ample opportunity to interpret and learn from the landscape! Yet there I stood, in front of a room filled with fifty faces, illuminated by the glow of a slideshow reflecting on a white board.

“Mountain Schoolers, you get to come to a very special place soon. Who knows where we will be for Mountain School?” They reply enthusiastically, “The mountains! The snow! The Cascades!” Yes, yes --- all true.

After some whittling, we finally conclude that Mountain School is located in North Cascades National Park.

“Who can name the two other National Parks in the State of Washington?” I ask.

Without fail, every class announces, “Yellowstone!” Yes, Yellowstone is a National Park (the first, in fact, designated in 1872), but alas, it is in the State of Wyoming. I try to prompt them by asking if they know the image on most Washington State license plates (fishing for Mount Rainier).

“Oooh! I know!” A confident hand shoots up, “The Evergreen State!”

Needless to say, it takes us a little bit of time to recognize Mt. Rainier and Olympic as the two other, relatively local, National Parks.

As we progress through the slideshow of dramatic peaks, high alpine lakes, moss-covered trails, mountain goats, baby bears, and salal berries, it’s only a matter of time before a hesitant hand raises, and begs the question, “Do you have bathrooms at Mountain School?”

They gasp and a hush falls over the room. I smile, “Well, we spend some of our time indoors right?”

“Yes!” they reply, eagerly.

“We have bathrooms (with toilets and showers) inside,” I add.

“YESSS!” they exclaim and cheer together.

“But where do we spend most of our time at Mountain School?” I ask them.

“Outside?” they reply, hesitantly.

“And do we have bathrooms outside?” I ask.

 “I don’t know – are there Honey Buckets at Mountain School?” asks one student. (Honey Buckets, I learned after relocating to the Pacific Northwest, are the port-a-potties of choice around here.)

“There are no Honey Buckets at Mountain School,” I reply. Exclamations of ‘uhhhh, grosss, ewwwww, nooo!’ rise up from the students, as classroom teachers smile on from the sides of the room. “We like to go to the bathroom outside at Mountain School, using something we call... The Nature’s Calling Kit!” After some explaining – they accept the notion that they’ll have to cross that bridge when they get here.

“Yes – but can we bring our iPods to Mountain School?” Classroom teachers often jump on this question right away, “No, we’ve already discussed this – if I see any electronics at Mountain School, you can expect to have them confiscated.” Suppressed sighs and groans circulate through the students.

But moments later, one asks, “But what about cameras?!” This question creates a nice segue into a discussion of Leave No Trace ethics. Since, of course, Mountain School is in North Cascades National Park, we strive to adhere to Leave No Trace principles.

“At Mountain School, we abide by the rule, leave only footprints, take only pictures. So yes, cameras are welcome at Mountain School.”

“Yaaayyyy!” they exclaim once more. But inevitably, the question arises, “What if my iPod has my camera on it? Like... they’re the same thing?” I guess things have really changed since I was in Elementary School.

“Can we bring Hot Cheetos to Mountain School?” I explained our policy against snack food in the lodges (so as not to bait small rodents inside), and didn’t think much of this question until I walked into another classroom and heard it again - verbatim! Naturally, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Are Hot Cheetos the new rage?” Sure enough, I walked into a third classroom and found students indulging in their snacks... Hot Cheetos! “They’re so good!” they explained with red fingers and faces. As I walked out of the final pre-trip classroom, towards the Institute’s Prius, I smiled, “Hot Cheetos, huh? Who knew?”

I sat for a minute and pictured the steep terrain, green water, and dense forests of Mountain School that I had vacated the past few days. While brief stints into civilization can be most enjoyable, I missed my mountain community and looked forward to their welcoming arms. So I wondered, what if bringing students to Mountain School could replace Hot Cheetos as the new rage? What if their backyard -the Cascades- became their new passion? Or National Parks? What if their experiences at Mountain School prompted them to think differently about the world and their role in caring for that world? That’s our hope at least. But because it’s so easy to forget that (at least for the time being) Hot Cheetos are pretty exciting, it’s important for instructors to get down to the classrooms and meet students in their reality. Connecting student experiences at Mountain School to their real worlds is just another reason that Pre-Trips are so important --- for students and instructors. Otherwise – who knows what will supersede Hot Cheetos? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for positive affects for environmental stewardship set in motion through Mountain School. 

Leading photo of graduate student Alex Patia giving a pre-trip lesson. Photo by Erin Soper.