The Ripple Effect

The Voice of TEAM  Number 16 Spring 1999

T.E.A.M.: Teachers of Experiential and Adventure Methodology


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"From Our Students" 
by Mark Zanoni 

(The following story comes from a school trip in which 5 behavior disorder students from Park Forest Academy in Park Forest, IL took part in the "Anashinaabe Pathways -- canoe trails of the Ojibwa" program through Northern Quest Learning Center in Three Lakes, WI. For more information on programs like this contact program director Mark Zanoni at: 7273 Chicken-in-the-Woods Rd., Three Lakes, WI 54562 (715)546-2329))

We arrived at a sheltering point of land at the confluence of the Wisconsin and St. Germain Rivers a little after noon after a lazy paddle from our put in. The day was bright and clear, a perfect day for early fall in the northwoods. We took necessary items from our boats and headed through the thick underbrush on the eastern shore of the St. 
Germain River to a flat and relatively open spot near the river bank. After a gathering our little group of 5 students (from Park Forest Academy in Park Forest, IL) and 3 staff into a circle, we began to talk about this place where we sat. Many years ago this was the site of a bustling Ojibwa community. People lived and worked and played here, most likely traveling south along the WI to an area around the present day city of Stevens Point, WI to spend winter in a slightly warmer and less difficult place. What would people need to live here with no grocery, hardware or drug stores? No T.V. or radio? No cars of airplanes? How would that feel? What would you do? After discussing this for a short time, students found a comfortable place to sit or lie down. They relaxed by listening to the wind and then listened to a story from the people of this place, one very possibly told here years ago. Then, taking journals in hand they walked to a place where they could be alone, to listen and write.

It was just a short paddle then to our campsite around the bend. The students learned to set up tents and other camp items, helped build a wind break using our canoes to shelter us around our fire which they set up after gathering wood from the area, and settled down to our first night on the WI. Our little group huddled close together around the fire, happy to have the added warmth and wind protection of the other group members. For a time, city lives seemed very far away indeed. Simple things like community and family, fire, food, wind and water were much more important, and much more real. We talked about this reality for some time, learning about the healing power of laughter in the process and then returned to the warmth of our sleeping bags for a much needed rest.

The rest of the week was spent learning, playing and living together, putting into practice the lessons of the stories and working with the materials nature provides for her people to make fires, containers and other tools. We played games to learn about the lives of animals and explored the woods and water of this place in the few hours of light that we had each day. Most importantly we became a family in that time together, and when we gathered in a circle on the last day for one last lesson and story, all of we were very different and much richer than on the day we arrived.

The students who participated in this experience summed up their new perspectives and experiences like this:

"The water is my favorite place to go because I tell it my feeling about it. The water appreciates it. Even though at the beginning of the trip I didn't feel this way about the water. Because I didn't know how important it was. Now the water gives a thousand waves to me, I like to hear the sloshing sounds as the water rushes up against the stumps." - Anthony, Park Forest Academy, Fall '97

"...Then when Mother and Father Earth talk to me they say, 'Jon you have to help me, somehow people just keep trying to kill me. They are just making me weaker and weaker by the candy wrapper that gets thrown on the ground. Please Jon pick up the food wrappers. While you are on this trip make yourself at home. You can build a campfire just don't use live things. I will provide things for you. Just think about it. Her trees are our shelter, her ground is our food, her water is our liquid, her trees remove poison gases from our polluted air. If people keep polluting our air we will all die because of other people's actions...Just look at the water. It is all brownish colored and we have to purify it." - Jonathon, Park Forest Academy, Fall '97

"When I look in the mirror I see trees and animals and I see me. Mother nature is a great thing to be observed and to sit back and watch. Where you sleep is mother nature. What you eat is mother nature." - DeWayne, Park Forest Academy, Fall '97

"I think I accomplished a lot of goals and then some. One of the most important goals I had for myself was to be patient and being on task and not losing everything. I wanted to be on task and be able to follow directions and have a great time." - DeMarkus, Park Forest Academy, Fall '97

"When I look up or even when I am walking there is beauty. Like this tree and how the trees dance with the wind and I realize better how these things live. When you look, it feels like it's alive too! I know now you can eat the tree and how important it is to let these things live their lives like we do." - Dantriell, Park Forest Academy, Fall '97