Tales from the Steppes

2005-11-07

9:41 a.m.
Monday, November 7

I thought of my wife who was home in Torbay,
I knew that she'd kill me if she only knew,
I was courting a lassie in Harbour Le Cou
- Great Big Sea

So here are the high points of the last few days. I would say I have been slacking but that is really not true. Lack of updating merely indicates lack of free time.

• If I ever even THINK about whining about the EM's attitude, manners, behavior, etc, I should only remind myself that compared to her peers, she is really not bad.

• I stayed in a cabin with 14 "preteens", as they like to be called, "brats" as I think of them, for 2 1/2 days. And I learned rather a lot about 6th grade girls, perhaps more than I wanted to.

• I had a deaf girl and her translator in the cabin as well. I learned that the job of the translator is to translate exactly what the child signs. Including profanity. This child was so obnoxious that the teachers are recommending that she be suspended for a day.

• Her use of profanity set off the other "young ladies", who thought it was acceptable to curse at adults. Or perhaps just me. I explained otherwise but I had no walky-talkie to call for backup and had not been empowered to do anything other than lecture.

• The EM had a headache and stomachache on the second night and I needed to take her to the nurse after lights out. I suspect that these were stress-induced and I completely understand why. While I was gone, the translator was supposed to be watching my little rays of sunshine. Instead, they were so loud a teacher came and all but four were punished the next day by having to write letters of apology and explanation to the principal. Several were recommended for suspension for their part in the mayhem.

• My cabin was the only one that was singled out for punishment. I cannot decide if I am so ineffective that the kids got out of hand or perhaps the fact that the other full cabins had more than one adult (other than a translator) was part of the problem. The teachers apologized profusely for the behavior but I cannot say that I took it personally.

• Most of the children were ill-prepared for this trip and had never even been hiking, mush less camping. They were also in such poor physical shape that most found the 1 mile hike overly strenuous. Yeah, it was up a steep hill. But still, very pathetic.

• I had a good time working with the kids on how to use a biotic scale to measure a stream's health. A lot of the programs were very cool and the kids that were interested really learned a lot.

• Even with all the crap I dealt with, it was still less stressful than being at work. I yacked with the Outdoor Ed teacher a bit and we exchanged business cards. He is interested in the work I have done on nature-based play, so I am sending him the report I wrote. Even if nothing comes of this connection, which I seriously doubt, it was nice to talk to someone on the same wavelength. Sort of a validation of some sort.