Creating Life Long Learners: How To Poop In "The Wilderness" 101

The opportunities I have been fortunate enough to experience in life I have never ever taken for granted.  I've visited far away lands, made friends who don't speak English, and walked in places Jesus himself walked.  Throughout my life adventures, I have learned so much that I would have probably never learned in the classroom (like how to start a fire, or how to swear in proper Spanish).  One of these experiences was my two summers working at a residential camp in Michigan.  There I learned how to be silly, relate to kids, and I met some of the most AWESOME people I've ever met and I'm very happy to still call the majority of them "friend."  The last summer I was there I "roughed it" more than I did in the previous summer.  I opted to bathe and wash my hair in the lake on my breaks instead of using the showers at night.  The housing we had didn't have air conditioning so rather than sweat my butt off, I opted to sleep outside, in a hay field, with my sleeping bag and a citronella candle.  I tell my post college friends about these experiences and some can imagine me living like that for a summer, others believe I'm making it up.  Lucky for me, I've got pictures to prove it:

Wednesday was the last day for students before Easter Break.  There was some time at the end of the hour and rather than do busy work, I give the kids that time if they've accomplished the learning goals of the day.  This happened to be a class of sophomores (think oozing hormones).  My sophomore boys are something else.  NOTHING is kept secret.  They're so happy that I understand they have "poop schedules" and let them go when they come into my classroom asking to go to the bathroom to "drop a dos."  Over share?  Absolutely but nothing really shocks me anymore.  Especially coming from 16 year old boys.  They live to be disgusting.

During this end of class time, one of the boys told me that a bunch of the boys in that class were going to "go camping in the wilderness" over break.  This translated into one of their friend's parents have land that they were given permission to go camping on.  They asked me if I'd ever been camping before and I told them I had.  After asking them a few questions I discovered none of them have been camping before, let alone in the "wilderness" (We live in the Midwest.  There is no wilderness in the Midwest but I just didn't have the heart to break it to them) and asked me for tips.

I love the fact that I can teach things to kids that aren't necessarily found in textbooks but can only be taught by the trial and error of someone who has already had the experience.  They told me they wanted to camp without tents, sleep under the stars and have a fire.  One of them said "Ms. N. we have a tarp, and sleeping bags.  What else would you suggest?"  So I started telling them about the principles of Leave No Trace Camping.    I explained the philosophy of "Take only pictures, leave only footprints."  Then came the question I knew would eventually be asked:  "But Ms. N. we can take toilet paper right?  Cause you know, we do  have our poop schedule."  I explained biodegradable toilet paper and told them they also had the option of taking the toilet paper with them when they left.  I had earlier mentioned the fact that they needed to take a few trash bags for litter etc.

The look on these boys' faces when I talked about them taking used toilet paper home with them was priceless!  You would have thought I suggested they eat it.  I asked them if they were bringing a shovel.  They looked at each other puzzled and said "No...why?"  I then explained the delicate art of relieving one's self in "the wilderness."  I explained the process of "digging a hole" doing their business and covering the hole back up.  As I was explaining all this one of them got out a piece of paper and started writing everything down saying "Slow down Ms. N. this is good stuff, I've got to write this down. We're going to have to take these notes with us guys."  We covered pooping in the woods, digging a fire pit, how to properly have a fire in "the wilderness", and how to inspect the land for rocks, roots (again which I say like "foot" which I guess is totally hilarious to these kids) and other debris so they wouldn't have a bumpy sleeping experience.  The bell rang and we were still talking.  They went to grab their books off their desks, kind of whispered to each other and came back over to my desk and asked, "Hey Ms. N do you want to go with us? Or at least go with us to set up?  We could use someone with your skills and knowledge of the wilderness."  I assured them they would be fine without me (I don't even like to take these kids to the library, I'm not going into "the wilderness" with them).

I cannot wait until Monday to hear how they fared.  As much as they like to talk about pooping, I'm sure they will all have several stories about their "digging a hole" stories.

They drive me absolutely to the brink of insanity (16 year old students) most of the time, and I would normally never ever say "I can't wait for Monday" but I feel like these stories will make for a fantastic Monday.

Peace.