In our middle school, the class participates in several trips using the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) facilities in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. These trips bring together several important aspects of our curriculum. Primarily, these trips facilitate some of the goals of our curriculum around social, emotional, and physical health. In addition, students gain skills, like map reading or safe stream crossing techniques, as well as leadership experience and increased self-confidence. Students participate in activities derived from the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Wilderness Education programs. We have a chance to use the extensive naturalists’ library that the AMC huts maintain. Students become Certified Trainers in “Leave No Trace Wilderness Ethics.” The students improve their orienteering skills using maps and compasses. In the past, we’ve taken time during these trips for activities from art and animal tracking to poetry and plant identification. We always make time for play.
 
The wilderness is transformative. We begin our school year with a focus on teambuilding, mediation, and conflict resolution. In order to participate fully on a team, each person must not only know the other group members fully, but each must also know himself or herself well and be willing to share self-reflections with others. In the mountains, a person has time and opportunity to share parts of himself or herself that he or she otherwise might not share. Also, classmates can be valued for skills and talents in areas that might not show up as readily in the classroom environment.
 
The wilderness is challenging. We train hard throughout the year in our physical education program to be ready to excel at mountain living. Still, personal challenges, weather, and differing abilities make every trip a study in compromise and empathy. People need to think about the group and picture how individual members are having an experience that may be different from their own experience. In the wilderness, you must advocate for your own needs and take care of yourself. You must also be sensitive to others. Not everyone eats the same amount, sleeps for the same length of time, or can carry the same amount of weight. In the wilderness, people must honestly self-assess and be willing to do what they can do to help the team succeed.
 
The wilderness is memorable. The year ends with a curriculum focused on transitions, saying goodbyes, and keeping people in your life even when you don’t see them every day, as we all prepare for half of our group to graduate and move on to high school (this is a two-year program for students ages 12 through 14). The mountains provide an ideal environment for a final group challenge and an idyllic place to reflect upon our year and celebrate everything we have accomplished as a team. Students create the memories that they will look back upon and the jokes that they will continue to reference long after they no longer share a classroom. We all have a final opportunity to support someone when she needs assistance and to value someone else for his strengths that sometimes go unsung. We reaffirm our confidence in our own strengths and our ability to support those with whom we travel.