Transcriber: Noelle Hayes Reviewer: Aijia Yang
So, I spent my childhood traveling through time.
On most days, I explored places from different periods of history.
One morning, I walked through an old fort with a moat in Savannah, Georgia.
Another day I spent with dinosaur fossils sticking out of
the rocks in northeast Utah.
One afternoon I boarded an old ship
and threw pretend crates of tea into Boston Harbor.
You see from the ages of 6 to 18,
I lived in an RV full time with my single mom,
volunteering and exploring at the state and national parks.
(applause)
My mother has a deep love for the environment,
and wanted to make sure that I had the best possible opportunities
for hands-on learning. She was concerned that
I’d miss out on the social and fundamental lessons I learned in school.
So each year I completed workbooks
and was given standard testing to keep up with my peers.
As we visited natural wonders and met people from all over,
everything seemed to fall into place.
I spent 12 years getting hands on experience with history, culture,
astronomy, botany and geology.
I did this by visiting and volunteering at parks,
historic sites and wildlife refuges.
I was always learning because the world was my school.
For some people, the state and national parks are just the tourist attractions.
For me, they were my primary classroom.
I interviewed rangers, watched documentaries
and attended interpretive lectures.
I became immersed in all of my lessons as I absorbed the actual sounds, sights,
smells, and feel of each location.
We traveled to 44 states in the U.S. and visited five countries
in North and South America.
Our love for the parks was so great that we wrote
a book about it, which was a learning experience in itself.
By the time I was 15, after traveling so many miles
and recording our adventures, I grew tired of visiting parks.
My mother’s enthusiasm never waned, however.
I recall one time when visiting a historic fort, I complained.
Not another cannon firing. She didn’t have much sympathy for me.
A few days afterwards, we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park in
the southeast corner of New Mexico, and my worldview shifted.
Suddenly, my love for exploring new places was reinvigorated.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park brought me to a place before time.
We took a long elevator ride down into the caverns and stepped out into
the dark, cold air.
It was riveting, seeing the giant stalagmites rising from below and
the chandeliers of stalactites hanging from above.
It is also full of fossils from ages
before the dinosaurs even walked the Earth.
Being below the surface of our planet led me to think about
environmental damage and the changes we’re experiencing today
and how the earth will survive with or without us.
At one point I was so absorbed with peering down a vast pitch black hole,
I suddenly realized. I’d lost track of my mom.
I learned the hard way that cell phones do not work when you are
754 feet below the surface.
After about 30 minutes of stumbling through the labyrinth of caves,
I finally found my mom, above ground shopping for mugs at the gift shop.
So what makes this style of learning different than being in the classroom?
Today when almost all learning is achieved through video or reading,
both of which can easily contain misinformation,
it is even more important for students to learn from as many avenues of information
as possible, namely the census.
Before we visit places, we usually read about them.
For most students, that is where learning stops.
If I had only read about Ellis Island,
I wouldn’t have understood the impression that the huge building has on a newcomer.
If I’d only watched videos on the cliff dwellings of the Southwest,
I would have missed the importance of
an echoing valley that brings warning of visitors,
weather and wildlife into the canyon.
If I hadn't been to the Galapagos,
I wouldn't have seen how the animals there have no fear of humans whatsoever.
By connecting these dots, each of these observations helped to cement
the experience of place and explain some of
the many events that happened throughout history.
The more avenues of information you have about an event,
the more likely it is to develop a balanced viewpoint.
I believe children can receive a world class education by having the state
and national parks as their classroom.
And you can find national parks in over a hundred countries around the world.
I know that most people aren't as fortunate as I was to have
a parent who introduced me to so many places.
It’s still possible to take weekend trips or vacations to explore
the national parks.
You don’t even need to bring anything to a park to plan a lesson.
Most parks have the Junior Ranger program,
which provides a booklet that has visitors explore the sites,
talk to a Ranger and earn a badge.
The best type of knowledge retention comes from in-person experiential
learning that involves all the senses.
The parks can provide all of this and more because they make learning fun
and action packed.
Not only that,
visiting sites will cement learning
in a way that in-class lessons cannot compare to because they offer
a limited experience.
What greater way of bringing people,
places and events to life than physically participating in them?
So pack up your car and add purpose to your learning. Put the parks in your life.