We spent our day today learning about "surviving in the woods." The program, presented by naturalists from the Cincinnati Parks Department's LaBoiteaux Woods, led our students in an experience based on the book, Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen.
The book tells how a routine journey turned into a life-threatening and life-changing experience. The central character, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, is stranded alone at a lake deep in the Canadian wilderness for fifty-four days. A small plane, carrying Brian from his mother's home in Hampton, New York, to the oil fields in Canada where his father works, crashes after the pilot dies in flight from a heart attack.
Our students learned a great deal from their experience today. They built survival shelters, and tried to start a fire using flint and steel. They gathered tinder and kindling and built small firest themselves. A hike through the woods gave them an opportunity to discover what might, or might not, serve as food and water sources, should they find themselves lost for an extended period. Too, a great deal of our day was spent on learning how to not become lost in the first place.
They worked together, listened and participated with enthusiasm, and made us very proud. It felt like a very good day.
