Summer camp is a time to get away from the ordinary routine of school, homework and chores. It’s an opportunity to meet new friends and try new things. The setting is fresh and the scenery is different, which somehow opens a kid’s mind to see the world in a new light. Maybe it has something to do with being away from your family and teachers. It could have something to do with camp food. However, I like to think it has more to do with the immersion in a natural setting where you can hear the wind moving through the trees during the day and the bugs composing a symphony at night.

In Trinity, Texas, about 90 miles northeast of Houston where the Trinity River widens to become Lake Livingston, the YMCA owns and maintains 800 acres of lake-front forest, which is divided into two youth camps, Cullen and Olympia, leased by theHouston Independent School District from September to May. Students in fifth grade throughout the district are given the opportunity to attend a four-day, overnight environmental education camp in the middle of the East Texas tall pines during the school year. Instead of attending classes on campus, students arise every morning from bunk beds in a wooden cabin set on a hill below towering deciduous and conifer trees. They dress in the filtered light of early morning and walk with their program leader a mile and a half uphill to the dining hall for a nutritious family-style breakfast. The meal is brought to the table in bowls and students pass food around the table until everyone has had a chance to be served. As students have no access to snacks or vending machines, breakfast is one of only three meals offered each day. After breakfast, the campers are fueled for a full day of activities.

Crockett Elementary Charter School is the second smallest elementary in Houston ISD, tucked in an industrialized community of the First Ward. Ninety-seven percent of the its 400 students are Hispanic. Located just northwest of downtown near Houston Avenue at Washington Avenue, Crockett is representative of Houston’s inner-city Hispanic enclaves where students’ homes border highly-traveled rail lines, pipe distribution warehouses and rice processing facilities. All of the neighborhood is developed with the exception of a city park that sits on a corner lot. But the park is small, dilapidated and sparsely planted with Bermuda and St. Augustine grass and several old and unhealthy pecan trees. Needless to say, there is not much chance to be at one with nature in this part of Houston. My students don’t have the chance to leave the city very often, either. Their parents work a lot and when they do go out, it’s usually to a family member’s house or to the movies. So when I received the packet of information from the HISD Outdoor Education Center, I saw a unique opportunity to take the kids into the Texas wilderness.

For most fifth grade students in HISD, this would be the first time not only to sleep overnight in the woods, but to be away from their homes and family for an extended period of time. In fact, out of the 40 students from Crockett that were invited, only 25 were able to return signed permission slips from protective parents. The experiences these students would have at the Outdoor Education Center would be a step toward independence.

The HISD Outdoor Education Center has hosted student groups for 29 years. With a staff of 20, Carol King manages four full-time teachers and 16 programs leaders (similar to camp counselors) who serve an average of 115 students per week for a total of nearly 3,000 HISD students every year. The program focuses on self-esteem, personal growth, environmental awareness, cultural appreciation and team building. Another important component of the program is natural sciences. Since the introduction of the re-designed state assessment tool last year, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, all fifth-grade students in Texas are now expected to have some knowledge of applied science. The science-based instruction and exposure to nature that students receive at the Outdoor Education Center is more important than ever in preparation for the state test in April.

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We arrived by school bus at the Outdoor Education Center along with students from two other HISD elementary schools just in time to eat lunch in the camp cafeteria. After lunch, my students were combined with students from the other schools into a large group of boys and girls. From these large groups, smaller groups of about 10 were formed and assigned to a program leader. For the next four days, my students would eat, sleep, play and learn to work together with complete strangers.

In order to facilitate team building, the groups were invited by the program leaders to participate in a ropes course challenge. Willing participants don a climbing harness, tie into a belay line (a safety rigging) and climb a ladder to a cable suspended between two trees. It was a bit of high-wire act as the kids slowly tested themselves by crossing the 40-foot span 25 feet above the forest floor.

There were many other activities offered at the OEC including climbing, rappelling, fishing, ecology hiking, horse-back riding, plant identification, bird-watching, geology, fossil hunting, astronomy, archery, a BB gun turkey shoot and lots of games. Twice a day, students wrote in a journal that chronicled their adventures, experiences and lessons learned. I tagged along with a different group every day and was amazed to see their excitement about all the things that can be done outdoors.

On the last night, we all gathered for the campfire. While it was too cold to have the fire outside, we made do inside one of the classrooms. All the kids sat on the floor while each group presented goofy skits, told corny jokes and laughed until therre was bo question that they were enjoying themselves. Awards were given for various competitions held during the week. Based upon my experiences from several summers spent at camp, these kids were experiencing the authentic ideal. I wonder who is more excited about returning to camp next year.