Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/05/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Last week, my 6th-grade daughter visited Yosemite National Park with her classmates under the direction of Yosemite Institute (http://www.yni.org/yi/) leaders. Her school, a public school in Sacramento County, is structured on the principle of extensive parental involvement in all aspects of the kids' education. Parent volunteers help with classroom work, grading homework, advanced or specialized subjects, and much more. Field trips nearly every week, including (on average) one overnight field trip monthly, extend their education to the broader community, giving the kids a wider variety of cultural, scientific and historical experiences than is possible in the classroom. Parent volunteers are vital here, too, to provide transportation and to help the teachers coordinate the kids' activities. My involvement with the school's kids has also helped me understand my kids' interactions with their classmates. The end-of-the-year overnight trip is the big one, and the 6th-graders' week in Yosemite is the highlight of the elementary school years. The kids: a wide variety of family and economic backgrounds are represented in the school, from kids in single-parent families with donated clothing to kids whose families could have financed the entire field trip with pocket change. Leaders, brilliant students, bullies, socially awkward, and disfunctional kids are blended, and organized in to hiking groups of ten to twelve kids plus two to three parents. Parents are assigned to hiking groups other than the one their own children are in. The schedule: Monday - drive to Crane Flat (elevation 6200 ft) in Yosemite National Park, where the class meets their Yosemite Institute (YI) leaders and settles in to the bunk houses. Tuesday - a hike to the Giant Sequoia trees near Crane Flat. Along the way, the YI leaders explain the cultural significance of the area and of the Giant Sequoia trees to the native Californians, the Gold-rush era history, and the role of the Sequoia trees in the creation of Yosemite National Park as we now know it. In the evening, we pack and drive to Curry Village in Yosemite Valley where we spend the rest of the week. Daily hikes lead by YI leaders take the hiking groups to sites such as Yosemite falls, the Indian Caves or Spider Caves, Mirror Lake, or the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls and beyond to Nevada Falls. The groups also participated in Park Service research projects such as a re-forestation study of former campground areas that were flooded during a major storm in January of 1997. The weather: a late-season winter storm on Monday and Tuesday dumped rain, hail and snow on the mountains. The class awoke Tuesday morning to a blanket of snow - a real treat for Sacramento kids. Euphoria and snowball fights gave way to soggy, cold feet dring the day's hike as the snow continued to fall. Ponchos and parkas were everywhere, waterproof backpacks leaked, and parents unaccustomed to snowy conditions dug out their cars and fretted over driving conditions. The weather cleared Tuesday night and the week ended with t-shirts and shorts. Yosemite National Park: Wow. Just a few hours from home is one of the world's greatest natural treasures. There are lots of cars on the roads, and in the parking lots, and people on the trails, with good reason. The kids see cars from nearly every US State, several Canadian Provinces, and even (as one jokester pointed out) some from Saturn. In our cluster of tent-cabins and on our hikes we meet people from Great Britain, Australia, Germany and India. The Big Picture: This field trip is unlike any other the kids have been on. All through their grade school years the parents have been directing the kids' activities from dawn to "lights out" in the evening. The Yosemite field trip marks the beginning of their independance and self-reliance. The kids are responsible for their own cabins, for getting cafeteria meals themselves, and for meeting at the right times and places. The kids accept the responsibility and, in most cases, flourish, but it's a difficult transition for the parents who must learn to start letting go. For some kids the hikes are physically and emotionally difficult. Parents stay back with the slower kids, encouraging and in some cases ordering the kids to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The hikes were my favorite parts of the trip, not just because of the outdoors and physical exertion but because the strenuous parts of the hikes brought out the best in the kids. Leaders and bullies became indistinguishable as they encouraged their slower classmates to catch up with the group. One girl, a social misfit, I had never seen smile before this trip. In the classroom she was frequently close to tears and hid in terror from the camera (on-topic). On the first few hikes the tears were real when she lagged behind her hiking group but the encouragement of her classmates and the very real accomplishment of completing the hike made a big difference in her outlook. By the end of the week she couldn't stop smiling and she asked me to take her picture. The boof (my daughter Kelsey): Wow again. a strong, happy hiker, who loves the outdoors and her friends. She was assigned to a cabin with her best friend Jenny, and with Candice, a social outcast, and another girl with serious behavioral problems. She treated Candice with respect and included her in as many activities as possible, turned Jenny's homesickness around to one of the greatest weeks of her life, and skillfully managed the other girl's behavioral problems. She continues to exceed my expectations. The photo experience: Most of my time (as expected) was devoted to the kids. On hikes I carried 2 SL bodies loaded with K64 and K200, and 21, 35, 60, 100 and 250mm lenses. My friend Gary hadn't been able to visit before the trip so Kelsey used the family's N**** FG with 55mm Micro f/2.8, and I used the R4sP, both loaded with Superia. The R4sP and FG photos were for the school yearbook and website (under construction) and the Kodachromes were for my own files. Most-used lenses: the 21 (Gary's) for photos of kids with expansive backgrounds, the 100 (Gary's APO-Macro) for individual portraits, and the 250 for wildlife scenics. No Noctilux, so no photos in the caves :-( At Crane Flat, the Leicas were drenched with condensation & melting snow. Wipe 'em off, keep shooting. Kelsey's poncho covered her backpack so the FG stayed dry. What I learned: SLs are heavy, and there's something to be said for the low thermal conductivity of plastics. BTW, Gary visited yesterday on his way to his summer job with the Park Service in Kings Canyon National Park, and instead of picking up his 21, 100 and 180 (f/3.4) he left his well-worn 60 Macro as the boof's first Leica lens. She had a hard time controlling her excitement. The bottom line: when Vanessa and Kelsey have their own kids in school, I'm going to volunteer in the classrooms. Doug Herr Sacramento http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt ___________________________________________________ The ALL NEW CS2000 from CompuServe Better! Faster! More Powerful! 250 FREE hours! Sign-on Now! http://www.compuserve.com/trycsrv/cs2000/webmail/