CHAPTER 1 “WHERE THE SIGNPOSTS ARE UNFAMILIAR.”

Stephen is one of my wife’s teaching colleagues. He is planning his first time ever overnight field trip for his high school camping club.  He’s got a good plan: a short one night trip close to school. As the say in Kenya: Polee, polee, slowly, slowly. 

Thinking it might help Stephen with his first high school level overnight experience, Patricia asks if I have an extra Expedition Book for him to borrow. I find a few up near the rafters in the garage.

FOR STEPHEN AND OTHERS FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

My students wrote field articles that we published in book form for participants to read on every learning expedition. Each student was responsible for a 5 minute field lesson. In addition to student written articles, each expedition book contains a Leadership Training Workbook, a personal journal, a chapter of poetry and lyrics for songs around the campfire, and a chapter for training teachers for outdoor education (see Chapter 6 contents below).

I believe most important two pages of this book are found in the Student Preface written by Matthew Mori. His perspective as a 16 year old expedition participant is a rich insight into the complex stream of consciousness flowing through the minds of our students. (Scroll down.)

GUIDE TO THE TEACHER’S EDITION

The blue hardcover is the 1984 Edition of the Catalina Island Learning Expedition (one of several copies) in the library at Montebello High School.  Imagine it’s Parent Night at school, Adriana Diaz and Robert Ramirez lead their parents into the school’s library. Ruffling through the card catalog, they find their family names as contributing writers and the title of their book: The Catalina Island Learning Expedition Student Field and Personal Journal.  Imagine the parental pride as it dawns upon them that their child has written part of a library book! 

That was the 80’s, about when I started to ask my school librarians to enter into their card catalogs a card for each of my expedition students so that their publications were available for parents and family in the school library.  Today this could be published online.

The 2008 Teacher’s Guide Edition begins on page 191. What follows is a digital introduction until your copy arrives. 

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GUIDE TO THE TEACHER’S EDITION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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STUDENT PREFACE Rare it is to see inside the mind of a 16 year old genius. Matthew Mori is about to depart on his first expedition. To this day, I’m taken a breath by his insight. 

There weren’t many rainy nights on our expeditions, but there were a few. When rain began of fall in the middle of the night, I would slip into my rain poncho and make the rounds of student tube tents checking for leaks, tightening tent cords, telling kids to push their towels to the uphill end of their tents to absorb incoming rain.

Matthew Mori, on that Morro Bay rainy night, was the only student, poncho clad, face dripping in the rain, to ever in my 36 years of expeditons, get out of a cozy mummy bag to help other students from spending a shivering night in water logged sleeping bags. I bet Matthew was raised in a polychronos culture.

Teacher Trainee Acceptance Letter

Blue arrow references an 8 1/2 by 11 inch large format expedition book option with wide margins for student artists and teacher trainees.

Click HERE for the full Table of Contents

CHAPTER 2 TATANKA: BUFFALO DREAMS

To hold down trip cost on the 1975 Catalina Island Expedition my research led me to the University of Southern California Marine Lab on the island. I discover the Prowler, the university ship used to carry college students, research staff and science equipment to Catalina. The university generously agrees to transport my students to Catalina at no cost which brings Catalina Island within reach for my students.  My goal is to make sure that the cost of an expedition doesn't exclude students from the formative experience. Further research turns up U.S.C.'s research submarine at their Catalina lab,  adding to the many reasons to mount an expedition to the island. Marine Biology Graduate students give us a behind-the-scenes tour fit for an advance science class. 

Our syllabus includes: Leadership Training, Marine Biology, Ecology, Archaeology, Native American History, Astronomy, Survival Skills, and living close to the land.  From the Marine Lab, we begin our 7 mile back packing trek to Little Harbor, the next study stop on our science expedition. Along the way we stop to observe the largest animals in North America. 

Students have prepared lessons for our expedition to present along the way. On the trail we learn that bison grow to 6 feet (shoulder height) and weigh up to 2,000 pounds. 

Females weigh up to 1,000 pounds, their calves weigh 30-70 pounds at birth. Students also teach us that 3o bison were reportedly brought to Catalina for a 1924 western. The current herd descend from the 1924 event.

Bison photo above by Diana LeVasseur (www.sharetheexperience.org).

That moonless night at Little Harbor campground was darkest shade of black, hampering night vision.  Awakened by the sound of heavy breathing my eyes scanned for the source.

In starlight I see students in their mummy bags sleeping soundly (we break out tents only if there's a chance of rain). I struggle to see in the darkness. After a few moments I begin to see  among my sleeping students, massive towering dark mounds... only then did I realize that a  herd of buffalo had silently slipped into our camp.  Near me, was “a great mound of hair with black horns”.  Standing over 6 feet tall, 11 feet long they make a big impression, especially from my position-- flat on my back looking up at a buffalo weighing over a ton. Yet they made not a sound except for an occasional clearing breath.  So this is what Abraham Maslow called a “peak experience” which seem to happen often on overnight field trips. I wanted my students to have this experience but I hesitated imagining an awakened student shouting: “Oh my God!” followed by an a stampeding herd of buffalo.  So I watched in silence not wanting to spook the herd. I must have fallen asleep. Or was it a dream. Tatanka is the Lakota word for buffalo, the Cheyenne call them méhe (female) hotóva’a (male). 

I awaken sleepy campers in time to prepare breakfast. As they squint and stretch in their sleeping bags, I tell them about last night’s visitors but I’m met with a proper wave of skepticism.  “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Manzanares!” “You were dreaming.”

It felt like a dream but then someone shouted: Oh my God, buffalo tracks! Kids scurried about looking for more tracks.  The excitement was an unexpected gift, evidence of bison in our midst. It was better than a dream.

Click HERE for a student’s Catalina Island Expedition photo journal.

By 1977 I have moved to Area D Alternative School where I am hired as the Schools Without Walls coordinator. While planning an expedition to Morro Bay, Joyce Yarrow walks into my office, she hands me a studio recording of her Jumping Mouse album, soon to be released and she introduces me to a book by Hyemeyohsts Storm, a perfect addition for our next expedition

Our first night around the campfire, I ask student volunteers to read aloud Jumping Mouse, the Cheyenne teaching legend by Hyemeyohsts Storm. Joyce opens her guitar case and sings to us the story of Jumping Mouse.  (soon: link to my gender equity version) Each student reading the role of a sacred animal: prairie deer-mouse, brother raccoon, frog, sister buffalo, brother wolf.  And last night we slept in the midst of all these characters.  Sister buffalo reminds me of our night with a bison herd on Catalina Island. In the circle of campfire light, another group of high school students begin to feel the importance of buffalo in the history of Native Americans.

This is an excellent example of Narrative Learning. As a teacher I’ve come to know intimately the power of storytelling in education. Before europeans arrived, native american elders taught their grandchildren cultural values through legends like Jumping Mouse.  

My lessons were better when I could link them to a meaningful story.  Narrative Learning.

Across the arc of my career I chose to work at schools serving underrepresented minority families where $504 for a 4 day field trip eliminates over 50% of the student body.

4 days/3 nights at Yosemite Institute, $504

4 days/3 nights Yosemite Learning Expedition, $75

I worked hard to keep the cost affordable for low income families and organized fundraising activities so that cost would not exclude any student.  Take the Hika-joga-walka-backpackathon for example.

Students would sign on sponsors for 10 cents per mile or more if possible. I’d track mileage from “shake down” hikes and other events and certify miles accumulated. Soliciting sponsors is not a fit for some cultures, so I provided scalable scholarships.

CHAPTER 5: HOW TO GET A FULL GROWN BLACK BEAR OUT OF YOUR VAN

On one particular family visit came an appeal from my grandchildren:  “Grandpa, tell us the bear story.”  But there remain other properly skeptical family members. I don’t blame them. The story is simply too ... too unbelievable.  

However, this story absolutely true, without a single exaggerated word. I swear.

By this point of my life I’d experienced four encounters with High Sierra Black Bears. This one more memorable than the others.  

“Dusk fell as imperceptibly as dust.  A moon, half full, took possession of the sky and, one by one, the stars appeared, first Venus and then slowly scattered constellations.  I lay looking up at the stars and could feel the earth turning beneath me.”  --Will Ferguson

That’s how I feel when stargazing on our camping trips. It explains why I always sleep under the stars instead of inside a tent (unless it rains.)  It explains why we don’t use tents on my expeditions. There are life affirming, if not ephemeral moments, only lasting fractions of a second when we witness shooting stars.  So I maximize these fleeting affirmative experiences by giving students every chance to collect shooting stars, all night, every night.  

Photo credit: NPS

Interesting how sounds are pulled into our dreams, like your cell phone rings but you answer it in your dream. This one started with a ...

Click.  

The midnight sound was pulled into my dream. But a tiny awakened voice opened my eyes. Another pitch black moonless night in Yosemite. Recognizing the sound of my van door closing with a click I craned my neck to look back at the van. Nothing to be seen the the blackness. Then inside my van, movement. A large floor to ceiling black mound. Unbelievably, a black bear had gotten inside most likely attracted to the residual smell of food that had been carried for hours in the van.

She was big. 

I stood. She was big and moving forward. I was imagining her tearing up the inside of the van looking for food.  But how was I going to force her out?  Remembering the loose sliding window pane on the door I thought it would rattle loudly when I pounded the glass with the palms of my hands. I had to act quickly.

Then I remembered the message a Park Ranger had delivered to my students. “When facing a bear, never run. Stand up tall, look as big as you can.”

Barefoot and in my under ware, I slowly opened the back door. Crouched as I stepped around to the side. I was stealthy, she didn’t know I was there. In a flash I jumped up, pummeling the window glass with the palms of both hands in a sudden loud ruckus. She was so large yet she shot out of the back of the van with startling speed... then stopped and turned only 30 yards away. Behind her I could just make out her two baby cubs, learning from an expert how to pillage food from sleeping campers.  Staring at me, calculating, determining “Who are You? Do I run or do I charge?”  She takes a step forward....  coming straight back toward me.

Shit! ...

I remember a Park Ranger once delivered to my students. “When facing a bear face to face, don’t run. Stand up tall, look as big as you can. Make alot of noise.”

How am I to look big, standing 5 foot 6 in my bare feet?  Epiphany: I streak to the back stepping up to stand in the opening of the van. I raise both hands high. Now I’m over 7 feet tall. She freezes, then...

She takes another step toward me, testing me. 

She is so big. 

Click HERE for why there are steel food lockers in Yosemite National Park.

CHAPTER 4: HOW I BECAME AN OUTDOOR EDUCATOR

My career as an expedition teacher/leader started in the 7th grade. Well... this story unfolds before I led my first expedition.  

CHAPTER 1: Has anyone on their death bed ever said: "I wish I’d spent more time at the office." When my last moments are at hand, I'd like to be able to tell my grandchildren and their children, the important things I've learned along the way.

I’d start with...Make a list of all the wonderful, interesting, enjoyable, exciting things you want to do across the arc of your lifetime... then start doing them.  For me it was to 

1. Walk Mary Leakey’s steps along Olduvai Gorge where she found the remains of our earliest ancestors. Yes, it was Mary not Louis that picked up those first bone fragments.  It would take me nearly five more decades to arrive in Nairobi, on my way to find Mary’s footprints on the history of Africa.  

2. Jump out of an airplane, and fly like an eagle until my parachute carries me on a bold and uplifting wind to places where the signposts are unfamiliar. 

3. Click HERE to see the rest of my Life’s List.  


Make your LIFE LIST. While you do, let me tell you a story.

Scene:  Curtains open in a pitch black jam packed auditorium.  A 7th grader sits politely at an assembly at Luther Burbank Junior High School listening to the renowned explorer John Goddard.  We hear the clickity-clack of an old school film projector.  A river comes into focus as we begin with Goddard his almost life ending solo expedition down the Amazon River. I don’t remember the film title but it should have been called: Cheating Death On the Amazon.

It was 1960 that John Goddard presented his Amazon Adventure Film Documentary at an assembly at my school, Luther Burbank Junior High. Goddard, solo,  had taken a long canoe down the length of the Amazon River.  What a story teller! His documentary was a narrative of his journey. While sleeping one night in his long boat, while anchored on the river, he was attacked by a giant Amazon anaconda. Wrapped in the constricting death grip of this larger than a man predator, and with only one arm free, he grabbed a machete and hacked at his nemesis until he lost consciousness. Still wrapped in giant Anaconda coils, he awakened hours later to find dead his attacker.
Follow this link to his website.
http://www.johngoddard.info/

Afterward, Mr. Goddard descended the stage for a Q & A. Standing just two rows before me, in an almost whisper he spoke these words: “Make a list of all the things you want to do during your lifetime, then set about doing them.”

That night, inspired by Goddard’s philosophy and his sense of adventure, I pulled my National Geographic collection off the self and along with my Encyclopaedia Britannica, began work on my personal LIFE list.  --- >

Years later I divided my life list into two catagories: 1.  the things that require a measure of stamina like climbing Kilimanjaro, skiing the Alps, or mounting an expedition to Olduvai Gorge and 2. those less athletic activities for later in life like wandering the galleries of the Louvre or visiting Venus de Milo or wondering about the mind of Michaelangelo before his 17 foot tall marble masterpiece David at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, or walking Japanese village streets ‘neath cherry trees heavy and pregnant in full blossom.

An excellent plan had I. While I never reached the top of Mount Everest, I am looking forward to the Colosso di Rodi (the Colossus of Rhodes), in Greece and treasures closer to home like Off Broadway in New York City. I’ve always wanted a romantic trip to Trevi Fountain from the 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain. Now I have someone I treasure, to share the romance of Trevi, Cinque Terra, perhaps then, on to Paris, Papaeete, Kyoto, Florence ...

So many things to do in a lifetime, so many ways to find ourselves.
Though no one previously suggested placing: “have grandchildren” on my LIFE LIST, I certainly do now that I have two. It is a remarkable experience.
Family is good place to start.
My grown children Leandra, and Jason, have come to possess such remarkable qualities. I never imagined I'd admire them so.

Lea has also brought two breath taking treasures into my life: Samantha, first grandchild and Cameron, first grandson. Since I was a first grandchild I’ve come to understand why my grandparents were so loving, kind and tender with me. There was never a moment in my childhood that lacked for affection.
There was always a lap and a warm and comforting embrace waiting for me. I felt …
unconditional love and it has shaped the person I am today and the man I’ll come to be in the future.

Along the arc of my life, I've included stops along my LIFE'S LIST, and I encourage each of you to stop what you are doing by listing five things to start your LIFE LIST.

Here's one from mine . . .


Watching a gorgeous golden, glittering on South Pacific water-setting sun,
a group of extremely well traveled American’s were having dinner with me
on the little Fijian island: Malolo lai lai.

CHAPTER 3: JUMPING MOUSE

 NARRATIVE LEARNING: The power of a meaning filled story.

Our first night around the campfire, I ask student volunteers to read aloud Jumping Mouse, the Cheyenne teaching legend by Hyemeyohsts Storm.  

I changed the gender of the lead character at a time when powerful leading female characters were uncommon.  So Jumping Mouse became her story.

I ask forgiveness from Hyemeyohsts.  Since his most important teacher was a Holy Woman, and Zero Chief, I hope that he approves.

Once there was a Mouse. She was a Busy Mouse...

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Jumping Mouse walked into my new office/classroom at Area D Alternative School in LAUSD. As the first School Without Walls Coordinator I taught classes and acted as the schools special projects director in a K-12 school where students came to me to petition for new classes.

The first petitioned for an Earbook Class where they could write and perform music, cut a Earbook Album (in place of a traditional yearbook) and include photo sleeve yearbook-like inserts.

Monday morning the second petition carried by a very charming group of little kids landed on my desk like an eagle returning to nest.  The envisioned ab elementary level framework for a class they had already named: The Littlest Songwriters. They would allow bigger kids to join but not take over. I began laying the foundation to make that happen as well. 

Joyce Yarrow walks into my office after school. She hands to me a studio master (cassette) and an empty album cover as we sit down.  “The actual album will be cut at the end of the week, but you can listen to this studio master recording.” 

I’m skeptical but curiosity keeps the door open.

Joyce is a community volunteer looking to contribute her song writing talents to our school but I need to see how student centered will be her approach. I invite the petitioning kids to a meeting on Wednesday.  With the kids asking interview questions, Joyce seems happy to audition.

She breaks out her guitar and begins the first lesson for the Littlest Songwriters.

“When you write lyrics for a song, you put the verb up front.

If you’ve written:  A crystal lake into which I dive.

For song lyrics you’d write:  I dive into a crystal lake.”

Oh. Before closing, I should say the title on Joyce’s album jacket was Jumping Mouse. She received special permission from Hyemeyohsts Storm to write their legend into music and produce and album.  You should hear it after you read the story.

As the School Without Walls coordinator, I was hired to lead learning expeditions for our students.  The first was a Marine Biology Expedition to Morro Bay where Joyce volunteered to sing the story of Jumping Mouse as we sat around a campfire, in a way similar to how Cheyenne elders told their legend to their grandchildren around a crackling fire.

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7