Nature's Classroom: The Transformative Power of Unplugging Outside

By Becky Schumacher, ICS high school English faculty

One of my favorite days of every year is the freshman Frost field trip day. This day is scheduled during the first week of October when the alpine forests are the color of sunsets. Freshmen spend the first few weeks of English class memorizing Robert Frost’s well-known poem, “The Road Not Taken.” With just a few minutes each week, the whole class is ready to recite all four stanzas of the poem as they climb through a glowing yellow wood. I can admit that this field trip seems like a perfect excuse to leave work and participate in one of my favorite activities, but walking outside, and more specifically, hiking has fantastic educational benefits.

The benefits of walking for our brains is not a new discovery. In a New York Times article from September 2014 entitled “Why Walking Helps Us Think” author Ferris Jabr chronicles how walking was used by great thinkers, philosophers, and writers to get ideas moving. Jabr notes the words of Henry David Thoreau, “Methinks the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” Transcendentalist authors Thoreau and Wordsworth (who is said to have walked a hundred and eighty thousand miles in his lifetime) spent much of their lives outdoors writing their experiences and celebrating the beauty of our elegant landscape. Jabr further discusses the chemical and psychological responses our brains have when we walk–WALK.

“Walking at our own pace creates an unadulterated feedback loop between the rhythm of our bodies and our mental state that we cannot experience as easily when we're jogging at the gym, steering a car, biking, or during any other kind of locomotion. When we stroll, the pace of our feet naturally vacillates with our moods and the cadence of our inner speech; at the same time, we can actively change the pace of our thoughts by deliberately walking more briskly or by slowing down.”

And yes, where we walk matters as well, as Jabr concludes, “Psychologists have learned that attention is a limited resource that continually drains throughout the day. A crowded intersection rife with pedestrians, cars, and billboards- bats our attention around. In contrast, walking past a pond in a park allows our mind to drift casually from one sensory experience to another, from wrinkling water to rustling reeds.” One cannot help but wax poetically upon observing creation. Metaphors practically write themselves when hiking, not to mention the mood elevating response that inspires one to write in the first place. Maybe not everyone feels the urge to write poetry during a hike, but the rhythm of steps and breath makes reciting poetry on a hike a lovely combination, which is why I include it in my English curriculum.

This summer I was able to take a class at Southern Utah University called Teaching Shakespeare. During one of our actor talk-backs, a talented young actor affirmed my own beliefs on the benefits of walking and memorizing. When he was asked how he was able to memorize his lines for two large roles, he explained that he took walks, reciting his lines out loud over and over. When this year’s freshman class begins to memorize our Frost poem, we will start outside. You may see them walking in a line, stepping out the rhythm, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”

My ICS colleagues also utilize the outdoors and our fantastic location as much as possible. You can often observe our students working outside in groups or independently enjoying some outdoor solitude. Mrs. Lee’s art classes head to Silver Lake where students have created beautiful perspective pieces each year inspired by their surroundings. Mrs. Frazee takes her 5th grade class on an annual overnight outdoor science lab, where students connect through diving deeper into ecology as well as God’s Word. Our fourth grade students look forward each winter to snowshoeing in Big Cottonwood Canyon and learning from a knowledgeable guide about how to better care for God's creation. Every May, our high school students get excited for Field Studies, where students serve a nearby community, but also partake in outdoor activities, such as camping, canyoneering, whitewater rafting, rappelling, hiking, and more. Our eighth grade students experience a similar trip before their freshman year in Moab unplugging, connecting, serving, exploring, and moreover, growing!

As teachers at Intermountain Christian School, we enjoy finding new ways for our students to get outside, unplug, and get into the mountains that we call home. Hiking continues to be an educational experience included in my curriculum…now to figure out the educational benefits of skiing.