Trackers NW Blog

What did I do as a teenager? Take tests? Play football? Run for student government? What I really did was spend three to twelve hours a day in my garden on Oatfield Road in Oak Grove. I grew everything you could think of, from wild native plants to the old timey seeds that I bought during that 90's renaissance of nurseries or begged and stole from old Italian gardeners. Once and awhile I would put on my travel pack, load it with ten to twenty pounds of food and clothes and be gone for several weeks…

At a recent taster day at Lost Valley Education Center the gray sky poured buckets of rain. In the early morning all our instructors looked laconically outside, wondering how new students would fare through the deluge. Tasters are supposed to be about inspiring people. They're the first step in a courting process, one where we see if Trackers…

I am great fan of experiential education: ropes and challenge courses, belaying and rappelling, rafting and visiting foreign countries. They really can teach you how to be the best "you" possible. And its not enough. The greatest challenge for teenagers today is not a lack of self esteem or confidence, it's a lack of feeling useful or of…