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The end of school based canoe clubs?

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Geraldton, Ontario
Our Outers program has existed at our high school for 53 years. A lot of kids have done some very serious wilderness tripping during that time. The program culminates each June with a lengthy wilderness trip. For many years, it was a 14 day trip, but the Board of Education has slowly eroded the length to 7 to 8 days now. New regulations that are often difficult to meet, combined with the continual search for funding has made it a labour of love to continue operations.

This June was the first time in 53 years we did not have a spring trip, due to the Covid stuff. I was thinking over the past few days that regular trips will probably not be allowed to run for a long time. We use large prospector tents, so there are usually 10 to 13 boys in one tent and 7 to 10 girls in another. On the longer trips, if someone has a cold, everyone has it by the end of the trip. In large groups on canoe trips, it is very difficult to socially distance. I was envisaging 30 one man tents, and then laughed to myself, as we would be hard pressed to find any campsites that could accommodate ten tents.

My prediction is that this will be the end of our club. Our Board of Ed advertises our program as a flagship of good things going on in schools, but at the same time, the new bean counter there tries his best to prevent trips from happening by insisting on War and Peace sized piles of paperwork, and tries to micro manage the whole process, even though he has never been on a canoe trip in his life. I'm fairly sure he will seize the opportunity to put the final nail in the program.

Even if the Board is supportive, the cancellation of a program for a year will probably be enough to prevent its resurrection.

I suspect this will be a similar situation played out across Ontario.

I wonder if I'm being a realist or a pessimist.
 
As you describe it Mem, I fear you might be right. Late 60’s and early 70’s I was part of a YMCA outing club and as the core group started to head off to college things just kind of fell apart and the youth director that ran it couldn’t couldn’t overcome the bean counters as you say. It was a shame then and possibly more of a shame now.
Jim
 
A Sad sign of the times !

A real education is being eroded ! When they remove the things students look forward to, at school ? They loose the Student !

Shop classes are being eliminated in High Schools. ( The only class I looked Forward to in High School ! )

A law enforcement Officer in the School. Now that they don't allow Teachers any disciplinary authority.

A Sad outlook for the Future !

Jim
 
Well my wife run/teaches the grade 10 Outdoor head program at the experiential science school we have up here!! And I can tell you that she’s been on many meeting with department of education to find a solution for the fall semester and the following new normal... and it doesn’t look too good!
it is really sad to see those programs vanished cause they have proven over the years that it is beneficial to so many kids that don’t fit in the regular school and even to the real academic kids too!! School systems should be experiential, half day in class and the other half out doing something different, being outdoor pursuits or art and drama or shop like welding, woodworking etc... it makes better human being for sure, people that learn to help each other, to solve problems, to work as a team!!
 
One of our local YMCA's just closed permanently since they couldn't survive with months of lost revenue. Pretty sad to lose a community focused non-profit and I also wonder about leaders taking the easy way out. But I also like to think that the future can be better than ever. If nothing else I think many people can now better appreciate simple things that we used to take for granted before the covid crisis.
 
Wilderness programs are also being killed by our "progressive" educational institutions because those programs can't be made as safe for the snowflake generation of teachers, administrators and parents as a school "safe room" full of pillows and teddy bears. Pretty soon, people who advocate dangerous and violent behavior such as cutting portage trails through the woods, shooting deer, and paddling in rapids will not even be allowed to speak on school campuses.
 
Ha ha Glenn, in Canada, there is certainly a large percentage of the population who would fall into this category. Probably around 80 percent. Where I live, it's still fairly frontier like, with most folks owning guns, smoking cigarettes, drinking lots, and acquiring a statistically significant higher amount of STD's than the rest of the country. Just the way I like it. The problem's we are experiencing with keeping our program going could fall into roughly three categories: 1) regulations designated by your "Safe Room" crowds from the urban suppurating sore known as Toronto, 2) the nasty little Covid Bug, and 3) boot licking bean counters trying to make a name for themselves with the aforesaid "Safe Room" overlords.

My apologies to the Torontonians who haven't been indoctrinated into the Safe Room crowd. Stay Strong, and paddle on!
 
sadly, liability has killed so many programs, I got out when my lawyer advised me that insurance would only cover me after the fact. over 20 years with the worst injury being a single stitch in the knee of a kid who fell on a sharp rock while horsing around, and suddenly I'm "extreme risk" because I'm taking them more than 2 hours from medical care (doesn't matter that a helper was an EMT) Suddenly I needed a "certified lifeguard" and a bunch of other "professional" credentials, and if something bad happened, liability would only "reimburse" me for costs AFTER the dust settled, so, in effect I could lose everything and be homeless due to court costs before MY insurance risked a single dime of MY premiums!
I don't know of anybody that could afford THAT!
 
Ha ha Glenn, in Canada, there is certainly a large percentage of the population who would fall into this category. Probably around 80 percent. Where I live, it's still fairly frontier like, with most folks owning guns, smoking cigarettes, drinking lots, and acquiring a statistically significant higher amount of STD's than the rest of the country. Just the way I like it. The problem's we are experiencing with keeping our program going could fall into roughly three categories: 1) regulations designated by your "Safe Room" crowds from the urban suppurating sore known as Toronto, 2) the nasty little Covid Bug, and 3) boot licking bean counters trying to make a name for themselves with the aforesaid "Safe Room" overlords.

My apologies to the Torontonians who haven't been indoctrinated into the Safe Room crowd. Stay Strong, and paddle on!

Here. Let me draw a map for you. LOL

Click image for larger version  Name:	Toronto Universe.jpg Views:	0 Size:	205.9 KB ID:	111864


NB I did not draw this thematic map, like most good ideas I swiped it off the interweb.
 
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I forgot to include one more category; the trip leaders who actually screw up big time, and cause the Coroner's reports that lead to increased regulations and School Board reticence. Our latest example was the fella in Toronto who took over 30 kids on a canoe/camping trip in Algonquian. More than half of the kids had failed one of the compulsory tests, the swim test. The swim test is so easy that anyone who does not pass it shouldn't have a bath. Students were swimming unsupervised, and one of them drowned. He was one of the 17 kids who had failed the swim test. The teacher has been charged with criminal negligence causing death, although I have yet to hear the results. Speculation is that it would be a difficult charge to prosecute.

The resulting changes to our guidelines were pretty severe, the worst being that a qualified adult life guard has to be on any canoe trip run by a school now. This was a real bullet, we live in a small town, with a tiny pool that is open for four months a year. Our fall trip last year had to be cancelled because we couldn't find a lifeguard.

Anyway, I wonder if the pendulum will swing back the other way at some point. I probably won't be alive to see it if it does.
 
Memaquay; you nailed it with this "qualified adult life guard" except it's not just schools, it's any youth group with "charitable" status. Try finding one in June, that likes kids, enjoys paddling, and goes backcountry camping, that isn't teaching for the upcoming pool season. it's just not happening!
 
Yes Griz, that one was pretty much the killer. We were in the process of getting one of our teachers qualified, probably didn't happen this summer, but even if it did, the whole program would ride on that one fella. A much more sensible regulation would have been to ensure that all kids wear lifejackets whenever they are in the water. I had instituted that rule a few years ago, and there was minimal protest from the kids, and it pretty much completely took away any fears from parents or administrators.
 
I'm a bit late to this discussion but it's not just up in Canada. I just retired after 40 years of working at a NYS college where I directed the outdoor adventure program. During the last 20 years or so I was constantly "engaged" by the insurance company that oversees campus recreational programs. In the NYS program we have two avenues under which to operate; one is the academic umbrella and the other is called student development. In the academic area you're pretty much covered for anything because NYS insures itself. Under the student development realm all clubs and organizations are overseen by the student government; who has their own private insurance company. The crazy thing is that each group has their own policies; most of which are at odds with the other group's. So in the end, if one group wouldn't approve of something, I'd operate under the other's guidelines. It made for some interesting times but it allowed me to keep the program going.

Now, all of that being said, in PA they actually eliminated Penn State's outdoor program because it was too "dangerous" yet they left other groups, who statistically have more injuries to their credit, intact.

I could go on but you get the picture. So Memaquay...I feel for you but you're certainly not alone. After over 50 years of working in the outdoor field (I started at the ripe old age of 16), I'm glad I'm no longer in charge. It's absolutely frightening to me the folks who are now making the decisions regarding whether programs will continue or not. They have little, to no, experience and they let their emotions rule their decisions instead of facts. Seriously, if they were all that concerned about safety none of these folks would ever drive to work because that's a whole lot more dangerous than any activity we ever did with our students; and we went whitewater rafting, rock climbing, sea kayaking, etc.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
One thing I’ve been saying for a long time is starting in grade 7-8, basic first aid and basic life guard training should be part of the curriculum, the later is part of it in the school my daughter goes too along with swimming lessons(grade 4-5-6-7)! Anyway if it was part of the curriculum then everyone would at least some what aware and at the same time teachers would have the same training and end of discussion!!
 
Many of our kids were qualified life guards and first aiders, and we all had our Wilderness First Aid. However, the gubernment said the lifeguards had to be adult, non-students. I don't think there was a single trip we did where we didn't have at least one student life guard, who were good enough to be employed looking after the general public in the pool, but not good enough in the bush apparently.
 
As a parent/grandparent who hasn't gotten involved with that kind of bureaucracy for years I can only toss opinions without experience. But over the years my single simple observation has been that all good programmes run on generous investment of resources, both human and financial. You can have one without the other but what's best is to be fully committed with both. It's interesting to ponder if this is cyclical. What goes around comes around? Maybe. You'd think that with the social network awakening of exploring the natural world (there are so many youtube videos and tweeting selfies) that some bright spark out there might consider a need for getting boots on ground and bums in canoes, youthful ones who otherwise might not get that opportunity. I think an unhealthy part of this lack of funding and commitment problem comes from bean counting bureaucrats who apply a sour economic perspective on our world ie budget cuts and economic efficiencies. Soaring insurance rates and risk averse mommies and daddies aside there exists today a stubborn attitude slanted towards a "bottom line" of input vs output = profitable results. In dollars and cents but not experiential rewards. Arts and culture, outdoor education and natural history all have become fringe pursuits which no longer fit the bean counter equation. And yet what does mommy, daddy, and their sweet young adult children turn to for interests outside of work hours? Accounting? Corporate law? Fiduciary archival pursuits? Um, no. They all turn to the crap that's been cut from the "more important curriculum". Until what's been around comes around again I guess it's left up to an older generation who remembers what's been cherished and since lost to hold onto it and pass it on. Rant done and dusted. lol
 
It comes down to people not wanting to step up for there actions. As a guide, paddling instructor, swift water rescue instructor, self employed woodworker, we have to go through so many hoops to be able to make a living and spend so much income on insurance and the like to comply with stupid bureaucracy because one idiot decided that it was some one else fault that he cut himself with an axe or drowned because he wasn’t wearing a PFD or broke a leg walking on my property..... common sense is not common anymore and people are not able to think for them self unless it comes from there phone!!
 
Not just school clubs

One of the strongest local paddling clubs, the Monocacy Canoe Club, recently called it quits. Their message board, one of the best in the mid-Atlantic region, is still going strong, but after 56 years the club is no more.

That is a dang shame; the MCC offered free paddling instruction for club members, from flatwater basics up to serious WW, safety and rescue classes with swims and throw bags, and Z-drags with sacrificially pinned canoes (I sent a few derelicts that way), wilderness first-aid classes and a yearly “Cruise Schedule” with several trips each month, from flatwater novice to experienced WW. All for $15 a year.

About school trips, I was beyond fortunate to attend High School starting in 1969. Those were very different times. The County School Board decided to allow teachers to offer electives of their choosing, provided they could get at least 12 students to sign up.

Among other electives I took Field Biology, Native Flora and Fauna, Ornithology, Stream Studies, Herpetology and Nature Photography. All with the same teacher, who became a life-long friend. My Senior year I already had all of the basic classes completed except English Composition, and I crushed that; the English teacher didn’t care if I showed up for class.

My class schedule that year consisted of showing up for Home Room (same teacher/lifelong friend in charge) and being instructed “Here’s a pillow case, $5 for gas and a crude hand drawn map. Drive 3 hours into western Maryland, find these caves and collect all the bats you can find”

The bats were for his research, but he would also release them in the classroom on the first day of some elective; kids who screamed and hid under their desks didn’t last long, and he quickly got his class size down to a dozen or so students he had faith in.

Misplaced faith. I was part of the “Hawk Watch” on the roof of the school. Two or three students with binoculars and field guides on the High School roof, unsupervised for hours, identifying migrating hawks. And, uh, early 70’s, doing other things. Beer, weed, even a barbecue grill.

That sure as heck wouldn’t fly today. Nor would leading caving trips, with the scary permission slip caveat that “I will carry a tire iron in case anyone gets stuck and we need to break their collar bone to pull them out”. Again, not so subtle attrition rate.

Many, many field trips, some into neighboring States. Always with peculiar directions to where we were meeting. “Turn right at the big Acer rubrum”, “Stop here at the ditch and collect one Nerodia sipedon” or, most baffling of all “Turn left where the blinking light used to be”. Yet again, attrition rate.

That teacher became a lifelong friend and mentor. Before he passed away he gave me some saved copies of his mimeographed High School “Permission Slips”. Those are worth re-typing, just for a feel of the times.

I believe this annual trip encompassed all of Spring Break. Just try to imagine precious little Muffy bring this home today. Copied verbatim, although I correct some spelling errors. Thinking back about those campsite and gas expenses, and mention of streaking, was worth the re-typing.

Field Trip Permission Slip

We are having our 9[SUP]th[/SUP] annual field trip to the Southern Delmarva. April 5 – 14. We plan to camp at Milburn Landing State Park; from there we will be visiting various places of biological significance. Three teachers will be participating in the field trip; but I will probably be the only one there for the entire time period. There is a 20 student limit.

If you are willing to let your little buggers go there are several things you should consider.

1.Neither Towson High School, the Board of Education or the teachers involved can be held responsible for your child or his conduct.

2.We will not be able to look after them 24 hours a day. Many times cars will be going in different directions and we will be doing different things. Because of this students will often be by themselves (with wild chipmunks and all that), so if you don’t trust them, don’t give them to us.

3.If your child has any problems (behavior, home sickness, health) I may call and ask you to come get them. (Hopefully when we find the first water moccasin in Maryland, no one will get bitten, but, if they do, think of the prestige)

4.Because of this the water moccasins and I need to know your phone numbers – and the time of day someone will be home. (Otherwise no news is . . . . .etc)

5. Each student is expected to work out the following arrangements:
a) With whom they are riding
b) How much space will be available in the car
c) Tent space
d) Meals
e) When they are arriving/leaving

6. To sum up the above – this is my vacation too and I don’t need a lot of adolescent problems

7. Well, first, this will take some money, so plan on the following:
a) Campsites cost $3.50 per night, this should be divided by 2-5 depending on how many people are in a campsite-car, and how long they are staying.
b) At least enough money for one tank of gas - $7 to $10.
c) Spending money (hamburgers, canoe rentals, etc) at least $2 per day. . . . .and $5 would be more realistic for those who lack financial discipline.

8. Next they need food. The food comes in two types.
a) The kind they eat in the first 2 days
b) The kind in cans

We will be 10-12 miles from the nearest store and we will not be running into town every time someone wants salt for their beans.

I have noted in the past that kids tend to eat 90% of their food in the car on the way down. So they should have all sorts of recipes for Toad Soufflé etc by the time they get home (it is very difficult to live off the land this time of year – even for experts)

9.Expect them to be cold and wet. . . . .this way no one will be disappointed. Streaking around a cypress swamp is not healthy; bring proper tennis shoes and clothing

10. The following odds and ends should do it.
More food and cooking equipment
Flashlights that work
Tents – sleeping bags – etc,
Field Guides
Camera – film.
First Aid kit or Blue Cross
Bull frog repellent
Hartz Mountain Water Moccasin Treats

+++++

I would love to hear the reaction of parents receiving that “Permission Slip” in 2020.
 
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