Educational Goals

Programs at the center are designed to help those who come here to learn a love for the land and to feel the spirit of the wilderness. Often in modern society, as we become more technology centered, we tend to forget the importance of natural rhythems, the awe of a beatiful sunrise, the elegance of a single blossom, and the wonder of the stars. These events take time to know and to enjoy.

The enjoyment of nature, like the enjoyment of art, music, or literature, is a creative act. It is not a matter of passive exposure but of active involvement. It cannot be taught from books alone but must be experienced. Programs at High Trails are planned to deepen our intimacy with and understanding of our natural surroundings. We can come to realize that we are all dependent on one another, all related to the movement of the whole - always on the way to becoming something else.

Sense of the Earth

Education is not a simple matter. The evolution of ideas is the result of the thinking and discoveries of many people of the past and present who devoted their lives to discovery, research, and innovation. The branches and amounts of knowledge continue to grow at increasingly fast rates. Astonomers and cosmologists look further and further into space, providing a feeling for the immensity of the universe. Physicists and chemists have pushed the limits of smallness to the interaction of elementary particles and completely changed the way we view the universe.  Geologists and geographers have charted mountain ranges and plumbed the depths of the seas to understand complex relationships between geological processes and life; all of these processe result in an understanding of how things have become what they are and a sense of how they continue to change.

Botanists, biologists and ecologists continue to investigate and classify the world of living things and can only begin to introduce the array of living entities in the natural environment.  A great variey of medical, physiological, and psychological experts work with human life, health, behavior and experience.  Man is imbued in the natural world and to know is one of the deepest needs of humanity.  Art, writing, creativity, technology, politics, economics, religion - the list seems endless and the complexities unfathomable.

As a result, individuals find themselves in more and more narrow segments of the learning spectrum. Mastery of the knowledge in a single discipline easily takes a lifetime and, in order to achieve expertise in any area, an individual's concentration has often been on a particluar problem or field.

Yet, in direct contradiction to the specialization it causes, all of the knowledge accumulated by man points to one overpowering concept: Everything, living and non-living, is interrelated.  There is an all-inclusive unity in nature which binds the destinies of all life - past, present and future. In order to place the endless stream of knowledge in perspective, this understanding of the wholeness of the Earth's systems and the interrelationships of all life becomes especially important. We are learning that the Earth is whole as well as round. 

Learning the wonders of the world we live in and gaining an understanding of the oneness of nature should be a part of everyone's experience. All of us need the opportunity to feel and know the life history of rocks, to touch and understand the functions and wonders of trees and flowers, to run soil through our fingers and delight in recognizing it as a slice of time.

These understandings and perspectives are a major emphasis of the entire High Trails experience. They can be learned by students and carried home to give new meanings to everyday life, and to begin growing a lasting feeling of respect and responsibility for the the Earth. Children can move imperceptibly forward toward more meaningful lives when they see that adults they admire place a high value on such things as a sunrise, a field of blowing grass, the sound of the wind, or the quake of an aspen leaf.

Sense of Community

The residential experience at High Trails emphasizes the art of living with other people - how to work with them and for them, learning when to lead and when to follow, and how to share adventures in the outdoors. These and other social skills are best learned first-hand, and the community situations at High Trails offer many opportunities for social growth.

These opportunities in daily living can help give children the chance to grow and to develop their own particular talents as well as to help them recognize the right of others to the same self-realization. We can also learn that joy and delight are not dependent on material things, but thrive on a state of mind that includes heightened awareness and understanding of simple and natural things. Through the friendships made, the fun we have together, and the cooperative efforts undertaken, a sense of community is developed that can go far in helping to recognize the urgent need of all humanity to work together to solve the problems we face. The diversity of people gives us wonderful opportunities for further discovery with many ideas and options from which to choose in our quest for a better understanding of ourselves and the Earth.

Sense of Self

Away from home, each student has a chance to further develop independence and self-confidence. The program at High Trails should give participants time to examine their own individual lifestyles, feelings, and value systems, and time to think about life itself. Opportunities for thinking alone and time for recording feelings are important parts of the day.

Here, too, is the opportunity to examine our human nature and the need for change. Understanding basic concepts of ecosystem processes and the consequences of human action must be coupled with the ability to control our actions. The basic attitudes of responsibility, restraint and respect are a part of every learning situation at High Trails.

Creative use of leisure time, a sense of adventure, independence, love of simple enjoyments, reawakening of a kinship with the Earth, self-confidence, appreciation of solitude, understanding of beauty - all of these and others are increasingly important in our hurried and technologically oriented society. The need is not for more brains; the need is now for better understandings to govern our actions and attitudes. We must fuse reason with compassion to reach viable solutions to problems among humans and to fully appreciate the planet we share.