Learning
Mother Nature Knows Best Outdoor schools offer a new model for experiential education.
Words: Artis Henderson Every teacher dreads those mornings when the whole classroom is off: Kids are moody, unsettled, out of their routine. In a traditional setting, this might set the tone for the day. But at an outdoor-focused school like the Woodland Nature Montessori School in Fort Myers, mornings like these call for a walk. The school’s founder and director, Karen Cichy, rounds up her 23 students (ranging in age from 3 to 6) and heads out into the 105-acre Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium preserve, where the school is located. Before long, the kids are crouching down
each day. They spend up to six hours
in Scandinavia. Though they’ve been
to inspect mushrooms growing
outside on days when they have an
around in the United States since the
on a log, looking up to watch a
outdoor lesson—a nature hike, learn-
1960s, these programs have seen a
red-shouldered hawk sitting in a
ing how to make a lean-to shelter, or
recent rise in popularity. Between 2017
tall pine, leaning in close to count
visiting injured wild animals that the
and 2020, the number of outdoor
the spots on a ladybug. “We don’t
nature center staff are rehabilitating.
schools in the United States more than doubled, according to a survey from
problems. Psychologically, watching
the Natural Start Alliance, a North
this—it’s been truly amazing,” Cichy
American Association for Environmen-
stations and learning through play
says. “At this age, everything is a
tal Education project. The study re-
instead of sitting at desks. On
teachable moment.”
ported 585 outdoor schools across the
“Every day is an adventure.” Montessori schools focus on
average, students at the Woodland
22
Outdoor schools—also known as forest or nature schools—originated
school spend four hours outside
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country in 2020, primarily preschools and kindergartens.
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“We have so few behavioral
have bad days here,” Cichy says.
