Welcome, and Happy (or insert your current emotions and curse words here) New Year!

I’m excited to have been given the official county go-ahead that Outside School can require vaccinations. We’ll continue to be masked, too. I’m so happy to contribute to our collective healthy living. All the latest policies are up on the website.

While Outside School is outside, filled with nature and all the experiences that provides, I find our daily “curriculum” is based more often than not in the social and emotional realms of human development. One topic that’s been with us all school year so far has been consent, along with its close associate, boundaries. Bringing these topics to the fore has been interesting. In real life, we know that there are so many ways to ask for consent and the consequent potential for a reaction with people’s boundaries, such as with various facial expressions or body movements. For children, or anyone less experienced with reading others, asking for consent and setting boundaries often needs to be more direct. As an example, you and I, depending on relationship and how safe we’re feeling during the pandemic, may stick out an arm slightly and the other recognizes this gesture, and we may embrace. Based on our relationship and how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other, we’ll know roughly how long and how hard to hug (and we’ll receive subtle clues from one another so we act at about the same time). (Hugging is one of the things I miss the most during COVID-times.) For children and many others, especially those who don’t respond so readily to social cues, it helps to practice asking for consent and setting boundaries. For those who are more socially skilled, this may seem clunky, but I highly recommend trying this as a matter of regular practice. Here’s an example:

Person 1: Can I have a hug?

Person 2: Yes!

(They proceed to embrace.)

or…

Person 1: Can I have a hug?

Person 2: No.

(The two then proceed to whatever may happen next, and Person 1 abides by Person 2’s wishes.)

It seems so simple, but it’s incredibly complex. This is why I invite you to try! For yourself, are you regularly asking for consent? Are you also setting firm boundaries, abiding by them yourself, and demanding that others do, too, the first time they’re stated and not the third? In others, how often are you seeing these things happening or not? Are the people not asking consent white, male, able-bodied, not too young or old, or a boss, teacher, police officer, or clergy? Are they otherwise considering themselves dominant, whether often or just in some particular situations? For those who are not offering up strong boundaries, are they women, non-gender conforming, People of Color, elder, children, or “unskilled laborers?” I wonder: When consent is not asked for, what’s being taken away from the person for whom consent is assumed? It can be a heavy toll.

I absolutely LOVE the work of local author and brave, badass mom, Minna Dubin. Her creative nonfiction, “Consent Training,” appears in Lunch Ticket here: https://lunchticket.org/consent-training/. A fantastically written short piece, perfect for anyone with others we’re caring for. Follow her on instagram @minnadubin.

Nature News

The creek is a source of daily excitement, and we’ve been checking it daily. How hard is it flowing? How does that relate to the amount of rain we have or have not had? How clear is it? How high is it? Can we see the bottom? Is it showing us anything new? Are there newts? How do I get over to that spot??? Once these and other questions are answered first thing in the morning, we’re already inspired and ready to continue on to other, warmer locales, all determined by the children.

We found a (probably) dead newt. I wrote about it in the daily email I send to Outside School families and posted it on my social media. I highly recommend you find out more about Nal Newtson from my posts on January 7. (If we’re not following each other, check out the links at the bottom of the page.)

Resources

Each day before school, I check Cal Fire’s site to see how our California fire situation is going. I found that they’re offering Camp Cinder this summer. We need so many more female and female-identifying humans in “non-traditional” roles! For some, this will be fantastic place to start.

Enrollment

Enrollment is open for Outside School:

-Remainder of the 2021 - 2022 school year (tuition is prorated based on month and day started),

-2022 - 2023 school year,

-2022 summer camp.

Children in elementary, middle, and high school are welcome!

Take care,

Heather

Heather Taylor, EMT

Founder/Director/Teacher, Outside School (www.outside.school)

Founder, Teach Outside (www.teachoutside.org)

California Master Teacher

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