Two Saturdays ago, I was invited to join my school’s Accelerated Program on a field trip to Pantai Tablolong, a beach about an hour outside of the city of Kupang.  Still feeling disconnected with my school, I, of course, jumped at the opportunity to get a little bit more involved with my students and particularly with the non-English speaking teachers.  And so we piled on a bus with students hanging off the front and back doors and headed on an adventurous outing.  At the beach, we played a fun game of Ninja that brought me back to the Vassar days before the students went off to complete several science field research activities.  Meanwhile, I picnicked with my colleagues and got to know them better.  The children of the headmaster and I bathed in the beautiful water before we headed home.  And finally to make it a real Indonesian adventure, a breakdown of one of the teacher’s motorbike resulted in a busload of high school students screaming as I, and a few other teachers attempted to lift a motorbike onto an already packed bus.  Adu!

They don’t look happy yet…

Much better.

Hard at work on the beach.

The bike debacle!

Ms. Ary squished behind the bike.

Not only was this trip a fun bonding day for my school and I, it also reminded me of the importance of outdoors education and place-based pedagogy.  I know, I can’t believe I’m revisiting my senior thesis either.  But like many isolated/rural communities in the US context, many of the youths in my contextually well off private Christian high school pay as much and work as hard as they do with the hopes of getting out of Kupang to live in one of the bigger cities of Indonesia.  Already, many of my students come from more isolated and smaller islands near Timor, only living here with distant relatives to attend this school.  So while unconfirmed by any sources but my own observations and conversations with teacher and students, it seems like Kupang faces a brain drain of young people.  And if my suspicions hold any significance, this exodus of bright young people will, if not already, shake the economic underpinnings of this community.

Responding to this complex challenge, especially with me an outsider, requires an educational approach that truly empowers the local community and economies, and utilizes youth as a viable source of social capital.  More and more I realize that I don’t know enough about anything, so I hit the books for some inspiration:

“A place is a piece of the whole environment which has been claimed by feelings.” –Gussow

“To live is to live locally, and to know is first of all to know the places one is in.”  —Casey

“…Fundamentally significant knowledge is knowledge of the unique places that our lives inhabit; failure to know those places is to remain in a disturbing sort of ignorance.”  —Gruenewald

“Place + People = Politics.”  —Williams.  That is, people are not only shaped by places, but we are place-makers, and what we make of our places, and the character of the places we leave behind over generations, reflects much of our political and cultural lives, as well as our theories of knowing and being.

And finally, to engage with critical placed-based pedagogy in Kupang means to engage with

 “The process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects across the curriculum.  Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning experiences, this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties with their community, enhances students’ appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens.  Community vitality and environmental quality are improved through the active engagement of local citizens, community organizations, and environmental resources in the life of the school.”  —Sobel

I’m thrilled to have joined my school on this great trip to the beach.  It was great to have shared other parts of my personality with my colleagues and students, and vice versa.  Mostly, I’m glad to have witnessed such an innovative teaching approach in praxis here in Kupang.