Not Everyone has been to camp.
I have had to remind myself of this fact over and over. The first time I actually saw this, I was standing on the bluff overlooking the pacific ocean. We were waiting for our students to arrive for a week of science camp that included a look at the redwood forest, tide pooling, and a visit to a working saw mill. The kids were coming from the inner-city, but only a few hours away. "Surely everyone had been out in the woods" I told myself. It was one of those unbelievable days on the northern California coast, no fog, offshore flow, and about 70 plus degrees. The kids were over an hour and a half late, so we rushed up the trail to get back on schedule. I had not asked them if they had ever been to the ocean before and as we got to the trail that led along the bluffs, I had quite a surprise. Two of the boys started running away from the edge that looked down on the ocean, try as I might I could not get them back to take a look at the sea palms exposed on the rocks below. We got to a point where we usually stop and listen for the sea lions. I had them all stop and listen for the sounds coming up over the bluff, I took the chance I had to drop back and ask these boys why they were so fearful of the edge. They proceeded to tell me that they had never been on anything that tall, as they had not left a ten square block area from which they lived. The tallest thing they had been on was the freeway over crossing. All this to say, it is not a given that our students have seen any of what we are preparing to teach them. In our outdoor school jobs we need to assume nothing and remind ourselves that "Not Everyone has been outdoors."