Where the Idea for "Project Unplugged" Came From By Emily Brittain
Where the Idea for
“Project Unplugged” Came From
By Emily Brittain
I wish school isn't
about learning from books, because I learn better adventuring. Don’t tell
me how educated you are. Tell me how much you have traveled and seen the world.
I want to get out and travel. We have nothing to lose, but a whole new
world to see. Don’t tell me to get a job, because jobs fill the pocket, but
adventure fills the soul. We must take adventures in order to know where we
truly belong. Don't tell me to do good in English class. Let me travel. If you
want me to get off my phone in your class, then take me where the wifi is weak.
I realized adventure is the best way to learn, but I can’t learn just sitting
in a building for seven hours a day. It’s also better to see something once, then
to hear it a thousand times. Failing us because we didn't do the work that
doesn’t interest us, doesn’t help anyone. You need to show us the world.
Staying in school may give you a better financial future but traveling will
give you a future where you don't know what you'll see next. Teach me how to
build a fire, not how to move a triangle on a graph. Teach me how to set up a
tent, not how to write a three-part essay. Teach me how to read and use a map,
not how to read and construct a graph on who showed up to class. Please just
teach me how to live in the wilderness, not how to sit at a desk the rest of my
live and write math problems. Teach me how to teach others the skills you
taught me. Let the kids get out of these small classrooms and explore the
world. The world is about 12,742 just around the equator which is about 7,918
miles. Imagine if you could show me that. You just let me see probably only a
quarter mile of it by keeping me in school. And I can’t go out and adventure on
my own time because you gave me an essay due tomorrow, a packet due Thursday
for geometry, a history essay due next week on the ice age, and an earth
science lab that I couldn't finish in class. If I didn’t have to do these
things, then I could go and see the world. But I can’t as much as I want to
because I have to be back in my seat Monday morning “ready” to learn nothing I
will use tomorrow. You can still teach me but have more opportunities for me to
go out and explore the beautiful world.
My idea is for the
school to have an outdoor classroom that can either be used for an “adventure
class” or an “adventure club”. The classroom can be used by any subject teacher
who would like to use it for their class if the space is available at the time
they would like. English could read outside. All science classes could use the
space. Art could use it to sit and sketch. Really any class can use it for
anything.
The original startup
costs would be part of the fundraising for my Gold Award Project. After
that the adventure club would need to do yearly fundraising to help offset the
cost of trips. I do have some ideas for fundraising.
