CREATING COMMUNITY

by Joshua Freedman, Trustee

Perched on a 12" platform forty feet in the air, the pole shakes with your trembling knees, below you the expectant faces of your classmates, and seven feet above you a small trapeze. Ready to jump?

No, for Odyssey students that’s not hard enough. Andrea decides to go blindfolded. She climbs the pole, jumps... and she fails, tries again, fails again, and is lowered to the ground. An hour later, invigorated by pep talks from classmates, Andrea is back. "I will catch it. No Question." Perseverance at work (and removing the blindfold helps a little) -- she nails it, and hanging from the bar hears an excited roar from the school assembled below.

For Odyssey School’s seventh graders, this event -- the "747," the ropes course "final exam" -- is part of an important series of challenges and rituals at camp each year. Odyssey is a middle school that recognizes the driving need for adolescents to belong, and taps that power to create a learning community full of energy and joy. The process begins before the first day of school, and accelerates as the whole school takes off for seven days of work, play, learning, and laughter at camp.

As in the world at large, a meaningful learning community is layered with reciprocal relationships, with shared rights and responsibilities, with ritual, and with purpose. Odyssey Head, Stephen Smuin, explains: "Community is the knowledge that you are an integral part, that you are taken care of, that you have responsibilities to take care of others. This kind of interdependence, these reciprocal relationships, gives kids the strength stand and be counted."

For middle schoolers, this begins with, "I want to have good friends." And that is one area where camp unequivocally succeeds. Andrea, a new student, declares, "Every one of us became friends during camp." Aviva, a sixth grader, concurs "We get along better... and learn who to turn to when we’re upset."

The challenge for Odyssey is to create a structure where the feeling of community is so appealing, so valuable, that students are willing to do the hard work of forming honest relationships. Camp, then, is both an opportunity to learn the roles and structures of the community, and a place to be steeped in the joy of belonging to a group of people committed to one another -- and committed to learning.

Work and Play

Learning about community and enjoying that connection happens simultaneously; the two are layered together through challenge and laughter. Contributing to the community can be as simple as preparing meals together. Well -- it sounds simple until you let a crew of eighth graders loose in a restaurant kitchen. The water fights are legendary. Where most teachers would sooner have wisdom teeth pulled, the Odyssey staff is most likely to jump in and play along. The secret is that the frivolity is part of the process, that the joy of work is as important as the work itself -- and the food still tastes good.

These lessons about the pleasure of hard work occur in several domains. In the nightly Shakespeare classes, the teachers pay strict attention to detail; they re-work phrases and words, they take time for excellence. At the same time, these hours are suffused with Shakepeare’s humor -- which is right on target for most middle schoolers. In the morning warm-ups, there are many days when the children will repeat their jumping jacks over and over until they can do them (mostly) in synch. But even in this trivial example, the staff works to let the students in on the rationale -- they explain how this mundane work moves the community closer to its goals of inclusion and excellence.

Work is a big part of the camp experience. A community succeeds when each individual contributes to the success of the group. Smuin wonders, "How can people expect kids to be responsible if they are never given an opportunity to practice responsibility?" So, at camp, they have the chance. It is a surprise each year to find 12 year olds who don’t know how to use a broom, and since all the kids rotate through cleaning up after meals, everyone gets a little more practice. But more importantly, at camp -- and all year at Odyssey -- kids take responsibility for leadership.

Teaching leadership is mostly a process of asking questions and of providing opportunities. When the sixth graders attempt to bring their whole class over a wall, the staff stops them over and over to slow down the process and invite leaders to emerge. In our culture there seems to be some confusion about leadership, so the sixth graders’ first attempts at leadership sound a lot like shouting. With consistent intervention, the staff shows them how to invite other voices to be heard.

Lee Shult, Odyssey’s Associate Head, reminds the group: "A good leader is also a good follower." The kids are taking the first steps, they are learning to listen to more than one voice, they are learning to observe actions. This kind of observation is new, and it requires a patient, one-to-one process. Walking back to the lodge after the wall challenge, Shult quietly begins a conversation with one child, "So, did you see how Satahi was leading?"

Effective leadership comes from making powerful choices for the good of the group. Meg is an 8th grader with the charismatic energy that compels action from younger students. At the lake one day, she is "hanging out" socializing. A teacher asks, "What do you want the sixth graders to be learning here?" Meg is certain of the answer: "To take risks." The staffer responds, "And, are you teaching that right now?" and despite shaking knees and teary eyes, Meg is first in line to try the Screamer (a 150’ zip line ending in the lake). After a year of Odyssey, Meg knows that she can lead in a positive direction or a negative one, but that her actions will have consequence -- that by definition she is a role model for younger kids; that she is a powerful force in shaping her community.

Risks and Rituals

In time, Odyssey students emerge as leaders who find joy in working together. They learn to lead by example, by speaking their truths, and by finding consensus. Like the other kinds of learning at camp, learning to be a leader begins with taking positive risks. At camp there are countless opportunities to practice these skills. Perhaps the favorite is lake time

Between a giant rope swing, a 150’ zip line (the Screamer), and other apparatus, the lake mixes play with learning. For some kids, these physical risks are small challenges; so with staff help they quickly move on to the challenge of integrating the group, of encouraging and supporting others. For other kids, hooking into a climbing harness and leaping from a high platform to zip down a wire is quite a feat.

These kinds of risks are powerful teachers when students are asked to reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and actions To consider what they really want, to recognize that each will have to take action if he is going to make those changes real. So, there are hours of journal writing, of quiet time, and of discussion.

For example when it is time for the seventh grade to do the ropes course (the one that ends with "747"), their first task is to write goals in their journals. Then, each student is required to put on the harness and approach the course -- the rest is up the them. And afterward? Get out your journal and "capture the moment" choruses the staff.

The ropes course presents two community-building challenges. The first one is for the climber to face her fears and learn that by setting goals and making commitments, she can achieve what feels impossible. The more subtle learning is for those on the ground. What do you do when someone gets stuck? How do you provide support when the climber shouts down, "please be quiet!" How do you support the person who did not meet his objective? Again, the staff teaches through persistence and through modeling.

One of the most enchanting aspects of the Odyssey camp is the collection of rituals assembled to bring new students into the culture. In the last months, sixth graders have been receiving anonymous cards and gifts of welcome. The second night of camp, the gather in the lodge, and expectant hush as the lights dim. Each sixth grader holds an un-lit candle, and the room brightens as the seventh and eighth graders enter with their lit tapers. With a quiet seriousness, Smuin announces, "Tonight you will become members of the Odyssey community. Your big siblings will light your candle to welcome you into a family that will support you in your years at Odyssey.... And the next time we light these candles will be a graduation when we say farewell to these eighth graders." Smuin chokes a little here, knowing that while June is terribly far for a middle schooler, it will come in a heartbeat -- and another group of graduates will continue their Odyssey of learning.