One more reason Maine is "the way life should be" (Portland: public school, calculator)

[Elcarim]

Children in our schools here are not taught such valuable hands-on lessons about nature and lhow we are connected to the earth. I think this is an incredible example of quality education in Maine. JMHO!

Students hold food tasting festival - Maine Coast NOW - A Courier Publications Information Source

[msina]

Great story El. Thanks for the link.

[genmomto5]

Coming in to the High School years with my oldest I have so much more hope that his young adulthood will be a smoother transition to caring for himself and knowing how the world works because of the schools here. We are in Portland, not Belfast, but similar types of experiences are happening here too.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Students in our junior high are taught survival skills. They build a fire in the rain, learn map and compass and each kid accumulates his own survival kit. Our kids come to school by boat, snowmobile, ATV and sometimes by float plane. In February the school bus driver waits at the end of the plowed road and makes sure all the snowmobiles start so a kid doesn't freeze to death. When the ice is about to go out the kids either stay in touch with school by radio or a teacher's aide goes out to spend a week or two with families until the lakes are ice free and the kids can come by boat again.

It's different up here. The two teachers who developed the survival unit for junior high kids got national award for it.

[msina]

These are some great things kids are getting to do. I think it's just wonderful.

[Elcarim]

I've read somewhere else, maybe on one of the school websites, that several extra curricular activities offered are snow shoeing/skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, hiking, etc.

It is so very different from the activities we have here, primarily, I'm sure, due to the overall availability or lack thereof. Here you have Ag and sports, and just the basics of those - football, basketball & baseball. And then there is also band. That's pretty much been it at all the schools here that I've ever been familiar with. Occasionally a school will offer choir or drama, but only where the teachers are available. I only went to one public school in my school career where choir/drama was offered, and it was a more progressive school in our area.

[Submariner]

Wonderful link and great ideas everyone. I wish that all public funded schools did such things!

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Two kids from here went to the state woodsman's field days. The vocational kids have a state competition. They won the state skidder competition. It is based on speed and accuracy. They drag logs through the woods and cannot damage good trees with the logs they are moving. They also must place the logs precisely. Our kids broke the state record and beat the second place team by 45 minutes. Yes, that reads correctly; 45 minutes, not 45 seconds.

Two of the requirements to graduate from our high school are to swim the lake and climb Mount Katahdin. A handicapped girl did it. Her class brought her to the top of Mount Katahdin. She also made it across the lake. Our kids don't quit. Boy's baseball, Girls softball and girls soccer all won the state chamnpionship last year in the same year. Our math team wins the states on a regular basis.

A student from here won the national student welding competition and placed third in the world competition in Finland against student welders from Japan, Korea, Red China, Germany and many others.

There are no lockers at our high school. If somebody puts his calculator on the shelf and comes back next week the calculator will be there. Kids don't steal here.

(Not that I would brag or anything.)

[Maine Writer]

My daughter graduated from ER II in June. They climbed Katahdin, canoed/camped on the Allagash for four days, snowshoeing and cross country skiing are part of gym, recess and after school activities and downhill skiing is a yearly field trip when there's enough snow.

I ran a school garden program as part of 21st Century (No Child Left Behind). The kids did everything from choosing their vegetables and varieties, planting seeds, transplanting, staking tomatoes, harvesting, etc. An ed tech who was a farmer amended the soil after I had it tilled. He managed to convince all of the junior high kids to spread the soil amendment - used goat food.

Maine has Ag In The Classroom, MAITCA (http://www.mainefarmbureau.com/aginclass/ - broken link). The new ag license plates (http://www.mainefarmbureau.com/aginclass/agtag.htm - broken link) is part of MAITCA. The $20 fee for the plate goes toward teaching ag in schools. My vanity plates run out this month. I'm replacing them with an ag plate.

Maine's a great place to keep kids active outdoors year round.

[Unhappycamper]

Every year SMCC has an international food festival. I am yet to go but I hear it is delicious.