Outdoor Education perseveres in the San Gabriel Mountains
A 5th Grade boy from East Los Angeles clicks off his flashlight and takes a look into the telescope belonging to Camp Skyhook at Clear Creek, which is pointed at the smog-free night sky of the San Gabriel Mountains. Having never ventured outside his East Los Angeles neighborhood, he peers into the dusty lens of the telescope and is greeted with the image of Saturn and one of her moons; which transcends his familiar world of the four blocks of concrete and steel between his home and school.
Fast forward 25 years, and he is once again stepping off a bus at Camp Skyhook; only this time he has his own class of 5th graders with him. Greeting the class of newly-arrived students is Outdoor Science School Center Manager Mark Gardina and Assistant Outdoor Science School Center Manager Gil Calderon, both of whom have been a part of the camp for over 20 years.
“Our number one goal here is that we want to provide a transformational experience for kids,” said Calderon. “That way when the students leave here, they not only have an understanding of how the natural environment works, but they also have a much deeper appreciation for it.”
Camp Skyhook has been one of the more prominent forces in the dwindling state of outdoor education, by offering its services to students from lower-income families, who are a large demographic of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). According to Calderon, at least 80 percent of students that visit Camp Skyhook each week are on a free or reduced lunch program; to whom the camp acts as a financial respite. “They basically pay zero to come here,” said Gardina. “And because we’re funded through grants, Kareem Abdul-Jabar and other sources; the students pay virtually nothing to come here.”
“…when the students leave here, they not only have an understanding of how the natural environment works, but they also have a much deeper appreciation for it.”
Part of the LAUSD’s Beyond the Bell Branch and funded through grant money along with Kareem Abdul-Jabar’s Skyhook Foundation, Camp Skyhook is one of the few remaining outdoor education centers in Southern California. Although 5th graders are frequent guests, the camp plays host to students from all over the district and provides them with the opportunity to live and study in an outdoor setting for an entire week.
LAUSD funded Camp Skyhook through general funds for the first 85 years of its existence, but the program has recently moved to being funded through grants and sponsorships when the district opted to cover teacher salaries through the general fund.
“He (Abdul-Jabar) has been involved with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) for a long time and called us to ask if he could donate money,” said Gardina. “So part of the deal was that he gave money every year to help keep the program running and they wanted to have their name attached to the site.”
Although the name of the site was changed, the program and its goals have been the same for close to a century. Located in the chaparral of the Angeles National Forest above the community of La Canada Flintridge, Camp Skyhook can be found by simply following the Angeles Crest Highway to the point where it meets Big Tujunga Canyon road. Recently celebrating its 90th anniversary, the site was ironically born of fire in the 1920’s after a series of forest fires.
“The Forest Service decided that outside groups would help re-seed as much as they could because of concerns for slides and for the communities below the mountains,” said Calderon. “A high school science teacher put together a group of students to re-seed the area; those were kind of the grassroots and it grew from there.”
Featuring three cabins, a dining hall, a museum complete with animals, multiple hiking trails, and a telescope, Camp Skyhook acts as a one-week getaway for LAUSD students. The camp’s main office was built at the start of the program in the 1920’s, and additional buildings such as the dining hall and cabins were built in the 1950’s, which is when the program began hosting elementary school students on a weekly basis.
Although the camp is sponsored by the Skyhook Foundation, the site is a part of LAUSD’s Beyond the Bell branch of outdoor education which also oversees programs at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro and Descanso Gardens in La Canada. Descanso Gardens acts as a destination for younger students (K-3) who may not be ready to leave home for an overnight trip and like Clear Creek, it focuses on the importance of the study of nature in an outdoor setting. Point Fermin on the other hand is the usual destination for high school students for weekend programs, and it instead focuses on marine life due to its proximity to the San Pedro Bay.
“Both of the programs are really good and how the naturalists work with students has been phenomenal,” said 5th Grade Teacher Albert Rodela of Hillside Elementary School. “[Down there] at Point Fermin they focused more on marine life since we’re so close to the beach; and up here in the chaparral area, the focus has been great. Both places bring up a lot of the same important scientific concepts, but focus on them in a different context.”
Coupled with occasional day trips to schools for lessons, the inclusion of these additional programs is a push by LAUSD to reach more students. “We’ve always wanted to expand to a program that reaches more students, but with limited budget, it’s always a matter of finding creative ways for us to do that,” said Gardina. “The goal here (at Clear Creek) is to get kids anywhere from Kindergarten through 12th grade.”
The program has faced its fair share of adversities during its 90-year existence; surviving the likes of both school district budget cuts and forest fires; including the 2009 Station Fire which was the largest wildfire in the history of Los Angeles County. Following the Recession of 2008, LAUSD was seeing a decrease in federal funding and was forced to make cuts in many areas, with Camp Skyhook being a potential candidate. However, the programs the district was forced to cut at the time were programs that weren’t in line with the standards and curriculum established by state education; and Camp Skyhook fortunately does not fall into this category.
“Those types of programs often get cut more often than we do, but we’ve made it through every cut for 90 years because as they decide, we’re a fun and exciting place for kids,” said Gardina. “But at the same time, everything we do is in line with what they’re supposed to be learning in the classroom. If we weren’t line with the curriculum, and the kids weren’t having a beneficial educational experience, we would have been gone a long time ago.”
The fact that the camp has been operating for nearly a decade speaks volumes towards the importance of the program and opportunities that it provides students from lower-income families. However, the value of this program might see its toughest test yet after Betsy DeVos was appointed Secretary of Education by President Trump. “If Betsy DeVos has her say and schools go to voucher programs, that would probably be the end of us,” said Calderon.
“There still would be programs like this but for example, my daughter went to a program like this and her school district charged $700 for a five-day program,” said Gardina. “That was a very expensive one and you could still find one for around $400 or so. Point is, there are still programs that would be able to function, but most of LA Unified students wouldn’t have this opportunity.”
It can also be argued though that the program is now more important than ever, with newly-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scott Pruitt vowing to dismantle laws and regulations that protect the environment.
“My concern as a teacher is what can I do or what should I try to do to develop them to be informed citizens,” said Trochez. “When I think about what’s going on now in our political climate, our new presidency, and the changes that are being made, this program becomes a glimmer of hope. Something like this is valuable, important, and necessary if we’re to uphold the values that we as a country held dearly; and that is that nature should be enjoyed and protected by everybody.”
The site managers have expressed concern towards the new administration, but overall their goals have remained the same; and that is to create a positive transformational learning experience for their students.
“Something like this is valuable, important, and necessary if we’re to uphold the values that we as a country held dearly; and that is that nature should be enjoyed and protected by everybody.”
“We’re not going to change a kid’s life in four days,” said Calderon. “But we’re going to plant seeds and our hope is that other people can water these seeds along the way.”
