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Troubled Teens in the Wilderness Learn to Love Learning
By: Hugh C. McBride
There aren’t a lot of textbooks in the Idaho desert, but Sean Tomkinson, a therapist with SUWS Adolescent and Youth Programs, believes that the students who spend weeks in that wilderness environment emerge more motivated and better prepared to pursue academic success when they return to the classroom.
“SUWS kids are really intelligent kids,” Tomkinson said. “Most of them just didn’t see the value in what their [previous] teachers were telling them to do. They need to have a reason to want to do well – and we help them find those reasons.”
UP TO THE CHALLENGE
The core of the SUWS program is a therapeutic wilderness experience during which participants spend a month or more hiking over primitive terrain. Accompanied by trained counselors and assisted by experienced, licensed therapists, the SUWS students work their way through a phased system that is designed to addresses their individual needs and equip them with the skills and strategies necessary for becoming active and productive members of society.
But the focus on therapy doesn’t mean that academic achievement is ignored during the students’ time in the wilderness, Tomkinson said. In fact, he draws a direct line between the lessons the kids learn on the trail (and around the campfire) to an increased proficiency in the classroom.
“A lot of kids who come to SUWS have and attitude that they’re a failure,” he said. “But we give them challenges where they have to succeed, then we build on those successes.” Eventually, Tomkinson said, the students start to realize that they are capable of achieving whatever they set their minds to, including doing well in school.
“I CAN DO THIS”
When students arrive at SUWS, there’s a good chance that they’re angry, afraid, and confused. Removed from familiar environs and placed in what appears to be an intimidating situation, they feel overwhelmed and defeated – emotions that mirror what many underachieving students feel when confronted with schoolwork that they believe is beyond their abilities.
But where some would see failure, Tomkinson sees the promise of unrealized potential.
“We start with the basics, and we show these kids that they can succeed,” he said. “Every kid learns and performs at a different level, and it’s our job to help them progress.”
As befits a therapeutic wilderness program, most students' initial successes involved mastering primitive skills which are taught largely for their metaphoric and confidence boosting emphasis. “We start with the basics,” Tomkinson said. “They’re given a spark rock and a piece of steel, and they’re put in an individual situation where they have to make fire to get warm food.”
After they’ve mastered fire starting and other basic skills, the students are presented with their first complex challenge: building a Native American stone-fall trap using nothing more than sticks and string.
“The traps are used to focus kids on all the parts that go into making something work,” Tomkinson said. This metaphor will be expounded upon throughout the students’ time at SUWS as they learn how to function within a group, a family, and society as a whole. But Tomkinson said it also has a significant influence on the students’ approach to academics, too.
“The kids realize ‘I can do this. I’m able to focus and I’m able to break things down. I’m able to problem solve,’” he said. “They’re learning to see the big picture, but also to focus on all the small steps they need to take.”
EMPHASIS ON THE POSITIVE
As they complete regular journal assignments and participate in both individual and group counseling sessions, SUWS students are probably spending more time than they realize reading, writing, and learning about topics such as orienteering, interpersonal communication, psychology, and biology.
The students might not notice all the progress they’re making, but Tomkinson does. “Sometimes we get too focused on fixing problems,” he said. “At SUWS we look at it from the perspective of ‘what positive outcomes are these kids able to fulfill?’”
As the students progress through the program, they transform individual strengths into attributes that benefit the entire group, learning along the way to develop trusting relationships and serve others.
“The growth process isn’t painless,” Tomkinson said, “but by the end of the program these kids recognize that they can do something that a not a lot of people in America can do.”
POISED TO SUCCEED
Developing new skills. Breaking large projects down into manageable components. Strategizing, planning, and evaluating. Making on-the-spot adjustments when events necessitate. Setting goals, then achieving them. To Sean Tomkinson, this sounds a lot like learning, and the changes he sees in the students he works with have convinced him that the SUWS experience extends far beyond the wilderness.
“I see so many kids who come into the desert saying ‘I can’t, I can’t,’” he said. “But by the time they leave, they don’t have that attitude anymore. Once they realize that they can’t manipulate their way out of this program, they starting thinking ‘what’s going to make me successful?’”
And the next time these students find themselves facing a difficult math problem, a demanding teacher, or a seemingly impossible school project, Tomkinson is confident that at least one important lesson they learned in the desert will make all the difference.
“When they got here, they thought they were failures,” he said. “But now they know they can succeed.”
Source: CRC Health Group
Link: Find a Therapist
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