The day before the second ski day of the year, I asked a 5th Grade student how he liked ski day. He started off with an enthusiastic endorsement of the idea, remarking that it was so much fun. Then, with a wistful look, he let me know that it was really different seeing everyone skiing and snowboarding. I asked him to tell me more, and he said that at school, he knows what to expect, in general, but at the mountain, “different people are forced to do things in different ways, and that could be a little different.”
Last week I wrote about the opportunity that ski day provides to learn a new skill. As the insightful 5th Grader observed to me, there is another reason that we do ski days at The Beech Hill School. Ski days shake up the normal social structures of a school day, and our students are put in the uncomfortable position of negotiating this new environment. While some students may excel in math class, or others in drama, some feel most comfortable on the mountain. Likewise, others that may regularly feel on top of their game in class may feel discomforted on the mountain.
In the end, many of our students come to love ski days and the opportunity to spend the day with classmates with whom they may not usually socialize. They learn to wait up for members of the group, to decide what trails to tackle and at times, even have to ride the lift with their Head of School. While I am quite pleased that we remove the barriers that might inhibit our students from learning to ski or ride, I am also pleased to see that our students must negotiate the social challenges that arise from spending a day in a unique environment.