classroom

I won’t lie to you. Camping is not one of my favorite things to do. The outdoors is a beautiful thing, but I’d take the comfort of a good book and my nice warm bed over dirt floors any day.

Matt Schlein and his class of nineteen high school students would most likely disagree. Although what they’re doing might not be considered ‘camping,’ it certainly is roughing it. Schlein, New York Native and teacher started a foundation that raised the money to buy 260 acres of land to use as a classroom.

That’s right, a classroom.

This foundation, The Walden Project, is an alternative program focused on environmental studies and on the teachings of Henry David Thoreau, who did some of his best thinking outdoors at Walden Pond.

Two or three days a week, Schlein and his students gather on old benches and chairs in the woods to study, discuss, and explore their relationship to the natural world. Whether rain, sleet, or snow, they remain outside; their only shelter a tent constructed out of donated sail material.

"Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man. Its presence refreshes him," Schlein says.

How “Thoreau” of them.

Bad puns aside, Schlein and his class are a real breath of fresh air. None of the students have been forced into an environment they’re uncomfortable with. In fact, they describe the experience as much more enriching than anything a traditional high school could offer them.

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