This Spring, I attempted the nearly impossible - filing all the paperwork, getting all the students prepped, and putting together a high school arts curriculum for a weekend at Clem Miller Environmental Education Center. Despite the forecast of rain all weekend, we packed our gear into the truck of one of my amazing chaperones (amazing chaperones were what really made this trip a success!) and rode out of the city and into the great green blur of Point Reyes National Seashore. This is a trip that has its roots in my childhood, specifically my 5th grade year when I had the extreme fortune to be placed in Dave Neubacher's class at El Verano Elementary in Sonoma, CA. Mr.Neubacher was an incredible educator in many ways, but not the least of those ways was he took two trips to Clem Miller with his students each year. Out in the woods we learned how to love nature, despite its bites and stings (I famously took a tumble into some stinging nettles on a night hike!). Trying to follow in Mr.Neubacher's footsteps as an educator with my own practice 20 years later, I realize what a monumental thing it was that he did for us - it is no small feat to plan a trip like this. Dave Neubacher passed away one week after our trip, having quietly battled cancer for the last year. It breaks my heart in so many ways that he is gone; he is without a doubt one of the most important figures in my life. Our education comes in so many guises - friends, family, circumstance - but these teachers who give their heart and soul to the work, who build their communities and help them thrive even in the harshest conditions, we need to honor them not just with words, but with deeds. We need to continue the work that they began with us; for me, that meant taking a gaggle of teenagers into the woods to look at trees and birds, raindrops, stones, and truly slow down for the merest of moments to contemplate our place in the world. Thank you Mr.Neubacher - for capture-the-flag and botany lessons, candle-making and your sense of humor. For the great gift of making your students feel like they could change the world.
