credit – Giulia Squillace and Getty for Unsplash +Getting in fights, texting too much in class, skipping school—they are the kinds of stories that the parents of most high schools will have heard of before, and know the ending of.
But at Morse High School in Maine, detention is enforced with an altogether different approach—a hike.
Misbehaving students can, of course, choose normal detention, but ever since school counselor Leslie Trundy started offering hiking detentions, the children overwhelmingly pick that.
When Maine Public Radio reporter Madi Smith joined Trundy on a hike through the green hills near Bath, the mix of freshmen and sophomores had unremarkable tales to tell.
“Playing video games in class,” said Wyatt Wells; “Yelled at a teacher,” said Nicholas Tanguay; “Probably, like, skipping class,” said Elsie Nelson-Walling.
They trundled along behind Trundy who got the idea for hiking detention from an outdoor education conference she attended last fall.
Parenting experts will likely always be split between those who favor sternness and discipline and those who favor forgiveness and freedom. Both methods have their celebrity flag carriers and innumerable examples of success and failure.
Unsurprisingly then, some parents have prevented their kids from attending Trundy’s hiking detention, believing that it misses the point of punishment. Trundy herself isn’t making any claims yet, but some of her students seem to be getting the point.
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Nicholas Tanguay, who yelled at his teacher, says that the walking, heavy breathing, and sense of accomplishment were together a focusing and calming influence that day, and without admitting he felt his mental health improved, said that he believed it’s true that nature and walking can improve a person’s mentality.
Sona Kipoy wasn’t in detention, Smith reports, but just came along in order to “find herself.”
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“So you can just find yourself, yeah, I guess finding yourself in a forest is easier than in the city,” Kipoy, a child of immigrants from the Democratic Reb. of the Congo, said.
Trundy said she’s eager to start the program next year, and see if any of her attendees this year prove to be role models for future freshmen.
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