Dan
McKeon -
TrekNorth Executive Director - dmckeon@treknorth.org
 High
School bull riders and goat-ropers in South Dakota, madly skilled
jump-ropers and basketball players in the South Bronx of New
York City, Alaskan Natives and salmon fishermen on Baranof
Island in southeast Alaska... No, these are not my previous
lives. They are the lifestyles of the various students I've
taught. After graduating from St. John's University in 1999,
I spent a year teaching with an emergency license on the Cheyenne
River-Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota. My experience
that year left no doubt in my mind that teaching was my lifestyle
of choice. I wonder what the kids of Bemidji will add to this
list?
One of my favorite writers said something about being
excited to graduate from school because he'd finally have time
to "sit
against a tree in the woods and read a good book." That
is one image of education I'd like to cultivate; a person sitting
in the woods enjoying a good book. But education can look as
diverse as the students experiencing it. It might be an intense
classroom discussion that leaves everyone feeling smart and exhausted.
It might be framing houses for Habitat for Humanity and realizing
how good it feels to help people who need help. It might be a
rock-climbing trip to the North Shore that includes campfire
chats concerning ways we might save this incredible world of
ours. It might be an essay test that leaves you humbled. The
common threads: rigor, relevance, and adventure.
Why would I
leave a place as beautiful and adventurous as southeast Alaska,
which, by the way, has the densest Brown Bear population
on Earth? Because of one compound word you won't find in the
dictionary: TrekNorth. My diverse teaching experience has shown
me methods that work well and methods that don't work well,
and I firmly believe that TrekNorth is leading the way to making
high school an important and relevant educating experience
for
young adults. After all, one shouldn't have to wait until one
graduates to have the time to read a good book in the woods.
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