Reminiscing on 27 years of volunteering

Here is the perspective of David Rodgers, Nature Program volunteer for 27 years at Lakeview Elementary School in Greensboro, VT: 

“I vaguely recall joining this nature study program around 1995, at the same time I started other volunteer activities at the Lakeview Elementary School in Greensboro, Vermont. Susan Sawyer was our excellent teacher and four towns were covered (Greensboro, Walden, Craftsbury, and Woodbury). 

I have enjoyed connecting kids to the endlessly amazing world of nature here in Vermont, and have simultaneously expanded my own personal knowledge greatly. The hands-on approach and getting children outside is very effective, as the more of our senses are used, the better we remember. To see and encourage the curiosity and enthusiasm of students to learn about plants and animals as well as the energetic forces all around us is a constant delight and hopefully will be formative experiences for their later lives. Teaching the scientific way of observing, experimenting and thinking is particularly important in developing the kind of critical intelligence and ability to question everything necessary to becoming a responsible citizen in a functioning democracy and a well informed problem solver.”