Nature's Way

To thousands of New York City schoolkids, crouching on sidewalks over their games of marbles, wild life means the alley cat screeching on the back fence. The closest they get to nature is the neighborhood park. This week, a committee of New York's Board of Education released a glowing report on an experiment in outdoor education. Last summer, the board had sent 62 fifth-and seventh-graders to a LIFE camp in the lake-&-woodlands of New Jersey. Unlike previous LIFE camps, which have been holidays, this one was on classroom time.

For three weeks, they swam, hiked and fished, but mostly they explored. They took a trip in a covered wagon; they were shown, as well as told, what early pioneers had to put up with. They cooked their own meals, and put arithmetic to practical use by dividing pounds of hamburger by the number of mouths to feed. The sight, sound, and smell of trees and flowers freshened their vocabularies; watching lumbering and farming widened them.

When they got back to the city, the boys & girls were given a set of tests. Even in the subjects which the stay-at-home kids had studied, the campers scored as well or better.

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