Raccoon Youth Academy

The Raccoon Youth Academy is a weekend-long rewilding program that occurs once a month. It is a great supplement for homeschooling and unschooling education as well as traditional schooling. It takes place on the first weekend of every month from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.

Our lives have become increasingly urban and increasingly separate from the natural world. We spend most of our time indoors, sitting in front of screens, whether television, computer or cellphone. Our lives are now dictated by electronic media. We have lost a connection to our physical reality; the planets ecosystems. How many people know 5 edible native plants of their own bioregion? How many people garden for a portion of their food? Along with this loss of connection we have experienced a loss of natural, earth based technologies, crafts and rituals. This, in a very real sense, robs us of our humanity. Humans are not robots or computers. We are sensuous creatures who crave adventure, sensory experience and a deep connection to place.

At the Raccoon Youth Academy weekends, students learn about the ecology of the Northwest while engaging in natural hand-crafts, team building and general life skills. Our curriculum is focused on creating fluency. This means we spend more time focusing on individual skills rather than rushing students from topic to topic. We teach based on traditional hunter-gather invisible education-models such as Jon Young’s Art of of Mentoring. We are also influenced by the alternative educational structures of the Waldorf and Montessori school. Our camps have a 1/6 instructor to student ratio. This means that each student will be able to connect with our instructors on a personal level. We accept ages of children from seven to seventeen.

Why “Raccoons”?

At Rewild Portland we look to animals for inspiration. Raccoons represent our closest role model in the animal kingdom. The raccoon is a social animal that lives with large families throughout the year. They are opportunists and know when and where they will catch the best opportunities. They live wild and free lives in the middle of the city, right under our noses! Plus, they are really cute.

Skills

Rewilding represents an accumulation of millions of years of indigenous living. It represents human technologies, customs, rituals, and ways of knowing and understanding nature. It represents routines and exercises that build awareness and a sense of place. Students will develop an emotional connection to the land and its other-than-human inhabitants, as well as a mental understanding of how humans fit into their ecosystems. They will learn ways of minimizing destructive interactions and maximizing their ability to foster biodiversity. This wealth of human culture comes forth from us in many ways, from sensory exercises to hand crafted tool-making classes.

The following are examples of the things we will teach during the weekends: fire-by-friction, basketry, archery, animal tracking and nature observation, edible wild plants, bow and arrow making, hide-tanning, natural shelter building, pottery, cord and fiber making, butchering and animal processing, wilderness survival, animal trapping, stone tools, bone tools, leatherwork, wilderness stealth and camouflage, team-building, storytelling, improvisational theater, American Sign-language, and much more. All skills will depend on instructor availability, the weather, seasonal variation, student interest and a number of other factors. We hope to build fluency in some of these skills rather than a brief experience with each one.

Gear

We travel to many different campgrounds in Oregon but focus on the Molalla River Corridor. These sites are considered “primitive” in that they do not have bathrooms or running water, which means we have to poop in the woods. One of our first lessons to students is the proper way to go in the woods. All of our water must be boiled or filtered (we do not use iodine tablets). Students must bring their own gear; tents, rainfly, sleeping bag, ground mattress, etc. Students must wear proper outdoor attire, preferably natural wool clothes and not flashy synthetic materials. We will provide a full list of equipment upon enrollment.

Safety

At our camps we take risks while maintaining a safe and comfortable environment for all. We always have staff on site who are trained in first aid, CPR and AED. All of our instructors must have a background check prior to working with us.

Meals

All of our meals are “Paleo”, meaning they consist of meats, vegetables, greens and fruit and are gluten and diary free. We do not offer vegetarian options. All of our students will cook their meals together; we do not allow students to bring their own food.

Staff

Our staff may vary depending on curriculum. Check out our staff page to learn more about our amazing staff!

Actual Weekend Dates for session 1 of 2012:

January 6th-8th
February 3rd-5th
March 2nd-4th
April 6th-8th
May 4th-6th
June 1st-3rd

Price: $1,350 for 6 months ($225/month) Jan-June 2012

Registration Deadline: December 1st 2011

Payment/Refunds

We will give a full refund up to two weeks before the workshop. A half refund is available if you cancel  within two weeks from the start date. If we do not fill a class we provide full refunds. Families must sign a 6 month contract. A monthly payment plan is available. If we have to send students home for behaving poorly with other students, we cannot issue a refund.