By Stowell P. Watters 

Staff writer

A new project co-developed by the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust (KCT) and the Consolidated School will bring the lands protected and owned by the KCT a whole lot closer to the elementary students, according to KCT Executive Director Thomas Bradbury.

“Kids just don’t get outdoors like they used to and they don’t know their community. Mothers used to say ‘I don’t want to see you until supper,’ and we would go outside to explore, learn and create games in the outside world,” Bradbury said. “We want this project to make kids more excited about the nature and history right here in Kennebunkport and we want them to know that the things they learn in books are not segregated from real life.”

The program dubbed Trust in Our Children is a KCT initiative to supplement educational goals and expand field trip opportunities for the benefit of the children attending Consolidated School, Bradbury said. If all goes according to plan, students will become much more immersed in not only the history but also the educational aspects that he believes can be enhanced by local conserved areas and community resources in Kennebunkport.

Bradbury said because the KCT owns and protects 1,604 acres of land representing various ecosystems – including forests, marshes and coastal properties – his organization has the unique opportunity of aiding the school’s restricted field trip budget. 

“We have all this land and therefore all these excellent opportunities for hands on education,” Bradbury said. “Things like, why it’s important for dogs not to eat Least Tern eggs or why people have to stay off the dune grass. We want to foster learning and conservation principles in the next generation of Kennebunkporters.”

Consolidated School Principal Kathy Pence said during the past five years the school has cut back spending on field trips. Some of those costs, she added, have been picked up by the parent teacher association.

Bradbury said the program, which he hopes will begin at the onset of next school year, will be able to alleviate costs associated with field trips because the properties are local and free to access. He added this will save the district on transportation costs as well as costs pertaining to more expensive field trips such as visits to the Museum of Science in Boston – a yearly Consolidated School trip. 

  Bradbury said the program will not eliminate current field trips but only enhance the curriculum of the school and add to the field trip possibilities enjoyed by students and teachers. 

The Trust in Our Children program will substantiate the current curriculum at Consolidated by integrating local resources, said retired Chairman of Environmental Studies at the University of New England (UNE) Dr. Eleanor Saboski. Saboski is also on the program’s design committee which has met three times. 

“We are going to be using the Maine State Learning Results as a guideline to link the land holdings of the KCT to Consolidated,” Saboski said. “The most exciting learning occurs on field trips. Students get to look, up close and personal. Rather than reading about crabs and snails in a book they get to go out and find them. Hands on is our goal.”

Bradbury said, in the spirit of education, many concepts taught at Consolidated can be related to the KCT’s resources. 

“Students can use the land to learn about social studies, writing, history and art, not just ecology and conservation,” Bradbury said.

The Capstone program at UNE requires seniors to complete one credit hour worth of community service prior to graduation. Saboski said the UNE seniors will be able to fulfill this requirement by working with the KCT in Trust in Our Children – leading field trips, giving in-class presentations and generating material for teachers to use in classes.  

Pam Morgan currently teaches conservation and wetlands classes at UNE and is on the design committee for the project. She said in her mind, a catalyst for this project is the book “The Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv. In the book the author describes how youth of today are generally losing touch with the world around them. 

“Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it,” Louv writes. 

“We want to use the principles imparted in [that book] to put together resource guides for teachers for each ecosystem, work books for kids and activities that get children outside and into the community,” Morgan said.

To contact Stowell P. Watters call 282-4337 ext. 219 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.