Staff Profile
Dave Steckler, Science Teacher
believe our kids are happy here, and I think that a big part of that happiness is because they have creative things to do. I don’t even know how many arts classes we have—it seems as though we have as many arts classes as we do academic classes. Our kids are doing art every day. And they’re in small classes doing it, so those areas for kids that may have been squashed by their previous schooling—it’s just opening possibilities here. I know from my own personal experience: I was a pretty creative kid until third or fourth grade, and then the arts just fell off the table. And I don’t know why that was. I did art once a week at my school. And I loved going to it, and I loved my teacher, but at the same time, it was Well, it happens once a week. And here arts happen every day. Kids can be creative every day. Whether it’s photo, ceramics, drawing, fiber, woodshop, or theatre—I love the fact that we have so many classes where kids can find an activity that they really love to do. Interacting with kids in a wide range of areas seems to suit you personally. Can you expand on that?
I guess I would say that I try to live a creative life. So I want to show kids that I’m not just a science teacher, and I’m not just a math teacher, but I am a creative individual. And part of that is just learning. So learning to play the fiddle, or doing woodcarving on my own, or showing kids at the house how to do some other creative endeavor is really important to me. I walk my dog. I rock climb. I ski. I try to snowboard. There are so many things about me that kids recognize before they would say, “Oh, Dave teaches math and science.” That’s a really important thing about this place.
NYC Environmental Panel A Huge Success By Lisa Rowley
I’ll connect with a lot of kids through science, but I’ll also connect with a lot through rock climbing, a lot through skiing. In all of these different areas I’ll connect with kids. And maybe for some I’m going to connect with them in each of those areas. And they may seek me out to do activities they wouldn’t previously do because they had a good time skiing, rock climbing, or in my class. And then maybe when I do some other activity—a work job for example—they may say, “that could be cool, Dave’s doing that.” I understand that several years ago you left NCS for a time. What drew you back?
Just the setting of this place is magic. The staff-student ratio, the campus itself, the activities that we can do here, and the people—and that includes teachers and students —I don’t think that this can be bottled. At one point, I left to try other things, seek out other opportunities, just see what the world was like other places. So I was gone for three years, at a couple of different schools. And I realized at the end of my second year at one of the schools that all I was looking for in other schools was this. And I couldn’t find it. I went other places looking for this place. So that’s why I came back. And the rest, as they say, is history. Yes. I don’t see myself leaving again.
When the lights came up and Hock crossed the stage to the podium, our small institution took a giant step. From Alarm to Action: What Works, the panel event on climate change and energy policy held October 1st in New York City, was the first of its kind for North Country School and Camp Treetops. And it was an unqualified success. More than 220 filed into the beautiful Florence Gould Hall Theatre for an event nearly two years in the planning. Applause was robust after Hock introduced the participants: investoractivist Tom Steyer, 350.org’s Bill McKibben, physicianphilanthropist Richard Rockefeller, and moderator Amy Davidsen, who heads the U.S. branch of the international nonprofit The Climate Group. In addition to world-changing professional accomplishments, all four are united by strong ties to Camp Treetops and/or North Country School. Amy began by asking Bill McKibben to summarize the current standing of climate change. Bill cited the previous week’s release of the Fifth Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which reiterated the one-degree increase in the earth’s temperature so far. The results of that one degree are evident, he explained, “when the Ausable turned into a roaring river that took everything in its path, including the Keene Valley Fire Department, and again last summer during the warmest year in American history, when it was too hot to grow grain in the Midwest in the richest, most fertile soil on earth.”
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Organic Roots Fall 2013 www.camptreetops.org
Family Ties Amy Davidsen’s son Aksel was a Treetops camper this past
summer, as was her husband Jonathan Katz in his time. Bill McKibben’s daughter Sophie attended Camp Treetops for six consecutive summers and also returned twice to be a counselor. Richard Rockefeller is an alumnus of both Camp Treetops
and North Country School, as well as a former trustee (as was his sister Eileen). Tom Steyer was a four-year Treetops camper (along with
brothers Jim and longtime NCS/Treetops Board member Hume), and his daughter Evi served two summers as a counselor. The IPCC Report also predicts a four to five degree increase by the time today’s Treetops campers are as old as many in the audience—which would, Bill noted, render the planet unable to conduct civilization. “It’s the greatest emergency human beings have ever faced,” he said. So given the urgency, why hasn’t the issue resonated more with the public, Amy asked. “It seems like we’re just hitting the snooze button on the alarm.”
www.northcountryschool.org 518.523.9329
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