Hello MLA families!
Did your child perhaps inform you that they were forced to do manual labor at Mountain SOL? Well, it’s true. We made them carry water to the top of the mountain…just to dump it out. They were not exaggerating, we tortur….no, I mean to say we taught them all about how heavy water is. While we are in no way endorsing child labor, we did give them a small experience of what life is like in many mountain communities without running water.
Each class had to figure out how much drinking water they would need for each person and then add it up to total the amount needed for their class. They also had to include their instructors, and we were not allowed to help them carry the water! So unfair! We also factored in cooking water and water to wash, but quickly found that there was not enough for baths or showers. Every student had to help carry the water and it was a tough job. At the top, we asked them if young children, the elderly, or anyone injured should be able to drink water. Our kindhearted children were somewhat offended by this question across the board. We told them that the extra water they had to carry for their instructors represented carrying water for family members who could not carry it.
Then they poured the water out and watched how it moved down the mountain, what made the water move faster, and what slowed it down. In our older classes we talked about flooding and had ideas for different ways to slow the flow of water to prevent flooding.
To celebrate all that we learned, we had an adventure day where we spent the entire class exploring the creek! We hiked from Birch crossing all the way down to West Run in the creek. We played in the water, got very wet, and celebrated all that we have learned together!
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