A “Learningful” Experience
I don’t receive many news releases from schools, so whenever one shows up in my mail it gets my attention. When the subject of the news release is kids going flying, it gets my undivided attention.
Such was the case when a press release arrived in my office last May, sent by Fred Loeffler, a teacher at St Thomas More Junior High School in Edmonton. Fred’s students were going to “take to the air,” according to the release, as part of their Grade 8 independent learning option class and in conjunction with The Young Eagles Program sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).
My associate editor Raymond Gariépy and I had been discussing possible themes for the 1996-97 volume of the ATA Magazine. Innovative programs in our schools was a theme we had decided on for certain. Fred’s news release described a program that fit right in and besides, this editor thought there might be an airplane ride in it. That was enough to have me telephone Mr Loeffler and ask if I could tag along.
The Edmonton Flying Club provided four airplanes with instructor-pilots on an overcast May morning to carry 12 students from Edmonton’s Municipal Airport to the airport at Villeneuve, northwest of the city. One student in each airplane would fly from the front passenger seat on the way to Villeneuve, experiencing a takeoff, cruise and landing. At Villeneuve, a second student would repeat this cycle on a couple of circuits of the airfield while the other two students visited the control tower. The third student assigned to each airplane would handle the takeoff, cruise and landing on the way back to the Municipal Airport. Fred had the whole affair planned with military precision.
I joined the young aviators at the Edmonton Flying Club and followed one set of students as an instructor walked them through the pre-flight inspection of their airplane. As a result of Fred’s news release, a couple of television crews showed up along with a photographer from the Edmonton Examiner newspaper. The media coverage impressed one student who later commented in his evaluation, “We weren’t swamped by cameras but there were more people than, say, Guy Smiley from the Smallville Gazette.” Once we media folk had all the footage, frames and names, the students took off on an adventure to see the world from a new point of view.
Fred had set an interesting problem for anyone who wanted to join his students at Villeneuve. It went something like this: “If four instructors and 12 students fill four airplanes each having four seats, who will get to Villeneuve Airport first?” I solved the problem by heading quickly (and just about legally) westward in my trusty Mercury, along the Yellowhead Highway and then north to the village of Villeneuve and its airport. Fred solved the problem by flying by himself in a two-place Cessna 152! As I was making time over the pavement, five light airplanes took turns circling St Thomas More School, giving their passengers a whole new way of looking at their education. Several students commented in the post-flight evaluation that seeing their school from the air was one of the best parts of the flight. So was lunch at Wendy’s, afterward, according to one of them.
On the ramp at Villeneuve, Fred sorted out his young pilots, sending eight to visit the control tower and four to do circuits of the airfield. I hitched a backseat ride in one plane and, with Jarod Munch at the controls guided by instructor Mike Tomm, we proved Daniel Bernoulli’s Theorem once again, getting airborne for a couple of circuits around Villeneuve’s airport. After landing, I joined some of the students in the control tower, watching with them as the airplanes took off and landed, piloted by their friends, and waited there to finally see all of them leave for the flight back to Edmonton.
It was clear to me that they had enjoyed their day in the air. The flying was the culmination of a good deal of study about aeronautics, aircraft and flying procedures, all part of their option course. The flights also qualified them to be entered in a gigantic logbook being kept by The Experimental Aircraft Association at its headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The EAA hopes to have one million young people introduced to the world of flying by the year 2003, the centennial of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. That’s a laudable objective, but student Esterpaola Sanchez was more concerned with the here and now. She wished she had taken along a pillow to help her see over the instrument panel. Carlo Angeles was just glad that no one got air sick and that the controls in his airplane worked.
Our schools are filled with creative and worthwhile programs that encourage young folk to explore their world, find values, absorb knowledge and think about what their futures might hold. These programs are taught by about 30,000 interesting people—our teachers—who instil in their students a mix of curiosity, discipline, imagination and a sense of fun. I believe our students appreciate what teachers do and so do parents.
Fact is, I have written evidence of this. The third question on Fred Loeffler’s evaluation asked his young pilots how they felt about their day of flying. One answered, “Today was fun and a learningful experience.” Ask your own students about their day at school. Bet you’ll get a lot of similar answers.
I don’t receive many news releases from schools, so whenever one shows up in my mail it gets my attention. When the subject of the news release is kids going flying, it gets my undivided attention.
Such was the case when a press release arrived in my office last May, sent by Fred Loeffler, a teacher at St Thomas More Junior High School in Edmonton. Fred’s students were going to “take to the air,” according to the release, as part of their Grade 8 independent learning option class and in conjunction with The Young Eagles Program sponsored by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).
My associate editor Raymond Gariépy and I had been discussing possible themes for the 1996-97 volume of the ATA Magazine. Innovative programs in our schools was a theme we had decided on for certain. Fred’s news release described a program that fit right in and besides, this editor thought there might be an airplane ride in it. That was enough to have me telephone Mr Loeffler and ask if I could tag along.
The Edmonton Flying Club provided four airplanes with instructor-pilots on an overcast May morning to carry 12 students from Edmonton’s Municipal Airport to the airport at Villeneuve, northwest of the city. One student in each airplane would fly from the front passenger seat on the way to Villeneuve, experiencing a takeoff, cruise and landing. At Villeneuve, a second student would repeat this cycle on a couple of circuits of the airfield while the other two students visited the control tower. The third student assigned to each airplane would handle the takeoff, cruise and landing on the way back to the Municipal Airport. Fred had the whole affair planned with military precision.
I joined the young aviators at the Edmonton Flying Club and followed one set of students as an instructor walked them through the pre-flight inspection of their airplane. As a result of Fred’s news release, a couple of television crews showed up along with a photographer from the Edmonton Examiner newspaper. The media coverage impressed one student who later commented in his evaluation, “We weren’t swamped by cameras but there were more people than, say, Guy Smiley from the Smallville Gazette.” Once we media folk had all the footage, frames and names, the students took off on an adventure to see the world from a new point of view.
Fred had set an interesting problem for anyone who wanted to join his students at Villeneuve. It went something like this: “If four instructors and 12 students fill four airplanes each having four seats, who will get to Villeneuve Airport first?” I solved the problem by heading quickly (and just about legally) westward in my trusty Mercury, along the Yellowhead Highway and then north to the village of Villeneuve and its airport. Fred solved the problem by flying by himself in a two-place Cessna 152! As I was making time over the pavement, five light airplanes took turns circling St Thomas More School, giving their passengers a whole new way of looking at their education. Several students commented in the post-flight evaluation that seeing their school from the air was one of the best parts of the flight. So was lunch at Wendy’s, afterward, according to one of them.
On the ramp at Villeneuve, Fred sorted out his young pilots, sending eight to visit the control tower and four to do circuits of the airfield. I hitched a backseat ride in one plane and, with Jarod Munch at the controls guided by instructor Mike Tomm, we proved Daniel Bernoulli’s Theorem once again, getting airborne for a couple of circuits around Villeneuve’s airport. After landing, I joined some of the students in the control tower, watching with them as the airplanes took off and landed, piloted by their friends, and waited there to finally see all of them leave for the flight back to Edmonton.
It was clear to me that they had enjoyed their day in the air. The flying was the culmination of a good deal of study about aeronautics, aircraft and flying procedures, all part of their option course. The flights also qualified them to be entered in a gigantic logbook being kept by The Experimental Aircraft Association at its headquarters in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The EAA hopes to have one million young people introduced to the world of flying by the year 2003, the centennial of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. That’s a laudable objective, but student Esterpaola Sanchez was more concerned with the here and now. She wished she had taken along a pillow to help her see over the instrument panel. Carlo Angeles was just glad that no one got air sick and that the controls in his airplane worked.
Our schools are filled with creative and worthwhile programs that encourage young folk to explore their world, find values, absorb knowledge and think about what their futures might hold. These programs are taught by about 30,000 interesting people—our teachers—who instil in their students a mix of curiosity, discipline, imagination and a sense of fun. I believe our students appreciate what teachers do and so do parents.
Fact is, I have written evidence of this. The third question on Fred Loeffler’s evaluation asked his young pilots how they felt about their day of flying. One answered, “Today was fun and a learningful experience.” Ask your own students about their day at school. Bet you’ll get a lot of similar answers.