When most students hear the words summer class, a shiver runs down their spines. Pictures of hot classrooms, grumpy teachers and mountains of textbooks make their way into the imagination.
But Oxford students Bradley and Steven Freeland learned that taking a summer course can be exciting and fun, especially when the subjects include rock climbing, repelling and traversing.
“We thought it was like backpacking or hiking,” said Bradley, an eighth grader at Oxford Middle School, “so we didn’t want to go. We thought ‘Classes? Hiking? Boring.’”
“Mom didn’t really tell us what is was,” added Steven, a seventh grader. “We didn’t find out until we got there.”
The two Brandon Twp. youths traveled up to Michigan Technological University, in Houghton, to participate in one of the school’s week long Summer Youth Programs. While at the camp, the boys learned about moutaineering, which includes rock climbing, repelling and traversing; and orienteering, which Bradley describes as “finding your barrings.”
“When they returned, they said ‘Mom, do you know what you sent us too?’” laughed Jeanette Freeland.
“I wanted to send them to a summer camp, so I started searching the web,” she later explained. “I picked the Mich Tech camp because of the price and what they were teaching. I used a YMCA camp search engine to fine it.”
She added that the boys’ father, Richard, actually made the final decision on where they would go and what they would learn – not an easy task when Mich Tech offers 27 different subjects such as specific engineerings, medical physiology, ecology, mountain biking, leadership, photography, creative arts and The Art of Raku.
“Our family does a lot of snow mobiling and four-wheeling, and we wanted the boys to be able to find their way back to the trail if they ride off,” said Jeannett. “We thought these courses offered some good skills.”
In the orienteering course, the Freeland boys started by learning how to find their location using only a compass and a map. They spent time in a classroom learning the technical aspects of the skill and then took the lessons into the field. By the end of the week, both boys were able to find a location with a simple instruction such as “120 degrees North.”
“The teachers were cool and let us do what we wanted and joked around with us,” said Bradley.
In mountaineering, the tasks became much more physical and a lot more demanding. The boys explained that the first thing they learned was how to repel from a little hill. Over time, they built their way up to a 180-foot cliff.
“Leaning back over the edge was the hardest part because, well, you’re leaning back 180 feet over the ground,” emphsized Steven.
In the classroom, the boys studied all of their equipment, how to tie their ropes properly and any safety techniques they may need. In a gymnasium, they worked on a rock climbing wall to learn how to climb.
“The rock climbing wall was actually harder than anything we did outside,” said Bradley. “There was one part where you were actually climbing sideways to the ground, and there was only one boy in the class who could do that.”
The two youths agreed that their biggest challenge was learning how to traverse from one cliff to another.
“The hardest one was 200 feet high and about 300 feet across,” said Bradley. “It was cool. I was like the only person who did it.”
“It was really far,” agreed Steven. “One person got stuck in the middle trying to cross.”
So what did both boys like best about their “summer classes?” The food on the campus of course!
“That was the best!” exclaimed Steve. “Once you paid for the camp, you could have all the food you wanted – and they had like homemade pizza and you could make your own waffles.”
“The food was great,” agreed Bradley. “You could eat as much as you wanted.”
Both boys are planning to attend the program again next summer and hope some of their friends may come as well.
“It’s fun, it’s a great experience,” said Bradley. “You make a lot of friends and get away from home for a while. And if you want to do something you’ve never tried, they probably have it.”
“There were kids from all over the world there – North Korea and stuff,” added Steven. “It was amazing.”
Mom Jeanette said she is really excited about the boys going again next summer and possibly even taking harder levels of the courses. She even saw the week away as a good inspiration for getting the two Oxford students to improve their grades; however, one thing about the summer program did disappoint her.
“They didn’t take one single picture,” she said with a smile. “All of those activities and all that fun and not one photo.”