Today, Sam left for nature school. That’s pretty close to the literal translation, and we don’t have a better word for it in English, that I know of, because it doesn’t exist in our school system, or at least it didn’t in Iowa when I was growing up. Here, it’s a long-standing tradition.
I guess it’s a bit like summer camp, except it’s during the school year and the whole class goes. I hope they still do some schoolwork, but it seems like they have a lot of other activities planned. Ping Pong. Jump Rope. Sam is very jazzed about the ping-pong.
When I first heard my students talking about it, I assumed that because it’s called škola v přirodě, kids learn about plants and trees and outdoorsy stuff, but I’m pretty sure now that plays only a small part, if at all.
I doubt if I’ll be tremendously enlightened when Sam gets back. He likes school, has lots of friends there, but never tells me anything. So, I don’t expect this to be any different.
It will be a holiday for us, too. Without taking Sam to school in the morning, picking him up in the afternoon and accompanying him to football practice, I should have an extra free hour or two per day on my schedule. Of course, I should be using that time to write, but I don’t know that I will. Also, we’ve talked about using this time to get the balcony cleaned up. That’s a worthy project, but I think it may be an impossible task. There’s an awful lot of junk out there.
Anyway, I’m sure by the time nature school is finished, we will be very anxious to have our little Sammie back.
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