Walkabout — An Alternative
Educational Model For the Teen Years
By Bob
Sweeney
The following article presents a
brief introduction to the Walkabout, an alternative educational model for the
teen years. All opinions in the article are those of the author and are not
necessarily the opinions of WVHEA, its Board of Directors, its members, or
anyone else for that matter. A website with much of this information, and much
more, can be found at http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/walkabout.html.
Parts of this article have been paraphrased or lifted directly from the
website.
Although many older cultures had procedures that formally prepared and introduced children into the adult world, modern American/Western culture falls short in this regard. Maurice Gibbons, inspired by the walkabout process of aboriginal Australians, proposed a new form of walkabout in 1974. Rather than trying to adapt the rituals used by traditional hunter-gatherer societies, he created an entirely new, and culture-appropriate, process called the Walkabout. During a Walkabout, a child learns and demonstrates competency in many of the skills that are expected of a fully functioning and contributing adult in our modern culture.
The
Walkabout is designed by the child, within a guiding structure. Very briefly, a
Walkabout comprises approximately five projects that are completed by the
child. Each multiyear project is demanding and requires substantial growth of
the child toward adulthood. During the Walkabout, the child is guided by a
committee of adults chosen by the child (and which excludes the parents).
In our
family, the Walkabout will occupy what would have been the high school years.
Our son Connor began his Walkabout planning at age 11 and is now in the midst
of his projects at age 13; our 11-year-old, Philip, is beginning to make his
own plans. I will explain the Walkabout process in more detail, and then give
examples from our own experiences with Connor.
Walkabout
challenges span the many roles that adults play in American culture. Each is
intended to push the child in new directions that promote maturity and
competence. The challenges must be chosen by the child! Otherwise, the child
will quickly resent the challenge, and consider it an imposed chore.
The
challenge topics, defined in the sidebar, take very different forms depending
on the child’s unique interests. The Adventure Challenge could be two
weeks of backpacking the Appalachian Trail, three months as an exchange student
in France, or a yearlong foray into hang-gliding. Creative Expression
might take the form of hand-chipping arrowheads, blacksmithing, playing
classical guitar, writing poetry, mural painting, or creating wedding cakes. Logical
Inquiry challenges could maximize automobile efficiency, investigate the
spread of invasive exotic plants, monitor the effects of wind farms on
migrating birds, or explore local history and archaeology. Community Service
could mean supporting community soccer leagues, construction of playgrounds, or
volunteer childcare for single parents. Practical Skills are abilities
like website design, log cabin construction, plumbing, and animal breeding.
Challenges
must be HARD for the child to complete, stretching them in ways that foster
serious (permanent) growth and probably involve (temporary) discomfort. The
challenges should never be simply an extension of the child’s pre-Walkabout
activities. For example, a child who is already a proficient violinist should
not choose violin as a Creative Expression challenge.
The
Walkabout committee is three to five adults who are respected, trusted, and
chosen by the child to guide his or her progress in the program. The committee
takes the role of supervisor, which leaves the parents free to assist the child
in achieving his/her goals. Participation in a Walkabout committee is a serious
obligation, and there can be substantial costs involved (time and
responsibility).
The
committee should communicate with the child regularly to set realistic goals,
and appraise the progress toward those goals. Members of the committee are
usually of the same sex as the child. Thus, the child has periodic contact and
guidance with at least three adults (other than the parents) who can serve as
valuable role models.
A young teen might resist the demands
of the Walkabout process. I’d guess that at some point every child would show
at least some resistance. After all, the challenges require multi-year
commitment, extended effort, and not a little difficulty. What keeps the child
on track?
Clearly, there
needs to be a very serious and long-term motivating factor for the child. This
factor will be different for every family, and perhaps even for every child.
When the best intentions fade and determination wilts under the shadow of
difficulty, anticipated rewards can save the day.
The
parents’ roles in the Walkabout are familiar to any parent: emotional support,
financial support, and physical support. The child and the parents share the
day-to-day work of completing the challenges, because the committee is not
around on a daily basis. Equipment must be purchased, transportation arranged,
frustrations soothed, options explained, etc…. It’s nothing new to a parent,
but within the Walkabout it is all focused on a concrete set of goals.
Perhaps
the hardest part of the parent’s role is to stay out of the way. (Remember,
it’s a learning period for us, too.) Parents can’t make the child’s choices
about whom they want on the committee or what they want the challenges to be.
Of course there is a veto power, but it must be balanced by a respect for the
emerging, self-directed adult. This is a hard line to walk, but it’s not
particular to the Walkabout.
OK, so the
child has chosen five exciting challenges that fit his or her life’s goals and
interests, and the parents and mentors are all available to help achieve his or her goals. The rest should be
smooth sailing, right?
Well…
maturity doesn’t come easily and challenges quickly become challenging. The
hidden challenges burst out of hiding after an initial easy period. Perhaps the
child has to make a lot of phone calls, and she or he isn’t comfortable talking
on the phone to strangers. Guess what? That’s part of being an adult, and it’s
hard for some people. Maybe running a small business means learning about
percentages and interest rates, and the child is math-phobic. Guess what?
That’s part of being an adult, and it’s hard for some people. Maybe the
challenge goes through some tedious or boring phases and the child wants something
that will always be fun. Guess what?
Another
speed bump in the Walkabout occurs when the initial challenge plan meets an
unforeseen blockage. The child and the committee/parents may have to be very
imaginative to get around obstacles, and it might involve a lot more work than
was anticipated at first.
But even
though the child chose the challenge topics, they may resent the challenge’s
demands after a while. This phase can be very difficult for the parent to
accept (believe me!). Persistence is an important quality of a mature adult,
and this too is a valuable lesson for the child to learn.
This is
all to say that the Hard Stuff really pops up after the Walkabout begins, and
it’s the real meat of the matter. The parents do not solve these problems for the
child, but rather support them through the process of meeting them head-on and
coming out victoriously at the other side.
For more
on this matter, I recommend http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/article2.html.
Connor’s
Adventure challenge went through many changes in the planning process. His initial
plan of backpacking in the Grand Canyon morphed through hiking the Appalachian
Trail to the current proposal of canoeing and camping along Florida’s rivers
with one of his committee members during February 2005.
Creative
Expression began as a scheme to make an authentic Jango Fett armor costume (any
Star Wars fans?) and ended up as learning guitar. The goal of the challenge is
public performance at a local venue.
Community
Service has become a two-pronged challenge. Connor became certified to referee
youth soccer and has volunteered his time for the local county recreational
league for two years. He has only accepted enough pay from the league to cover
his expenses (uniform, equipment, testing fees) but may referee for profit
after his two years’ Walkabout commitment is ended. The second part of the
challenge is to develop a free website for a local nonprofit organization that
collates and advertises educational events in our area. Of course, he has to
learn website design to accomplish this challenge.
The
Logical Inquiry challenge is just now being defined, almost two years after
first starting his Walkabout process. It looks likely that the topic of inquiry
will be whether the mass media really shapes its audience’s opinions, even when
the media’s messages are untrue.
The
Practical Skill category is yet undefined. Connor is still in the “explore a
utilitarian activity” phase here. However, one committee member has been
working with Connor on citizenship skills, including an analysis of the U.S.
Constitution, as an addendum to the “standard” Practical Skills challenge.
Clearly,
completing all of these challenges will span at least four to five years. Some
will be nearly completed before others have really begun in earnest.
Note that
there are many topics missing here, including all of the typical high school
curricular buzzwords (literature, algebra, chemistry, French, grammar). The
Walkabout is not all of life; we require regular mathematics study (Saxon)
fully outside the framework of the Walkabout. On other “academic” matters, we
are unschoolers.
Connor’s
Walkabout committee consists of one uncle, two fathers of his friends, and two
nonparent adults. Their ages range from mid-20s through almost 70. Three live
very locally, and two live out-of-state. Although it is difficult for all of
them to meet at once (indeed, this has never happened) they have communicated
with each other in writing. The farthest committee member is focusing on
helping Connor with his Adventure challenge. Each member contributes in his own
way to Connor’s Walkabout, and their involvement changes with time.
Connor had
a list of challenge ideas when he first met with his committee, and the list
served as a starting point for their conversations. Some of his initial ideas
became challenges; some ideas were discarded during their deliberations.
I have
been more involved with the committee’s working than I had originally planned.
The reality is that someone has to call meetings, and keep track of
Connor’s progress on a regular basis. Unless a committee member takes on a
leadership role, the parent may have to step in. However, I do keep out of the
committee meetings and follow through with the committee’s decisions.
In our
case, we gave the Walkabout as the only option to institutional high school. We
wanted our boys to have a strong focus during their teen years, when many
parents find parenting the most difficult. The Walkabout presented us with an
alternative to high school that was child-focused and meaningful. Since our
sons decided that they would definitely not consider institutional high school
at this time, the Walkabout became their only option.
We also
decided that our boys would be accepted as full adults within our family once
they fully completed their Walkabouts. This is serious motivation for a teen!
No, this doesn’t mean they get the car whenever they want (it’s still my car!),
BUT I won’t tell them what to eat or what to wear or when to go to bed, … AND
their opinions will hold greater weight because they have demonstrated, through
the Walkabout, that they have a reasonable level of experience and maturity.
Nobody
ever said that raising a teen is an easy job. I don’t think that a Walkabout adds
any new stresses to the parent-teen relationship, and it just might make life
smoother in some ways. I do have peace of mind that our boys are going to have
teen years that are productive and directed toward producing men who are
competent and independent.
———————————————————– WVHEA —————–
Adventure: A challenge to the student’s daring, endurance, and
skill in an unfamiliar environment.
Creative
Expression: A challenge to explore,
cultivate, and express the individual imagination in some aesthetically
pleasing form
Community
Service: A challenge to identify a
human need for assistance and provide it; to express caring without expectation
of reward.
Practical
Skill: A challenge to explore a
utilitarian activity, to learn the knowledge and skills necessary to work in
that field, and to produce something of use.
Logical
Inquiry: A challenge to explore
one’s curiosity, to formulate a question or problem of personal importance, and
to pursue an answer or solution systematically and, wherever appropriate, by
investigation.
(source: http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/walkabout.html, accessed 4/10/2004)