Articles in the ‘Philosophy’ Category

We're Reading: Geography of Childhood

Authors Stephen Trimble and Gary Nabhan collaborated on this revolutionary book that examines today’s children and their relationship with nature and wild places. They begin with the premise that children’s experience with wild places has become a luxury, and that our children are no longer playing outside like previous generations. They argue that a connection …

Our Sweat Lodge Ceremony

A Tradition of Closure and Sharing In our meadow there sits a simple domed structure of willow branches that we cover with fabric to shut out the light and hold in the heat. We sit in a Circle in the lodge, steam rising off rocks that were heated outside in a wood fire. The heat …

In Grand Gulch

“Down in the canyon I grew a little, understood a little more, perceived even more, and in doing split the carapace of time and place I commonly wear. Split it, wriggled out of it, left it there, a stiff and empty shell to be blown away by a canyon wind. The new skin was extra …

Helping, Fixing, or Serving? How to think about Community Service

It is a warm Arizona day at the sheep ranch, which is located on a hillside outside the tiny settlement of Low Mountain, about three hours drive from the nearest town. Next to a sheep pen, in the slanting shadows of the late afternoon sun, a group of Deer Hill students are working with their …

Green Update: Going Solar

Deer Hill Founder Beverly Capelin (right) and Basecamp Intern Britney Rohrs gather salad greens in the Deer Hill garden earlier this year. A guest post by Deer Hill Founder and Owner Doug Capelin Living, as we do, between the contrasting but equally delicate worlds of the high desert and the high alpine, the footprint that …

What We Believe

Deer Hill sure is quiet these days. As we spend our time debriefing from a successful year, planning class trips for the spring, and working on program design for our adventure summer camps in 2011, it’s good to remind ourselves of our deeper values and purpose, and to find a concise way of expressing them. …

We're Reading: Tao of Leadership

John Heider’s adaptation of the Tao Te Ching adapts Lao Tzu’s writings relevant to the lives of anybody who finds themselves in the position of leader. Heider takes Tao ideas of “How Things Work” and finds lessons about issues central to leadership: ego, conflict, teaching, intervention, listening, creativity, success and failure. Heider lays out the …

In the Heart of the Rockies

This gallery of photos is a guest post from Michael Barton, a Deer Hill field staff member since 2002, who was Program Leader on our Heart of the Rockies adventure summer camp program last year. The Heart of the Rockies features the Weminuche Wilderness, the largest Wilderness area in Colorado. In the winter, Michael runs …

Anatomy of a Service Project

Stanford chats with Matt Aranow and Mia Burkhalter, of the Ancient Pathways program 2009, while they take a break from Hogan building. Caroline Goodman, a Program Leader with Deer Hill, wrote this piece about her community service project in the Navajo Nation in 2009 with the Ancient Pathways adventure summer camp group. You can learn …

5 Questions to Ask Adventure Summer Camp Directors

When it comes to teen summer camps and adventure programs, there are many companies out there with glossy catalogs and fancy websites. We know that the number of choices for next summer can seem overwhelming. Developed from questions that we have been asked over the years at Deer Hill, here are some vital questions to …