Bored learning in the same classrooms all week? Take your experience outside with Parkways’ twice-a-year Outdoor School. 

The Parkway Outdoor School experience costs 6th graders $300 to attend. The camp is held at Camp Lakewood. 

“Counselors go for free, but the students have to pay about $300,” said junior Ceasar Morales, who served as a camp counselor this year for Outdoor School

Camp is an experience that teaches kids there is more to learning than just being in a classroom, according to junior Allison Miele. 

“It definitely creates an environment outside of school for kids to connect. It reminds kids that there’s a world outside their family and friends,” Miele, who has been a camp counselor for three years.

Junior Elliott Ehrlichman said she thinks Outdoor School is important for the 6th graders, because that’s the year when students come to middle school from various elementary schools, and might not know each other. 

“I think it’s more for getting kids to know each other. Some kids got to know each other who had never met,” Ehrlichman says. 

Outdoor School, formerly known as 6th Grade Camp, has been going in Parkway for over 60 years. Additionally, most schools in the St. Louis area also host 6th Grade Camps. 

“There was a counselor who had recently retired, he said he’d been working there for over 57 years,” said Morales.

Ehrlichman commented on why she thought Outdoor School has been so successful over the years.

“I think it’s been going for so long because students like it, and it’s actually teaching them useful things,” said Ehrlichman.

6th-grade students prepare clothes for a week, and also prepare for the worst, for the camp counselors.

“Prepare for the worst…You’re gonna get a weird bunch of kids. Also, prepare for the social aspects. Kids fight and don’t always get along,” Miele said.

One memorable Outdoor School season occurred in the fall of 2018 when the entire camp was infested with bed bugs and Parkway had to postpone the camps. 

Ehrlichman said she didn’t have to deal with any bed bugs, but other critters were definitely noticeable.

“There was a ladybug infestation in all of the cabins. It freaked out some of the kids,” said Ehrlichman.

There are a variety of camp and team-building activities, according to Rebecca David, a 6th ELA teacher at Parkway South Middle. David serves as a director of one of the teams at Outdoor School.

“There are a variety of classes that can be offered, but these are what we have done in recent years. Each cabin group has the opportunity to participate in all of these once during the week. ropes course, water ecology, dam Building, horses (trail ride), survival/fire building, outdoor cooking, eco geo (mining), skulls and pelts, nature hike,” said David.