Words from Nicholas Lee,
This week was a busy week, spending three of five days outside the classroom. We learned about climate change and energy usage, spent time developing our climbing skills, learned about leadership styles and spent time hiking, alongside finishing up our learning about the causes of WWII.
On Monday, we started with continuing our League of Nations simulation. We created unfulfilled promises and empty threats as Italy took Abyssinia, Japan took China, and Germany remilitarized. Sanctions did little to stop Axis aggression, as France and England prepared their armies.
On Tuesday, we went to Carsa. We continued to learn to lead climb, making sure that we know how to properly clip ourselves in and practicing on the auto-belay. Students who didn’t pass the belay check last time attempted it again, with many passing. Those who didn’t get around to it last time took the fitness tests.
Wednesday we took a trip to the UVIC campus where we meet with enthusiastic students and researchers were we shared opinions and perspectives on climate change. After sandwiches for lunch, we walked across campus to the Pacific Institution of Climate Solutions, where we explored various strategies to mitigate climate change.
Thursday was outdoors at Mt. Doug. We explored styles of leadership in various activities before learning about hiking. We learnt about the lead and the sweep, and what responsibilities those roles carry. After that we went on a beautiful hike about halfway up the mountain, as our activities had taken longer than expected.
Friday we finished up our League of Nations simulation, with more empty threats and unfulfilled promises of safety from France and the UK, resulting in a complete annexation of the Czechoslovak Republic by Germany. Complete inaction from the League resulted in Germany invading Poland before the League could even know what to make of the annexation of the Czechs, ultimately resulting in the outbreak of war in Europe for the second time within three decades. Once we finished up the simulation, we took an alumni donation to buy products for the Mustard Seed foundation. These products included food and clothing and other essentials to support local families in need.
Although quite busy, I believe that the week was rather productive, getting us to think about the causes and consequences of various nations actions during the interwar period, expanding our climbing skill set, learning about the world we live in, and developing our leadership skills.
