Reiko
The dinner team had served a wonderful dinner of spaghetti, green salad, grilled garlic French-bread and “Decadent Brownies.â€Â Most of the students were down at the beach playing Frisbee, beach football or relaxing. I went to my tent to retrieve my guitar, song books, and notes for the evening campfire meeting.  Reiko, an exchange student from Japan, was sitting quietly at the campfire. Her beautiful, almond-shaped eyes were filled to overflowing with puddles of tears. I sat beside her and asked if perhaps she was a bit homesick. She replied, “No Mr. Young, it is not that. This place, the places we go, the people we meet, too beautiful for words.  Makes me very very sad. Japanese schools very bad; too much pressure; too much teenage suicide. American schools much better. Students able to learn without so much stress. I wondered. We were in the middle of the “A-P†boom and students were eager (or pushed by parents) to enroll in as many as possible. I was conflicted. The Biodesign Class was highly experiential and the academic pressure was diminished. Still, there were disappointing times when students admitted that they could have done a better job on their post-trip reflective papers, were it not for the rigid and demanding A-P classes. One girl student took three A-P classes, one course from the local community college, and entered college as a second-semester freshman. She graduated in 3.5 years at the age of 21. She returned for a visit after graduation and asked, “Mr. Young, why did I do that?  I have my whole life to work and I missed much of the fun and excitement of being in high school and college. It’s too late for me, but you should warn other students that high school should be a time for exploring lots of options, including extra-curricular activities.†I didn’t bother to mention to her that I had already warned her to no avail.