Touted program moves learning to the great outdoors
Eric Nelson, co-founder of the Child Educational Center, was recently named by an Exceptional Master Leader in early care and education for creating the Outdoor Classroom project in 2003.
From the time he was a child, Eric Nelson had an inherent sense of the positive effect nature can have on a developing mind.
Growing up in California’s San Joaquin Valley, some of his happiest memories were of family trips to the Sequoia National Forest and the white sand beaches of Carmel.
“I would take off by myself and wander for hours on end,” Nelson recalled. “I had a very profound experience of the beauty of nature and the profoundness of nature that really impressed me as a child.”
There was something about the great outdoors that inspired him to dream, imagine and create worlds. That was exactly the dynamic he and wife Elyssa hoped to capture in 1979 when they opened the Child Educational Center in La Cañada Flintridge for the young children of Caltech and JPL employees.
Nelson continued to solidify his mission and vision as the center’s enrollment expanded over the decades and, in 2003, created the Outdoor Classroom Project. Started with a $3.5-million grant from First 5 Los Angeles and the Orfalea Foundation, the initiative establishes a model whereby early childhood educators could provide engaging learning opportunities in a carefully designed outdoor environment.
“What can you do outside that you can’t do indoors? Think about it — water, sand, swinging, climbing, building, all of those activities,” Nelson said.
Since the program’s inception, CEC staff members have watched children blossom as they collaborate to solve problems in real-world environments. Nelson said teachers report that by the time they reach elementary school, CEC students are more conscientious and self-sufficient than their counterparts.
For his vision and leadership, Nelson was recently named by Exchange Magazine — a publication for early childhood directors and teachers — as an Exceptional Master Leader of the Exchange Leadership Initiative, which began in 2014.
The initiative aims to promote the industry’s top thinkers and emerging people of influence by offering awardees a chance to write articles, participate in nationwide professional surveys and advise one another through in-person conferences and social media outlets. Master leaders are those who have led the way in building the profession and advocating for children at a local, state or national level, according to the group’s criteria.
On a recent afternoon, CEC’s La Cañada campus was abuzz with activity as students of different ages played and learned outside. Some sped tricycles around a circular track, while others painted outdoors or built airplanes out of wooden blocks.
“The Outdoor Classroom is a movement and a philosophy,” said Director of Development and Communications Sheryl MacPhee during a tour of a site. “It’s learning through play and creative expression.”
A high staff-to-student ratio lets children direct much of their own play, rather than simply following instruction, she said, which is an important aspect of the program, she added.
Although he doesn’t work for the recognition, Nelson said he saw the award as a validation that the principles he and his wife have worked so hard for so long to employ are a step in the right direction.
“I appreciate the recognition by my peers. It gives me one more piece of credibility as I’m trying to do my work out there,” he said. “The other thing is, there’s not a lot of acknowledgment in this field, so on a personal level it means something for me.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
