Editor,

In my decades of working with the students in the South Whidbey School District, I’ve come to believe we need to change from emphasizing second- and third-hand experience in favor of first hand. Seat time and testing make sense if balanced with the joy of walking the wild coast, seeing an artist at work, doing an apprenticeship, meeting the world face to face. In the Langley Middle School’s Adventure Education program you could see the results in students’ written reflections, in their words years afterward, in their parents comments about the change in their kids.

With the loss of Adventure Ed and other programs, the students’ educational experiences have shrunk unacceptably.

Let’s put some people with deeper and more holistic thinking on the school board. We could start by electing Brook Willeford.

Charles Snelling

Langley