Classroom of the Earth

By showing kids how “small” they are, they see how big they can think.

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL

Our Classroom of the Earth (COE) program is outdoor education in a class of its own. It’s the original. It’s groundbreaking. It has been imitated many times since we created it twenty years ago, and we’re sincerely flattered by that. But there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else.

WHERE WE GO

The wilderness gets wilder as the kids get older. Nature hikes in prek through first grade give way to a ten-day hiking/camping adventure in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in eighth grade. In their years here, the kids will hike over 50 miles, travel over 5,000 miles, canoe 10 miles, and raft 11 miles, among other adventures. But the scope of the program goes way beyond nature study.

NATURE GETS PERSONAL

You’ll be amazed at the places your children will go-- out in the wilderness and towards things that challenge, inspire, or even scare them. (And while there, they’ll realize that outside of their comfort zones is where they learn the most.) This self-discovery is what COE is really all about.

WALLS IN FREE FALL

Kids learn best by doing. They learn that the world extends way beyond the “walls” of our everyday lives. And they learn so much about themselves and what they are capable of. It’s the difference between pitching a tent in the school courtyard, and having to put up your tent after a day hiking the Rockies when the ground is hard, the sun is setting and it’s getting cold. It’s real world education, and nobody does it better than we do.