Nisha Marino

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Gustavus, a small town in Southeast Alaska. I was staying at the Tidelines Institute, which hosts a variety of place-based educational programs throughout the year. Coincidentally, the second day I was there, Tidelines hosted the Gustavus School’s K-2 class for a field trip. I was able to talk to teachers, students, and a parent about their experiences with the public education system in Alaska.

While these students were young, it was clear that they had grown up in Gustavus. On a tour of the garden, kids pointed out plants they recognized and enthusiastically picked big leaves to eat. One of their teachers joked with me, “how many second graders in the Lower 48 would be happy to eat kale for a mid-morning snack?”

The beauty of the campus and ample running space was not lost on these students. Fitted with layers of fleece and rain pants, they repeatedly commented to one another about “the best field trip ever.” Their parent chaperone told me elementary school in Gustavus often feels like this: kids are used to high community involvement, visits from scientists and gardeners, and subsistence education at home. She said Gustavus elementary school’s education sometimes seems closer to an alternative school than a traditional public school, and in a community with lots of homeschooling, that’s highly valued.

Still, every adult I talked to mentioned the school’s understaffing and underfunding. The Gustavus high school is one without a guidance counselor, meaning that if students are interested in post-secondary education, it falls on their parents or outside sources to help them explore options. As students get older, parents are increasingly compelled to supplement their childrens’ education, and some move to Juneau or Oregon when their kids hit high school. Considering how much the children expressed joy and love for their town, I think it’s a shame that school underfunding can push parents to move or send their kids away for school.

It was frequently reiterated to me that none of the issues at the school are due to a lack of passion. Teachers are very passionate – there just aren’t enough of them, and they aren’t paid well enough. I saw firsthand how deeply the teachers cared for their students, and how reciprocal that relationship was. When a teacher asked students to clean up their dominoes before playing outside, they stopped running and packed the game up. I’ve worked with kids in this age range, and trust me, that’s rare.

From Tidelines hosting the students to the level of parent engagement, there is a clear community investment in children’s learning. Still, the impact of low funding is visible, and DEED’s profile on the school just served to verify what I heard in passing conversation. Overall, I felt extremely lucky to be able to experience this field trip. My reflections here might be an old story to some Alaskans, but to me, it’s a story worth telling.