Paul Salopek is walking around the world to slow himself down, to record journalism at a human pace and to discover important stories that are overlooked. Every 100 miles, he is recording a storytelling “Milestone” featuring text, audio and a panoramic shot of the surface of the Earth. At Columbus Elementary School in rural New Mexico, where I teach literacy through the visual arts, 6th-grade teacher Mrs. Kim Perea and I helped a small group of students discover a walk and a Milestone of their own.
From our remote town we followed Paul’s progress as part of a pilot study created by Harvard University’s Project Zero, an educational partner of the Out of Eden Walk. Beginning with his first footsteps in Ethiopia all the way through Djibouti, the students waited for him to cross the Red Sea and ended their school year with him entering Arabia. Each of these places and their people, land, culture and animals were quite far from the lives of our dedicated group of 6th graders. Yet the connections discovered between our world and those Paul was walking through brought surprise and sparked imagination.
At the beginning, these young learners did not know they would discover anything about themselves in the Out of Eden Walk. They studied why Paul created the Walk and how it is linked to science and journalism, but did not immediately see its relevance to their lives. That soon changed.
Every week at Columbus Elementary we followed Paul’s journey. He would walk, care for the camels, and sing with his African guides while the students began to imagine a walk of our own, wondering what animals would come along and whose songs we might sing. He described dry and windy days and how much Africa actually felt like our own hazy desert. When we listened to Paul’s camels chewing cud it sounded just like the familiar animals of home.
With Paul as their inspiration, the 6th graders walked through their own neighborhoods and drew maps of their homes and important places. They talked to people and learned about their neighbors’ dreams, and then compared where we live to many places across the world. At times they discovered shared problems and at other times could not imagine the hardships faced by children their own age a world away.
An Internet platform created by Project Zero allowed for vivid moments when the students were able to communicate directly with Paul and ask very specific questions. One of their favorite exchanges was about cultural ceremonies and Paul’s description of spinning dancers at a Muslim wedding. They compared this image to the traditional weddings and quinceañeras of New Mexico.
But probably the most exciting part of our journey with Paul over these few short weeks was when we came upon the idea to create our very own Out of Eden walk. The students wanted to feel what it was like to walk as if on a seven-year journey, if even for a day.
Because Paul is traveling from one country to another and sometimes from one continent to another, we planned a route that would take us from the edge of our town to the nearby border of Mexico. We did not have camels to carry cargo. But we did bring some things we thought were important on a walk like Paul’s: water, backpacks, hats for the sun, and notebooks and pens in case we should interview someone. And Cracker Jacks.
We found an abandoned road through the bushes and weeds that served as our starting point. The sun was strong and even though it was early it was very hot. We had to watch for snakes. Soon the large steel fence that runs along the border between the United States and Mexico loomed. It was enormous, very tall, the scale of which is hard to appreciate when traveling only by car. The road led to warehouses and stockyards where we encountered US Border Patrolmen on duty. The agents were friendly but did not want to be interviewed. So the class gathered at the border fence, cherishing their quenching water, and looked through slatted barriers into Mexico. They imagined walking on. Then, in honor of the Out of Eden Walk, we made a “Milestone:” A big circle photograph commemorating a small journey that began in the students’ heads and ended with their feet.
It was not a long walk, but it was real, no longer imaginary. In this way a small supervised walk near our school showed how easy it was to carefully observe our surroundings and to become aware of details and connections in the community and environment that these students would never have discovered in any other way. Their feet were on the ground in every sense of the word.
On behalf of the 6th grade students at Columbus Elementary and their teacher, Mrs. Kim Perea, we thank the Out of Eden Walk for reminding us that the world is all of ours and that exploring it begins at home.
Mrs. Kim Perea’s 6th grade students participated in the spring 2013 pilot study created by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an educational partner of the Out of Eden Walk.
Linda Lynch is Office Manager for the Out of Eden Walk based in Columbus, New Mexico, a visual artist and founder of Pensarte, a literacy program for children in under-served schools along the US/Mexico border. She is married to Paul Salopek.