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Getting Educated....


StarBrand

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Last spring - 3 different teachers at 3 differnet schools in 3 different towns all "introduced" some of thier students to Geocaching by visiting some of my hides.

 

Fast forward to present and 4 of my caches in those 3 towns have all been vandalized in one way or another.

 

1 was spray painted bright orange and had a note left behind with an arrow pointing to the cache. The note read - you can find here - NERD.

 

1 was emptied of all contents save for a replacement notebook full of teenage drawings and "ill mannered" language.

 

The other 2 were emptied of swag and filled and resealed with water and notes that read "did you enjoy this?"

 

All have been either archived or moved suffciently to be well hidden. My guess is that some of the teens introduced returned later to the sites they were shown.

 

My question is: Would it be out of line to send a letter to these teachers or Schools to ask (beg) that they do not use my "real" caches for a classroom full of kids? I would even volunteer to come plant a temp cache and go over to do a presentation on Geocaching. How would you handle it?

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Last spring - 3 different teachers at 3 differnet schools in 3 different towns all "introduced" some of thier students to Geocaching by visiting some of my hides.

 

Fast forward to present and 4 of my caches in those 3 towns have all been vandalized in one way or another.

 

1 was spray painted bright orange and had a note left behind with an arrow pointing to the cache. The note read - you can find here - NERD.

 

1 was emptied of all contents save for a replacement notebook full of teenage drawings and "ill mannered" language.

 

The other 2 were emptied of swag and filled and resealed with water and notes that read "did you enjoy this?"

 

All have been either archived or moved suffciently to be well hidden. My guess is that some of the teens introduced returned later to the sites they were shown.

 

My question is: Would it be out of line to send a letter to these teachers or Schools to ask (beg) that they do not use my "real" caches for a classroom full of kids? I would even volunteer to come plant a temp cache and go over to do a presentation on Geocaching. How would you handle it?

 

I think that the letter is a very good idea.

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How unfortunate... I've had several caches destroyed (or worse...) by young vandals in like manner to what you describe.

 

Here in Anchorage AK we're fortunate to have a middle-school teacher with a real sense of vision about Geocaching and its value in helping teach Geospatial Technology. While building a nationally-recognized curriculum used in the "Landmark" course taught at his school, he saw the need to bring local cachers on-board with having certain of their caches used by the students in their learning activities. Yes - there is risk involved - but he asked first and only used caches with permission of the cache owners. The students participating are taught ethics - not just geocaching ethics - but land-use ethics which acknowledge the history of the land they're living & playing on, together with respect for the prior inhabitants and a sense of personal responsibility for sustainable use of the land. If we cachers don't assume some of the risk in teaching new cachers the right way to use the land, we put more than our own caches at risk - we put geocaching's good name on the line.

 

WarrenPeace (the cacher/teacher) did such an awesome job with course development that the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau made geocaching a recommended recreational activity for visitors - and underwrote the cost of an excellent full-color brochure which guides visiting geocachers to areas of the region by highlighting pre-selected (and cache owner-approved) 'landmark' caches. You can see the Chamber of Commerce on-line geocaching page here. Local and national businesses underwrote the cost of the school's curriculum development and necessary equipment as they recognized the value of teaching GIS technology to young people in a way that integrates it with an understanding of the history of 'place'. Central Landmark School of Science has produced some excellent caches in key visitor locations (under the sponsorship of the Convention and Visitors Bureau), and many of the students have gone on to become proficient and prodigious cachers in their own right.

 

Morale of my post? When done RIGHT involving students in geocaching is a big win for everyone. Done wrong - it creates all kinds of problems. As with adults who geocache, learning the ethics of the game is critical to making new young cachers successful and valued members of the geocaching community. It can be done - but it takes a clear vision and hard work. We're glad WarrenPeace did it right in Anchorage!

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As a future middle school science teacher, I also like the idea of integrating geocaching or the use of GPSr in some way. Knowing, however, the attitudes of some of the middle school boys/girls I would be involved with would make me leery of showing them any "real" geocaches, and would only use ones I planted (with school permission) on the school grounds for temporary use.

 

Unfortunately, some kids do have access to GPSr's through their family, and may be likely to vandalize other community caches just to see what kind of reaction they get. Teaching the ethics of land use, etc. may help alleviate this, but I still see a problem with some of these students. I really haven't figured out how to work around this yet.

 

Hubby and I are going to sponsor a geocaching activity at a boy scout family campout, though. There will be a family campout for our son's troop in a month, and we will teach geocaching and plant several temporary caches in the park for the scouts and families to find. I plan to contact the owners of the real geocaches in the park to see if they would mind if we also hand out the coordinates to the caches at that park for the families or scouts to find. If they are concerned about future vandalism, etc. I won't give out those coordinates. (There are probably 10 caches in this fairly small park, of which two are ours.)

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I'd encourage you to contact WarrenPeace about how he overcame the fear factor in disclosing 'real - world' caches to middle-schoolers. I can't emphasize enough the need for ethics to be taught alongside everything we show / teach young people, whether it's caching or babysitting, scouting or boating, driving or quilting, etc... all activities have ethical standards of behavior which must be taught by someone... be it parents, teachers, aunts/uncles. Ethical behavior is learned behavior - NOT inherent inherited 'good genes'.

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I am a high school teacher, and although the topic really doesn't fit in with the Chemistry I teach, I have mentioned to some kids that have asked about my hobbies about geocaching. I doubt many would be able to figure out what is going on, and most don't have GPS's... but I do point out the website.

 

I think you take a risk anytime you introduce new people. Introducing teens raises the risk, so does large groups of people. However, we get just as many people vandalizing caches by whining about how they may/may not break the rules as we get vandalizing caches in a physical manner. You don't get new people in this by hiding it, and you don't really get general acceptance of the sport by doing so either.

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This past June I taught kids in 3 different communities about geocaching and GPS usage as part of their 4H Day Camp. There are geocaches placed in three of the parks we were in, but I refused to use them for my class for that very reason.

 

I think the letter is a great idea. We're also very cautious about newspaper articles in our area. We've asked reporters not to use the coordinates for the caches or even identify the parks we're in for the interviews.

 

Bret

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Wow . . . I'm very sorry that happened. How discouraging! :)

 

I would write the letter and explain that although the caches are listed on GC.com, you still "own" them and would prefer they not be used for introducing Geocaching to their students. I think setting up a demonstration cache for them would be a great idea. Maybe if the students actually got involved in setting up a cache themselves, they would have more respect for caches, if they ever find real ones later on.

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...My question is: Would it be out of line to send a letter to these teachers or Schools to ask (beg) that they do not use my "real" caches for a classroom full of kids? I would even volunteer to come plant a temp cache and go over to do a presentation on Geocaching. How would you handle it?

 

I'd do it in a phone call ,but yes you can do that and should. Teachers should know that some of their kids are miscreants. It doesn't hurt to remind them. Especially since you have a plan B in mind for the ones that are good kids who would like caching.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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1 was spray painted bright orange and had a note left behind with an arrow pointing to the cache. The note read - you can find here - NERD.

I don't care what you think - that's funny right there...

<snerk>

 

oh, and tell them to hide their own caches near their own schools for 'educational' purposes. I have found a number of them in my travels.

 

every time I go caching, my daughter says I'm getting my nerd on. :)

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