A Transformation

This year, several hundred lucky New York high school students will receive math, science and physical education credits with the completion of a course at Hudson River Community Sailing (HRCS). The diagram at right shows how HRCS sees the school year.

"We drew up a curriculum that followed the New York public school standards in math, as it connected to sailing," said HRCS founder Bill Bahen, explaining how he launched his program at Pier 66 in the fall of 2008. Avoiding contact with the Department of Education at first, Mr. Bahen instead found principals and teachers willing to give their students credit with his lesson plans -- and the program was immediately successful. Now, with the program flourishing, Mr. Bahen is hoping to finalize a DOE contract.

The trend toward teaching students at and on the water began to gather momentum in New York City about a decade ago. In 2001, Rocking the Boat was incorporated by the idealistic Adam Green to provide hands-on wooden boatbuilding and on-water education to disadvantaged youth of the South Bronx. In 2003, the equally idealistic Murray Fisher saw his proposed maritime high school become reality with the opening of the New York Harbor School in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Today, the NY Harbor School is beginning its second year in a beautiful building on Governors Island. Students take "Introduction to New York Harbor" for Social Studies, and read Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" in English. They monitor experimental oyster reefs with oysters they have grown. They conduct experiments in the Aquaculture Lab and build boats in the Marine Science and Technology Center. They take courses in marine engineering, commercial diving and marine policy.

Meanwhile, Rocking the Boat has expanded steadily. "Rocking the Boat has found that NYC waterways are an immensely powerful medium for education and youth development," Mr. Green told WaterWire. "The waterways act to support the most concrete objectives of bringing to life the math and science that is taught in classrooms. But they also work on a far deeper level to offer young people from what are otherwise some of the most under-resourced communities in the nation, a unparalleled sense of freedom, opportunity, and possibility."

Rocking the Boat photo by Joaquin Cotten.

This is all great fodder for Harbor Literacy Points, a new guide being prepared by the Harbor Education Task Force of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. When published next spring, Harbor Literacy Points will outline key concepts about the harbor that all students should know, and will offer teacher specific ways to include waterfront education in their lessons, which are bound by state-mandated curricula. Click here to download the draft Harbor Literacy Points.

"The goal is to have a harbor-literate constituency, so people can see that small decisions they make in every day life can impact the Harbor," says Betsy Ukeritis, the regional environmental educator for the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation and a driving force behind the creation of Harbor Literacy Points. Other organization contributing to the document include East River C.R.E.W., Governors Island Alliance/National Park Service Harbor Map, Governors Island National Monument, Solar 1 environmental center, New York Harbor School, the sloop Clearwater, North River Sail and Power Squadron, Long Island Aquarium, Lower East Side Ecology Center and the River Project.

High school students who want to get to the water have even more options from organizations like the River Project, which offers internships and field trips that include hands-on activities such as the use of water-testing equipment, monitoring of fish traps, and viewing, studying and handling estuarine creatures in aquariums.

Finally, back to school in September for some means classes in rowing, sailing or swimming. At Row New York, year-long rowing program for girls that includes intensive athletic training and comprehensive academic support begins with tryouts on September 22. Adult learn-to-row classes begin in mid-September, too. Other organizations offering rowing classes include Harlem River Community Rowing and New York Rowing. Learn to sail this fall at Offshore Sailing School, Manhattan Sailing School and Atlantic Yachting. Become a better swimmer with NYC Swim's Back to School Swim Clinics.

The pioneers who are using the waterways to teach important lessons to NYC schoolchildren -- Adam Green, Murray Fisher and newcomer Bill Bahen -- are optimistic about the future of Harbor Education. "The thing I like about this program is that it's completely scalable," Mr. Bahen said about Hudson River Community Sailing (photo at right). "We already have relationships with schools and principals, and as I find more space -- at Brooklyn Bridge Park or Pier 25 or Dyckman Marina -- we can expand."

"I see Harbor School as a proxy for large-scale, public environmental education," Mr. Fisher said. "If we can make it work -- in New York City, in the public school system -- then schools like this should exist all over the country; connecting young people to their local marine ecosystem in a way that teaches relevant science/technology/engineering/math skills and content; that prepares them for success in college through experiential learning and problem-solving; and that engenders true environmental stewardship by developing deep intimacy between them and their local waterbodies. The Harbor School experiment continues to be successful because it relies heavily on the will and determination of its staff and the generosity of private donors. When the school is fully funded by the public system -- through city, state and federal funding -- then environmental educators will have a model to refer to when trying to convince public officials of the value of this kind of education."