Interpretation

Can interpreters show teachers a new way to teach? Politicians and voters seem to think that a good score on a child’s standardized test equals an educated child. Does the regurgitation of memorized facts on a school test equal learning? This is doubtful. Interpreters have known for a long time that facts alone do not make programs successful. The notion that correct answers on standardized tests equal learning has begun to gather criticism across the country. But many people, when weighing the problem of bad teachers, failing schools, and all of the demands being placed on students, don’t yet see another option besides testing and more testing. Interpreters can weigh in on this issue not only to help students truly learn, but also validate the tenets of the interpretive profession and maintain the Service’s relevance in the 21st century.

When I talk to education specialists about NPS curriculum programs, they look at me with a jaundiced eye. It is hard to get park programs into schools, they tell me, because teachers spend all their time preparing students for tests. Many parents express concern that their kids aren’t learning about the world, how to think critically or how to process information. Because there is no apparent alternative, parents resign themselves to the fact that the testing must go on. College professors complain that incoming freshmen show a declining ability to think independently and discuss concepts. Many children are transitioning to adulthood without realizing their full potential.

There is a big difference between school learning and learning from a ranger. When professional interpreters share facts with visitors, those facts are couched in a context that provides meaning. Tangible facts aren’t stated in a void. Interpretive learning moments include awareness of concepts, human relationships, points of view, diverse and sometimes incompatible values, direct contact with learning moments — all to generate feelings, discussions and debate. This promotes the mindset so that we can function in a healthy society.

When I talk to adults about the most memorable experiences from their time in school, invariably they cite a field trip to a park or museum where they had a formative learning experience, even if it happened 50 years ago. I talk to parents who bring their kids to programs. These parents seem to be actively engaged in their child’s education. They see time spent with a ranger as a valuable investment. Rangers facilitate important learning in their children. Whether or not parents know that this is due to interpretive methods or not, they must at least think our approach is vastly different from what their kids get at school.

Humans advance by learning every day. We add to the collective knowledge of society via our shared curiosity about existence. It is a natural process to cherish meaningful places and ideas. We create national parks and protect what we think or know to be important. Education, which includes memorization, is human nature, but memorization as a sole learning strategy is a failure. Yet for some reason, memorization has become the norm in education.

Today kids learn facts for tests. Tests generate scores that politicians use to claim children are learning. Politicians tell voters that they hear voter concerns about school failures. They demand that schools teach facts and manufacture school-ranking criteria, which maintain the façade of competency. The poorly informed voter is pacified. Politicians and voters find themselves in an unofficial and detrimental truce at the expense of our children’s future.

The problem with bad schools and bad teachers is understandable and needs a solution. Low test scores allow schools to justify the culling of underperforming teachers who don’t make the grade. Kids though, are the victims of this approach. They suffer through the daily class grind and begin to associate learning with punishment.

Interpretation in the National Park Service has the potential to counter these dark days. We can plant the seeds that will grow into the next great evolution in learning. I would love to see pilot projects around the country where new methods of teaching, using interpretive concepts, are explored. If these interpretive projects are successful and vetted, progressive educators who doubt the mantra of fact memorization and testing may find in us what they have been looking for. We can help educators replace mimic-style learning with real learning. By marketing interpretive skills and exporting our methods beyond park boundaries, interpretive professionals have the opportunity to show educators how to revise their systems.

The NPS will maintain its relevance in the 21st century and we will always be worth the people’s support. We can give back to America by sharing how we educate visitors. Maybe we can become the story instead of just telling the story. Are we the ones who can teach teachers to teach again?

Protection

Bigger, Badder, Smarter and Faster — Imagine the biggest, baddest dude you know. Now, imagine attempting to arrest him and he suddenly turns noncompliant when you begin to place the cuffs on him.

Are you ready for this eventuality?

Hopefully in a situation like this, rangers will have already taken every available precaution prior to cuffing, such as waiting for multiple backup units, ordering the suspect into a position of disadvantage, using lighting to our advantage and more. Of course, if he does decide to throw down, we have use-of-force options including impact, chemical and electronic control weapons and firearms.

But the hard truth is this: One of these days a fight might boil down to hand-to-hand combat.

Another hard truth: No matter how big, smart and fast we are, there will always be somebody bigger, badder, smarter and faster. Are you ready for this fight? Physically? Mentally?

If the extent of your control tactics training is limited to what you received at your seasonal academy and/or FLETC, then the answer to this question is a definite “no.”

That’s not to say the training we receive is less than high quality. We get excellent training. The problem is it’s not enough. What makes this unacceptable are the consequences. When we cross paths with that really bad dude and he decides he’s not going back to jail, it may be that he’ll be willing to do anything to prevent it, which might include serious bodily harm or worse to the unprepared ranger.

In order to be ready for the fight of our life, we have to take things into our own hands.

• Glove up. Start taking some kind of martial arts lessons. Buy a pair of sparring gloves and start learning punches and kicks. Dozens of disciplines are available everywhere you look, such as karate, taekwondo, kung fu, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, aikido and ground fighting.
• Practice weapons retention skills. When choosing a martial art, research them and go with one that includes techniques to help you retain control of your firearm. Many of these same arts also teach how to disarm a combatant who gets the drop on you with a knife or firearm.
• Become a control tactics instructor. There’s no better way to stay honed at something than to teach it — and teach it often. Take the two-week FLETC course, then teach at your own park, nearby parks or ranger academies.
• Recruit a fellow ranger into martial arts. If you begin attending martial arts, talk a fellow ranger into going with you. Then practice ground fighting, weapons retention drills and other techniques at work NPS policy allows participation in “non-sparring, non-impact martial arts” such as cardio kickboxing, during on-duty, physical training time.
• Buy a punching bag. Hang a punching bag at your ranger station, fire cache or SAR cache and incorporate kicks and punches into your physical training time. There’s an incredible fitness payoff to this type of training. Spend 20 minutes hammering away at a bag, keeping your hands up to guard your face the entire time, and you’ll be a believer. It’s a sweet mix of technique and cardio.
• Include control tactics in every ALERT your park hosts. Recommend that your ALERT agenda includes a full eight hours of some type of control tactics every year. Some will complain about this type of training. If so, remind them that they might have to arrest a really bad dude some day.
• Always push to better yourself. Many martial arts regimens are tiered so that once you master a particular skill level, you test at that level and begin training for the next, such as belt systems. If this is the case with your chosen discipline, constantly aim for that higher belt. If yours is not so formally regimented, create your own goals and push yourself anyway.

Remember, too, that we have policy limitations on what we can and can’t do during hand-to-hand control tactics. Keep this in mind when your instructor shows the class various techniques, and be able to differentiate what is and is not authorized. Refer to the NPS’ use-of-force policy and understand our parameters. But remember, if it’s a deadly force encounter, anything goes.

Also, FLETC teaches the mantra that “more force applied early during a contact usually means less force applied overall.” Over time, students of martial arts pick up an assertive approach to ending a conflict quickly. The more training you receive, typically the more confident you’ll be in your abilities and the less hesitant you’ll be to engage the threat now, thus gaining quick and decisive control of the situation.

Paul “Bear” Bryant, the University of Alabama’s legendary football coach, knew that no matter how strong his players were they someday would have to face stronger opponents. He drilled them with his own mantra: “The will to win compares little with the will to prepare to win.”

~ Kevin Moses, Big South Fork

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