Camp With Wings Staff, 2010
Janine Banks, 55,
Toowoomba
Camp co-ordinator
I've been involved in the home education/unschooling movement for over
15 years as a mother, grass roots support and contact person, newsletter
producer(North Coast Home Education Newsletter) and columnist (Grace
Chapman's SHED), and camp organizer. I regard home education/unschooling
as a lifestyle and realize that in my own way, I've been unschooling
myself most of my life, despite my many wasted school years. Independent
learning is my lifestyle, so it has been easy to role model this for
my four children. Apart from formal schooling that ended with the
scholarship to teacher's college (only completed 2 out of 3 years of
physical education teaching), I have completed a photography course at
Brisbane Art College, three separate yoga teacher training courses,
and the Lifeline telephone counselling course. I have had a variety
of jobs including vegetarian chef, governess to 3 children on a sheep
station in central Qld, Brisbane City Council nurseryperson, waitress,
custom colour printer in photography laboratory, library assistant
in Queensland State Library, barmaid, vegetarian cooking teacher, yoga
teacher and organic salad bag producer.
Working at Grace Llewellyn's
Not Back to School camp for 11 sessions inspired me to provide the same
safe but dynamic situation to help home educating teenagers connect and
grow as they move slowly outwards from the family base into the wider
world. My experience with my own four offspring, now all in their twenties, helps me give the support and parental stability at
camp that young people in new and challenging situations might need. My
yoga training to look for the bright and shining light in everybody
allows everyone the space to be themselves and grow at their own pace
in their own way. I am very excited by the Camp with Wings concept and
its potential role in the growing Australian home educating movement.
Richard Watson, 54,
Toowoomba
Camp Assistant
My education background, ironically, includes a very traditional
academic education; I was continuously enrolled as a full time student
between ages 6 and 23! I later did another four years of study
for a PhD (although this is mostly an autodidactic exercise), which means that
I have been an institutionalised student for 22 years of my life. Eeeek!
And to cap it all off I even earn a living now as a university lecturer.
Recollections of my early schooling are dominated by feelings of
boredom (so much time, so little to learn and do) so it's not
surprising that I have embraced the home education philosophy.
While I've had my share of traditional institutional learning, this
is really only a small part of my lifelong learning experience. I've
taught myself so many skills from calligraphy to plumbing, and exercise
physiology to guitar making, and many more.
With Janine, I have home educated our 4 children, the youngest of whom is
now 22.
The past three years I have helped out at Camp with cooking, first aid, and
general organisation. It's been fun. Oh, and I organise a great game of
Ultimate frisbee.
Abbi Miller, 25
San Francisco, California
Group Leader
Abbi has worn the hats of a competitive figure skater, dancer, actress, singer, yogi, chef, waitress, nanny, photographer, hair stylist, teacher, makeup artist, casting director, and choreographer. But her favorite hat is the one she wears at NBTSC.
Ms. Miller has unschooled since age 8, and has always desired to explore and expand. Her curiosity has taken her across Europe and to 44 of the 50 United States. As a professional actress, she flew around the world performing with the international tour of GREASE, making stops in South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Abbi and fellow-staffer Blake Boles are the co-founders of Unschool Adventures, LLC; an international adventure company created to pioneer the way for some serious travel escapades! To join in the party, check out our upcoming trips: www.unschooladventures.com
When she isn't jet setting, you'll find Abbi upside down on a yoga mat. She most recently fueled her insatiable love for yoga by completing her Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training at the Laughing Lotus College of Yoga, in San Francisco. She also holds a Karma Kids Yoga Teacher Certification from New York City.
Abbi lives in San Francisco, where she teaches ballet and yoga, , layers her clothes, eats amazing raw vegan food, bikes in the sunshine along the bay and has learned, the hard way, the true meaning of the words "steep incline".
Abbi
Blake Boles, 26
USA
Group Leader
Blake has worked extensively with teens outside of the traditional school system. After five years running a wilderness summer camp and training teens in an intensive leadership program, Blake recently started a new program, Homeschool Leadership Retreats (www.homeschoolleadershipretreats.com). He is the co-founder of Unschool Adventures (www.unschooladventures.com), an international trip leading company for self-directed teens, and he staffs at Not Back to School Camp.
A public school student throughout his youth, Blake had an epiphany in college (thanks to John Taylor Gatto) and immediately redesigned his major to independently study the theories behind self-directed education. Blake is the author of College Without High School: A Teenager's Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College, published by New Society in 2009.
Between his various adventures, Blake enjoys swimming, trail running, ultralight backpacking, reading, writing, espresso, and driving all over the west coast of the U.S.
Dave Thomas, 22
Bala Cynwyd, Philadelphia, USA
Group leader
Hey there, my name's Dave. By the time you meet me (or see me again, if we've already met), here are some things I will be very happy about:
- I will be recently married to the lovely Josie Banks-Watson (we will, in fact, be "newlyweds" during our time at camp with you all). Please do not be alarmed by our handholding.
- I will recently have seen my second published story-a piece entitled "The Hot Air Balloon"-go to press in December.
- I will be done with my semester at uni, and not on the way back for a good eight months or so. Hurrah.
- I will be gearing up to start the first round of revision on my first novel, which is as yet untitled; so don't ask me what it's called. Also, if you ask what it's about, you will probably get a longer answer than you wanted.
Things I have done at various points in the past: I have ridden my bicycle a lot and managed to learn nothing about bicycles; I have read many books; I have been in four bands (one of them bad, two of them less bad, one of them arguably good, at turns); I have been to Finland; I have been an ice dancer, and also a competitive swimmer; I have made friends and lost friends; I have played tennis once (and loved it).
See you at camp.
Josie Banks-Watson, 23
Brisbane
Group leader
Josie Banks-Watson is an exemplary human being with impeccable fashion sense and the kind of personality that you always want to be around. The woman's like a well-dressed magnet. She is the third sibling of four, an only girl with three brothers who she loves dearly. They all grew up homeschooled all through their youth. Later on, Josie went to TAFE, and then tried going to uni for a semester, an experience that put her thoroughly off of uni.
She loves tea. She loves blankets, particularly being underneath them, even when it's really hot outside. Right now she works at QBD ("The Bookshop") in a big, labyrinthine shopping centre on the outskirts of Brisbane, but she doesn't like to define herself by her work, and thinks of jobs strictly as stepping stones on the way to new adventures, even if those adventures are sometimes far off in the distance. In the past she's hopped from childcare in country and abroad to carpet cleaning to fruit picking with as many steps and adventures in between.
She loves sewing and designing clothes, cutting up fabric and turning it into something beautiful so quickly. She's made (and continues to make) the kind of dresses that cause people, upon seeing them, to say, "You made this?" There are some really excellent examples of this that it's very likely you will see her wearing at some point.
She's lived with her family on a big community in a valley in New South Wales, and in Portland, Oregon (in the western U.S.) for six months, with friends and her little brother Max in a house in East Brisbane, in Philadelphia (eastern U.S.) with her fiance Dave and his family. She's kicked around New Zealand, working on organic farms with her friend Elka. She's seen great films and read great books and loves to talk about them and hear about the ones you love in turn.
Loe Stanford, 33
Toowoomba
Group leader
Hi,
My name is Loe and this will be my 3rd CWW! I'm thrilled to be a part of it again as it's been a fantastic learning, loving, living experience each time. Let's see....a bit about me....well, I have 2 fantastic children; I work as a healthworker with long-term unemployed people; I am passionate about realizing dreams and making one's hopes, wishes and goals into realities; I have 5 chickens named Rizzo, Stacey, Misty, Ann & Drew and I think they're all really cool. I have a number of ambitions and hopes that have been in the back of my mind for a while now and they have not yet been realized....but I'm getting there. Here's a few things I like and a few I don't like!
I like camping but don't like crowds.
I like food but don't like cooking.
I like confidence but don't like arrogance.
I like yogurt but don't like ice cream.
I like reading but not when it's forced.
I like music but can't sing or play anything.
I like watching dance but can't dance.
Hopefully, that'll give you some idea of what I am like and what I'm not like!
See ya in 2010!
Sue Belfitt, 53
Toowoomba
Head Cook
I left school after matriculating in maths and science and was eager to
get a grip on life before committing myself to more formal schooling
subsequently my path has been interesting and varied leading me to a life
full of exploration and learning, my real education. I travelled widely
in Asia and Australia before settling in northern N.S.W. just in time for
the birth of my 2nd son, I have three and all have been unschooled. By
this time I was and still am a committed vegan and educating others
through food has been a major focus in my life over the past 20 odd
years. I have been a tofu and tempeh manufacturer, a cook, and a caterer.
I was encouraged to write a cookbook of vegan cakes, which was published
in 2002 and I also write the recipe pages for the Vegan Voice.
I am looking forward to the next camp, which will provide another
adventure of creative culinary pursuits, hope to see you there.
Lou Shepherd, 24
Toowoomba
Cook
Gaia Dreezen, 21
Cairns
Assistant Cook
Hi everyone!
My name is Gaia, I live in the Cairns area and this will be my 6th CWW!
I'm European but have lived in Australia for the last 11 years.
Being home educated all my life (except one year at high school), my schooling has mostly been learning from experiences as I went through life.
I'm currently a shop assistant at Neils Organics, which is a great job to have when you've grown up in and are interested in a health conscious lifestyle. And personal growth.
My main passion, is dance. I discovered dance 10 years ago and would never give it up. I've dabbled in a few styles but have the most experience in Bellydance. I have dreams and ambitions towards a dance career. Letting yourself go with the music and movement and being able to captivate an audience is the most amazing feeling.
I've also done a fair bit of traveling and plan on doing more in the future. I love seeing the world, meeting new people and having new experiences.
CWW has been one of the most important and amazing events and learning experiences of my life. The people are fantastic, the activities fun, I could go all day! I've been lucky enough to attend first as a camper and then as a junior staffer. This year will be yet another perspective as I will be an assistant cook for the first time!
In my spare time I like to be with friends (or talk for hours to those that don't live so close), party, design and create dance costumes, read fantasy fiction, draw, and random other things that we can talk about at camp!
See you all there!
Max Banks-Watson, 22
Toowoomba
Night Owl
Camp With Wings Junior Staff
Timothy Webb
Katie Stevens
Zoe Anderson
Melanie Stead
Karl Sparks
