GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL -- Educationally Speaking

I’m not a fan of our current graduation proficiency tests, because

they are geared for the eighth grade. However, 50 seniors have just

completed the hardest high school proficiency test ever devised.

As I write this, they are in the midst of the test. The Supai

tradition first began about 35 years ago at Costa Mesa High School. By

now, just saying the word “Supai” conjures up stories and legends, some

from personal accounts of the parents of seniors, who once were seniors

themselves.

First, “Supai” is the antidote to “senioritis.” One fellow told me he

has been experiencing the symptoms since he was a freshman, but this

year, the condition has become chronic. The suggested treatment is to

spend the day at the beach. It also requires that all thoughts of school

end after exiting the school parking lot.

“Supai” has provided a cure for Senioritis. Only seniors with great

progress reports, who on the track to graduation, with no behavioral

problems, get to be on the “Supai” list.

With just the faintest whisper of “Supai,” parents and teachers have

been able to keep Senioritis in check.

In March, reality set in, when parents and seniors attended “the

meeting.” There, they previewed the test, beginning with a film of

students who had passed it in the 1970s. Preparation packets were passed

out and students were required to read and understand the challenges that

they faced.

The last two weeks prompted training regimens. While some strapped 40

pounds to their back and walked miles up and down hilly terrain, others

prepared by doing laps around their backyards. In a true test of

cooperative learning, students had to form their own groups and decide

among themselves what they needed to take for five days in the

wilderness. The most challenging part was to decide how they would carry

those items up and down 11 miles of canyon trail. Groups practiced

setting up tents, lighting stoves and testing lanterns.

Last Tuesday night, each tent/food group met in one location to

determine how to allocate the equipment, based upon size and weight

limitations, and then distribute it within their pack. On Wednesday

morning, kids were ready for the bus at 5 a.m. A search by the police

drug-sniffing dog insured administrators that no kid wasted space on bad

stuff.

The bus was expected to leave them at the trailhead at 3 p.m. on

Wednesday afternoon, hoping to travel the 11 miles to camp in time to set

up and eat dinner. Did I mention the 99-degree temperature? The camp is

downhill. After time to study the flora and fauna and visit with the

inhabitants of this Indian reservation, the real challenge came on Sunday

morning, when they had to walk up the trail in time to catch the bus by

11 a.m.

Nowhere else will these students ever get such a lesson in

cooperation and self-reliance. Some have never spent the night outside of

civilization. I applaud the teachers who strapped on their packs to lead

these students on a life-learning experience that they will never forget.

May the legend of “Supai” continue at Costa Mesa High School for

another 35 years.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She can be reached by e-mail at GGSesq@aol.com.