When I first became an English teacher, I imagined all of my most compelling moments with students would happen inside a classroom. However, thanks to the hiking club at my school, conversations and aha moments often cropped up in unexpected places. I discussed Dante’s descent into hell with my twelfth graders while scrambling with them down the edge of the Grand Canyon. I got to teach my ninth graders old Irish folk songs around a campfire near Mount Lemmon in Tucson. When a sixth grader struggled with classroom behavior, I got to bond with his mom while we pitched a tent outside Sedona.

A hiking club is a natural extension of a classical education.