Outdoor School isn't just a camp for sixth graders, a classic Oregon way of teaching squirrelly 12-year-olds about science, the environment and social survival.

It's also a dirt-cheap way to give teenagers some job skills.

That's worth saving -- even in a shortened form, until school districts can restore their full-week camps. At a time when cash-poor high schools are dropping electives and relying on large study halls to pad out students' schedules, teenagers need a lot more chances to practice being grown-ups.

Like volunteering at Outdoor School, where teen counselors oversee their own little groups of hormonal, homesick sixth-graders.

"Amazingly, they just shine," says Briggy Thomas, a former field instructor for Outdoor School. She's one of many parents in Multnomah County trying to save the program from the budget ax -- not just for the young campers but also for the thousands of teenagers who serve as unpaid camp counselors.

"I see the high school piece as just as important as the sixth-grade piece," adds Celeste Lewis, a Portland architect whose sixth-grader attended the shortened program this year. "Jobs are rare. Teenagers now have fewer opportunities to be a competent adult away from their parents."

is a child of the 1960s, a flower-power pilot project that grew into a cultural institution. By the early 1970s, every schoolchild in Multnomah County had the opportunity to attend the full-week residential program at an Oregon campsite and learn about science (and themselves) under the stars.

The program stayed strong for decades, according to historical accounts. Students in other counties, from Klamath to Hood River, have enjoyed similar outdoor offerings. But things wobbled in 2003 and then started coming apart in earnest around 2008.

Today, affluent Riverdale and tiny Corbett are the only two districts in Multnomah County offering full-week Outdoor School. Most of the county's other districts are out of money and trying to keep patching together three-day, speed-dating versions of camp. Portland is talking about cutting its program altogether unless private donors and parents boost their support in a big way.

It's a tenuous time, says Kim Silva, executive director of

an advocacy group. She knows school boards are in a terrible position and must prioritize the basics first, but she also knows that losing a year can be a death sentence.

"There are so many things parents have to raise money for," Silva says. "Once the momentum from parents is lost, it's lost."

The benefits of Outdoor School for sixth-graders are well-known. They escape their home cliques and share cabins with kids from everywhere. Their science lessons come to life as they tromp around in the muck. Their teachers draw from the camp experience year-round to drum up excitement for things like soil testing and pH levels. And for lower-income city kids, it can be a profound introduction to the outdoors.

The benefits for teen counselors, however, are just as striking. In essays, former counselors say things like this:

"Caring for the sixth-graders requires all of your energy," writes one. "The experience has been invaluable in giving me the understanding of what it means to be selfless."

"I know how to keep tired and hungry sixth-graders engaged," writes another. "Outdoor School gives us a chance to expect more from ourselves."

This testimony helps explain the broad support, including from Gwen Sullivan, the head of the

.

"I have Outdoor School's back on this," she says. "It gives kids the idea that there are other things out there."

I'm reluctant to single out any particular program when budget cuts are so deep and widespread. I also don't think Outdoor School is more valuable than, for example, a full school year or a functional school library. However, some programs do inspire outsized passion for a reason. Like the auto shop in St. Helens or the constitution team in Junction City, some programs force teenagers to solve problems, think on their feet, work in teams, rise to the occasion, grow up.

Such programs are always at risk in budget crunches, and they're the kind of thing that may go extinct if Oregon fails to boost its economy and slow the growing cost of government.

In Outdoor School's case, that would be a tragedy: The camp is a proving ground for young people to be tested in the true sense of the word, instead of the fill-in-the-bubble way.

It's utterly non-essential, and priceless.

-- Associate editor

The Oregonian