Learning At Sea

Ten blue suited individuals are sitting on the mess deck aboard the red-hulled ship. In front of them is Erin Sheridan, the young blonde teacher in jeans and a t-shirt with small polished, stone medallion hanging by a natural fiber cord around her neck. She is teaching about climate change on the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, homeported in Seattle. She is helping her young uniformed students gain an education that will provide for them for the rest of their lives.

Before going afloat and teaching Coasties, Sheridan taught experiential education in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years. She taught skills such as sailing and kayaking, experiences that garnished team building. When it was time to move on in her career she looked for interesting career opportunities around the United States and discovered Vincennes University programmed tailored to the needs of Coast Guard personnel serving at sea.

Given her maritime lifestyle and adventure-seeking personality she applied, and has been aboard the cutter since it left Seattle in late August.

Sheridan teaches four courses, five hours a day, five days a week. Those lessons include: Intro to earth science, algebra, intermediate algebra, and oceanography.

Some of her students are working toward a specific degree others are taking general college courses in the hopes that they may one day be applied to toward a degree program.

Teaching aboard a moving a cutter has its challenges, and Sheridan said that some times her class get interrupted or some times her students have to miss class because of watch.

“You have to be flexible,” said Sheridan. “You never know when an alarm is going to go off or they call a drill in the middle of your class and all of your students have to leave at once.”

“So far this has been an great experience,” said Sheridan. “This is an awesome boat,” she added.

At the end of the cruise in early Dec., Sheridan will return to her home in St. Augustine, Florida.