Finding Frustration

On September 12, 2023, students from Doug Moratzka’s Discovery class tackled the City of Cheyenne’s ropes course. The ropes course is a part of the Discovery Program that students must complete successfully in order to enroll in classes at Triumph High School. Each quarter, students from each Discovery class work on the low ropes and high ropes. Doug Moratzka said, “Low ropes is all about team building. The ropes course is designed to frustrate kids. It’s designed to put them to the point of frustration to see if they can use the skills that we teach in the Discovery Program… you can talk about performing under pressure, you can talk about being frustrated all you want, but unless you put kids in position to do that, you’re not going to get a true reflection of their ability to handle adversity.” The ropes course is a way for students to use the skills they are learning in the classroom in a real-life situation that will give them the practice in overcoming adversity and dealing with frustration they will need in order to be successful when they begin working to earn credits to graduate high school in the classes they will be in when they successfully complete the Discovery Program.