The Re-creation of Outdoor Education
The evolution of every
field in education has gone through a blossoming stage of creation to times of
re-creation arising out of the culmination of successful ideas and educating
failures. The field of Outdoor Education
is no different from the early disciplines of biology, philosophy, physiology,
ethics, etc., in their periods of forming, storming, and norming in regards to
their overall desire to provide useful and relevant information to their
students and benefits to society as a whole.
A working definition of Outdoor Education is provided by Priest (1987)
as “an experiential process of learning by doing, which takes place primarily
through exposure to the out-of-doors” and that the “emphasis for the subject of
learning is placed on RELATIONSHIPS, relationships concerning people and
natural resources” (p.13). Specifically,
Outdoor Education arose out of the combining of outdoor recreational pursuits,
the desire to further educate individuals about the environment and through the
environment, and through the belief that taking personal risks in the
environment can lead to greater life applications. This paper will focus on these three areas
and provide examples of how they have contributed to the understanding of what
today is commonly known as Outdoor Education.
The outdoors and
activities that are done in the outdoors have always contributed to an overall
functioning of societies. From the early
Olympics in Greek times, to festivals in medieval
times, to the advent of baseball and golf, humans have always sought
opportunities to relax and re-vitalize their persons through outdoor
pursuits. The word recreation itself
comes from the notion of one “re-creating” her/himself through exercising and
being in nature. In more recent history,
the advent of camps has brought about the first templates that current Outdoor
Education was formed upon through providing recreational activities for its
campers. According to Raiola & O’Keefe
(1999), the early nineteenth century saw organized camps utilize the use of
adventure and an outdoor setting as tools for educational purposes and that
“educators began teaching through expeditions, camping, and challenge
activities in the United States as early as 1861” (p.47). Furthermore, some of the main characters in
pioneering today’s Outdoor Education were first turned on to the possibility
for the educational potential from the outdoors through their recreational
activities. Kurt Hahn, the developer of
the Salem Schule and Outward Bound, was struck with
sunstroke when he was nineteen years old, which led him to several years of
solitude due to him having to be away from light and heat. During this time he developed his ideas for
utilizing physical activity and structured thoughts that later became part of
his philosophy that resulted in his schools and much of present thoughts about
Outdoor Education and Adventure Therapy (Miner, 1999). Also, Paul Petzoldt, the creator of National
Outdoor Leadership School, noted that it was his fateful climb at age 16 of the
Grand Tetons that “ingrained him with the need to learn as much as he could
about the outdoors and how it could be used” (Bachert, 1999, p. 86). Other individuals can be included in this list
along with their love for the outdoors and the potential they saw it held. All of these ideas began to change the notion
that the outdoors were merely recreational, and thoughts began to be presented
and acted upon to move the outdoors towards a more educating environment.
The next area that
contributed to present discipline of Outdoor Education was the general desire
to educate people about the environment and through the environment. As mentioned above with Hahn and Petzoldt,
there was a movement towards educating others through the demands that the
physical environment had on individuals, and how these physical demands could
aid in overall mental functioning.
Adding to this, John Dewey influenced the development of the Nature
Study Movement that “emphasized participants’ direct experiences in
understanding and appreciating the natural world” (Raiola & O’Keefe, 1999,
p. 49). Combining with this was Theodore
Roosevelt’s establishing the National Conservation Commission in the early
1900s to supervise newly acquired forest areas (Raiola & O’Keefe,
1999). All of these ideas and feelings
influenced the early definition of Outdoor Education to be “education in,
about, and for the outdoors” (Donaldson & Donaldson, 1958, p.
63). This definition was widely accepted
at first, but like everything else, it also began to go through changes. What was missing from it was an experiential
component that would involve the risks presented in the outdoor environment
that could be applied to other situations instead of limiting it to just the
outdoors.
The final contributing
area in the formation of the present understanding of Outdoor Education is the
inclusion of personal risk and the belief that dealing with this
risk leads to
greater life applications. This is the
area of a lot of recent studies and focus in the field due to it being the one
factor that all of the branches of Outdoor Education have in common from the
recreational, therapeutic, developmental, educational, and environmental
settings. The basic idea is that when an
individual is placed in an unknown or unfamiliar setting, the risk that is
involved is an extremely motivating and educating force that can cause great
changes within the individual, in how the individual interacts with others, and
how the individual interacts with her/his environment. Raiola & O’Keefe (1999)
note that risks allow individuals to “develop intrinsic motivation, learn
lessons about risk taking, responsibility, and commitment” (p. 52). The idea of learning from the risks
experienced through outdoor activities is further echoed by Hahn and Holt with
the
The formation of the
discipline of Outdoor Education has gone through the normal stages of
development for any field of study.
However, holding true to its founding streams of thought, Outdoor
Education has truly “re-created” itself on numerous occasions to provide a
valuable resource to the global society.
It has also effectively educated numbers of individuals on the
importance of the environment and what this environment has to offer to those
who live in a symbiotic relationship with it.
Finally, one can use the analogies of outdoor experiences in regards to
its own risks as it grows to face challenges, adjust ideas and thoughts due to
a changing environment, and actively assess its decisions. It truly is an amazing vehicle for use in a
multitude of situations and applications.
References
Bachert (1999). The National
Outdoor
Donaldson, G.E. and Donaldson, L.E. (1958). Outdoor Education: A Definition. Journal of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 29(17):63.
Miles &
Priest (1999). Adventure
Programming
Priest,
S. (1987). Redefining
Outdoor Education: A matter of many relationships. Journal of
Environmental Education.
Miner (1999). The Creation of Outward Bound. John C. Miles & Simon Priest, Adventure
Programming (pp. 55-64).
Riola & O’Keefe (1999).
Philosophy in Practice: A History of Adventure Programming. John C. Miles & Simon Priest, Adventure
Programming (pp. 45-54).