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by David B. Marsh I have been asked to reflect upon the growth I have seen in adventure based programming since we began offering these opportunities back in the early seventies. Like so many other concepts in education, experiential programming was not a new idea with a new name. As a graduate of Ohio State, I was committed to the work of John Dewey and believed whole heartedly in the concept of learning by doing. What the Outward Bound movement did was take this model and apply it to the outdoors just as Dewey had suggested with his summer camps in the late thirties. Using this model, the folks at Hamilton Wenham High School created an interdisciplinary curriculum that was to become Project Adventure. In the late sixties Physical Educators began asking themselves why not take the lessons that can be learned from climbing a mountain into the Gymnasium or onto the wall outside the Gym. When we first got started, there were not a lot of role models to follow, but the power of this approach to learning could clearly be seen in the successes we experienced with that was described as the alienated youth of that wild era in our nation's history. Time and time again we found students who had rejected our more traditional skill centered instructional program were asking for more when it came to adventure based activity. In addition to having broad based appeal to our student body that quickly gained wide community support, the program also lent itself to coeducational scheduling and had a very positive effect upon how we as professionals approach young people. As we learned and developed with our students we began to realize that the teacher is not the only one students can learn from. As we became engrossed in the learning process by attending workshops offered by Project Adventure and other organizations, we became as excited about this new approach to teaching and learning as our students. When we sat down to write out our day to day course outline the first time, we had no idea that it would later become a chapter in Cowstails and Cobras. Since those early days it has been a great pleasure for the members of our department to share their experiences with literally hundreds of professionals from around the State. We are proud to be able to say that along with Princeton High School we were one of the early ones, and yet, we also realize that we must always be open to change if it will improve our program. We must also work hard at making sure that our program continues to offer something for every students that enters Ridgewood schools. These last two points are in my opinion extremely important and must be kept in the forefront of our thinking as we head into a new century. As I reflect on the success of our program, it is clear that it has been based upon the fact that we have a group of outstanding professionals who are not afraid of change and believe deeply that every student should have the opportunity to participate in the Adventure program we offer from grade four through grade twelve. It has never been a program that was so structured that an individual teacher could not try a new idea, and the program has continued to evolve and change as a result. By the same token we have never excluded a student who sincerely wanted to face the "Challenge by Choice". One of my great fears in the Adventure Education will become so popular that it will suffer the same fate as many other great new ideas. That is, it will become so structured that there will be no room for new ideas. It is no secret that Karl Rohnke has been our spiritual leader for the last thirty years. In that time I have heard him speak, and worked closely with him on many occasions and never once have I heard him repeat himself, and every time I read something he has written I learn something new. If we can all keep his open approach to learning in mind as we develop our own programs then we will in fact continue to grow as people which is one of the essentials of being a great teacher. The final point that I would like to make is encompassed in the title of this article. In it I am pleading to avoid following the example being set by so many of our youth athletic programs. We simply cannot afford this wonderful opportunity to provide all of our students a meaningful Physical Education experience be limited to the best. To offer Adventure Education as an elective only is to say once again that the best will have a chance to get better while the rest will be allowed to slide by. In Ridgewood we are committed to inclusion and in no other area of the curriculum is the power of this great learning model more evident than in our Adventure classes. Last Spring we had a group of special needs students who had repeated our introductory courses several times succeed in riding the zip line for the first time and their successes will remain with every member of the class as well as the teachers for many years. In the discussion that followed during the debriefing phase of the lesson the students talked about the importance of helping other students overcome their own fears. These debriefing sessions clearly add a great deal of meaning to any lesson and are the most important aspect of this great program. In closing it is clear that I have only begun to touch the surface of a topic that has the potential to effect the way that the public views us. Adventure education along with the application of technology in the measurement of fitness is what our continued existence rest on. We must take advantage of the opportunity to apply the real principals of living that adventure education provides us with. When we developed the Core Curriculum Standards we were told that we could not enter the affective domain of learning because it could not be measured. None the less the greatest lessons we have to teach lie in this domain. To me the best way to learn these things in still in the Gymnasium and on the playing field, that is of course if you can't easily get to the Mountains and Forest. Adventure Education is simply the best way of learning by doing which goes back to Mr. Dewey. David B. Marsh is the Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics, Ridgewood Public Schools, Ridgewood, New Jersey. |