Tuesday, June 5, 2018

What is Outdoor Education?

Outdoor education is synonymous with learning from experience. It is harder to fully grasp onto a lesson if it is only explained, rather than interacting with the subject and working with it to feel it out.
Pex is an expedition-based OE program, meaning we go out on a multi-night backpacking trip.

The participants are instructed in the hard skills that get the group from Point A to Point B-- how to read a map, set up a tent, etc. And then the soft skills--how a leader communicates their interpretation of the map to the rest of the group, or how a tent group works together to successfully set up their tent-- are the soft skills we develop as the hard skills happen.

OE is as much about learning about one’s self as it is about environmental concepts or physical challenge. It is about being uncomfortable, about resolving conflict, and about responding to failure in a productive way.

This kind of experience provides kids with the tools to be more confident, self-reliant, empathetic, compassionate, and organized. In other words, even if this is the first and last time a participant sets up a tent, effective communication in challenging or emotional situations is a valuable skill to have in any environment.

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