Outward Bound

From Free net encyclopedia

Outward Bound (OB) is an international, non-profit, independent educational organization with approximately 40 schools around the world. Outward Bound programs aim to foster the personal growth and social skills of participants by using challenging expeditions in the outdoors.

1 History
2 Outward Bound USA
3 What happens on an Outward Bound course?
4 Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound
5 See also
6 Books
7 External links
- 7.1 Official sites
- 7.2 Other sites

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History

The first Outward Bound School was opened in Aberdovey, Wales in 1941 by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn. Its founding mission was to give young seamen the ability to survive harsh conditions at sea by teaching confidence and tenacity. The name Outward Bound came from the nautical expression that refers to the moment a ship leaves the pier. This is signified by Outward Bound's use of the nautical flag, the Blue Papa (a white rectangle inside a blue rectangle).

Outward Bound has evolved into an organization which teaches inter-personal skills, wilderness survival skills, and leadership skills through courses ranging from one week to one semester. Outward Bound has a huge range of programs, from urban programs that seek to help troubled youth to family programs that seek to improve familial communication. Today Outward Bound has 44 schools all over the world and reports serving 100,000 students each year.

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Outward Bound USA

In 1961, Joshua Miner, the first president of Outward Bound USA (OBUSA) and the man responsible for bringing the innovative ideas of Kurt Hahn to the United States, inspired U.S. legislation approving a training and development model to prepare Peace Corps volunteers in Puerto Rico. This first camp, and then the more famous Colorado school, became OBUSA's first presence in the USA. NOLS founder Paul Petzoldt was an early OB USA instructor. Currently, OBUSA operates "Schools" focusing on expeditions and travel and "Centers" which are based-in large cities and provide similar expedition and educational services to the public school systems of their respective cities. There are four Outward Bound Schools: HIOBS (Maine, South Carolina, and Florida), NCOBS (North Carolina), OB West (Colorado) and Voyager (Minnesota). There are five Outward Bound Centers: AOBC (Atlanta), POBC (Philadelphia), BOBC (Baltimore), TIOBC (Thompson Island, Boston) and NYCOBC (New York City). From their respective beginnings, each of the schools and centers operated individually and were audited by OBUSA for safety and international policy standards. During 2005, OBUSA unified several of these schools into one larger OBUSA, sharing all resources alike.

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What happens on an Outward Bound course?

In a typical modern class, attendees are divided into small patrols under the guidance of two or more trained OB instructors. The first few days at a base camp are spent in various forms of training, both practical and in the philosophy of Outward Bound, a form of compassionate self-reliance combined with care for others.

Prospective attendees at nearly all classes are encouraged to work before their arrival on their physical fitness. Attendees are advised that smoking, alcohol, drugs and sex are all reasons for dismissal from the expedition, while the dismissed attendee has still to pay the full fee, and, in some cases, the expense of being "packed out".

Some people arrive fearful of having to spend time with at-risk youth from the inner city, but most modern classes consist of idealistic teens and well-to-do adults who are almost always already in tune with Outward Bound's core values. Classes for rehabilitation purposes are clearly identified as such.

The "patrol" then sallies forth under the careful and safety-conscious guidance of the instructors to perform initial confidence-building challenges. As the class wears on, the instructors increasingly let the team make decisions as a group, while strongly discouraging the formation of cliques and power struggles.

Many television viewers may confuse Outward Bound with "reality" programs like Survivor and it appears these programs have taken some ideas from Outward Bound. A significant difference is the way Survivor encourages cliques, power struggles and the elimination of "losers", something completely opposed to Outward Bound's philosophy.

While some participants, often through poor physical preparation, have negative experiences, in almost all cases, the experience is by and large positive. While Outward Bound's focus has traditionally been on late adolescents, many individuals and companies use Outward Bound strategically to return to their daily lives re-energized.

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Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound

Additionally, a third version of Outward Bound in the United States is Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB), created in 1993. A not-for-profit comprehensive school reform organization which is part of Outward Bound USA, ELOB works with over 129 urban and rural schools across the United States including Puerto Rico. Its pedagogy emphasizes high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork at elementary, middle, and high school levels.

The ELOB endeavor transforms schools into centers of Expeditionary Learning by working with schools to design and implement expeditionary curricula, models of student assessment, new forms of school organization, programs for staff development and systems of evaluation, replication and dissemination.

ELOB has a national headquarters located in Garrison, New York as well as eight regional offices based in Cambridge, which is located in Massachusetts, New York City, Annapolis located in Maryland, Palm Harbor located in Florida, Puerto Rico, Dubuque located in Iowa, Boise located in Idaho and Yakima located in Washington.

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