Outward Bound

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.

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. O.B. 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.

In 1961, Joshua Miner, the first president of OBUSA and the man responsible for bringing the innovative ideas of Kurt Hahn to the United States]), inspired US legistlation 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 (http://www.hurricaneisland.org) (Maine, South Carolina, and Florida), NCOBC (http://ncobs.org) (North Carolina), OB West (http://outwardboundwest.com)(Colorado), and Voyager (http://vobs.com) (Minnesota). There are five Outward Bound Centers: Atlanta, AOBC (NCOBS), Philadelphia [POBC], Baltimore (BOBC), Thompson Island TIOBC (http://www.thompsonisland.org) of Boston, and New York City NYCOBC (http://www.nycoutwardsbound.org). From their respective beginnings, each of the schools and centers operated individually and were audited by OBUSA for safety and international policy standards. Currently ([Jan. 2005]) OBUSA is in the process of unifying each of these schools into one larger "OBUSA", sharing all resources alike.

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 hard cases 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 OB's core values. Classes for rehab 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 TV viewers MAY confuse OB with "reality" programs like Survivor and it appears these programs have taken some ideas from OB. But a significant difference is the way Survivor encourages cliques, power struggles and the elimination of "losers", something completely opposed to OB's philosophy.

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

Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound

Additionally, a third version of OB in the United States is Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound ELOB (http://www.elob.org), created in 1993. A not-for-profit comprehensive school reform organization connected with [and being absorbed into] Outward Bound USA [as of Jan 2005 organizational restructuring], ELOB works with over 129 urban and rural schools across the United States including Puerto Rico. It's pedagogy emphasizes high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork at elementary, middle, and high school levels.

Their endeavor transforms schools into centers of Expeditionary Learning by working with schools to design (http://www.elob.org/aboutel/principles.html) and implementexpeditionary (http://www.elob.org/aboutel/practices.html) curricula, models of student assessment, new forms of school organization, programs for staff development and systems of evaluation, replication and dissemination.

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

Sources

• The ELOB Website (http://www.elob.org)
• The OBUSA Website (http://outwardbound.org)
• The Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (HIOBS) Website (http://www.hurricaneisland.org)
• The North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) Website (http://ncobs.org)
• The Voyager Outward Bound School (VOBS) Website (http://vobs.org)
• The New York City Outward Bound Center (NYCOBC) Website (http://www.nycoutwardbound.org)
• The Thompson Island Outward Bound Center (TIOBC) Website (http://www.thompsonisland.org)

Outward Bound USA: crew not passengers/Joshua Miner & Joe Boldt-2nd edition The Mountaineer Books (http://www.mountaineerbooks.org)

External links

Official site (http://www.outwardbound.com/)