Why Teachers Groups for Out Bound Learning
(A View From Pine Hills Eco Camp, Barog, Himachal Pradesh)
Round the year several School/College Camps for children go on - very memorable periods of learning and enjoyment for them. Not many camps for teachers groups, though the trend is changing fast.
Those who have been at the helm in running schools know it too well that as difficult as handling students is managing the teachers. Indeed yes! But how does a Teachers Camp help? Well, schools are now finding it profitable to send 'Teachers Groups' to the wilderness to imbibe some very special core values that ultimately get transmitted to students.
Out Bound Learning (OBL) is all about learning, enrichment, leisure, and fun in the midst of pure nature. The objective of OBL is to arouse amongst participants Core Values such as courage, trust, integrity, compassion & cooperation. Capacities of body & mind are realized through exercises related to teamwork, physical fitness, mental alertness, tenacity, self reliance, nature craft & eco protection. The immediate visible end-product might be raising of self esteem & enthusiastic team spirit.
Kurt Hahn, a German educational psychologist, formalized Outward Bound Training in the 1930s. 'Outward Bound' because he sailed out with his groups to the open seas; we may now call it just 'Out Bound', being primarily in wilderness locations of forests & mountains. Institutions have in recent years adopted OBL in wilderness locations as an effective tool to strengthen teamwork with evident success. Do you recall that OBL has been a predominant feature in Indian mythology---Lord Rama, Lord Krishna and Pandavs learnt their ropes in the wilderness. Other famous Gurus too carried out their teachings in the wilderness.
So what will the teachers do at the camp? Pretty much the same that students do or what junior & senior teams from the Corporate do. Yet the activities for each group are so regulated as to bring out lessons related to that group. It's all Experiential Learning - no lectures!
Here is a photo album of some teachers groups as also some photos of teachers with students groups. The photos follow no particular sequence. Each photo tells you a story - if you look closely, each photo tells you the benefits. Somewhere they are competing with students, somewhere among themselves, here & there having childish fun, or are they on a tough trek together, negotiating risky obstacles, helping each other, sharing a tent with colleagues, eating together, working out team plans and tactics, ... so much more..... Two or three days at the Camp & what happens when they are back at school? Exhibiting a great attitude of course! It's visible! No need to expand on this - after all experiential learning is "Learning By Doing".
