“In essence, outdoor education experiences are creators of affect. There are at least three areas in which these affects are significant: in creating the initial awe and love for nature that Rachel Carson calls “the sense of wonder”; secondly, the importance of being involved and learning directly; and thirdly, establishing the importance of living, learning, working and playing together through the direct and personal experience of powerful group feelings.
In outdoor education, we are primarily in the business of providing and mediating experience — experiences between the student and the environment, and at least as important, experiences between student and peer. We specialize in creating and manipulating experience. We focus on connections and relationships — relationships to the environment and to each other. Our medium of experiential learning massages our students, modifying them in significant ways and conveying some powerful meta-messages. Our Medium is their Massage and our Message.”
