Following Rick Curtis' lead, I though I would blog from the AORE conference currently being held in Asheville, NC. The conference this year is very well attended and the organizers ought to be commended for really improving the quality and overall scope of the conference over the last several years. Today, I attended the OOPS pre-conference (Outdoor Orientation Program Symposium). Brent Bell and others have done a really wonderful job organizing this special interest group and it is really amazing to see the growth in this particular of outdoor education. Our keynote speaker was John Gardner, the "father" of the first year experience in colleges and universities who shared insights about how programs need to work more closely with student development and teaching faculty as well as aligning program standards with the colleges' mission. We also got a rousing talk from one of the early legends of the field, Roy Smith, who created one of the very first outdoor orientation programs at Prescott College. He urged us to be wary of creating "adventure by numbers" programs and to create programs that promoted the adventuresome spirit through active engagement and real challenge. My favorite quip: "I helped build the first ropes course program at Outward Bound; we had no safety lines. If you fell, you hit the ground... And the thing is, nobody fell." I wonder how we might consider the difference between "adventure by numbers" and Smith's sense of "real adventure." What are we trying to do with our outdoor orientation programs? OK... enough for now. The Colbert Report is on and I have to get some sleep before tomorrow's sessions... Until tomorrow.   

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Posted 10-31-2007 11:27 PM by Jay Roberts