Blowin in The Wind, Old Farts in the Heartland - All Comments

re: The Earth Has Just Shifted !

Brass Hat — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:45:33 GMT

I urge all contributors to keep this post politically nuetral. I, for one, do not subcribe to the notion that Barak, or his idea of change and hope somehow transend into the world of experiential learning. Unless of course one thinks there will be more youth at camps now becasue they will become free due to an increase in taxes to fund another social program (service project).

Hope and change are panacea words with no substance. I, too, have seen it coming, but I couldn't dodge it.

re: Blowin In the Wind ! Old Farts in the Heartland.

Cliff Knapp — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:57:34 GMT

Tom Lindblade's comments about a new metaphor for experiential education has me thinking. First, are we talking about a metaphor for what we do, or simply a descriptive label for a professional field? I've thought a lot about labels for our field and have seen them change with time. Having written this, I also see how some labels have stayed around for a long time. One example of this is "outdoor education". L. B. Sharp started to use this term in the literature in the early 1940s. Others followed and the term became well-established in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Then the term, "environmental education" seemed to take its place in some programs. This website uses the term, 'outdoor education" and seems to take in a variety of professional interests. Why is this a clear label that has survived almost 70 years? Is it any clearer than Experiential Education? I don't think so. Perhaps we need to do a better job of understanding the term, experience, and then explain it better to others. We can define the term through a description of its purpose or purposes and through some clear examples of what it means to us. I'm not sure that the terms, "leadership" and "challenge" are really that clear by themselves. We still have the job of explaining how we are going to promote leadership and present challenges to the groups we service. Thanks Tom for the thought provoking introduction to an important topic.

re: Blowin In the Wind ! Old Farts in the Heartland.

Tom Smith — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:33:59 GMT

Well, this is the trial to join the Old Farts blog. It is cold-cold here in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin today --- a good day to be inside and trying to do some computer work. So, let's see if we can add this to the list. More later if it works.