Reflection Paper On Outdoor Education

Final Paper: A Reflective Essay on Intro to Outdoor Education.
At the conclusion of this course, my understanding of Outdoor Education has grown tremendously. Coming into the beginning of the semester I had a very basic understanding of Outdoor Education, and its position in the greater professional world. My basic understanding consisted of the ideas and philosophy behind outdoor recreation and that was it. Now, at the conclusion of the semester, my understanding has grown tremendously. I now understand that Outdoor Education is so much more than just outdoor recreation. It includes environmental, educational, therapeutic, and recreational aspects. Personally, I would define outdoor education as learning, but with a new and honed in focus …show more content…
These academic plans come into play directly with my professional hopes. It is my hope to one day open a camp for youth who fight with anxiety and depression and cannot seek the guidance of professional help due to the stereotype placed upon them by their friends and family, who may not agree with counseling, or those who may not have the finances available to pursue professional help. It has become very real to me that there is a stigma that comes with struggling with depression or anxiety and seeking out help for yourself. Within this camp, instead of having individuals come in and train as a camp counselor, we will have licensed counselors there serving as the camp counselors. These councilors will offer healthy coping mechanisms, and a listening ear. However, once the youth leave the camp, they are not left out in the cold. This camp becomes a community for them. Ideally the community would feed into a coffee shop type atmosphere. A safe place for those who attended the camp, where youth can come back and fellowship with one another, but also be encouraged in the fact that they are not walking through this …show more content…
It not only challenged me mentally, and encouraged me to look inwardly at myself and my ambitions, but opened my eyes to a whole new world of endless possibilities as well. The philosophy behind outdoor education is one that intrigues me. It is such a well thought through and accurate way of teaching, it makes me wonder why more people don’t adopt it. Throughout this course I have been encouraged to use the teaching, and skills I have learned here, and use them throughout my life, remembering that it is about more than going out and doing all sorts of things to recreate, we learned how to weigh our risk verses competence to find that peak adventure. Use self- efficacy to know when we were nearing misadventure or disaster, having confidence in ourselves, but also knowing how to survey the risks. Intro to outdoor education has encouraged me to remember the important places and things in my life, to never stop pursuing my dreams, and to never let anyone else tell me what I can and can’t do. Outdoor education is one of the most versatile fields I have seen to this day, and offers a wide variety of paths to follow, but the important part about it, is never losing sight of why do are doing what you do, and to keep doing what you