Foreword

What’s the hype about?

It was the question I asked myself when I saw the response of others to my sharing of these cheat sheets. People were saying how great they were, that they wanted to share it with others, and that they should be printed and displayed at our offices. I was pleasantly surprised, and at the same time puzzled. Why the hype?

Then I realised why. It is the heart’s cry of every passionate OAE (Outdoor and Adventure Education) practitioner to be able to design, deliver and debrief an experience in the most meaningful way possible for our clients. Yet we are also fully aware that our classroom is of a unique design, one in which we sit on rocks instead of chairs, we write on sand instead of whiteboards, we use ropes and paddles instead of pen and paper, we present our lives instead of our homework. If you think that we are complaining about that, you cannot be more wrong.

It is insanely thrilling for us. Our hearts bubble up with excitement when we are faced with the endless possible permutations and combinations of classroom design, lesson delivery and debrief methods. But that’s not all! Do you know what’s the most electrifying, heart-stopping thing about all these for us? Like the warm gooey liquid that oozes out of your favourite dark chocolate molten lava cake? It’s the recognition that every experience created exists only in that present moment, one that you can never find a duplicate of in the past, nor an exact replica of in the future. The bittersweetness of that truth is what makes us OAE practitioners guilty of being addicted to the lava cake outdoors.

Before you sentence me for painting a flawless picture of my profession, I would like to state my case about some things that I ought to plead guilty to. I used “I” instead of “we as OAE” because as much as I would love to represent the professional community that I belong to, I am neither qualified nor permitted to do so; hence all that I’m sharing with you today is purely the perspective of someone who has merely scratched the surface of what it means to be an outdoor educator. Here are the charges that I plead guilty to – putting “the present” on a pedestal and using “the present” as an easy explanation.

Putting “the present” on a pedestal implies elevating it above the past and the future, giving “the present” the limelight while the past and the future take a backseat. Don’t get me wrong. “The present” has tremendous potential, and you are right to say that it is the gateway to bringing up the past and impacting the future. What I am challenging us to consider, however, is the extent to which we involve the past and the future. Just as one only becomes the main lead when there are calefares, or the champion when there are competitors, “the present” can only shine when the past and the future have a stake in the show or the game. I will leave you with that thought, accompanied with a few questions to ponder over.

In what other ways have you engaged the past and the future in “the present” besides talking about it (i.e. sharing stories and setting goals)? What about considering frameworks that have been proven in the past or concepts you wish to explore in the future in the designing of “the present”? What about using validated techniques of the past or creative techniques that have been unheard of to deliver “the present”?

On to the next charge. Using “the present” as an easy explanation can be simply understood by the following dialogue. “How do you know what to do?” “Oh..It’s really based on the group dynamics and what the participants need at that point of time.” “How do you know it works?” “Well..you will be able to sense that it has impacted them. It’s hard to describe. You’ve got to be there to feel it for yourself.”

I am pretty certain that we are doing many things right, but I am also certain that we can’t be sure about that until we look beyond “the present”. To be sure about doing something right, whether it is the effectiveness of the design, delivery or debrief, is to be sure that it does not solely belong to “the present”. For if it does, we can plainly label it as a divine coincidence, or what some would say to be “the moment where all the stars align”. We can celebrate the beauty of those moments, but the reality is, longing and praying for those moments to magically appear does not help us or others to grow. We need to ride on the consolidated knowledge of the past and apply it to the present, gather the data of the present and evaluate it for the future. It is only when we are willing to put “the present” under the microscope of theorists such as Kolb, Priest, Gass and Tuckman, and allow “the present” to be tested in the labs of other professionals, that the effectiveness of “the present” is fully harnessed. It is only when we stop holding exclusive rights to “the present” selfishly that we can start serving others.

Truth turns on the lights and reveals to us the conditions of our room. It is our choice to either walk out of the room, or intentionally close the door, roll up our sleeves, and start the tidying up process. And so, compiling these cheat sheets was nothing more than me trying to kickstart the spick and span party by increasing the accessibility of knowledge constructed by intellect giants to us OAE practitioners when we are on the ground so that we are able to transfer past learnings to present scenarios for future sharings.

I look forward to more people joining the party.

Salome Sim, Instructor, Outward Bound Singapore (2017 - 2020)