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What these patterns of responses may indicate is like so many other areas of understanding, teachers do believe that kids SHOULD be outside in order to remain connected and concerned about the natural world, but that understanding doesn’t always translate into professional practice.

Two Ontario educators, Foster & Linney, were commissioned by The Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario in 2007 to survey the most current research regarding OE, EE and Experiential Education. What resulted was a summary document entitled Reconnecting Children through Outdoor Education: A research summary. A quick Google search of this title will reveal how widely cited this document has become in both Canada and the US. Available at the Queen’s Education Library for borrowing, it serves as both a research summary and a blueprint for implementation of its values.

Four key values about Outdoor and Experiential Education (OEE) appear in the document’s opening:
OEE educates for curriculum and community
OEE educates for wellbeing
OEE educates for character
OEE educates for environment
(Worth noting here is that environment was the LAST of the four values mentioned, a likely intentional move to widen the scope of learning goals that SHOULD and COULD be considered through the incorporation of OE into classroom culture.)

The documentary film Play Again, – available on DVD in the TRC – is a poignant reality based documentary. The film’s trailer, made available by the film’s creators on YouTube, includes a scene where children are able to quickly and accurately identify several corporate logos upon visual prompt but refer to a picture of a dandelion as some kind of weed and a tulip as a plant. A truly powerful and concerning sequence to watch !