OAL 250 Thoughts on Experiential Education and Latent Learning
I’m hanging in my harness at the top of a spot route in Wharepapa, New Zealand. I tether myself in and undo the tope-rope so that all that is keeping me up on the face of the rock is a thin sling attached to a bolt. From the bottom of the route, I ask for guidance in the steps of dismantling the anchor that you climb up with on top-rope, essentially dismantling your own way down.
I know the steps of cleaning a route, I’ve been shown them before. But nervously and anxiously I need to be told again. It’s a different, visceral experience hanging on a bolt only by your self and the mere life-line of a very thin tether. Your mind starts playing tricks on you, your mouth is so dry that spit won’t come and in that experience you must quiet yourself and embrace your experience. You must rely upon the implicit and latent memory of the skills you know you’ve been taught prior, as well as the directional instructions given from an instructor in the moment.
In all of my educational recollections, this type of education truly draws on the necessity of competent knowledge in the moment. It is a style of education where what is learned, truly is applied. It is also an immense learning curve in the autonomy department or what we in fact believe or know to be true about ourselves.
Met in the moment of fear, who are we? How do we react? Do we believe in our self? Can we trust the person on the bottom belaying us, drawing on their knowledge and skill to keep us safe?
With this type of education rubber meeting the road, I feel that the experience and the skills applied as well as the confidence gained to say, “yes, you can trust your life in my hands as the bottom of this route,” all together create an unforgettable experienced education.
OAL 275 Moments Relating to The Tao of Leadership
Over the last week as 11 students and our guide and instructor Adam Elson embarked on our journey traveling south through the northern island of New Zealand, there were some moments that resonated with the teachings of “The Tao of Leadership,” a book we are reading for our Adventure Based Facilitation Class.
The first insight that I resonated with was how “doing little as a leader still gets things done.” Not to say that our guide, Adam was unwilling to work or provide information to the group as a whole, but when asked certain questions about what to do or what was entailed with our course work, little was said. I saw time and again how little was actually necessary from him energetically, that what he was doing as a leader was leaving out the excess and the extraneous. He was keeping himself unbusied and disentangled in the groups dynamic and the centeredness of balanced order rippled out from around him. Everyone found their way, discovered their priorities, assignments and indirectly, their own self as a leader. The next insight came from “Owning or Being Owned.” This chapter hit home with me especially in regard to thinking about material items and the things I’ve become accustomed to and feel as thought I must have in order to feel whole. But in this space, traveling between only a few bags it has become obvious to me that “the more you have and get… the more you have to look after.” What’s more apparent, living more simply in these last two weeks is that I haven’t needed much to still be me and I don’t feel as though I miss too much back home. Do I really need the heaps of clothes hanging unworn in my closet? Or the ten pairs of shoes, countless sets of jewelry and a basket of nail polish?
“If you give up things, you can give up spending your life looking after things.”
Finally, with the simple living that I have been experiencing, I have been learning to “return to myself.” When one is unencumbered by things or habitual places with their ingrained habitual habits there is room to be still, to be silent, to observe and witness the happenings of life and its interrelatedness.
OAL 362 & 375 Reflections on leadership via rafting and environmental impact
Staying on the same theme of simplicity, it was obvious that PaulE and his leadership style reflected a calm, organized, in the background approach. His presence was felt but again the group and weather ran itself. He was aware of the “here and now, and went with the flow of the weather conditions and only rallied when it was time to make a move.
Thinking in terms of PaulE and his crew, including his wife Trisha, it was ever present that “what we call leadership consists mainly of knowing how to follow.” Many times I heard the husband and wife team make arrangements, her stating the order of things as they were happening and PaulE following as a result. No ego, and no hierarchy, each crew member seemed to be on the same level with their role appearing as integral and necessary for the success of each river day.
A certain pride was contained in the character of each crew member, on the same level with one another acting out their role without domineering charge but rather the ever so gentle netting of a centered leader.
In conclusion, I end these first blog entries with my largest struggle at present, in a way casting a shadow over many wonderful growth provoking and soul developing activities that our group has engaged in thus far.
No matter how I try and see it differently, I cannot help but see the impact, however minimal on our very engagement in these outdoor activities.
Despite the compost efforts and the camping that minimized consumption of other resources, I can still see diesel fuel spewing from the back of a truck hauling rafts to our put-in site and my mind quickly spirals out into this beautiful country that is rooted economically in adventure based tourism. And I think as I sit here writing, in one of the worlds last and least inhabited lands how many trucks, campervans, buses, etc., are hauling eager-eyed adventure seekers leaving a trail of muck behind even if it’s compostable banana peels, and recyclable bottles?
The only way to ultimately preserve the pristine is, I hate to admit it, but by our lack of presence, out lack of witness and involvement at all with the perfectly in-tune and harmonic habitats surrounding us.
-Crystal
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