Dear friends- our most-recent blog post update, which may have arrived to you via email newsletter should have directed you to this post and article by Morten Asfeldt. Please forgive our second attempt to share this post and great piece of writing with you:
Most readers of this blog can give solid reasons to answer the question, Why Get Kids Paddling. Yet when faced by the powers that be, we have not produced the evidence to support what we intuitively know.
Many thanks to Morten Asfeldt for sharing the following article that has been submitted to Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, Spring 2021 Issue.
A Beautiful Messy Process : Outdoor Education in Canada
We hope that it and other supportive articles we plan to share, will help us build that evidence and those arguments. Please share your thoughts with us in the Comments section below. And please share with us any articles, evidence or arguments that you think will help.
Morton Asfeldt’s paper is right on! As a retired Outdoor Educator I applaud his research and conclusions. This provides a critical piece in our attempt for recognition of the legitimacy of Outdoor Education. It is clear that the goals of the Get Kids Paddling group are supported by research. In the quest for the proper recognition of the value of paddling in the high school curriculum a champion is needed at the curriculum table at the Board offices. This person could ideally be the Program Superintendent but more realistically the facilitator for OE or PhysEd. This person would require professional development by The Get Kids Paddling group. When it comes to discussions of program expansion or reduction an advocate is needed in every school board.