How did you learn how to draw a circle?
Did you read about the circle and measure what the ideal circumference would have to be? Did you create calculations and follow them to guide your pencil? Did you stare aimlessly at a circle and wonder how you could copy it?
Probably not, and neither did we.
Instead, we grabbed a crayon with our entire palm, slammed it down on a piece of paper and drew an oblong cherry-red blob that we knew was in fact a circle. It wasn't the greatest, it wasn't even near that good, but after trying, doing and evaluating our own actions, our spew of red become a circle worthy of display.
Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted as saying that a mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. We have never returned to that blob from a crayon, but we've adopted the idea that by actually experiencing something, you'll not only do it, you will learn it, learn from it and learn about yourself and others along the way. We believe in experiential education, the pedagogical approach that learning is best achieved through actually doing and experiencing your educational goal.
Our philosophy is that relevant and meaningful learning takes place in the best possible classroom; the natural environment. Such an environment develops a necessary relationship between the learner and nature, the learner and the teacher and lastly, the learner and themselves. This mutual responsibility and experiential absorption represents purposefulness in learning that enables the experience to become knowledge. In turn, this knowledge offers a unique framework for which further development can be supported and encouraged.
Our classroom has no walls. Instead, trees, lakes, oceans, mountains, beaches, parks and cliffs surround us and provide our students with a learning environment that offers excitement, beauty and fresh air. This classroom has been ours since 1981 when we established The Earthquest Outdoor School, a nationally and internationally acclaimed program that is continually recognized as graduating students who excel in top-tier universities, as their leadership skills, confidence, critical thinking abilities, social skills and overall awareness help them to achieve and compete on a global scale over the past 30 years.
Thank you for taking the time to check out our site, and please, keep drawing that circle.
Barrie and Moe Reid
