Outdoor School History |
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MESD Outdoor School > History
Early Events Contributing to the Formation of Outdoor School
from Outdoor School - A History 1966-1996
Outdoor School undoubtedly had its inception as school camping, which may have begun in the 1860's when the private Gunnery School for Boys in Washington, Connecticut took the entire student body for two weeks of camping, fishing, hiking, and working outdoors.
The earliest public school camping venture was probably in Dubuque, Iowa in 1912, but school camping programs were noted in Los Angeles and in Atlanta, Georgia in the mid 20's. In the 30's Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Ellensburg, Washington schools experimented with school camping on a day-camp basis. In Michigan, the Ann Arbor and Cadillac public schools acquired property, built buildings and operated day, field trip and summer sessions. It was not until 1940, though, that the first year-round camp went into operation in Michigan on the assumption that school / camping should be a part of the school curriculum. In 1946, the Michigan Department of Public Instruction, Dept. of Conservation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation engaged in a joint venture of school camping and outdoor education when they built Clear Lake Camp near Battle Creek. From this time on, what had been known as school camping there became known as the resident outdoor school. Also in 1946, San Diego organized the City-County Camp Commission to operate church-owned Camp Cuyamaca, the first year-round outdoor education program in California. Tyler, Texas was among the early school system to construct a facility for year round school camping, beginning in 1949. Since then many states followed the patterns which had been set and, in the 50's, developed pilot projects to explore the outdoor school concept. Among these was Oregon.
Dr. Irene Hollenbeck of Southern Oregon College conducted the first pilot project in outdoor education through school camping in Oregon. A camp with the unlikely name "Dead Indian Soda Springs", was the site and in April of 1957, 23 fifth and sixth grade children spent 5 days living and learning in the out-of-doors. Resource people from the US Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service and Oregon Game Commission assisted with what was then known locally as Conservation Education.
Concurrently other educators in Oregon were becoming interested in school camping and could see the opportunities for integrating the regular school curriculum into an outdoor experience through "Conservation" education- in a state that relied so heavily on natural resources for its economy.
A second pilot project got underway in the spring of 1958 when Miss Margaret Milliken of Oregon State University and Austin Hamer of the Oregon Game Commission approached Superintendent Cecil Sly of Crook County School with a proposal for a week-long outdoor school project for Prineville sixth graders. The week of May 12-16 was selected and privately-owned Camp Tamarack near Sisters, Oregon was chosen as the site. Again, Forest Service, Soil Conservation and Game Commission personnel were used as resource staff for nature and conservation subjects. This was the first pilot project in outdoor education to receive approval to use State curriculum improvement funds. The project was to act as an observation post for many visiting school administrators as well as the production site for a film titled "Mrs. McCormacks Outdoor Classroom", as a promotional tool.
Even before the Prineville project was completed, plans for a second pilot project were being made. The Salem School District became interested in having a program for their educationally advanced students in the intermediate grades. Miss Milliken and Mr. Hamer were again approached to conduct the project, set for October 14-19, 1958, again at Camp Tamarack. Fifty-five 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, educationally-advanced students participated. Resource agency people were again used as conservation instructors in teaching the wise use of such resources as soil, water, grasses, shrubs and trees, and fish and wildlife.
With the example set by these early projects in Oregon, as well as others nationwide, outdoor education became recognized as do-able and the perfect medium for integrating regular school curriculum into an outdoor social living experience, as well as teaching natural science in the most appropriate environment - in the outdoors. Experimentation with pilot outdoor school projects soon ensued in other Oregon school districts, they turned to Miss Margaret Milliken of OSU and Miss Marian Perry of U of 0, who were now teaching spring classes in camping education. Their students acted as counselors for these projects with credit gained for their participation. Austin Hamer of the Oregon Game Commission, Bob Brown of the soil conservation and Earnie McDonald of the US Forest Service were often cooperators, as were many other government natural-resource agency personnel. A pattern for future outdoor schools was being established.
Outdoor School undoubtedly had its inception as school camping, which may have begun in the 1860's when the private Gunnery School for Boys in Washington, Connecticut took the entire student body for two weeks of camping, fishing, hiking, and working outdoors.
The earliest public school camping venture was probably in Dubuque, Iowa in 1912, but school camping programs were noted in Los Angeles and in Atlanta, Georgia in the mid 20's. In the 30's Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Ellensburg, Washington schools experimented with school camping on a day-camp basis. In Michigan, the Ann Arbor and Cadillac public schools acquired property, built buildings and operated day, field trip and summer sessions. It was not until 1940, though, that the first year-round camp went into operation in Michigan on the assumption that school / camping should be a part of the school curriculum. In 1946, the Michigan Department of Public Instruction, Dept. of Conservation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation engaged in a joint venture of school camping and outdoor education when they built Clear Lake Camp near Battle Creek. From this time on, what had been known as school camping there became known as the resident outdoor school. Also in 1946, San Diego organized the City-County Camp Commission to operate church-owned Camp Cuyamaca, the first year-round outdoor education program in California. Tyler, Texas was among the early school system to construct a facility for year round school camping, beginning in 1949. Since then many states followed the patterns which had been set and, in the 50's, developed pilot projects to explore the outdoor school concept. Among these was Oregon.
Dr. Irene Hollenbeck of Southern Oregon College conducted the first pilot project in outdoor education through school camping in Oregon. A camp with the unlikely name "Dead Indian Soda Springs", was the site and in April of 1957, 23 fifth and sixth grade children spent 5 days living and learning in the out-of-doors. Resource people from the US Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service and Oregon Game Commission assisted with what was then known locally as Conservation Education.
Concurrently other educators in Oregon were becoming interested in school camping and could see the opportunities for integrating the regular school curriculum into an outdoor experience through "Conservation" education- in a state that relied so heavily on natural resources for its economy.
A second pilot project got underway in the spring of 1958 when Miss Margaret Milliken of Oregon State University and Austin Hamer of the Oregon Game Commission approached Superintendent Cecil Sly of Crook County School with a proposal for a week-long outdoor school project for Prineville sixth graders. The week of May 12-16 was selected and privately-owned Camp Tamarack near Sisters, Oregon was chosen as the site. Again, Forest Service, Soil Conservation and Game Commission personnel were used as resource staff for nature and conservation subjects. This was the first pilot project in outdoor education to receive approval to use State curriculum improvement funds. The project was to act as an observation post for many visiting school administrators as well as the production site for a film titled "Mrs. McCormacks Outdoor Classroom", as a promotional tool.
Even before the Prineville project was completed, plans for a second pilot project were being made. The Salem School District became interested in having a program for their educationally advanced students in the intermediate grades. Miss Milliken and Mr. Hamer were again approached to conduct the project, set for October 14-19, 1958, again at Camp Tamarack. Fifty-five 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, educationally-advanced students participated. Resource agency people were again used as conservation instructors in teaching the wise use of such resources as soil, water, grasses, shrubs and trees, and fish and wildlife.
With the example set by these early projects in Oregon, as well as others nationwide, outdoor education became recognized as do-able and the perfect medium for integrating regular school curriculum into an outdoor social living experience, as well as teaching natural science in the most appropriate environment - in the outdoors. Experimentation with pilot outdoor school projects soon ensued in other Oregon school districts, they turned to Miss Margaret Milliken of OSU and Miss Marian Perry of U of 0, who were now teaching spring classes in camping education. Their students acted as counselors for these projects with credit gained for their participation. Austin Hamer of the Oregon Game Commission, Bob Brown of the soil conservation and Earnie McDonald of the US Forest Service were often cooperators, as were many other government natural-resource agency personnel. A pattern for future outdoor schools was being established.
REGIONAL OUTDOOR EDUCATION
The present Multnomah Outdoor School program probably gained its inception early in 1963 when a group of science educators, governmental resource agency people, city and administrators and industry representatives from the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area met to discuss a common concern. There had been a growing number of requests from local school teachers wanting help in teaching "conservation" to their students and who wanted to learn to use the outdoors as a classroom. A small number of these requests had been handled by information-education specialists from local resource agencies, but these people were few in number and their time limited. A committee was formed to work on the problem.
The committee's first effort was the development of a two mile, self-guided, nature trail in Portland's 3,650 acre Forest Park. A guidebook was devised to help teachers describe natural points of interest as they led their classes along the course. The trail became known as the Portland Area Resource Education Tour and later the P.A.R.E.T. trail. The project was an immediate success with some 5,000 students and their teachers eventually using the trail. The committee also became knows as the P.A.R.E.T. committee. But, the trail was only a token solution to local conservation education needs. The P.A.R.E.T. committee decided a full-scale Outdoor Education program was needed, and they explored those Outdoor Education programs that had run intermittently since 1957 in Oregon. They found that the format for a week-long, resident, coed Outdoor School for sixth grade students had been
evolving in Oregon and provided a starting point.
Continue reading about Outdoor School in the 1960s
