教育現場｜Top Rope Rock Climbing

There is a sentence on the packet said: "Being a good rock climbing doesn’t make you a good person, only being a good person makes you become a good person.” I can’t agree more with it.

I don’t know since when l start to love all adventurous sport. As an urban citizen in Taipei, there are not so many people would try those things. Yes, We do have nice nature source in Taiwan, you may go surfing in the beach of northeastern coast, then enjoy the hot spring over there. You also may hike on the various types of mountains and kayak or canoe in the lake. However, most people would rather to stay home or hang out with friends for indoor activities. It's only minor population who are willing to access outdoor chose to participant the commercial group to engage the sport for their preference.

   Rock Climbing consists of a lot of elements for self-concept and team-building skills. It’s beyond the high element we work in the rope course. The technique is the biggest subject of this sport. There is so much conversation going on during the process once the class begins, how to share the load for common gears with your team folks; how to cooperate between the climber and the belayer; how to encourage keeping on climbing up to yourself and your partner. It’s not only extreme exercise but also endurance education.

Especially the course is intense with continuous seven days and nine hours every day. It makes me have more chances to train myself mentally and physically when accomplishing everything last week.

 I have pursued Outdoor Education as a faculty in the department of student affairs in the college of Taiwan since I started to study my doctoral program of Outdoor Education four years go. As a novice researcher and outdoor educator, I chose to take kids to go camping as a recreation as their extracurricular event. It was not easy to persuade the young students in Asia that how attractive nature is. Fortunately, they all love it after they start to step out of their comfort zone. However, sometimes, I still felt I was kind of burn out by planning those outdoor events. There is so much responsibility to take without supervisor’s support; There are not sufficient budget for that; Most teachers would rather stay on the campus and have some portable game for students. Changing their mindset is more difficult than carrying those events. Regardless of those barriers, I still fully passionate about the thing I am doing especially after being a participant in this training. Nate, my instructor in this course, really did a great job as an outdoor educator supposed to be. Instructing all the curricular in detail is the great thing without a doubt. Taking all the students to the climb site as a bus driver every day; Explain the risk management at the beginning of the class; the appropriate arrangement of the daily teaching assists to help the class. I am so impressive everything I witness in the class. Also, I appreciated that I could have a chance in this community.   

  Optimistically, I still look forward to seeing what I can do in the field of outdoor education after returning home. There are a lot of alternative ways to explore and find the potential to implement in this field. Gradually, the authority of the school realized that pupils need more experiences in the outer world rather than classroom learning. I would be pleased to make some contribution to this field at that time in the future. Maybe it would be a good start on Outdoor Orientation Program with a rock climbing course.