Sharing Good Practice
a whole range of trades from building
to plumbing. Others, who will need
a license for future employment can
undertake driver education. Instead
of students leaving school needing to
start all over again having acquired a
collection of academic qualifications
not necessarily relevant to the world of
work, they are employable, skilled and
focused.
The need for a bold step to move
outdoors is not confined to the Middle
East. About six years ago I visited
Palau Weh, an island quite close to
Banda Aceh in Indonesia. When I
was invited to visit the local school
I readily accepted. With a jungle
background, a beachfront teeming
with reef life and local culture strongly
represented in design, arts and music,
the opportunities for exciting outdoor
education were innumerable. Yet
what did I find? Children in classrooms
with uninspiring texts and teachers
complaining they did not have the
resources found in the west. No, the
school was not well-endowed in this
respect, I had to admit, but I turned
and pointed outside. ‘Were I to have
had this when I was teaching science,
geography, English, mathematics, art
or a number of other subjects, I would
have had the best, most creative
resources anywhere in the world. Let
me show you why.’ The next few hours
were spent with children and their
teachers exploring the adaptations of
plants to low light jungle conditions,
counting and classifying plants,
studying the impact of wave direction
and frequency on the beach and
sketching the cross-section of flowers
in the bouquet they had presented
when I arrived. No books could have
produced the learning that occurred
that day. When I departed the island
a week later, some teachers told me
they were trying to change but they
faced opposition from traditionalists.
What a shame.
Here in the Middle East, we are similarly
rich in outdoor resources and I am not
referring to organised centres, malls,
theme parks or museums, though these
can, with skill, provide opportunities
for applying the curriculum. Too
few schools here have gardens with
sections devoted to experimenting
with different growing mediums, or
discovering which plants have greater
or lesser tolerance of desiccation.
Many plots of land are covered with
rapidly spreading creosote plants.
What opportunities do they present
for studying adaptation and the effect
of competition? Then there is the
increasing wealth of ancient history
being uncovered across the UAE
dating back as far as 7,000 years. It
says a great deal when a fenced off
area alongside the main wadi in Al
Ain attracts virtually no attention in
the last three years from the schools
right next to it, despite signs in
English and Arabic stating it is an area
of archaeological significance. This
presents untold wealth of opportunity:
for learning, fostering curiosity and an
appreciation, the very important part
the UAE has in the preservation of
world history.
Perhaps a week in a remote traditional
camp, speaking only Arabic and
engaging in life as it was not too long
ago in these parts would improve
language skills, if nothing else. I can
certainly vouch for the success of this
having taken a group of students to an
isolated corner of France some years
ago. Faced with no teacher, several
weeks or months of substitution and
a dry textbook, it was decided that a
week of total immersion would spark
an interest in the language that might
just help carry the group through.
Fifteen students and two teachers
set off in the school minibus and duly
arrived in a small village where, if any
English was spoken, it was deeply
hidden. Students were put in groups,
given a small but sufficient supply of
francs and taken to the local market to
purchase the items needed to make
the meal they would be contributing
to that night’s dinner. By the end
of the week they were speaking
the language like natives and, on
the return journey, seeking every
opportunity to practice their linguistic
skills. They never looked back.
Our children need to get outdoors for
many reasons. This will be a generation
characterised by its dependence
on
technology
and
increasing
isolationism. It is a generation devoted
to the rapid provision of everything
from food to gratification. An
appreciation of the quality of silence,
of the beauty of a sunset or the bend
of a huge dune against an azure blue
sky is inferior to beating Super Mario
or pitching yourself against a virtual
foe in The Call of Duty. In 2017, close
to 60% of the online population were
gamers and an increasing number of
these were children. Weaning them off
their dependence on games will not
be easy.
It takes courage, yes. However, there
is virtually no component in any
curriculum that does not lend itself
to practical application outdoors.
We must make children aware of the
environment beyond the classroom;
make textbook learning real. If we do
not, we risk producing young people
who see nothing but the interface on
a screen.
Judith is a highly experienced educator, consultant and advisor with extensive
experience as a school leader in both government and private school settings.
Having trained and taught in New Zealand, Judith moved to the United Kingdom
where she held a variety of leadership roles. She has extensive experience of
education in three Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United
Arab Emirates, where she has lived and worked for the last nine years.
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