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4 - Why Now? The Historical Context: – Roger Orgill, M.B.E. The ideals and objectives of the various youth movements emerging towards the end of the last century were ‘firmly based on cultural, moral and spiritual values which clearly reflected educational needs and the aspirations of society at that time. They were however tempered primarily by the Christian faith and underpinned by military discipline and royal patronage.’ This was the period of Empire and vastly different to today’s multi-faith - multi-cultural society. Statement of aims and objectives of the early outdoor education and training centres also gave prominence to ideals and values but with specific reference to the influence of the outdoor experience and landscape settings. For example: ‘We seek to provide a healthy outlook which will combat the temptations that our highly civilised life affords. In a society which offers such safety and security the questing spirit of adventure must be provided for, and the challenge and comradeship which the hills and moors can offer is beyond doubt a rich alternative to the luxuries and easy pleasures of urban life. It is part of every child’s heritage to know and understand his earth; to be at home in wild and magnificent places knowing how to find security and having confidence and ability to overcome obstacles. There is a spiritual value in the awesome splendour of the mountain scene and the humility of man’. (Lancashire Education Authority’s - Whitehough Camp School established in 1938).
“The purpose of the Training Centre is to use the excellent natural surroundings offered by mountain, loch and forest, to experiment with forms of education which will assist the individual to discover his or her physical, mental and spiritual potentialities. Infinite opportunities for leadership are available for those who seek it. Initiative, observation, courage and humility are qualities demanded from good citizens as well as from intelligent exponents of open air activities”. (Glenmore Lodge was the first civilian mountain training school in Britain. It was officially opened by the Secretary of State for Scotland in September, 1948, and was administered by the Central Council of Physical Recreation on behalf of the Scottish Education Department).
Such statements no doubt had their origin in an earlier romantic period in which mountaineering was born. Samuel Coleridge for example saw excursion into the mountain environment as an escape from ordinary routine and the stimulation of his innermost spirit. “The farther I ascend from animated Nature, from men and cattle, and the common birds of the wood and fields, the greater becomes in me the Intensity of the feeling of Life”. G.M. Trevelyan, the distinguished historian and first president of the Youth Hostel movement in 1929, reflected again on the importance of the natural world in both social and spiritual well being:“Our ancestors, for countless ages, lived and worked in the country, influenced in their everyday life, some consciously, other unconsciously, by the surrounding scenes, by country sights and sounds. That was what inspired our higher literature and poetry, and the commoner songs and music of Elizabethan and other periods, and gave spiritual force to their religious and intellectual activities. More generally speaking, the presence of nature reconciled man to his life. The modern Englishman, though he is taught more in school and reads and hears more news than his forefathers, lacks something which they had in all ages past. The physiological ailments of our time, our discontent and failure to accept and enjoy life, are largely due to this sudden imprisonment of our population in the cities far from all natural sights and sounds. If man has been a country dweller for hundreds of thousands of years, he cannot, in a single century, be cut off from nature without suffering harm. Holidays in the country, the mountain, hill and plain, are a mitigation of this evil, and a source of spiritual power and joy which must affect, both directly and indirectly, all the activities of the coming age”. It felt appropriate to include a footnote as the background is particularly relevant to the workshop theme and future developments.
