The Importance Of Outdoor Education

Part 1: What is Outdoor Education?
Outdoor Education involves activities and experiences that normally take place in the outdoors, frequently have an adventurous component, involves physical activity and always respects the natural environment.
The activities include adventurous sports such as Kayaking, Coasteering, Orienteering or Surfing, & outdoor leisure pursuits such as camping or hill walking, & outdoor activities purposely designed for their educational impact such as ropes courses & team development challenges.
Outdoor Education is primarily an approach to teaching and learning through these activities and experiences. The common thread is to focus on positive outcomes in personal and social education.
While outdoor education has a

Develop leadership skills
6. Understand natural environments
7. Promote spirituality
Part 2: Personal ideas on Outdoor Education
My personal ideas on Outdoor Education span the near 21 years of my life, Mine and my brother and sister’s education in the outdoors comes from our parent’s beliefs in the benefits in the outdoors. From a very young age each one of use was given the boundaries to go an explore the outdoors and experience what is out there.
Growing up from birth to the age of 10 in Wicklow Town made experiencing the outdoors very hard, but this shows me the great eye opener I had when we move to the middle of the countryside in the most north point of Ireland in Malin, Co. Donegal. From then on I spent more time out in the hills and on the land exploring the countryside. The amount of history and environmental facts we learnt along the way was a total eye opener.
Young people become involved in outdoor education through a variety of areas.
Schools have a key role to play in delivering outdoor education. They provide regular outdoor and adventurous activities within their PE curriculum. They can also offer out-of-school learning through the ‘Gaisce Award’. Many schools also organize day visits to outdoor education