Here is a recent article by David Denman appearing in The Educational Register

A COMPLETE EDUCATION
David Denman, B.A., M.Div.
Young people need enriching experiences beyond the classroom.

A memorably poignant short story by the distinguished American writer, Raymond Carver, is titled, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". Reflecting on that intriguing phrase, my transcendental mind is moved to ponder what we talk about when we talk about Education. Like the proverbial blind men touching the elephant, we seem inevitably to focus on merely one or another aspect of this vast, amorphous subject.

We speak of primary and of secondary and (too much) of college education. And of art education, physical education, multi-cultural education, vocational education, outdoor education (though interestingly not of indoor education). And of basic education—whatever that is. And, using that bizarre construct, "academics", of academic education, which I’m sure E.D. Hirsch, Jr. would say is a classic redundancy. (I’m chuckling as I write, remembering that my youngest son has a culinary education!) Rarely, however, do we think of education "holistically", in the sense that the great American philosopher, John Dewey, meant when he spoke of the "seamless cloak of learning". No wonder we so often look through this glass darkly!

In spite of appearances to the contrary, wise educators acknowledge that academic classrooms are not the only places in which children need to learn; that, so to speak, "schooling" is not enough. They know, too, that teachers are not the only people from whom children need to learn. The Duke of Wellington’s words ring with metaphorical truth: "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." Today, more than ever, young people need enriching experiences beyond the classroom. As James Coleman wrote almost fifty years ago, formerly young people were experience rich and education poor, whereas today just the opposite is true. Clearly, education is a continuum, each experience building on, reinforcing and extending previous experiences. Again and again, in a variety of ways, Dewey made this point: children learn what they live.

Ideally, of course, the primary setting for learning is the home and family. The eminent psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, reminds us, "...nothing is more important than the impact of parents and others who take care of the child." But these days,
even if there are two parents (and it’s more likely only one rather than two), they are busier than ever. Far too many of the parents whom I see give their children too much of everything, except their time. Yet, ironically, there is more to learn and increasingly more need to learn. But if schooling is not enough, love (as Bettelheim reminds us elsewhere) is not enough either. As I often remind parents with whom I’m working, important as it is,caring is no substitute for competence. Thus, education of the young has become the province of others: day care centers, schools, camps, and summer and supplementary programs of all kinds.

One of the wisest decisions that parents can make is to plan enriching summer experiences for their children. Fortunate are those of us who grew up in communities or neighborhoods where friends were nearby; where diverse activities were more or less immediately available and homegrown; and where there were numerous nurturing adult influences. We were safe and we created our own recreation close to home in the summer. That idyllic situation is, unfortunately, a receding phenomenon. Today, especially for adolescents, the most common recreational activity, especially in summer months, is "hanging out". But there is very little of developmental value in languorous lounging at the mall. The diversity of enriching summer opportunities presented in The Educational Register provide an antidote to that deplorable inactivity.

And what a diversity there is. Most common, perhaps, are summer camps, especially though not exclusively for younger children, which provide, in addition to their numerous more obvious benefits, a major and, for many an initial, experience of surviving away from home. Interestingly, as an educator who sees hundreds of young people each year, I can often sense before I’m told those young people who have experienced such an extended experience away from home. They are less timid, more self-assured, less anxious about meeting a stranger, and more relaxed in conversation. Academic summer programs all over this country and abroad on boarding school campuses, offer either remedial or enrichment courses, or both. These provide refreshing alternatives to the penal tone of conventional public summer schools, and are in many ways like summer camps, with sports, outdoor recreation, and trips as well as small classes and, sometimes, even individual instruction. For numerous young people these also provide an introduction to boarding school life.

David Hicks, Head of The Darlington School in Georgia and Formerly Rector of St. Paul’s School, has written persuasively about the gradual evolution (or devolution) of American boarding schools away from providing (as they once did) a unique kind of "corrective salutary deprivation". Boarding schools are no longer spartan places, depriving young people of basic creature comforts. Incidentally, speaking as one whose first boarding school job was 45 years ago, I agree that today’s boarding schools proponents could well ponder that devolution. But let that be. To their credit, boarding schools do beneficially deprive young people of some of the abundant negative influences of contemporary American life. Indeed, the contrast between a typical boarding school milieu and the situation in a comprehensive public school is dramatic. As Alan Popp, Head of School at the White Mountain School in New Hampshire, says, "Nearly all we do in a boarding school is juxtaposed with society’s values and beliefs".

In boarding schools a student’s daily life is considerably more structured from dawn to dusk than it would be at home. In the small classes of a boarding school, a young person is deprived, for instance, of the counter-productive opportunity to hide. Because extracurricular involvement is generally required, they are also deprived of that ultimate teenage evasion, doing nothing. Of course, young people are also "deprived" of the opportunity to watch endless hours of stultifying television. And since there is an emphasis on participation rather than merely on winning, in most boarding schools there is an opportunity for every student to learn by being on a team, or on stage or in student activities. Unlike in so many contemporary public schools, in the relatively intimate setting of a boarding school where life is, so to speak 24/7, young people learn obliquely that standards have a purpose and that a community thrives when one meets expectations. And, unlike in public schools (or in so many families), when one lives in the shadow of one’s teachers one discovers that indolent performance can result in serious, immediate, inconvenient consequences. The learning, in other words, is not classroom specific but comprehensive. Especially for those who live where their local public school is less than adequate, and where a private day school may not be available or be a realistic alternative, boarding schools provide a superb option. No wonder concerned parents selflessly seek out boarding schools.

Of course, the easiest ancillary way to learn is to travel. Thus schools, camps and summer programs abroad provide very special ways to learn beyond the classroom—even when the essential experience is itself a classroom experience. The eagerness of young people to affiliate when far away from home is a catalyst to new friendships. Numerous are those whose friendships with foreign children formed in schools, camps or programs abroad have become life-long. Those of us who place young people abroad can tell many such stories. Beyond making new and lasting friendships, dealing in a foreign language in the country where it is spoken is in itself an especially enriching and painless way to learn "experientially", immediately reinforcing what one is learning in language class. But, even without formal language study, it is simply impossible to be in a foreign country and not learn a bit of its language. As Mark Twain, returning from France, quipped, "Paris was wonderful. In Paris even the little children speak French," In fact, in France even the little learning disabled children speak French!

Even when the notably memorable, unexpected, inconvenient or mildly upsetting happens, there can be a very special, serendipitous learning experience for young people in traveling abroad. One learns from a lost luggage experience to carry one’s essentials on to the plane. A stern lecture from an unforgiving tram conductor in Rome or Amsterdam is an unforgettable way to learn to be more observing of differing cultural customs. Occasionally, young people whom I’ve placed in a school or program abroad lose their passports; none has lost a passport twice.

Finally, unique, deeply moving, even life changing learning experiences beyond the classroom predictably occur in the extended, "experiential", immersion opportunities students can have if they take "time out" (as more and more of them appear to be doing) from formal schooling. But that is a subject for another time.