Climbing Lessons - Inside Outdoor Education. Review by Tim Stott, for JAEOL.

Review by Dr Tim Stott, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography and Outdoor Education, Liverpool John Moores University.

From the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning (JAEOL), Vol 2, Issue 1 (2002).

Climbing Lessons: Inside Outdoor Education reviews the author's long career as an outdoor education instructor and 'teacher'. It starts where it ends up, with the author in New Zealand but the early chapters give insights into his early career and the tensions he wrestled with - whether to train to become a surveyor in south east England or to be drawn to the mountains. A common theme keeps recurring, his yearning and love of the mountains, mountain culture and people and above all the physical pursuits of climbing and mountaineering. After analysing this personal dilemma between the draw to the mountains and climbing, and his family's expectation for him to enter a traditional career, he finally gives in and ends up first in Scotland and later in Cumbria. Voluntary instructing work in Scotland, Scottish winter and Alpine peaks and some climbing experience led to his first contract at Howtown Outdoor Education centre where he began to 'learn the tools of the outdoor education trade'. Following his 'formal' training as a maths and outdoor education teacher at Crewe and Alsager he took up his first school teaching appointment as a teacher of maths but it wasn't long until he gained a permanent contract at White Hall, Derbyshire's local education authority's Outdoor Education Centre, arguably one of the UK's foremost and leading outdoor education centres through the 70s and 80s when Pete McDonald worked there.

The rest of the book describes, evaluates and analyses in detail his personal and professional life and work as an outdoor education 'teacher' at White Hall for over 20 years, giving the reader both insights into the details of life in, and the workings of, an outdoor education centre as well as keeping an eye on national trends in outdoor education through that period. As well as bearing a number of serious themes which will be of great interest to anyone involved in a professional way in outdoor education, there is a humorous side to this book which Pete accesses largely through the characters he worked with, climbed with and taught on his outdoor education and climbing courses. These include Drapes and D'Edwards, Bob Brevitt and Victor Gonad, Digby and Plank, Dommo and Druff. Bob Brevitt's driving incident en route to the Dolomites served to remind me of Malky the Alky whose car also had a 'propensity to leave the road' in Mountain Days and Bothy Nights.

Perhaps the main and recurring theme that he consistently keeps coming back to is that of the 'Aims' of outdoor education and of outdoor education centres in particular. At the start of his career aims weren't written anywhere, but then gradually there became a national expectation for centres to have written aims. At White Hall this caused a division of the staff into two camps: the 'old timers' (which included Pete) who valued the outdoor pursuits themselves as physical endeavours with all the 'unwritten' (and largely unquantifiable) benefits which those lovers of the outdoors will acknowledge; then there were the 'new staff arrivals' and the gradual shift in aims towards personal and social development. The author does an excellent job in describing and analysing the tensions which developed over his last 10 years at White Hall, fuelled both by the changes in aims and national trends, and exacerbated by a lack of strong centre management. The outcome of this volatile mix of ingredients keeps the reader in suspense over several chapters until in the end Pete's fuse finally blows, there follows a final written warning for Pete and eventually an inquiry into the running of the centre. In the meantime Pete got on with developing mountain biking to add to the centre's repertoire of activities, following scares concerning radon in the local Derbyshire caves. Though Pete was re-instated in his job, a personal and family decision to emigrate to New Zealand sadly led to Pete's resignation and soon after the Centre Principal's early retirement and White Hall entered a new phase.

This is an excellent book which will appeal to the climber and the lay reader interested in adventure. It also covers a number of important issues for the teacher, for educationalists and sociologists (though Pete makes it clear that he has little time for the latter!) and of course to all those interested and involved in the wide ranging field of outdoor education. It is primarily a serious book which has a humorous undertone which is never far from the surface. To be totally fair in writing this review I should state that although I don't know the author, I should add some personal context. First, I read this book and am writing this review while on a six week holiday in New Zealand (where Pete wrote it), which followed a seven week visiting research fellowship in SE Australia (where Pete spent a year as an exchange teacher). While our paths may have crossed somewhere in either of these countries, they most certainly will have back home. As a liaison tutor for our students on outdoor education teaching practices, I have visited White Hall on several occasions in the late 90s (after Pete had moved on). I am familiar with the centre's location, layout, excellent resources, I have spent days out caving with D'Edwards and have met several of the staff working there at the time. As well as having done some of the climbs Pete mentions, these 'coincidences' will undoubtedly have helped to endear me to this book. Whatever, I thoroughly recommend it.

Thank you to the editor of JAEOL for permission to reproduce Tim Stott's review. You can find details of JAEOL at:
www.outdoor-learning.org/journal/journal.htm