Physical training:

• It was intended to counteract the deterioration of physical fitness and to develop and improve physical skills. The good physical condition was necessary as a basis for expeditions and rescue services. Athletic exercises and a variety of nature sports (water sports or snow sports, depending on the area) should also give weaker participants a sense of achievement.

Expedition:

• Here, in addition to increasing physical performance, the youthful urge to explore should also be satisfied. In one-day or multi-day tours on foot, by bicycle, canoe or sailing boat, young people – alone or in a group – should have original experiences and discover and expand their skills.

Projects:

• They should make intellectual, craft or artistic demands on young people and involve “head, heart and hand.” A high degree of independence should contribute to self-discovery. Effort and strain were inevitable, as were care and responsibility, to achieve the goal.

Community Service/Rescue Services:

• They served as a measure against the lack of human sympathy and were firmly integrated into the educational program of the schools (Salem!) and short schools.

Self-breeding:

• Later, this fifth element was added to the concept. This means abstaining from alcohol, nicotine and other drugs.
  With these elements of “experiential therapy,” which were interlocked with each other, Hahn wanted to counteract the deficits of the public school system and enable the young people to develop their personalities in a holistic way. For their realization, he used the educational effect of the Salem country boarding school (Gymnasialinternat), which he had founded.
  *(Cf. Ruth Merk: Klassenzimmer unter Segeln, p. 21ff, Czwalina Verlag Hamburg 2006)
  More information about the history of Outward Bound can also be found on the Outward Bound International page

The elements of experiential therapy
“then” and “now” projects then

These should make intellectual, craft or artistic demands on the young people, involving “head, heart and hand.” A high degree of independence should contribute to self-discovery. Effort and strain were inevitable, as were care and responsibility, to achieve the goals.

Projects today

Within the framework of projects, tasks chosen by the participants themselves will be solved together with care, patience and perseverance. Here, too, process and result form a unity of action that is reflected upon self-critically. On the class trip itself, there is the opportunity to teach tools for independent project work, e.g. communication rules for solving problems.

Training then

This was to develop and improve fitness and physical skills to counteract the deterioration of physical fitness. The good physical condition was necessary as a basis for expeditions and rescue service. Athletic exercises and a variety of nature sports (water or mountain sports, depending on the area) should also give weaker participants a sense of achievement.

Trainings today

Physical training is about improving general fitness, while increasing sensitivity to the importance of health and physical and mental well-being via new bodily experiences and a more conscious awareness of the body. This does not only include information about the dangers of wrong nutrition and addiction problems (cognitive), but also a practiced response to the natural needs (sensitive, motoric, emotional) of the human being. In practice, experiential education programs create a framework in which participants tackle challenges together to strengthen their stamina. This means facing situations that require overcoming and approaching them with moderation and thoughtfulness. Excessive demands lead to fatigue, and in the worst case to self-endangerment or endangerment of the group. Too fast a pace or the temptation to want to achieve too much at the same time or too quickly jeopardizes achieving set goals Realistic self-assessment of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of other group members are prerequisites for avoiding these dangers. In order to learn this self-assessment, it requires a variety of experiences in which each individual – controlled and secured – feels the limits at which excessive demands begin.

Expedition at that time

In addition to increasing physical performance, the youthful urge to explore should also be satisfied and encouraged. In one-day or multi-day tours on foot, by bicycle, canoe or sailing boat, young people – alone or in a group – should have original experiences and discover and expand their skills.

Expeditions today

The expedition means the actual going out into the (surrounding) world, whereby both the process and the result of this going up and out are significant. For children and young people, the expedition should always be a task of challenging and serious nature, the solution of which depends on the individual member and the whole group. In the end, it is not the overcoming of distances that counts, but the “getting to know something for oneself”. The expedition offers the opportunity to practice humanity through the situation of being interdependent. The closeness, wishes and needs of each individual must be respected in order to generate good success in the group. It is important to be mindful not only in our dealings with each other, but also with the environment. Thus, reactions to the actions of others can be explored in the same way that their reaction to one’s own actions is perceived. A mutual appreciation is created by communicating these effects to each other.
In the case of the mountain tour, this not only means planning such an undertaking independently, but also taking care of each other, such as making the hiking pace suitable for everyone, or taking a break to drink when necessary.

Rescue services at that time

They served as a measure against the lack of human sympathy and were firmly integrated into the educational program of schools (for example: Schule Schloss Salem) and short schools.

Rescue service today

The rescue service used to refer very much to corresponding fields of activity (e.g. first aid, firefighting, mountain and sea rescue). Since these services have been professionalized to such an extent that children and young people hardly have a chance to be effectively deployed there, ecologically oriented tasks are increasingly given their comparable status here and can acquire practical significance – not least in connection with the project.