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From ‘character‐training’ to ‘personal growth’: the early history of Outward Bound 1941–1965

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0046760x.2010.507223

1464-5130

Mark Freeman,

Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy

Abstract This article examines the approach to 'character training' in the early years of the Outward Bound movement in Britain between c.1940 and c.1965. It examines the key components of the concept of 'character‐training' promoted in the Outward Bound schools by Kurt Hahn and his early followers, and some of the criticisms to which the four‐week courses were subjected. It goes on to examine the reassessment of the rhetoric and practices of Outward Bound that took place in the 1960s, and argues that the changes that took place were the outcome of a more sceptical approach to 'character‐training' on the part of a younger generation of Outward Bound leaders. Although these changes were contested and incomplete, they reflected developments in other areas of British life in this period, such as the probation service. They resulted in the replacement of the language of 'character‐training' with an agenda of 'personal growth' and 'self‐discovery'. Keywords: character educationleadershipOutward Boundoutdoor educationKurt Hahn Acknowledgements The author is grateful to David Monger for research assistance during the preparation of this article, and to Kate Bradley for helpful comments on an earlier draft. A version was presented at the University of Greenwich Avery Hill campus seminar series in May 2009. Notes 1James Arthur, Education with Character: The Moral Economy of Schooling (London: Routledge, 2003), 25; Andrew Peterson, 'Education for Active Citizenship and the 14–19 Curriculum: Essential Issues and the Implications for the Initial Teacher Education of Citizenship Teachers', International Journal of Citizenship and Teacher Education, Conference July 2005 – Proceedings: http://www.citized.info/pdf/ejournal/conf_2005/008.pdf (accessed May 22, 2009). 2 Journal of Research in Character Education; Journal of Character Education; Journal of College and Character. See Peter Smagorinsky and Joel Taxel, The Discourse of Character Education: Culture Wars in the Classroom (Mahwah, NJ and London: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005), 21–2. 3Smagorinsky and Taxel, Discourse of Character Education, 25–6; Clifford Putney, Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America 1880–1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001). 4For a review of this literature, see John J. MacAloon, 'Introduction: Muscular Christianity after 150 Years', International Journal of the History of Sport 23 (2006): 687–700. On youth organisations, see for example Martin J. Dedman, 'Baden‐Powell, Militarism and the "Invisible Contributors" to the Boy Scout Scheme 1904–1920', Twentieth Century British History 4 (1993): 201–23; Michael Rosenthal, The Character Factory: Baden‐Powell's Boy Scouts and the Imperatives of Empire (New York: Pantheon, 1986); David I. Macleod, Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA and Their Forerunners 1870–1920 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983). 5Stefan Collini, 'The Idea of "Character" in Victorian Political Thought', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th series 35 (1985): 31. 6Nathan Roberts, 'Character in the Mind: Citizenship, Education and Psychology in Britain 1880–1914', History of Education 33 (2004): 177–97, esp. 191–2. 7For a recent exception, see Fiona Skillen, '"A Sound System of Physical Training": The Development of Girls' Physical Education in Interwar Scotland', History of Education 38 (2009): 410–11. 8Heather A. Warren, 'The Shift from Character to Personality in Mainline Protestant Thought, 1935–1945', Church History 67 (1998): 538–9. For an example of American character research in the 1920s see H. Hartshorne and M.A. May, Studies in the Nature of Character, 2 vols (New York: Macmillan, 1928). 9Arthur, Education with Character, 20–1. 10Lynn Cook, 'The 1944 Education Act and Outdoor Education: From Policy to Practice', History of Education 28 (1999): 172. 11Arthur, Education with Character, 21. 12'The Outward Bound Schools: Character Training through Adventure' [1959]: Cambridge University Library (CUL), Add. 8270/26/45. 13Arthur, Education with Character, 25. 14For one aspect of the religious history of Outward Bound, see the recent short discussion in Mark Freeman, 'Muscular Quakerism? The Society of Friends and Youth Organisations in Britain c.1900–1950', English Historical Review 125 (2010): 663–6. 15Abigail Wills, 'Delinquency, Masculinity and Citizenship in England 1950–1970', Past and Present 187 (2005): 159–60, 177–8. 16Ibid., 159; Arthur, Education with Character, 25. 17Adam Arnold‐Brown, Unfolding Character: The Impact of Gordonstoun (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962): chapters 6–7; J.M. Hogan, Impelled into Experiences: The Story of the Outward Bound Schools (Wakefield: Educational Productions, 1968); David James, ed., Outward Bound (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957). 18Basil Fletcher, The Challenge of Outward Bound (London: Heinemann, 1971); Kenneth Roberts, Graham E. White and Howard J. Parker, The Character‐Training Industry: Adventure Training Schemes in Britain (Newton Abbot: David & Charles): 8; David Hopkins and Roger Putnam, Personal Growth through Adventure (London: David Fulton, 1993). 19See Arnold‐Brown, Unfolding Character, chapters 1–2; H. Röhrs and H. Tunstall‐Behrens, eds, Kurt Hahn (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970 [1st German ed. 1966]); Martin Flavin, Kurt Hahn's Schools and Legacy: To Discover You Can Be More and Do More than You Believed (Wilmington, DE: Middle Atlantic Press, 1996). 20Matthew Millikan, 'The Muscular Christian Ethos in Post‐Second World War American Liberalism: Women in Outward Bound 1962–1975', International Journal of the History of Sport 23 (2006): 838–55. 21Brian Heathcote, 'Development of Character in Seafaring Apprentices and in Business', in Young Men in Industry and Commerce: Modern Tendencies in Character Training (Hull: Assocation for Education in Industry and Commerce, 1930), 19–28; Cook, '1944 Education Act', 163. 22Kurt Hahn, 'Origins of the Outward Bound Trust', in James, Outward Bound, 14–15. 23'The Outward Bound Sea School, Aberdovey, Merionethshire: An Enterprise of the Outward Bound Trust': CUL, Add. 8270/26/39. Emphasis in the original. 24Appeal letter, November 1951: CUL, Add. 8270/26/22. 25Shipton left because of the unsatisfactory conduct of his personal life. See Eric Shipton, That Untravelled World: An Autobiography (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1969), 215–16. 26Arnold‐Brown, Unfolding Character, 151. 27 The Times, April 28, 1960: 8; Outward Bound Trust, annual report (OBTAR), 1964. The annual reports are in CUL, Add. 8270/22. They do not have page numbers. 28Hilary Tunstall‐Behrens, 'Outward Bound Overseas', in James, Outward Bound, 108–36; OBTAR, 1953. 29Flavin, Kurt Hahn's Schools, 28–9. 30Renate Wilson, Inside Outward Bound (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1981), 83. 31For an example of the latter, see 'The Effects of Outward Bound Training', July 12, 1961, 5: Cumbria Record Office, Whitehaven (CROW), YDSO 41/8/16. 32Draft letter to public school headmasters [February 1950]: CUL, Add. 8270/4/16(iii). 33'"And Not to Yield": A Story of Character Training through Adventure', broadcast recorded March 4, 1953, 1–2: CROW, YDSO 41/9/8; Wilson, Inside Outward Bound, 83; Outward Bound Trust, Bulletin, April 1956, 7. The copies of the Bulletin cited in this article are in CUL, Add. 8270/23. 34Spencer Summers, 'The History of the Trust', in James, Outward Bound, 31–2; 'Adventure for Character Development', leaflet advertising Devon Outward Bound School: CUL, Add. 8270/26/29. 35Liverpool Outward Bound Schools Association (LOBSA) minutes, March 19, 1964: Merseyside Record Office (MRO), M361/OBS. 36Summers, 'History', 28. 37Cook, '1944 Education Act', 161–2, 169. 38See Rosenthal, Character Factory; Harry Hendrick, Images of Youth: Age, Class and the Male Youth Problem 1880–1920 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990). 39Rea to Arnold‐Brown, May 7, 1953, CUL, Add. 8270/12/90(i). 40 Meccano Magazine, February 1952: 52, cutting in CUL, Add. 8270/25/12(i). 41Sue Winton, 'The Appeal(s) of Character Education in Threatening Times: Caring and Critical Democratic Approaches', Comparative Education 44 (2008): 305. 42Cook, '1944 Education Act', 163, 158 and passim. 43See John Welshman, Underclass: A History of the Excluded 1880–2000 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006), chapter 4; Wills, 'Delinquency'; David Smith, 'Official Responses to Juvenile Delinquency in Scotland during the Second World War', Twentieth Century British History 18 (2007): 78–105. 44Wills, 'Delinquency', 172; The Times, April 24, 1958, 4. 45Russell Lavers, 'Outward Bound', British Weekly, January 1, 1953, press cutting in CUL, Add. 8270/25/20. 46Summers, 'History', 29. 47Kurt Hahn, The Young and the Outcome of the War: The Essex Hall Lecture 1965 (London: Lindsey Press, 1965), 20; Flavin, Kurt Hahn's Schools, 34–5; Hahn, 'Origins', 10; Kurt Hahn, address to Harrogate conference, bound with Harrogate Conference Report (see note 114 below). There were either five or six declines, depending on how Hahn categorised them. 48H. Stewart Mackintosh, 'Character Training and the Contribution Made by Outward Bound', in James, Outward Bound, 157–8; Spencer Summers, 'Memorandum on the Influences Affecting Young People', March 19, 1954: 2: CROW, YDSO 41/8/7. 49Arnold‐Brown, 'Talk on Outward Bound to Staff of Department of Education', December 1959: CUL, Add. 8270/21/25. 50See Andrzej Olechnowicz, 'Unemployed Workers, "Enforced Leisure" and Education for "the Right Use of Leisure" in Britain in the 1930s', Labour History Review 70 (2005): 27–52. 51'"And Not to Yield"', 1–2: CROW, YDSO 41/9/8. 52B. Seebohm Rowntree and G.R. Lavers, English Life and Leisure: A Social Study (London: Longmans, Green, 1951), 336. See Mark Freeman, '"Britain's Spiritual Life: How Can It Be Deepened?": Seebohm Rowntree, Russell Lavers and the "Crisis of Belief" c.1946–54', Journal of Religious History 29 (2005): 25–42. 53Wills, 'Delinquency', 175–6. 54Gary McCulloch, Philosophers and Kings: Education for Leadership in Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 22. 55 The Times, November 13, 1948: 5. 56Outward Bound Sea School prospectus, 1949: CUL, Add. 8270/26/6. 60'The Outward Bound Schools: Character‐Training Through Adventure': CUL Add. 8270/26/45. 57Letter from unknown correspondent, January 1951: CUL, Add. 8270/1/35(i). 58Tom Price, 'Points to Cover', n.d. but enclosed with Price to Williamson, May 31, 1963: CROW, YDSO 41/8/11. 59Letter from unknown correspondent, January 1951; Bulletin, November 1952, 6; P. Carpenter, 'The Outward Bound Schools: A Scheme for the Development and Assessment of Character: Abstract', 2–3: CROW YDSO 41/9/8. 61 Bulletin, July 1953, 3. 62Arnold‐Brown to Hogg, May 20, 1960: CUL, Add. 8270/21/30; 'The Effects of Outward Bound Training', July 12, 1961, 1–3, 10: CROW, YDSO 41/8/16; Summers, 'History of the Trust', 46. 63Cook, '1944 Education Act', 169, 171. 64Wills, 'Delinquency', 168, 178–9. See also Skillen, '"Sound System"', 410–11. 65P.D. Maud, memorandum explaining badge system, February 1953: CUL, Add. 8270/11/25(i); Hogan, Impelled into Experiences, 99–101; Summers, 'History', 37. 66McCulloch, Philosophers and Kings, 36. 67Roberts et al., Character‐Training Industry, 15, 69. 68Tom Price, 'Some Aspects of Character‐Building', in Röhrs and Tunstall‐Behrens, Kurt Hahn, 88. 69 Bulletin, April 1956, 7. 70Letter from unknown correspondent, January 1951: CUL, Add. 8270/1/35(i). 71OBTAR, 1957. 72 Bulletin, July 1959, 8. 73Additional report on X.Y.: CUL, Add. 8270/12/87(ii). 74Millikan, 'Muscular Christian Ethos', 847–8. 75'Self‐Discovery through the Outward Bound Sea School', 1949: CUL, Add. 8270/26/2(i). 76See Millikan, 'Muscular Christian Ethos', 847–8. 77Arnold‐Brown, Unfolding Character. Cf. Price, 'Some Aspects', 87: Price preferred the phrases 'character‐building' and 'character‐development' to 'character‐training'. 78 Bulletin, January 1953, 7. 79Hopkins and Putnam, Personal Growth, 30. 80William James, The Moral Equivalent of War and Other Essays (New York, 1971), 3–16. See 'A Memorandum by Kurt Hahn, New York, May 1948', 7–8: British Library (BL), Wq5/3551 DSC. For a recent discussion, see Lodewijk van Oord, 'Kurt Hahn's Moral Equivalent of War', Oxford Review of Education 36 (2010): 253–65. 81Summers, 'History', 25–6; draft prospectus, n.d.: CUL, Add. 8270/1/9; Fletcher, Challenge of Outward Bound, 14. 82Ronald Goldman, 'Adventure and Responsibility', Educational Review 10 (1958): 199–202; The Times, July 21, 1953, 7. 83 The Times, May 8, 1965, 9. See also Flavin, Kurt Hahn's Schools, 33. 84Price, 'Some Aspects', 90; Goldman, 'Adventure and Responsibility', 205. 85Notes on end‐of‐course talk, August 1951: CUL Add. 8270/11/14. 86Notes for 'Talk on Outward Bound to Staff of Dept of Education', 1959: CUL Add. 8270/21/25. 87Spencer Summers, 'Training for Leadership at the Outward Bound Sea School, Aberdovey', press cutting, 1948: CUL, Add. 8270/25/1(i). See also Fletcher, Challenge of Outward Bound, v–vi. 88G.R. Lavers, 'Note on Visit to Outward Bound Sea School,' January 20, 1947: Borthwick Institute, University of York, B.S. Rowntree papers, LTE/64; Bulletin, June 1952, 5. 89Eskdale governors' minutes, July 10, 1953: CROW, YDSO 41/1/1; see below, 36. 90 Bulletin, January 1953, 4. 91Eastbourne conference, October 1949, 'Session 4: Follow‐Up: Remarks by Peter Rowntree': CUL, Add. 8270/24/7(i); LOBSA minutes, November 24, 1959, February 19, 1951; Arnold‐Brown, Unfolding Character, 136–7; notes for boys at end of course, n.d. [1952?]: CUL, Add. 8270/26/29(i). 92Francis F. Powers, Character Training (New York: A.S. Barnes, 1932), chapter 11; Hartshorne and May, Studies in the Nature of Character. 93Smagorinsky and Taxel, Discourse of Character Education, 58–9, 214ff. The quotation is from P. Nickell and S.L. Field, 'Elementary Character Education: Local Perspectives, Echoed Voices', International Journal of Social Education 16, no. 1 (2001): 2. 94Hopkins and Putnam, Personal Growth, 55. 95Fletcher, Challenge of Outward Bound; Basil Fletcher, Students of Outward Bound Schools in Great Britain: A Follow‐Up Study (Bristol: University of Bristol School of Education, 1970). 96Roberts et al., Character Training Industry, 19–20. 97Ibid., 130–2. Roberts et al. examined a number of courses, not just Outward Bound. 98 The Times, July 16, 1953, 7; July 21, 1953, 7. See also Freeman, '"Britain's Spiritual Life"', 40–1. 99Summers, 'History', 21. 100Fletcher, Students of Outward Bound Schools, 67; Arnold‐Brown to Hogg, May 20, 1960: CUL, Add. 8270/21/30. 101'The Outward Bound Schools: Character Training through Adventure'. 102Press cutting, n.d. [1960]: CUL, Add. 8270/21/31(ii); The Times, May 17, 1960, 15. 103Hogg to Arnold‐Brown, May 19, 1960: CUL, Add. 8270/21/29. 104Arnold‐Brown to Hogg, May 20, 1960: CUL, Add. 8270/21/30. 105See for example James Hemming, 'Some Aspects of Moral Development in a Changing Society', British Journal of Educational Psychology 27 (1957): 77–88. 106Wills, 'Delinquency', 169, 177–81, 184. 107Philip Whitehead and Roger Statham, The History of Probation: Politics, Power and Cultural Change 1876–2005 (Crayford: Shaw & Sons, 2006), 40–7. 108Ibid., 161–2; Longland to Arnold‐Brown, June 13, 1953: CUL, Add. 8270/21/2. 109Eskdale governors' minute book, November 19, 1953: CROW, YDSO 41/1/1; Hogan, Impelled into Experiences, 98–9. 110Hogan, Impelled into Experiences, 99–104. 111Hahn, 'Origins', 15. 112Wills, 'Delinquency', 159–60. 113Millikan, 'Muscular Christian Ethos', 850. 114 Outward Bound in the 60s & 70s: A Report on the Conference Held at Harrogate on May 8th and 9th 1965 (no place, publisher or date given; hereafter Harrogate Conference Report): 11: BL, qL71/282 DSC. 115OBTAR, 1964. 116LOBSA minutes, November 23, 1956; Bulletin, January 1953, 4. 117 Bulletin, July 1959, 5. 118 Harrogate Conference Report, 5. For the unfavourable publicity, see The Times, May 8, 1965, 9. 122Ibid., 6. 119 Harrogate Conference Report, 5–6. 120Ibid., 6. 121Ibid., 3. 123Ibid., 17. 128Price, 'Some Aspects', 86. 124Ibid., 5, 4. 125Ibid., 17, 4. 126Kurt Hahn, address to Harrogate conference. 127 Harrogate Conference Report, 12. 129Ibid., 87, 89. 130McCulloch, Philosophers and Kings, 6. 131 Harrogate Conference Report, 17. Emphasis in the original. 132Tom Price, 'General Points', n.d. but enclosed with Price to Stanbury, November 29, 1965: CROW, YDSO 41/8/16. Emphasis added. 133Alec Clegg, address to Harrogate conference, bound with Harrogate Conference Report. 134Lynn Cook and others, Bewerley Park: From Camp School to Outdoor Centre (Harrogate: Friends of Bewerley Park Centre, 2002), 69. 135Roberts et al., Character‐Training Industry, 15. 136 Harrogate Conference Report, 7, 9. 137J. Parsons, address to Harrogate conference, bound with Harrogate Conference Report. 138 Harrogate Conference Report, 9. 139Parsons, address to Harrogate conference; Harrogate Conference Report, 7. 140 The Times, May 8, 1965: 9. 141Fletcher, Challenge of Outward Bound, 135–8. 142Wilson, Inside Outward Bound, 161. 143Ibid., 105. 144 Harrogate Conference Report: 9. Emphasis added. 145The period saw the beginnings of some experimental courses, particularly the 'City Challenge', which took Outward Bound away from its nautical and mountain settings, but it was only from the 1970s that significant changes took place in the length of courses and the type of trainees that participated. See Wilson, Inside Outward Bound, 31–2; Hogan, Impelled into Experiences, 113–14. 146Roberts et al., Character‐Training Industry, 12. 147 The Times, May 8, 1965, 9. 148Roberts, 'Character in the Mind'. 149Wills, 'Delinquency', 167. 150Ibid., 172. For an example, see Times, October 18, 1962, 8. 151 The Times, May 8, 1965, 9. 152Longland to Arnold‐Brown, June 13, 1953: CUL, Add. 8270/21/2. 153Roberts et al., Character Training Industry; Hopkins and Putnam, Personal Growth. 154Warren, 'Shift from Character to Personality'.