Question+3-+Intervention


 * 3. Evaluation Criterion:** **The project is directly related to one (or more) of the four identified ILF themes.

Explain, within 300-400 words for tier 1 or 600-700 words for tiers 2 and 3, how your project meets this criterion.** *

Intervention of Students Students of all academic and socioeconomic backgrounds need to experience risk, challenge, and learn that failure leads to success. Many in the literature have pointed to the idea that the lack of challenge, risk, and indeed adrenaline has lead many of our youth down an unhealthy path. Many who do not have the warrior facet of their personality stimulated adequately will find ways to fulfill that need. Alternative avenues that students find include fast driving, substance abuse, risky sexual activity, jumping off bridges at parties, basement tournaments of Ultimate Fighter Challenge and partying beside a waterfall. Indeed, risk taking and fighting for principals are required characteristics of a mature individual, but when do they get to practice how to handle the fear that accompanies mature risk taking such as starting a new business, taking actions for the sake of a healthy permanent relationship despite risk to one’s own ego?

An adventure center would provide a place and format to safely experience risk taking, adrenaline, fear, conflict, and self doubt followed by perseverance and self confidence. This type of program has received much publicity as to its positive contributions to the motivation, social skills, communication, and self perception of young adults, no matter what their personal backgrounds might be. This project will give an introduction to adventure for all students who sign up for Outdoor Pursuits in District #2 as well as an opportunity for follow up for those students who become inspired and find that adventure is their passion. As teachers we have all met students who, after even a short period of time of being exposed to these types of activities, have shown marked improvement in many areas of their lives.

Many of the problems that students have who are "at risk" believe that their own happiness is what is important because perhaps they have had little in their lives. This pushes them towards selfishness and a single egocentric perspective. What they often fail to recognize is that the well being of the group is a benefit to themselves, but “Group Harmony is seldom achieved without Personal Sacrifice”.(Outdoor pursuits Curriculum document, pg 15.) The activities and debriefs are designed specifically to address these types of issues.

Other perspectives that plague our students is the idea that their plight is predestined and that nothing they do will help. They have tried various strategies which were judged to be ineffective because of a lack in immediate success. Two of the first three paragraphs of the Outdoor Puruits curriculum document speaks of forming new personal limits by presenting challenges that are eventually overcome. We want students to experience concrete examples where hard work does pay off and that they do have control over their own destiny. These are important realizations in the development of mature and contributing members of society who eventually become leaders.

At this point in time, we are focused on using the facility for the outdoor puruits classes which seem to be self filtering for students who need such activities. In the future, it is absolutely our intent to provide an outdoor leadership course for those students who are excelling in this area as well as a program to specifically address social and personal issues of at-risk students through adventure programming.


 * IS THERE SNYONE WE CAN INDICATE WE HAVE SPOKEN TO ABOUT GETTING A PROGRAM IN PLACE FOR AT RISK KIDS?? ALLEN MARR??**