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15 SEPTEMBER 2010
NO 1628
Kurt Hahn
K urt Hahn is renowned as the founder of adventure education and the Outward Bound movement. Hahn studied both in his native Germany and in England and made powerful political connections, but never earned advanced degrees. Having suffered a disability at eighteen, Hahn built a career as headmaster of schools that challenged both mind and body seeking to instill a spirit of tenacity and compassion in his students. After World War l, Hahn founded a Salem school in a castle on Lake Constance in Germany. Salem means "peace" and Hahn was outspoken in his resistance to the rise of Hitler. lmprisoned by the Nazi’s, he was released by intervention from the highest levels in the British government. Hahn moved to Scotland where he founded another school, Gordonston, which became the beacon of the adventure education movement. At his death, the London Times declared that "no one else in our day has created more original educational ideas and, at the same time, possessed the gift of getting them into practice." His schools combined challenging outdoor activities, service to the community, and academic excellence. Following is a flavor of his philosophy of education as laid down in "The Seven Laws of Salem"
First law
Opportunities for self discovery.
Every girl and boy has a grande passion, often hidden and
unrealized to the end of life. The educator cannot hope and may not try to
find it out by psychoanalytical methods. It can and will be revealed by the
child coming in close touch with a number of different activities. When a
child has come into his own, one will often hear a shout of joy or be
thrilled by some other manifestation of primitive happiness. But these
activities must not be added as a superstructure to an exhausting program of
lessons. They will have no chance of absorbing and bringing out the child
unless they form a vital part of the day’s work. The wholesome passion once
discovered grows to be the guardian angel of the years of adolescence, while
the undiscovered and unprotected boy rarely maintains his vitality unbroken
and undiluted from ages 11 to 15. We do not hesitate to say: often the
spiritual difference in age between a boy of 15 and a boy of 11 is greater
than of a man of 50 and a boy of 16.
Second law
Meeting triumph and defeat.
Let them learn to treat these two impostors just the same. It is possible to
wait on a child’s inclinations and gifts and to arrange carefully for an
unbroken series of successes. You may make him happy this way — I would
doubt it — but you certainly may disqualify him for the battle of life.
Salem believes you ought to discover the child’s weakness as well as his
strength. Allow him to engage in enterprises in which he is likely to fail,
and do not hush up his failure. Teach him to overcome defeat. "To him that
overcomes, I will give the right to eat of the tree of life." (Revelation
2:7)
Third law
Servicing in the common cause.
Even the younger children ought to undertake tasks which are of
definite importance for the community. Tell them from the start that you
want a crew, not passengers, on the thrilling voyage through the New Country
School. Let the responsible boys and girls shoulder duties big enough, when
negligently performed, to wreck the school state.
Fourth law
Periods of silence.
Follow the great precedent of the Quakers. Unless the present-day
generation acquires early habits of quiet and reflection, it will be
speedily and prematurely used up by the nerve exhausting and distracting
civilization of today.
Fifth law
Activating the imagination.
You must call it into action, otherwise it becomes atrophied like a
muscle not in use. The power to resist the pressing stimulus of the hour and
the moment cannot be acquired in later life; it often depends on the ability
to visualize what you plan and hope and fear for the future. Self-indulgence
is in many cases due to lack of vision. Whoever fails to look ahead finds
grief near at hand.
Sixth law
Keeping sports in perspective.
Athletics do not suffer by being put in their place. In fact, you
restore the dignity of the usurper by dethroning him.
Seventh law
Free the offspring of the wealthy and powerful from the nerve-racking
sense of privilege.
Decadence is not always an unavoidable decree of nature, more often it
is a willful waste of a splendid heritage. The "poor" rich girls and boys
wholly thrown into each other’s company are not given a chance of growing
into men and women who can overcome challenge. Let them share the
experiences of an enthralling school life with sons and daughters of those
who have to struggle for their existence. No school can build up a tradition
of self-discipline and vigorous but joyous endeavor unless at least 30
percent of the children come from homes where life is not only simple but
also hard.
KURT HAHN
(2007). Students explore their grande passion. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 16, 1. pp. 7-8.
