In our second ScotsIdeas event for 2019, we welcomed international adventurer Adrian Hayes to tell the story of his recent attempts to climb the world’s second highest mountain. Hayes’ resume of adventures across the globe is formidable, including trekking to the South and North poles, crossing the Arabian desert by camel, traversing the length of Greenland by kite-ski, and climbing Mt Everest! Notwithstanding this amazing achievements, Hayes described to our keen audience of parents, staff and boys that climbing K2 is a level beyond even it’s taller counterpart, with few ascents and a deadly statistic of one in four K2 climbers not returning alive. The unrelenting steep angle of the mountain, technical rock and ice climbing, lack of flat ground for siting tents, and deep snow conditions turned back Hayes’ first expedition, however he prevailed the following year and managed to both reach the summit and return alive.
Hayes also discussed the motivation for people to undertake adventures, and suggested that we need to be honest with ourselves and others about how we search for significance through our activities. He drew a parallel to our society’s obsession with projecting a desired image through social media, and through gaining value through the display of material possessions.
A panel of Scots staff helped to connect Hayes’ extreme adventures with adventure in the life of a Scots boy. Kym Mcmaster (Coordinator of Experiential Education) explained how adventure fits into the Brave Hearts, Bold Minds philosophy of education at Scots, and is embodied in our Experiential Education approach of ‘learning through doing’. Jeff Grundy (Director of Glengarry) talked about the essential elements of adventure in the Glengarry program, and how this ‘scripted adventure’ prepares young men for adventure in the world. Former Scots staff member and doctoral researcher at ACU, Matthew Pfeiffer, described his research showed that adventurous experiences at Glengarry developed important life skills such as self concept, internal locus of control and resilience.
Stay tuned for further exciting opportunities to be involved in shaping the future of education in Australia through bold, new approaches to imagining learning at Scots. If you missed the presentation, you can soon view this and all past ScotsIdeas events at scotsresearch.org/scotsideas.
Jeff Mann
Coordinator of Student Experience