Education: Character, the Hard Way

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Great things are done when men and mountains meet; This is not done by jostling in the street. —William Blake

Out of a bus in tiny Marble, Colo., (pop. 5) stepped 44 boys from slums and suburbs in 15 states. There they stood awed and silent. All around were 14,000-ft. mountains covered with snow, aspen, blue spruce and Douglas fir; in the craggy heights roamed elk, bear and mountain sheep. The boys could tell it was no place for softies as they started trudging up the steep, three-mile road to a campsite high above the Crystal River Valley. Under the deep blue sky waited tents, blazing alpine meadows and leathery-faced instructors. "I hope you will enjoy your stay here," declared one instructor tersely, "but enjoyment will be a byproduct."

Last week the lads at the first Outward Bound School in the Western Hemisphere were extracting what enjoyment they could from a dawn-to-dusk schedule of running, rope climbing, weightlifting, marathon hiking, survival camping, and icy dips in mountain streams. It was a 26-day test of spirit, stamina and sacrifice, aimed at finding the kind of challenge that would be William James's "moral equivalent of war."

Sea & Life. Outward Bound is a cold-shower-like British idea, begun in 1941 by Founder Kurt Hahn of Scotland's rugged Gordonstoun School* (TIME, Nov. 14, 1960) and London Shipping Magnate Lawrence Holt, who were alarmed at the number of seamen lost in World War II because they did not know how to cope with emergencies. Hahn and Holt started a rigorous sea-rescue school in Wales, saw it as an analogy between being "outward bound to sea" and "outward bound to life." A British trust has since sponsored 13 Outward Bound schools in Britain, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

The Colorado school, 14th in the world, was promoted by F. Charles Froelicher, 35, founder of Denver's Colorado Academy, and the only headmaster with an earned reputation for doing an Eskimo roll in a kayak . Director of the new school is William McK. Chapman, 56, a onetime newsman and schoolmaster. Chief Instructor is Ernest Tapley, 37, a veteran teacher of Army mountain troops in Colorado. The school has noted backers, including former Secretary of State Christian Herter, Headmaster John M. Kemper of Phillips Academy, and President Henry P. Van Dusen of Union Theological Seminary.

Mountains & Muscle. By design, Colorado's Outward Bounders are a mixed lot. Aged 15 to 21, they range from prep school boys whose parents are delighted to pay the $300 fee to underprivileged Negroes sponsored by the Boys Club of New York. Boys of similar brawn and background are separated and formed into four mixed "patrols," fittingly named Carson, Crockett, Bridger and Boone, which compete against each other. Since the key to success is teamwork, every new test prods the strong to help the weak, and the weak to push themselves to their limit.