Appleby College - Argus Yearbook (Oakville, Ontario Canada)

Page 121 text:

aid. The course includes one week of practical work at the northern campus. Without a doubt, the instructors that are chosen from the E.R.II course will always be competent and rehable in their duties at the northern campus. Rob Cartotto and Dave Green I i«2v«n iii|i

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E. R. II The role of the instructor in the Northward Bound programme is very frequently neglected; few people realize how important the instructor really is to the smooth operation of the course. In camp, it is the instructor ' s job to see that nothing goes wrong. He must see that the meals are prepared, that they get to bed each night safely after a hard day ' s work, and that they get up each morning and run. Out of camp, on a trip, all you have, is the in- structor, his patrol, and the wilderness. The in- structor is completely responsible for the safety and well-being of six or seven young men; their lives are in his hands. But in addition to this, the instructor must teach the members of his patrol the basics of wilderness survival, canoeing, water safety, wilderness navigation and elementary first aid. Therefore, the instructors that are to face such immense responsibility must be carefully selected and trained to meet the vigorous requirements of a northern leader. This is what E.R. II is all about. After the boys in grade ten complete their course, some of them volunteer to go on with the E.R., and from this group, fourteen to sixteen boys are chosen to take E.R. II with the probabihty that some of them will be in- structors in the north. While Mr. O ' Leary preaches the basic elements of ecology. Knobby and Mr. Stuart instruct us in the fundamentals of survival, decision-making, and first -vyA.

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E. R. Ill IN PRAISE OF SENflOR INSTRUCTORS The culmination of our Northern programme is in the final selection of the nine boys who will take on the responsibility of instructing at our Northern campus. An additional 5 to 8 boys are also selected to teach the pre-North schedule at the main campus. These students come from a group who have taken ER I and II in the expectation of being able to assist at our Northern Campus. Not only are these boys responsible for carrying out a rigorous and demanding schedule in the north for a total period of five weeks but must also meet their academic and athletic obligations on the Main Campus. In doing so the challenge is immense and the contribution to the life of the College great. The instructor is the first up in the morning with the Director and is usually the last to be in bed after a long day. When away Tripping from the base camp, which is most of the time, the instructor is totally responsible for the welfare, safety and leadership of his patrol. The instructors are given the outline of what they must complete in the short, two, two-week sessions; it is then their responsibility to develop their own method of how it will be done and, at the same time, integrate all three patrols ' activities suc- cessfully. Considering that the majority of the in- structors are, on the average, 17.6 years of age and the boys they are leading are at the difficult age of 15.6, the above task is far from easy. It is an all-time consuming and exhausting activity. Needless to say, the ultimate benefit to these in- structors is great. The Lord Bishop of Peterborough, in a debate in the British House of Lords stated; A child grows into a man when he learns and is en- couraged to accept the consequences of his own -v ,-jfrn,- -iH . ' 1 ' Z