Speaking at the Outward Bound International Conference this past fall, TC Provost and Dean Tom James spoke about the philosophy of the late Outward Bound founder Kurt Hahn. James, who received the wilderness organization's 2016 Kurt Hahn Award for outstanding service to Outward Bound's mission, has written that Hahn believed that "our society could be better than we are; that each of us has more inside than we know; and that experiential education can ignite a passion for learning."

In his remarks, James said that Hahn's life and ideas should not be made "a catechism," but that they held lessons as we consider the future of democracy and the practice of seeking truth. Hahn sought to "locate inside the person the grand passion for the full life that the individual really wants to live." That passion, Hahn believed, can be "channeled upward into working with a  group and learning to sacrifice for others" at increasingly higher levels of service. 

Following introductory remarks, James' speech begins 2:09 in the clip. A question-and-answer session begins at 16:14

Published Monday, Apr 3, 2017