NYC Outward Bound Crew Orientation Blog

Mr. Dorsi’s crew spent their afternoon at the low challenge course.  Their first event at the course is called the nitro crossing.  The crew must use a rope swing to get from one raised platform to another platform.  But wait; everyone must be able to stand on a platform that is 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet.  The folks on the platform must catch the person swinging.  If someone falters and touches the ground while swinging, or loses their balance off the platform, then the whole crew must start over.

While the crew was not successful on the first try, they were able to figure it out together through sharing and listening to each others’ ideas until they got it right.  The same story played out for Mrs. Seraphin, Mr. Kennedy & Ms. Melella and Mr. Mohammed’s crews.  We could hear the cheering of other crews when they had succeeded at their elements, the spiders’ web, the Mohawk Walk and the Giant’s Finger.

Mr. Dorsi brought Henry David Thoreau’s On Walden Pond so that his crew could read passages in honor of our taking retreat from regular school and spending our time in the forest.

I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front the essentials of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…Henry David Thoreau

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