In 2019, I was asked to contribute an essay to Imagine a Country, a non-fiction book edited by Professor Jo Sharp and Val McDermid. The book was a wide-ranging and radical collection of ideas for a better future Scotland, with all proceeds going to various forward-thinking charities. I chose to argue for a massive increase in outdoor learning based on my own experiences of improved mental and physical health through outdoor exercise. That’s also the reason I’m delighted to be taking part in the Venture Round Scotland campaign this September, covering 300,000 steps in the month, supporting a wonderful charity that does invaluable work with young people via their progressive outdoor-based programme.
Imagine a Country is an eye-opening, original and positive read, and I recommend picking up a copy from your local independent bookshop, or the independent book co-op https://uk.bookshop.org/. And you can read my essay below.
As a writer, I’m painfully aware my day job involves sitting on my lazy bum in a dark room staring at a screen. So many of us these days have sedentary lives and it’s very easy to get stuck in that rut, turn into a basic blob. Recently I’ve been trying to snap out of it with regular long walks around the various hills of Edinburgh where I live. The resulting improvement in my mental and physical health has been startling. But I’m pretty lucky, I’m self-employed and flexible, I have my own means of transport, and I’m not in poverty. What about others less fortunate?
This has to start as young as possible. My idea for a future Scotland is to vastly increase funding for access to the outdoors for everyone across the country, and that starts with a massive increase in outdoor learning.
Outdoor learning is nothing new, of course. It’s a very broad term taking in any kind of interaction with the natural world, including adventure activities and sports, but also, you know, a wee walk in the woods. As is the case with many things, the Scandinavians are well ahead of the curve. For decades, countries like Denmark and Finland have had a pervasive culture of so-called ‘forest schools’, in which virtually all learning occurs outdoors. This, in part, stems from a more nature-based society, and startling benefits in both health and education were spotted many years ago when regular exposure to nature was delivered to kids as young as pre-school.
In Scotland, there is already some outdoor learning, but it is restricted, patchy in coverage and, most worryingly, expensive. My two kids both benefited immensely in Primary Seven from attending a week at an outdoor centre in Argyll. It was their first time away from home and while they were both a little nervous, they came back after five days completely transformed. Filling their days with abseiling, gorge walking, kayaking and more had increased their confidence and made them grow as young people. The benefits are not just obvious for physical and mental health, either. Outdoor learning has proven to improve teamwork and social skills, resilience and leadership, all the buzzword guff that the education system requires. It improves society generally and individual people feel better for it.
But it costs. Those trips cost hundreds of pounds, something we were lucky we could afford. And that will be the only time in thirteen years of education they will do something like that.
I would like to see outdoor learning at all levels given a massive increase in funding, and a shift in focus to make it free to all and central to the education experience of every child in a future Scotland. I want regular paid-for trips to outdoor learning centres; outings into nature in schools’ local environments as standard; and improvements to infrastructure to make outdoor learning an everyday experience.
Because it works. Back to those Scandinavians again, currently topping all the happiness, contentedness and wellbeing polls you see in the media, something I believe is at least partly down to a culture of outdoor learning.
Nicola Sturgeon recently gave a TED talk about her desire to shift towards a ‘wellbeing economy’ as opposed to the rather outdated GDP as a measure of a country’s success. I believe increased outdoor learning would be a key building block for Scotland’s future wellbeing.
You can support Doug’s incredible 300,000 step challenge in September, by visiting his JustGiving page.
Or, if you’d like to join Doug you can sign up to Venture Round Scotland, today! Click on the ‘Start Fundraising’ button and find a way to get outdoors this September, doing whatever feels good to you, to benefit your own mental health whilst fundraising to support the mental health of young people in Scotland.