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IF ONLY I HAD KNOWN…

There are some things I regret not doing in all the years I worked as an Outdoor Education Instructor. There are also many things I wish I had known before I started in the job. It is for any future aspirants that I now write this.
If only I had known to keep more extensive field notes on all the programs I instructed. Years later, I now realize that these would have provided a rich resource of examples and a detailed record of my experiential learning. I wish I had made a record of all my technical hours as well: the hours delayed, the routes climbed, the miles paddled, the water levels, the lessons learned, the routes skied, the snow conditions, etc. Not only would it be helpful in getting jobs requiring certain amounts of experience, but also if I were ever involved in litigation it would help in establishing my "expertise."
I wish I had known about the relationship between competence and confidence for women field staff. It took a solo backwoods trip for me to fully realize that I was competent in the field, I just needed to pull up my confidence level. Often when women and men have equal levels of competence, the men will verbally express much more confidence in their skill level. This confidence then gets read as competence by others that may not have even worked directly with staff in the field (like supervisors and course directors). This display of confidence (or lack thereof) in turn has strong potential to influence staffing decisions. I wish that someone very early on had told me to go out in the field by myself to prove, to no one but myself, that I am solidly competent in the technical skills that are necessary to survive and thrive at leading wilderness courses.
I wish I had known that a career doing Experiential Education is 40% being good at playing institutional politics, 40% being good at marketing yourself and your program, and only 20% being good at teaching experientially. If I had known that sooner, I would have learned a lot more about how to do the former two.
I wish everyone could know the power of an outdoor experience. Not all of what we learn can be explained in words, nor need it be. The intense emotions of sunset, the camaraderie built between people, or between people and place, is hard to articulate. Its significance is no less real for the lack of words.

Questions

Choose the best explanation…
  1. "experiential" means: 
  2. "future aspirants" means: 
  3. "hard to articulate" means: 
  4. "survive and thrive" means: 
  5. "Institutional politics" means: 
Are the following statements about the article correct?

1.   It is necessary to go into the field by yourself.

2.   Men have more confidence then women.

3.   The writer used to be involved in politics.

4.   The writer doesn't feel bad in any way about the past.

5.   Being confident doesn't mean you are competent.