Beyond Concrete Walls

By Nur Aisya Affrina Bt Mohamed Ariffin

Role: Venture Capitalist

          The famous Nelson Mandela used to say, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”. The norm always think that learning process only occurs inside of the classroom but it is actually beyond just the concrete walls that build up the classroom, it is limitless and boundless. Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote when he fought for India’s freedom was “You must be the change you wish to see in this world”; therefore alongside our millennial era with the 4^th industrial revolution environment, a whole new schooling approach called Forest School is introduced. Forest School is an extraordinary method of having students learning in nature to let them embrace themselves more than what they did inside of the classroom. Since 1995, Forest School is said to be a technique of learning in the outdoor but not just surrounded by woods, but spacious space with trees which will be more interesting than inside the classroom (Knight, 2011). Besides, according to O’Brien and Murray (2007), Forest School is a great way to train students to get familiar with outdoor environment to apply their academic and practical skills. Furthermore, learning process must not be rely solely on teachers but must be widen outside of the class for hands-on experience (Bentley, 2012). As a venture capitalist, investing money in a project that is literally new during today’s era is totally a risk-taking action. Thus, who would want to spend out millions of their money for nothing in return? Due to the positive impact of having Forest School around the world, I strongly believe that most venture capitalist would take a risk to invest their money to expand this kind of schooling environment without hesitation. This is because it provides benefits for them in terms profit, produce high-end graduates with multi-skills and encourage better schooling environment for future generations.

          Most studies proved that Forest Schooling has been gradually increasing since it was first introduced in 1995 because it contributes lots of pros than cons to the society. Since young children are more likely to be a better learner, Forest Study can be the strong mold to their constructive growing process. O’Brien and Murray (2007) commented in their journal article saying that Forest School provides various kinds of children development skills. To be precise, there are six of them stated which are; positive impacts on children in terms of confidence, social skills, language and communication, motivation and concentration, physical skills and knowledge and understanding. This is because there are tons of activities carried out in the Forest School than the normal school. To add, learning outside of the class provides active outdoor learning in such away will develop morality and citizenship (Bentley, 2012). This undoubtedly implied that exposing children to forest-schooling will produce high-end graduates with multi-skills. Thus, this kind of product will be useful to become future employee in the companies that invest their money on. It is genuinely a good move to have spend millions of pennies on something like this because O’Brien and Murray (2007) said that the more exposure the students are given in the Forest School, the more they are prepared to work in critical situation later on when they grow up. Moreover, most tasks carried on in this school are hands-on and undertake real-life problem (Knight, 2011). As they are disclosed to this kind of challenge during schooling time, it will eventually be a piece of cake for them to fit and adapt into the real-world problem when they grow up one day. Therefore, it is a smart move to pay for the school development and have a great group of employee in return in the future.

          Next, the setting of this Forest School definitely takes place in the outdoor and this has become one of the biggest concerns among capitalist to devote their money because they might end up in the jail. This is because anything outdoor is plainly more dangerous than indoor. In the business world, it is a huge risk-taking investment to actually spend your money on something that is basically will bring harm to people. Still, many researches show that the environment and surrounding where Forest Schools took place today are very secured and safe. Lightfoot (2019) wrote in her website that all forest school teachers are well-trained and committed. Moreover, Knight (2011) states that the woodland used for Forest School are mostly private land and has boundary that students cannot pass. This means that owner must have aware of the security of the area to let students freely play around without any outside harm. Next, having nature as learning setting with chirping birds and the sound of forest around you will enhance your curiosity towards the outside world (O’Brien & Murray, 2007). This takes a lot of credits because having high curiosity develop high order thinking skill among the children which is a rare ability to be owned by children in this technology-obsessed. To add, Albert Einstein once said, “The important thing in life is to not stop questioning because curiosity has its own reason of existing”. Nonetheless, look at the bright side of this problem; facing danger often enough encourage one’s self-awareness to be ready to face the real world which is more thorns than roses. In fact, experimenting things outside of the classroom triggered many abilities especially surviving skill (Knight, 2011). For example, using compass around the forest given out deeper understanding on how to face a panic situation of getting attack by a wild bear or even lost in the middle of the forest. One who never been in this kind of situation might end up curled up their legs and cry but for Forest School graduates, this might be familiar and are prepared to take a proper move. One of the experienced parent Barkham (2014), posted on one of his entries about Forest School saying that he is surprised to see his children self-esteem and ability in making decision and taking risk.

          Moreover, Forest School is well-equipped for its activities to enhance better skill-development during the learning process. Children are more prone to display their true manners when given freedom to do what they love the most; playing. In this situation, providing good equipment will slowly build the skill acquire by the school throughout the playing (Barkham, 2014). Thus, Forest School is obviously more expensive than normal school to guarantee a better performance. Be it its fee or facilities, everything about it has cost a pretty penny. According to Lightfoot (2019), most Forest School today has not enough money to continue its operation due to its high money-consume. As a venture capitalist, I have yet seen this problem as a widely-opened opportunity to take charge of this situation and spend my money. This is because I see Forest School as a future school for our generations. Bentley (2012) agreed to this as stated in his journal article saying that Forest School is a great way to overcome costly fee of taking outside of the school classes and extra tuition to develop similar skills provided in Forest School. Undeniably, expanses that will be made for this school is going to be huge but a famous quotes; “Rome was not built in a day”, implies that one marvelous result needs a slow but steady progress. Can you believe that one day you will be sending your children to a place where most of their life skills can be teach at? More heart-warming is that we only need to pay fee for one school only; no extra classes. It is therefore I believe that Forest School can be a permanent future school years from now.

          In conclusion, beyond any doubt, Forest School is a worth project to spend huge amount of money on. It is an obvious example of a lifetime investment in business world. It provides competent graduates that will suit most of the requirement in job-finding in the future especially if the employers are searching for someone more than just a textbook-reader. Since Forest School provides primary and secondary schooling period, it will tend to contribute most of a child’s growing process; 10 years (Knight, 2011). This is because one’s personality is evolved during their childhood and is carried until its adulthood. Based on the points elaborated, Forest School unquestionably spare up the skills acquired by a person to face this challenging world without breaking. Social skills and generation of natural curiosity and confidence in one’s life are extremely important to prepare them sharp and keen for the future. Apart from its capability in preparing multi-tasking and multi-skilled students, Forest School is a great replacement of normal school that limited learning inside the classroom only. After all, in today modern and demanding world, practical skill is needed more than theories.

Reference

Barkham, P. (2014, December 9). The Guardian. Retrieved October 6, 2019, from Forest schools: fires, trees and mud pies: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/09/the-school-in-the-woods-outdoor-education-modern-britain

Bentley, T. (2012). Learning Beyond the Classroom. Education for a Changing World , 212.

Knight, S. (2011). Forest School for All. United Kingdom: Sage Publications Ltd.

Lightfoot, L. (2019, June). The Guardian. Retrieved October 2, 2019, from Forest schools: is yours more a marketing gimmick than an outdoors education?: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jun/25/forest-schools-more-marketing-than-outdoor-education

O'Brien, L. (2007). Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. Forest School and Its Impact on Young Children , 249-265.