Why Being an Outdoor Educator is the Best Job in the World

Do you naturally approach the world with curiosity? Do you truly find enjoyment relating with others in the outdoors? If you can answer yes to these questions, then being an Outdoor Educator is the job for you. 

What if you could reimagine education in a whole new way? What if I told you, you could funnel your passion for teaching to various school age children and positively make an impact on their lives? If you’re into the great outdoors, love adventure, and sincerely love building relationships, then this may all sound too good to be true. I have lived the Outdoor Educator lifestyle and I can tell you it is the best job in the world.

Where Lifestyle, Values, & Passion Align

I have been an Outdoor Educator for my entire career. I was that kid growing up climbing trees, endlessly exploring the forests in the backyard and catching tadpoles in the nearby creek. Ponds were my playground. The seasons were and still are a part of me and my happy place was always outside. Traveling the world and doing extreme sports like being a White Water River Guide and rock climbing were second nature to me. For me, there was no greater passion than pushing the envelope on what I could see or do in this magnificent natural world we call home. Not to mention, the health benefits of the physically active lifestyle an Outdoor Educator leads are phenomenal. You can’t beat the beautiful settings and it sure beats an office cubicle. It’s the greatest win-win ever.

Being an Outdoor Educator has been enormously fulfilling to me because it significantly makes a difference in kids’ lives. When in nature children create cherished memories, and it’s where kids learn best. Being an Outdoor Educator has brought me enormous satisfaction. I have taught inside a classroom and know firsthand the power of experiential learning. It makes a lasting impact on children’s lives and forms the building blocks to nurture the future leaders and stewards of our planet.

I believe we are all interconnected and that the outdoors is the ultimate environment for learning. It fosters a process by which, through rigor, student’s strengths, confidence, and competence are nurtured. While being an Outdoor Educator you can inspire elementary, middle, and high school children to have greater awareness of their environment and develop life-long skills and appreciation for nature and one another.

Inciting a Lifelong Impact for Students

Outdoor education is a rite of passage for kids and is an essential chapter in a young person’s life. It shapes their relationship with the natural world. It gives them a transferable leadership experience while they pursue adventure. They learn how to navigate life’s challenges with greater confidence, resilience, resourcefulness and adaptability.

Outdoor education is innovative and relevant with a vast amount of benefits that last a lifetime. A sense of agency emerges in students that experience the outdoor classroom. It is an equitable environment where students have an increased awareness of their own leadership skills, as well as the importance of one another. Qualities such as empathy, communication and respect are experienced and harnessed. By having a direct experience with the outdoors—coupled with positive thinking and an inclusive mindset—students discover a part of themselves they did not know before. An understanding is achieved where students experience their own sense of mastery, which enables them to achieve their goals.

It is through outdoor education and the beauty of benchmark experiences that students can bridge a sustainable heightened understanding and appreciation of their own potential leadership abilities. This is where they can build partnerships that leverage with moral courage. A transformative culture is experienced that serves as an ecology unto itself. It broadens self-awareness to more effectively learn sound decision-making strategies, establish effective communication skills and learn conflict resolution techniques. 

Outdoor education programming is where stewardship, sustainability and systemic change can reside. Having meaningful relationships with others while building and sustaining a sense of community, nurturing collaboration, learning, and growth leads to precious moments that make a lasting difference. Inspiring results dovetail effortlessly into skills that will stick with kids forever. What emerges in an outdoor classroom is an experience of excellence and equity. 

Is This The Place For Me?

A lot of growth can come from embracing challenges in unfamiliar settings. If you like working hard with friends to achieve a goal, turning thoughts into positive action, and practicing a great deal of stamina and productivity, then being an Outdoor Educator is the job for you. If you’re jazzed by achieving results through strategic thinking while creating alternative ways of looking at a conflict, then pursuing a career in outdoor education is an excellent professional choice. If you’re a tenacious person who wants to do things now rather than simply talking about them, than go for it. The time is now. If you are one that holds vision and values and celebrates change then this is the field you are meant for. 

By the end of an Outdoor Education program you will have created an engaging curriculum that leads to a common language amongst you students. Their self-awareness will increase through behaviors-in-action with team-building initiatives that readily transfer to their day-to-day and actual life experiences. Along the way they will make adventure buddies in an outdoor community that is full of happy and considerate people. So will you!

A career committed to the outdoors and education is where you will be confident in knowing that you are helping students acquire the skills that lead to fulfilling, productive lives. It is an unequivocally fulfilling feeling. Working in beautiful places will not only help you become a better educator, but you will meet other inspiring individuals, like yourself, and have some incredible experiences that may just change your entire life trajectory, as well as the student’s that you impact. Ultimately, through a lifetime of experience, I have found as an educator that experiential outdoor education is by far the best way to empower kids to choose active, outdoor lifestyles and pay it forward by being stewards of the earth. 

-Tracy Brooks, Positive Adventures Facilitator