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VOLUME XII, NUMBER 5

= INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

 

Sail Training at North Shore Community College

Sail Training is the utilization of the sea and sailboat
to enhance the learning of specific content. Sail Train-
ing has been used for centuries to help build character
and leadership skills. In Europe, especially Great
Britain, Sail Training has been built into corporations as
a national aspect of management training. Taking a
content course out of a classroom and putting it on the
water adds a dimension of personal integration and
performance-based learning to the course content. Sail
Training demands that students participate in their
learning with both their minds and their bodies within
the sea-bound environment.

In the United States, we have utilized sailing vessels
for educational school experiences lasting from three
wecks to one semester to one year. At North Shore
Community College our major objective has been self-
development through the use of sail and curricula
content. Landmark School presently teaches literacy
skills to its students. There is a semester-aboard
program sponsored by a consortium of universities
which allows students to take 15 credits. There is also a
vessel operated out of Connecticut, Vision Quest,
specifically for juvenile offenders; it has an 80% success
record. Major universities have taught history, litera-
ture and music while on a sailing vessel.

The Europeans use sail vessel training differently
than do Americans. In Europe, especially England, Sail
Training is a part of management training programs.
Most European business executives spend a weck or
more aboard a sailing vessel as trainee apprentices. The
British have built a new vessel, The Lord Nelson, which is
specifically equipped for handicapped participants.

“Although the shipboard setting is an uncommon
‘classroom,’ Sail Training holds to the common purpose
of all education: to develop knowledge, skills, and
attitudes. Sail Training enhances gerferal education,
fosters marine education, and reinforces learning from
the sea experience.

“In Sail Training, the ends and the means are inextri-
cably bound together and require participation in:

—the interdependence of shipboard living,

—instruction and practical experience in sailing,

—on-the-water experience with the world of water.”

The North Shore of Massachusetts is rich in marine
heritage, and the College’s Lynn Campus is ideally
situated with access to the sea. In 1986, North Shore
Community College was offered the unique opportu-
nity to develop educational programming utilizing the
sixty-foot ketch, Pride of Lyn, which is managed by a
local non-profit foundation. The vessel has a full-time
captain and crew, state-of-the-art navigational equip-
ment, and complete audio and video recording systems.
The boat's large, enclosable center cockpit, spacious
decks, and comfortable main salon offer a variety of
settings for small group meetings, as well as ample
space for individuals to be by themselves. There are
sleeping accommodations for six to eight passengers in
three private cabins, in addition to separate quarters for
the crew

One of North Shore Community College’s efforts to
utilize this unique resource has been the presentation of
four one-credit courses offered through the College’s
Division of Human Services in conjunction with the
College Counseling Center. The courses have been
conducted over weekends in September, 1987 and 1988,
with crew, instructor, and four to six students sharing a
live-aboard experience from Friday evening through
Sunday. Each course has addressed one of several
personal growth content areas: stress management,
decision-making, and assertiveness training.

Enrollment in the courses has been open to the
general student body although, interestingly, nearly all
of the students participating have had very little or no
prior boating or sailing experience.

The actual coursework has been conducted with
varying degrees of structure, depending upon the
instructor, the student group, and, of course, the
weather. In general, most instruction periods have been
held at anchor in the mornings and evenings, the
afternoons being reserved for sailing. But, in fact, class
is always “in session.” This has been especially appar-
ent on Saturday evenings at anchor off a local uninhab-
ited island. After 24 hours aboard the boat, most of the
students appreciate the chance to go ashore. On land
the students initially react to the open space and to the
sense of freedom it allows. The group stays together,

 

 

EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin

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