Self-esteem: the catalyst for classroom and life success

What’s the difference between an exciting international trip and a challenging international adventure? Short answer: the latter provides a real sense of accomplishment—and the resulting self-esteem that accomplishment delivers. We understand that some people now conflate self-esteem with a narcissistic “self-terrificness” and view it as an undesirable privileged attitude. But we would argue that self-terrificness is, in fact, a symptom of low self-esteem. We use it in the sense or “self-worth,” of confidence in your ability to be able to reach ambitious goals if you put forth the effort. Several years ago, the famous American TV newsmagazine “60 Minutes” ran a piece on St. Benedict’s, an inner-city school in Newark, New Jersey. (For those of you not familiar with American geography, Newark is located just outside of New York City. It struggles with a high poverty rate [almost thirty percent] and underperforming public [city-run] schools.)

St. Benedict’s is a remarkable outlier. It graduates ninety-eight percent of its students, and eighty-five percent go on to earn undergraduate degrees. Wow! Two things jump out about the school’s unique educational program: 1) Students actually “run” the school (frequently making and learning from mistakes in the process) and 2) upperclassmen (the upper school admits boys only) lead all new students on an ambitious expedition along the Appalachian Trail every spring.

So how important is that strenuous outdoor adventure? Here’s one teacher’s assessment:

“It is probably THE most important thing we do…above and beyond the academics…. Every school in the country should find some way to get their kids out in nature to realize there’s something bigger than you.”

From the “60 Minutes” transcript:

“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley: … Street smarts won't carry you far on the Appalachian Trail.
Headmaster Edwin Leahy: It's the only class in school that a 98 is a failing grade ‘cause if you only get 98 percent of the way down the trail, you didn't get to the bus to bring you back home.
Scott Pelley: In [second-year student] Devionne's group, one classmate decided "98 percent" was all he had.
—"You gotta keep pushing bro."
St. Benedict’s upperclassman Devionne Johnson: So I said, You're not gonna quit in front of the camera. These are—this is “60 Minutes.” Don't quit, keep going. So eventually we finally make it up this mountain. And I was so relieved.
Scott Pelley: At the summit, they caught a breathtaking view of character. [Emphasis ours]”

You can read the complete transcript, here. And you can watch a short documentary on St. Benedict’s annual five-day expedition along the AT, below.

“A Breathtaking View of Character “

St. Benedict’s outdoor expeditions involve small-group hiking along the Appalachian Trail. And practically everything you’ll hear about their wilderness program could be said of our small-group sailing expeditions. Everybody with teenagers should watch this. It’s only 14 minutes long.

At the ELS, we also let our crew members take practically all the decisions; they effectively run the courses, including the navigating. We constantly stress teamwork and shared responsibility to other crew mates. And when we sail back into port at the end of a course, we, too, see character breaking through. The satisfaction of impressive accomplishment coupled with a new-found personal agency works wonders just about every time.

So it turns out there’s quite a difference between taking an educational trip and embarking on an epic outdoor challenge, whether hiking or sailing or something else. In fact, there’s really little comparison when it comes to a transformative experience.

Hey—Top of the Page on Bing!

So, how many people type in these key words? Not many. Still, when people go searching for European sailing adventures for their teens, Microsoft’s algorithms think we deserve to rank right up there. And no, we didn’t pay for that. Now, if we could just get this pandemic behind us.

Distance Learning vs. a Classroom Experience. Is There Really a Debate?

Increasingly, we read that our lives will be changed forever in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost certainly, in some respects, that’s true. But what about our schools? Is online instruction really going to be an important part of the new normal? Let’s stipulate that there are some advantages to online instruction. Students can take advantage of lectures by some the world’s best teachers and professors. They can take classes in subjects not offered at their own schools. But think about what is lost in a world of distance learning: Peer learning and camaraderie—an extremely important component of a student’s education—practically disappears. And as learning becomes increasingly a one-on-one proposition (a student sitting alone in front of his/her computer screen) student body diversity becomes largely irrelevant from a pedagogical perspective. Gone will be the serendipitous discoveries in the library stacks. No more school clubs. Yearbooks will become largely superfluous. Sports? Student-teacher mentoring? Time spent in science labs? Countless school rituals? All the out-of-classroom experiences like field trips and expeditions to capital cities, cultural sites, and outdoor discovery centers? Gone. And the list goes on.

Distance learning may be necessary right now. It’s certainly better than nothing. But as Ross Baker, a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University (New Jersey, U.S.A.), recently wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today on the subject,

“I have found that lecturing on Zoom or Webex is like lecturing through an N-95 face mask. Perhaps if I taught seminars with fewer than a dozen students the task might be manageable, but you can’t effectively teach to a screen with 88 faces on it. At least I can’t. I draw my energy from being in the presence of live students — even the ones barricaded behind their laptops taking notes or, more likely, doodling with Instagram or TikTok…. Distance learning is an inferior pedagogy. It is disembodied, soulless, and quirky.”

Many other teaching professionals would no doubt nod their heads in agreement. And so would a lot of students. Let’s hope that when it’s safe to gather again on campuses, get back on jetliners, take class trips to museums, and go back on the water in small boats, people will realize how important it is to learn and do things together, side by side, in the real world. With that in mind, teens who are considering an online university education ought seriously to consider packing their high-school years with enrichment experiences. It could be their last chance before they head out into the workplace.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/26/coronavirus-distance-teaching-learning-big-change-online-professor-column/3019149001/

UPDATE: And then there’s this from The New York Times (Monday, June 8, 2020):

Distance learning isn’t working

Education experts believe that distance learning in most school districts is not working and that students are falling behind at alarming rates. “We know this isn’t a good way to teach,” a seventh-grade teacher in Colorado said. Black, Hispanic and low-income students are falling behind the fastest, research suggests.

Is your financial success more a function of your IQ? Or something else?

From an article in Inc. Magazine by Jeff Hayden:

Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman likes to ask people how great a role innate intelligence plays in financial success. Like how much the difference between my income and yours, for example, is based on our relative IQs.

Most people say about 25 percent. Some go as high as 50 percent. (For a long time, I would gave guessed even more.)

But Heckman's research reveals something else entirely. Innate intelligence plays, at best, a 1 to 2 percent role in a child's future success.

Instead, financial success is correlated with conscientiousness: Self-discipline, perseverance, and diligence. [emphasis ours]

The Case for Early International Exposure

In July 2018, Condé Nast Traveler published a piece entitled “How to Raise a Little Traveler.” They asked their young editors what they loved (and hated) about their childhood adventures: favorite memories, regrets, and rearview-mirror advice for their parents. Here’s what one wrote:

Start us young

I can clearly remember my first vacation abroad: I was five, and my parents and I were exploring the Irish countryside, driving through Co. Tipperary to see where my father’s family came from. We ate in pubs, hiked to castles, and saw a spectacularly large pig on a farm that made me question reality (seriously, this was the pig to end all pigs). Sure, I only ate chicken fingers and fries in said pubs, but I credit that trip with prompting little me to ask, constantly: Where am I going next? Curiosity was born [emphasis ours].
—Bridget Hallinan

We don’t take small children on our expeditions, but the point is well taken.

Four Biggest Travel Trends for 2020

Forbes Magazine recently published its Four Biggest Travel Trends for 2020. Two of them stood out to us; so we thought we’d pass them along.

People are talking about green travel and with the rise of carbon offsets for flying or hotels eschewing miniature bottles, it seems like the corporations have caught on. We’re seeing social media influencers post non-descript locations in an effort to decrease over-tourism to beautiful places.

So which of these trends are here to stay for 2020? With the help of experts and data crunchers, here are my predictions for the biggest trends in travel for 2020.

[…]

2. Traveling off-the-beaten-path.

With overtourism, traveling off-the-beaten-path will be the goal in 2020.

As some destinations continue to dominate our social media feeds—Bali, I’m looking at you—there will be rise in so-called second-city travel.

Motivated in part to avoid crowds as well as higher prices, vacationers are beginning to see the benefit of checking out places that are a bit off the typical path.

And the numbers support this. According to Booking.com, 54% of global travelers want to play a part in reducing over-tourism and 51% interested in swapping destinations for a lesser known but similar alternative.

Either way, travelers are more likely to be taking the road less traveled in the year ahead.

3. Big interest in ‘new’ ways of transport.

Call if the Greta Thunberg effect. As flight shame increases consumers are looking to more and different ways to travel.

In Europe domestic flights are reportedly down in a bid by people to decrease climate change. France has proposed a ban on most internal flights.

According to Booking.com, over half of travelers don’t mind taking time to reaching their destinations if they’re traveling by a unique form of transport. As more consumers think about their environmental impact, there will be an increase in interest in older, most sustainable forms of transport like trains or boats.

So there ya go. QBE seems to be right on trend.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandratalty/2020/12/31/the-four-biggest-travel-trends-for-2020

The case for acting first and then thinking

Conventional wisdom holds that parents should make several early life decisions for their children. Kids should start taking violin lessons at age three, tennis lessons at four. The earlier children start doing whatever it is their parent/s want them to do, the bigger head start they’ll have and therefore a more robust competitive advantage down the road. David Epstein, author of Range, dissents. Range is a book about the value of being a generalist rather than a lifelong specialist and points out that many of the most successful people in elite professional fields (sports, the arts, scientific research, etc.) succeed not despite the fact but because they were late to the party.

“For too long, we’ve believed in a single path to excellence. Start early, specialize soon, narrow your focus, aim for efficiency. But in this groundbreaking book, David Epstein shows that in most domains, the way to excel is something altogether different. Sample widely, gain a breadth of experiences, take detours, and experiment relentlessly. ‘Range' is an urgent and important book, an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.”

— Daniel H. Pink, author of the bestselling “When” and “Drive”

Epstein argues that parents should encourage their kids to try as many different things as possible—fill children’s lives with a wide variety of experiences. Then let them find their own way. Most of the time, big head starts don’t turn out to be difference makers. A wealth of diverse experiences can be.

St-Malo voted the most beautiful town in Brittany!

The headline reads, “What are the most beautiful towns in Brittany? Saint-Malo sits atop the list!” Congratulations! Or, as the French would say, «chapeau !»

Teaching tidiness—how sailing can help

If you ever step onto a sailboat, you’ll notice ropes neatly coiled and everything in its place. A sailor will tell you no job is ever complete until every tool has been put away. That’s because on a sailboat, if you need something in a hurry, you need to be able to put your hands on it pronto. Otherwise you could be courting disaster. Similarly, you don’t need twisted or knotted ropes. They’re not much use in an emergency. So, one of the first things we teach is tidiness. Not because we want to behave like nagging parents, but because order is an imperative when you’re sailing. A mess left behind is a job unfinished. And if you don’t finish what you start, you have a character issue that could cause problems down the road—if it hasn’t already.

Buying Life-Success and Happiness, Not Things

You know what they say: Spend your money on experiences, not things; have stories to tell, not stuff to show. It’s the experiences that ultimately mean the most to us and keep paying dividends. If you’re looking for a special holiday/birthday/graduation gift for your teenager, a one-of-a-kind sailing adventure in France and England would be a great option. To navigate to our home page, just click on our logo in the masthead, above.

From an article on the subject that appeared in Forbes magazine:

Learning Lasts A Lifetime

One of the very best things you can do with money to maximize the happiness return on your financial investment is learning a new skill or hobby. Take a class in woodworking or skydiving or fencing or quilting (yes, quilting.) Buy private golf or tennis lessons. Learn to surf [or learn to sail!]. Enroll in a creative writing class or learn to paint. Get yourself a camera and join a photography club. Not only is the act of learning a new skill fun and rewarding but you will broaden your horizons as a person, giving yourself fun new activities that you can participate in for a lifetime of fulfillment while expanding your social circle at the same time. Spending your time and money on the development of new skills is a fantastic way to meet new people and explore new avenues of life you may never have considered. The thrill of exploration can come from learning to tango, you don’t have to climb mountains. Expanding yourself as a person will expand the ways in which you can experience joy, there is almost no downside. So go attend that transcendental meditation weekend retreat you've been dreaming of, it's money well spent!

With all things in life, there is no guarantee that you will always have a good experience. You may very well return from your epic vacation to the Brazilian rain forest with saber-toothed monkey lice, s*** happens. But nine times out of 10 you’re better spending your money on experiences and other people than on yourself. You’re much more likely to have genuine, fulfilling happiness as a result. So remember: You want be happy? Stop buying things and start buying experiences!

—Ilya Pozin

Sailing in style. Spend a few weeks pretending you're Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn.

Does style matter anymore? Well, it should. Beautiful hand-made things, original art, magnificent old churches, and walks through beautifully landscaped gardens nourish the soul. Which brings us to our boats. QBE owns two Insta-worthy pilot cutters, handsome single-masted boats that have been called the best sailboats ever designed because of their seaworthiness, maneuverability, and ease of handling. If we weren’t using our cutters to teach, we’d probably be renting them to film production companies. They really are remarkable yachts. And they’re perfect for showing teens the ropes—the ones they use to trim the sails and others they’ll use throughout life. There are a number of sailing courses available to high-school students. Some of them appear to be very good. A few have the benefit of cruising clear, tropical waters and exploring the reefs that lie beneath the surface. But few of them offer the European cultural component we do. And none that we can find offer boats like ours, because, well, because there just aren’t many boats like ours. QBE sailing is about character development, history, culture, and old-school style. You should join us and spend a few weeks pretending you’re Katherine Hepburn or Cary Grant (or, if you’re not old enough to know who they are, Léa Seydoux/Idris Elba) on a great European adventure. How many chances will you get?

When it comes to building self-confidence, we would seem to come in no better than second. We'll take it.

In his acclaimed book An Intimate History of Humanity, Oxford historian Theodore Zeldin asserts that the most effective way to boost self confidence is to see somebody you’re in love with reciprocate your feelings. But if you do an internet search, you’ll find the following advice:

1. Stop criticizing yourself. 2. Devote your life towards looking for the best in yourself and in others. 3. Look good so you can feel good. 4. Get out of your comfort zone and succeed.

The first two tips are “voluntary mortifications”—part of a discipline one practices every day. Now let’s consider the second two items. 1) Looking good. This is one of the reasons we sail fabulous out-of-the-ordinary gaff-rig boats. Apart from being the perfect size for QBE teaching methods, being extremely safe, and being challenging enough to require teamwork to sail, they are eye-poppingly handsome yachts. When we come sailing into port, heads turn. You can’t help but feel cool when you show up someplace special standing on the deck of an iconic pilot cutter. And 2) Comfort zone and success. The whole point of adventure is getting out of your comfort zone. Sailing, for beginners, is a new zone altogether. Our crewmates are quickly given complete responsibility for our expeditions. They take turns tugging at ropes, skippering, and navigating (among other things). By the end of the course, they will have crossed the English Channel and repeatedly brought their boats alongside quays in postcard ports. They successfully will have done what few of their friends will ever have the chance to do, and they’ll have the pictures to prove it. Talk about a boost in self-esteem!

The sea is good for you!

From The Guardian:

Proximity to water – especially the sea – is associated with many positive measures of physical and mental wellbeing, from higher levels of vitamin D to better social relations. “Many of the processes are exactly the same as with green space – with some added benefits,” says Dr Mathew White, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and an environmental psychologist with BlueHealth, a programme researching the health and wellbeing benefits of blue space across 18 (mostly European) countries.

An extensive 2013 study on happiness in natural environments – to White’s mind, “one of the best ever” – prompted 20,000 smartphone users to record their sense of wellbeing and their immediate environment at random intervals. Marine and coastal margins were found by some distance to be the happiest locations, with responses approximately six points higher than in a continuous urban environment. The researchers equated it to “the difference between attending an exhibition and doing housework”.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/nov/03/blue-space-living-near-water-good-secret-of-happiness

Need advice on competition sailing instruction? Maybe we can help.

At QBE, we teach the ropes to teens who have never sailed before—or have limited experience. If your teen already knows how to sail and would like to spend some time in Europe learning how to race, we’d be happy to offer some advice. We know something about competitive sailing in the UK and France. (NB. We don’t have any affiliate arrangements with other sailing schools, so we won’t be trying to sell you anything. Contact us and we’ll be happy to share what we know.

A tip

Why would a high school student not want to seize the opportunity to spend several weeks abroad on a great adventure? The surprising frequent answer: he or she doesn’t want to spend time away from a sweetheart. Now, we have no statistics on this, but we’ve heard it more than a few times. Here’s a bit of advice: don’t let any great opportunity slip through your fingers—grab it! You don’t want to look the word “regret” up in a dictionary one day only to see your picture. A few weeks apart is not a disaster.

Experiential Learning

You can’t learn much about, say, sailing or skiing by reading about them. And you certainly can’t learn much about yourself sitting on a couch watching television. The real learning is in doing.

In a 2014 article, Rajiv Jayaraman makes the case for Experiential Learning:

Experiential Learning Is The Future Of Learning

More than a hundred years ago, Hermann Ebbinghaus formulated the learning curve, which describes the relationship between memory and time. In a nutshell, it says that, during a lecture, if your absorption rate is at 100 percent on day one, there is a 50-80 percent loss of learning from the second day onward, which is reduced to a retention rate of just 2-3 percent at the end of thirty days.

This theory is even more relevant in today's world where attention spans have come down and learning sometimes is reduced to 140 characters!

How then can 'Experiential Learning' help overcome this situation?

We believe there are eight reasons why experiential learning is the future of learning.

1.) Accelerates Learning

Repetitive Learning or learning by rote has long been replaced by 'Learning by Doing.' Experiential Learning methodology uses critical thinking, problem solving and decision making to deliver a training module. This has become an established method to accelerate learning…

Read the rest of the article here.

News Flash

Dateline QBE: The old world that many people say no longer exists… still exists. At least in many instances and places.

We are told that technology has changed everything. Well, yes and no. For example, we may use Skype to conduct a conference call, but we still prefer to go to birthday parties where people actually congregate. “A Skype party” just isn’t the same thing—no cake, no candles to blow out, no hugs. Sometimes technology is better than nothing, but love operates most powerfully face to face, the old-fashioned way.

Similarly, the foundation of a great education is still built —in large part—on the pillar of experiences. Online team sports can never replace the playing field. Online chemistry lessons can never adequately substitute for experiments in a chemistry lab. Nor can a virtual climb up a mountain ever take the place of the physical and logistical challenges (and final exhilaration) of a real ascent. Authentic achievements always convey a grace that virtual accomplishments cannot. Whether it’s building a boat, rebuilding a car, or sailing around the world, powerful emotional benefits flow from the actual doing.

At QBE, we’re all about the power of authentic physical and emotional challenges to transform young lives. There’s a time to put the smart phones down. Conquering real challenges brings a personal equilibrium and sense of self worth that, to be honest, you can’t find on the couch with some gadget in your hands. Sometimes the old ways are the best ways. If you want us to prove it, you know how to get in touch.

Psssst. Here's a little secret...

With the recent U.S. college admission scandal in the news, everybody has been talking about the “privilege” of attending an elite university. Some have argued that the real benefit of an Ivy League degree—for most people—has more to do with prestige signaling than the “education.” Entrepreneur and blogger Warren Meyer, a Princeton man, made an interesting observation recently about his own schooling:

When I think back on what I gained most in my education, I would list these three things first:

• The ability to clearly define a problem — drawing a box around the system, defining inputs and outputs, etc

• The ability to write (some examples on [my] blog notwithstanding)

• The joy of learning — at last count I have completed about 85 Teaching Company courses of an average 36 lectures each and 13 Pimsleur language courses of 30 lessons each.

By the way, if I had to define my main privilege in all of this, Princeton would not be first, because in fact I really developed the three above in a great private high school my parents were able to afford [emphasis ours].

We hear this over and over: how important high schools are in educational formation. In fact, many folks will tell you it’s more important where kids go to secondary school than where they go to university (in most cases). Similarly, high-school experiences are often more impactful than college ones when it comes to future life trajectories, simply because younger minds are more impressionable. Something to think about.

It's Experience That Makes The Difference.

Albert Einstein once quipped that an education is what remains after you forget everything you learned in the classroom. At QBE (Qualified By Experience), we try to keep sailing instruction to a minimum and let crew members learn the ropes by themselves. That includes navigation. We teach participants how to do it, but then it’s up to them to chart their courses. Given a number of choices based on tides, wind, and weather, crew members decide where they want to go and how to get there. Sometimes, things go pear-shaped. For example, once in the Mediterranean, a crew set out for St-Tropez, in France, and wound up instead in Sanremo, in Italy. Mistakes happen. But everybody learned something about nautical navigation that day.

We use the boats we use because they are small enough for neophytes to sail without a lot of hands-on supervision. Of course, an instructor/skipper is always on hand to make sure the boat and crew are never in danger—and to answer questions—but our crew members are largely on their own after a few days of orientation. In fact, one of the biggest challenges we face is getting our skippers to shut up, stand back, and avoid the temptation to “over-teach.” When people learn by experience, they tend not to forget the lessons they learn.