Assembly Presentation: Special Programs "We're going to talk a little bit this morning about special programs and how they came to be. First, we'll talk about one that's probably familiar to all of you: Out Back, or Outward Bound as it was originally called. Two faculty members, Bill Clough and Fred Beams, went on an Outward Bound trip through the national program and found it to be a really powerful experience. They thought, hey, why can't we make this part of the Holderness School curriculum? As we've talked about before with Senior Projects, the school was exploring new ways of learning, and headmaster Hagerman agreed to the idea. So in December of 1969, the first group went out into the woods. The group included students, faculty, and some instructors from the Dartmouth Outward Bound program. Some things have changed over the years. The name changed, we don't use outside instructors anymore, and we go out in March instead of December to take advantage of the extra daylight hours. But one thing has stayed constant - faculty and students go out together and face the experience as peers, which is what makes the program such a powerful experience." [School archivist Judith Solberg compiled and presented this material for the school assembly on 3/5/2003.]