CHENNAI: Once the annual examinations are over in a couple of months’ time, ‘what next’ will be uppermost in the minds of students and parents alike. And with the summer vacation exciting many to take up the much deferred dream vacation, it does throw up an opportunity to the inquisitive ones to tread the road not taken, especially visit cool summer resorts on the lap of nature away from the hustle and bustle of city life.
‘The Wilderness School’, as its name suggests, is one of the few academies that aims to provideconducive atmosphere for “experiential learning.” This, it is argued, helps the children to overcome the challenges in life. In addition, children are taught to convert their weakness into strength. “We believe that there is a need to educate parents about the benefits of ‘Experiential Learning Programs’ as these immensely benefit the children's development,” says K. M. Vandhan, director, ‘The Wilderness School’, Mavattampathy Village, Coimbatore.
“It is not only children but elders too, often face adverse situations and seldom know how to cope up with the situation. The children for instance, display suicidal tendency, suffer from stress and depression at a young age. This is something distressing and needs to be tackled to help them face the hardship and lead qualitatively better life,” he claims. Mr. Vandhan says his school and the 'Wilderness Explorers Academy’ impart survival skills by experts drawn from IIT, Indian Army and educationists.
Mr Vandhan, who quit a cushy ICICI job to start this, says that children are deprived of the experience of facing failures, fears or their weakness. As they get whatever they want, they hardly get an opportunity for how to react when someone insults or shouts at them.
The Wilderness School's unique summer camp with desert safari tent ambience by the riverside at Walayar for children aged seven and above will begin from April 1. The 6N / 7D and 14 N / 15D camps are unique, highly effective and life changing experience, he said. Corporates too find the campsite-cum-resort as a great destination for their outing and leisure activities. The campsite is open for entertainment and leisure activities, during non-camping and training days (contact numbers 7010707347/ 9843425426).
