Simple in Means, Rich in Ends – the Eco Philosophy

SIMPLE IN MEANS, RICH IN ENDS

– the Eco Philosophy

Not since Alistair Robertson ed dwelled near a colony of vultures, has he felt so close to nature as he does at UWC RKN. Alistair Robertson comes in from the rain. February 2020 has been unusually wet and dreary on the west coast. Robertson recounts how he took his students up to the Gaular Mountain yesterday to make a snow cave. There was little snow, a lot of wind and very wet. The cave was nearly collapsing. But the group spent a couple of hours supporting the construction. After the somewhat miserable start, we eventually sat around the warmth of the snow. Under a roof of ice, a boy from Western Sahara brewed a tea. Surrounded by snow, he holds a ceremony like the one he made many times in the desert. –When one meets challenges like this as a team, there are no concerns about skin color, social or financial status or even gender. One relates to the other as a fellow human being, and what counts is being able to perform the tasks together.

– And working together was no problem for these students?

– Absolutely none. I was especially moved when we were struggling to make our way with the luggage through a vicious, raging, and torturous west-coast hail and wind. On her own initiative, a girl removed all the bindings off the skis and packed them together in orderly fashion. This shows that the common spirit is internalized.

From Segregation to Togetherness Alistair Robertson grew up in South Africa during the Apartheid years and has a strong dislike for this societal separation. But he completed his role as a seventeen-year-old before going to university. At nineteen he was called in for more obligatory service in the military. Robertson concluded that he did not want to go back and refused to fight for a regime that stood for racial segregation. Refusing was punishable by law. He had the choice of going to prison or leaving the country after his studies. He traveled to Canada for ten months and after a while, got wind of a vacancy at the United World College Waterford in Swaziland (now Eswatini).

Waterford was just what I had wished for. The school worked towards ending apartheid. It was sort of a new education for me, even as a teacher who taught all the time.

Robertson taught at Waterford for four years, before a decade alternating between teaching at University of British Columbia and working on a doctorate in ecology. He and his wife Lesley were hoping for an eventual return to the UWC-movement. Robertson applied to RKN in 1998. – I was attracted to the UWC principles and their holistic education. In all honesty, it never crossed my mind to travel to Norway. It was a cold and dark faroff country where people spoke in a weird way. But Leslie and I enjoy wild places. Personally, I liked the idea of being outdoors with my students: climbing, canoeing, and doing other activities together. Robertson came to Haugland in 1998 and has been living here ever since. He was hired as a biology teacher and house mentor. In 2002 he became IB-Coordinator and worked on the curriculum for 16 years. When Anna Garner left the College, he took over as Assistant Rektor. Many students will still remember Robertson for his outdoor activities.

Deep Ecology and Socializing What you are fond of, you must care for. But feelings might not seem much help when faced with the problem of solving something as complicated as the human exploitation of nature. Sustainable development can only be the result of an embodied understanding and self-recognition. That is some of philosopher Arne Nass’s background theory on deep ecology: When we feel a fundamental contact with nature, we identify with it.

RCN motivates students to experience the outdoors. One can go skiing, hiking, paddling in a kayak or canoe, dive and spend the night under the open sky, in a tent, lavvo or snow cave. The food can be prepared as a group, by the open fire or over a primus stove.

The location facilitates a rich outdoor life. Right next to the school there is a fjord, forests, and mountains. Within the radius of a few hours, one can reach the sea, glaciers, and high mountains. The activities happening in these environments are related to sports. They are contemplative activities that focus on being consciously present. “Simple in means and rich in ends” is an expression that is used about experiences such as sharing a cup of warm coffee under a tree after going for a hike through wet and cold conditions.

– Robertson has a great gift of climbing, which has been a lifelong interest of his. But he has also instructed in kayaking, skiing and more. And every year he brings the students up the mountain to build and spend the night in a snow cave. This year’s hike was particularly challenging - and therefore so especially rewarding:

«Perfectly bad» The weather report on the 16th of February 2020 promised rain and wind. It was to be moderately cold. But up on the mountain, the rainfall and wind would make the temperature feel like way below minus. But unfortunately, the wind does not turn rain to snow. The conditions were, in other words, far from optimal for the construction of snow caves. Still, Alistair Robertson chose to take his students out on their annual snow cave hike, undertaken in memory of a former student who unfortunately died at a young age, Neil Davis. There were students from Sweden, Norway, West- Sahara and Eswatini.

– Despite the particularly bad conditions, we hiked up. We managed to construct a cave with the snow and ice available. But the night ended dramatically when the snow cave sank and began caving in. We chose to evacuate and found a new shelter just outside the cave. From there we saw it partially collapse. It happened at four in the morning. The rest of the

Te location facilitates a rich outdoor life. Right next to the school there is a ford, forests, and mountains.

night went well. Most of us were warm and dry.

– What was the general mood like?

– The mood was especially jolly that morning, when we each were laying in our sleeping bags, drinking tea and just talking. We came to appreciate things we had thought of as insignificant: the small, caring gestures for each other. We shared all our belongings, both food and equipment and just forgot about time. We followed thoughts I believe were especially free and wholesome because we were far from normal social and professional demands. We focused more on the collective rather than individual needs and could enjoy such things as listening to rain dripping on the tarpaulin.

But you choose to hike back a day early?

– Yes, because the weather report was ‘perfectly bad’. It is alright hiking in bad weather if it is cold enough. We never go to areas in danger of rock-fall. So, the worst-case scenario is not being able to sleep in the snow cave. One is guaranteed warmth when one can live in a snow cave. The science behind building snow caves is based on warm air rising. The entry to the cave is therefore low. We sleep lower than the entrance where the heat gathers. One can stand outside in minus degrees and then experience the cozy sensation inside of the cave. It is especially good when there is a strong wind outside. The snow cave is always quiet and calm.

Diversity on many Levels Robertson sees a clear correlation between meeting problems out in the field and learning something on a deep human level.

– Never before have I experienced such a degree of reflection as the one during this hike. We worked hard together and had important talks underway. The students experienced something authentic and essential together and mastered it as a team.

– Is it keeping in the spirit of Kurt Hahn’s ideas?

– Yes, Hahn did say something about how students grow by taking responsibility

–Do the teachers give the students more responsibility than they might be comfortable with?

– Yes, I remember reading that this responsibility

might involve a sinking boat. My first years, at Atlantic College, the students performed their Coast Guard duties without direct adult supervision. When I paddle or climb with students, we do it as a team. I am the teacher, the responsible grown-up; these experiences become especially important when shared. The sharing of common interests or joys creates strong bonds. When I give a student the responsibility to hold my body weight during climbing, in a way, my life is in his hands, and it is done without reservation. I have already accepted this student as part of the climbing crew. That is when trust in the situation is total. I feel great pleasure doing these activities with students, helping them take responsibility in a caring and mature way. They need to know what they are doing and how to do it while keeping in mind the negative consequences that can result from undesired behavior. When paddling out into the fjord, we become individuals who meet challenges as a team. Anything that might divide us is of little importance.

– You say that you have a debriefing afterwards. Do you contextualize these hikes for the students? Do you mention Hahn and his philosophy, to give them tools to reflect on their experiences?

– Yes, that is common practice at UWC. Reflecting on experiences made during the activities is also a part of the IB program. And I believe that students enjoy reflecting on the activities. It was not a contest, not a reality show. We wanted to experience a hike together in winter and see how we tackled the conditions without the comfortable facilities one usually can access. There is certainly a fine line between safety and the feeling of being challenged.

– Do you, at times, feel too much responsibility?

– I have become a certified climbing instructor in the Norwegian system. I lived with a colony of vultures for two years as a part of my master studies in ecology, and I have much experience as a rock climber and outdoors enthusiast. I feel quite self-confident with regards to surviving in trying conditions.

When I give a student the responsibility to hold my body weight during climbing, in a way, my life is in his hands, and it is done without reservation.

Vultures Robertson’s experiences with vultures are in short, that he lived in a tent on a plateau far from the nearest settlement, for a period of more than three years.

– In hindsight I am surprised that I lived like that for so long. But I am glad to have done it. I got to feel ecology as a more knowledge-based, deep and embodied connection with nature. During these years I saw how closely tied animals and man are. Ten years later I came across Arne Næss’ concept of cross-species identification. This clarified the core values: deeper care for man, expanded care for nature, both the living and non-living part of it.

– You put Arne Næss’ theories into practice?

Our participants and volunteers during Ridderrennet in 2018. Edwin going hunting with Eirik Fismen in 2015.

– You could say that. I got the chance to invite him to RCN for a conference we had on man in nature. Næss spoke, among other things, about the concept of” being rich”. When living out in nature, in a pact with it, when one is cold and has worked hard with a team and finally gets to sit down: What more does one need then? How much material goods are necessary to have a good life? A warm cup of tea at that moment can be all one needs and can give a feeling of fulfillment.

Ecology and environment are important parts of the planning report that Jane and Ivar Lund-Mathiesen together with Edvard Befring set up in 1987-88. One might call them far-sighted seeing how ecology would become such an important theme in the future. But maybe it was not so obvious that somebody would come and take such great responsibility for this side of the school’s program?

– I believe we can do it even better by integrating more of the outdoors into the subjects and everyday life at school. We can o er even more possibilities for outdoor re ection and discussion! What does nature mean to me?’ How do I experience myself when I meet other lifeforms and systems? We arranged boat trips as a part of eory of knowledge16 for many years. All students were given the chance to spend a night in a tent on a little island. We shed and ate a simple meal. Slept under the stars and spoke about being part of something more than human. Næss among others, has written beautifully based on re ections of this sort. It is more meaningful to have discussions like that out in nature rather than in a classroom. In the future we can look at ways of formalizing such outdoor activities and creating structure around it.

A Less Materialistic Life

Was it primarily the beautiful environment and the abundance of outdoor activities that made Robertson choose RCN?

Tis clarifed the core values: deeper care for man, expanded care for nature, both the living and non-living part of it.

16 eory of knowledge is a mandatory subject for all I B- exam takers. e subject is a philosophy subject that teaches everything from history, via analytic tools and rhetoric, to source criticism.

– That was a part of it. Neither I nor Lesley wanted to live in a city. We had a four-year- old son. When I was young, I had many ‘non-white’ climbing mates. As long as I was with them, we could not be seen together. It was against the law to be with ‘non-whites! I could no longer actively support a law that split humans.

– Now Apartheid is gone. You are still here.

– Even if Apartheid was abolished, there is still a divided society in South Africa with huge social differences. Unfortunately, there are still great differences in the treatment of races in many societies in the world, especially in parts of Europe and North America.

– Are you saying that you experience Norway and RCN as a place with less materialistic focus?

– RCN became the most diverse UWC-College in terms of socioeconomic backgrounds. There are so many students on stipends here that they do not stand out. As the Vice Rektor I helped develop the financial student support system aimed at those who came from less affluent backgrounds. This felt especially meaningful. Another aspect that I am proud of, is our work against unnecessary wasteful consumption. This combined with the school’s remote location makes RCN a unique setting for ecological, social and political education. Is there any other educational institution at a high-school level that uses so much of its operating budget to support students who come from poor backgrounds?

– You experienced Waterford. What was that like?

– When I first arrived there during the eighties, our attitude was to demand no more than sufficient facilities. If there were any surplus funds, they were used to strengthen the support program that would enable students from all backgrounds to come to our school. We had, quite simply, a form of social democracy. RCN is situated in social democratic Norway. This combined with the engagement and support from the Red Cross, in turn, enables RKC to cultivate and maintain its socio-economic diversity.

– The College makes great efforts to directly support individual students. Does that mean others get deprioritized?

– It means that we are unable to sponsor exciting trips around the world. But this prioritizing contributes in a way to a materialistic minimalism at RKN. I really hope this tradition continues.

– And what of the deep involvement with nature?

– We are right in the middle of nature, totally undisturbed with the fjord, coast, forest, and high mountains within walking distance. We try to sensitize the students’ feelings of being directly connected to this wonderful, more-than-human environment.

Before Robertson takes leave of me, he opens a little photo collage on his mobile. It is a picture of Arne Næss in a canoe wearing a white anorak and a lifejacket. He might be paddling in this fjord here. Over the picture, a quote from Næss: There is nothing in Eco philosophy or in any other work that I would regard as established. On the contrary, I feel that all I have published has been ‘on the way’. With greater talent, the works should have been better rounded off, but more basically. I think humans are something essentially ‘on the way’; destination unknown, and that they are justified in expressing themselves, talented or not, when moving along. – but basically. I think humans are something essentially «on the way», destination unknown –