ABSTRACT
This chapter explores two examples of how insights from historical studies can point to potentially enlightening critiques of contemporary programmes or rhetoric, first, through militaristic influences and, second, in the role anxieties play about youth and masculinity. Kurt Hahn has undoubtedly influenced some approaches to adventure education, although even within the Anglosphere different influences on outdoor education have manifested themselves in different regions at different times, resulting in a diversity of approaches and philosophies. The almost unmatched effectiveness of military training, particularly in comparison to most education, is reason to consider what power outdoor education programmes derive from militaristic methods even when no militaristic ends are evident, some signs of militarism are absent, and foundation myths direct attention elsewhere. Some forms of outdoor education are undoubtedly used as part of military training, but most outdoor education is not overtly militaristic. Anxieties about youth recur every generation, which makes them a natural focus for educational rhetoric of any stripe.
