Mission Statement
Kismet Rock Foundation (KRF) offers comprehensive courses in rock climbing and mountaineering to children who, because of financial limitations, would not otherwise have access to such an education. Based in North Conway, New Hampshire, KRF accepts emotionally stable and well-functioning youth from both urban and rural areas into its programs. KRF’s goal is to offer children an opportunity to benefit from the immense value inherent in a climbing education.
The Value of a Climbing Education:
(1) Climbing requires the application of all aspects of our being. It develops superb overall muscle tone. It teaches body movement and grace and sharpens sequential problem solving skills. It presses students to develop a concrete understanding of certain aspects of physics and mechanics. It demands the development and use of good judgment and sharpens one’s capacity for critical analysis. It requires focus and presence and teaches that real consequences ensue from our actions. Through climbing we can develop the courage required to persevere through extraordinary challenges.
Climbing demonstrates that to live effectively we must take note of our intuition but seek verification through analysis. In addition, because safety in climbing depends on team effort and because it challenges us both emotionally and physically, climbing demands that we develop and maintain the highest standards of behavior and attitude in relation to our partners. We must catch our partners when they fall. We are called to express compassion in the face of their fear. Rather than experiencing pleasure in our partners’ defeats, we are urged instead to contribute to, and even find satisfaction in their success. We learn humility in the face of our own fears and limitations. Climbing illustrates that ethical behavior arises naturally out of concrete circumstances.
(2) Education itself is the natural vehicle through which children can satisfy their hunger for development. Education offers opportunity for freedom and for access to material security. It develops potential and tends to exponentially expand opportunity for the development of that potential well into the future. By increasing children’s power, education helps verify for them that they have effect and that they belong in this world. Through education, children gain the skill and knowledge required to contribute positively to others and thus gain access to a resulting sense of meaning and purpose.
(3) The vast beauty of the mountains is transformative. Wilderness resonates with an intense and pervasive message of mystery. This is the absolute and vast mystery that we are seldom forced to confront when surrounded by our own designs. The particular wisdom offered to us by wilderness is not imaginary nor is it specific to certain individuals. Instead, it is a concrete wisdom offered to all of humanity.
(4) Because of the personal character of climbing relationships, students of various backgrounds quickly learn to reach across the boundaries of age, race, and differing social experience. The compassion and empathy required to sustain a stable climbing partnership offers us an opportunity to gain greater understanding of the lives of others. At the same time, we are pressed to develop the humility and honesty required to allow others access to ourselves.
Guiding Principles:
(1) All children have the same fundamental needs: they crave freedom and opportunity. They hunger to use their great potential. They desire verification that they belong in this world. They need to know through experience that their presence has effect. They long to be positively engaged with the rest of humanity (indeed, with the rest of life) in such a way that their lives are imbued with meaning.
(2) For students to learn efficiently, courses must be organized and conducted by teachers who have expertise in the course material.
(3) To be effective, teachers must be responsive and caring. In addition, they must nourish the strengths and honor the limitations of every student.
(4) To be successful, programs must respond to the whole student. They must reflect an understanding that knowledge and ideas are most valuable when they arise out of our experience; that the joy and value of exploration takes precedence over the attainment of goals; that authentic ethical behavior must emerge out of genuine engagement with family, friends, and society; that goals are most infused with value when they reflect the longing of our hearts.
(5) To be truly satisfying, education must be imbued with fun and adventure.
(6) Character development emerges naturally from the struggle by which expertise and knowledge are gained and from healthy and direct relationships.
As an educational institution, Kismet Rock Foundation’s programs do not use the natural environment as a setting for therapy. It’s programs are not intended to “treat” specific aspects of character and personality but instead allow character development to emerge naturally from the struggle by which expertise and knowledge are gained. KRF does not seek to identify certain aspects of its students as essentially “unwell” and its instructors do not engage in psychological and emotional intervention as primary strategies.
General Considerations Regarding Programs and Courses:
(1) All courses offered by Kismet reflect the interests and strengths of the participating students. The pace and scope of each course is defined and bounded by the limitations and vulnerabilities of the students. The teacher to student ratio of all courses is at least 1 to 3. All Kismet instructors have a mastery of the course content and thoroughly understand that good teaching depends on detailed organization that adapts easily and willingly to each studentçs needs.
(2) Technical mountaineering covers a wide range of skills from camping, weather prediction, route finding, and rope skills on very easy low-angle terrain, to highly sophisticated skills of gear use and climbing on steep summer and winter terrain. For now, Kismet Rock courses focus on skills that are specific to summer climbingÊthat is, rock climbing. By teaching these skills we create for students a firm foundation of skills and knowledge of basic systems while working in comfortable conditions (warm weather). In the future, we will identify which students are interested in a broader mountaineering education.
Course content reflects a natural development from a complete dependence on teachers to the possibility of acquiring independence in the mountains. Independence requires much experience, much expertise, and extraordinary judgment. Thus, to support this development, students who are “good Kismet citizens” and who like climbing are invited back each year to further their education.
Read one of Kismet’s founding documents, In Defense of Education, by founder Mike Jewell.
