July 20, 2007

The Outers Program began in 1964, with one teacher referring to it as an "experimental learning course".  It has three main components:  safety; service; and expedition.  Students are put into brigades of 5-7 people and they participate in four fall trips, five winter trips and one 12 day trip.  The Outers Program operates and survives on the very foundation of honour, trust, loyalty and discipline.  Outers builds, promotes, advocates and fosters everything that a good education should.  All expeditions occur in the wilderness of North Western Ontario.  Students are forced out of their "comfort zone" to explore the limits of their own abilities.  2,000-2,500 students have graduated from the Outers Program and have given students from Atikokan High School something different, something special that very few teenagers have the opportunity to experience.