Did you know that BCS is 20 years old this year? In celebration of this milestone for our school, let’s take a look at how it started and it’s connection to the Educational Organization, Outward Bound.
Brooklyn Collaborative Studies (BCS) was founded in 2001 by Brooklyn New School (BNS) parents and teachers who wanted to create a school that offered a hands-on and inquiry-based approach to learning to students in older grades.
BCS opened in 2001, first as a middle school and expanded to a full secondary school with grades 6-12 by Sept 2008. BCS is one of 14 NYC Outward Bound Schools.
Outward Bound is a world-wide network of outdoor education organizations founded in the United Kingdom during World War II. The name Outward Bound came from the nautical term for a ship leaving the harbor to open sea. Founders of Outward Bound Kurt Hahn and Lawrence Holt believed that intense experiences where people overcome challenges in a natural setting builds people’s self worth and helps them understand that humans are dependent on one another to live and thrive. There is a direct connection between this philosophy and the concept of crew at BCS and our performance based assessment tasks (PBATs).
