Educational aims: between environment and cooperative sport

We are in the small municipality of Laino Borgo, where various sports can be practised on the Lao river. Among these, the main activity is undoubtedly the rafting (travelling along the river in rubber dinghies, accompanied by expert guides), which - besides being a pleasant and non-extreme sport- now represents an activity with a strong tourism impact for the entire Pollino National Park area.

Practised with highly qualified personnel and in complete safety, rafting becomes a valuable learning opportunity for the class group. This activity, in fact, brings with it at least two fundamental educational aspects for the formation of the children. Firstly, educate for cooperationbeing inevitably a team effort, which ensures both the development of the self empowerment of the individual person, as well as his or her capacity for positive relations with the group. The second aspect concerns the environmental context in which the activity is practised, namely the river and the National Park. In this sense, driven by the basic principles of learning - such as enthusiasm, direct participation, surprise, fun- here are the students are activated for a lesson in environmental education and, more generally, of landscape and land education.

Both of these educational factors are reflected in the most recent compulsory indications concerning education, both in terms of key competences, and in terms of the goals that the school system itself sets as targets to be achieved by the people who benefit from it. It is no coincidence, in fact, that the aforementioned training objectives are broadly re-proposed by the recent Law 170/2015, which aims at the 'development of responsible behaviour inspired by knowledge of and respect for legality, environmental sustainability, the landscape, heritage and cultural activities', and also at the 'strengthening of motor disciplines and the development of behaviour inspired by a healthy lifestyle, with particular reference to nutrition, physical education and sport'. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, the 'enhancement of the school as an active community, open to the territory and able to develop and increase interaction with families and the local community, including third sector organisations and businesses'.