This speech, presented at the reception of the Julian Smith Award, provides a short history of the author and of outdoor education. Outdoor education is defined as education in, about, and for the outdoors. Several points of interest regarding outdoor education are stressed by the author. These include: (1) there is a need for the public to be kept informed about the outdoors so they can use and appreciate the outdoors; (2) outdoor education needs to be taught in the out-of-doors, not in the classroom; (3) there is still a debate between outdoor education and outdoor recreation; and (4) the job of outdoor educators is a lifelong educational process of making people work for nature. (MVL)