Kids and wilderness survival

[rick_reno]

My daughter is home schooled in Idaho - we got the notice below from the local homeschooling group. Looks like a good class, we've signed up.

You might want to consider developing/sponsoring/teaching something like this in your local area, adopting it to local flora/fauna. Lots of kids here signed up, don't know if the increased interest is the result of the hurricanes, but it could be. Maybe you could even bring something like this into your local brick and mortar schools - or your churches - if they'd allow it.

Come join us as we learn all about wilderness safety with our friends! We will be participating in a class every Tuesday during the month of October. The students will learn how to read and navigate by a compass, build a fire with no matches, build a shelter, stay warm, which berries are poisonous and which are safe, and how to find help if they are ever lost in the woods. The place is still being worked out, but it will take place in a part in the area. This class will count towards attendance hours too!
What: Wilderness Safety Class
When: Tuesday’s in October. October 4, 11, 18, 25
Cost: $5 per student for all 4 sessions

 

[NMshooter]

That is the sort of thing I would have enjoyed when I was a kid.

Not that I have ever needed an excuse to get outdoors at any age...

 

[SteveS]

I think that is a great idea. Another possibility is Boy Scouts. Most of what I learned about wilderness and survival was done in Scouts.

The students will learn how to read and navigate by a compass, build a fire with no matches, build a shelter, stay warm, which berries are poisonous and which are safe, and how to find help if they are ever lost in the woods.

Learned all that, plus building traps and basic first aid.

 

[44Special]

Boy Scouts vs. wilderness survival class

I've been a scout leader and I've taken wilderness survival classes. I think Scouts if operated as headquarters intends, even with the nauseating dosage of political correctness, are still the best leadership program this country has ever seen. But their job is teaching leadership -- not woodcraft. Teaching woodcraft is just bait to get the kids there to teach leadership, and their success at doing it is a secondary goal. They SOMETIMES do it well, but the people who mainly want to teach survival are apt to do it better.

 

[YammyMonkey]

and how to find help if they are ever lost in the woods

Be careful with this part of the course. If you're really truly lost and/or hurt, your job is to stay put, take care of yourself the best you can and stay alert for searchers. Trying to find help has delayed and even killed people who would have been fine if they would have just hugged that tree over there.

Also keep in mind that these are all perishable skills and, just like your shooting, need to be practiced and maintained. All in all, I would be pretty leery of a course like this because there are a lot of survival techniques and procedures that, if taught in a half-a-rear-ended way can actually do more harm than good. One of the test points would be if the instructors mention anything about magnetic declination and the fact that it can change over time. Some may think this is over the heads of the kids, but if you don't teach them this stuff it would be like teaching someone to shoot, but not to always check the loaded/unloaded status of the gun.

 

[destinysfate]

I dont have enough know how to teach a course like this,
but if it was around, Id surely enroll my kids and myself
if possible.
I think its a great idea.

 

[pax]

My oldest two boys (13 and 15) took a one day, adult-level wilderness survival class with me just a few weeks ago. It was really excellent. They came home and have been showing their younger brothers (ages 12, 11, and 10) everything they learned in the class.

I think our First Aid cards are about to expire, so that's next on the rotation.

pax

 

[Mannlicher]

Back in yesteryear, I grew up down in Central Florida. The area was very much pre Disney, and was a wonderful place to be a kid.
In the summer, a few friends and I would take the horses, a .22 rifle each, one .38 revolver, our fishing and camping gear, and ride out across the open range. We would be gone for several days, or a week. The length was determined on the way.
We fished, hunted, cleaned and cooked the game. We made bread, cooked beans, and lived a pretty good life. No radios, no GPS, no cell phones.
We were 10 years old on our first jaunt, and continued for years after that. Guess today, the parents would be guilty of something for letting kids go out alone like that, but back then, it was a different world.

 

[Dave R]

I've been a scout leader and I've taken wilderness survival classes. I think Scouts if operated as headquarters intends, even with the nauseating dosage of political correctness, are still the best leadership program this country has ever seen. But their job is teaching leadership -- not woodcraft. Teaching woodcraft is just bait to get the kids there to teach leadership, and their success at doing it is a secondary goal. They SOMETIMES do it well, but the people who mainly want to teach survival are apt to do it better.

AMEN and AMEN!

 

[losangeles]

This should be mandatory instruction in the educational curriculum, and especially for kids in the big city.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

This should be mandatory instruction in the educational curriculum, and especially for kids in the big city.

AMEN! Unfortunately, 'taint gonna happen unless we do it ourselves.

What a ridiculous world we've developed! How many kids even learn orienteering with a compass in gym class? s/b a basic skill up there with the 3 Rs!

We all "know" that the South American rainforest is being "devastated", but probably <1% of the world's "educated" population could even find a South American rainforest - much less survive in one - without a tour guide and an all-inclusive rainforest resort package.