Kids Learn "primitive" Survival Skills

https://www.wthr.com/article/wilderness-group-teaches-kids-survival-skills


Good afternoon all,

Per ...

A Wilderness Academy teaches this.

Loved reading: "With the introduction of luxuries and modern day technology what was once common knowledge now requires an app or Google ..."

 

Thank you for sharing. Bestowing knowledge onto the generations below is something I look forward to. I taught my oldest daughter (23) how to make dandelion wine, bake a loaf of bread, and start a fire without matches or a lighter. My middle girl (21) has learned wood harvesting, basket weaving, moccasin making, and bowery from me. My youngest (21), well, she's my scientist, so I shared with her all my knowledge of the soils, composting, and brewing.... They may be attached to their screens, but they have base knowledge now...

 

I read that the Boy Scouts of America is going bankrupt. Some other organization will have to step into the breach.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/01/02/boy-scouts-bankruptcy-not-just-financial-moral/

https://www.redstate.com/brandon_mo...ruptcy-string-woke-decisions-caused-go-broke/

 

I read the link. Sounds super. Hope this spreads across country.

 

BSA National did file for Chapter 11 but the local councils are independent groups and unaffected. A bigger issue for them is that the LDS church just dropped Cub Scouts and Scouts as their primary male youth activity. I think the years of permitting gays and then allowing the athiests to push their agenda and finally the allowance of girls (which isn't really that new) is what finally pushed them over the edge. What is really going to kill them is the new fees. Last fall when kids were registering with our Cub Pack we charged $50. $30 went to national, $6 to our Council for insurance and $14 to the pack to help offset costs of things like their awards and actually this year $9 of that $14 went to buy the kid a Pack Tee Shirt. Then literally a week before all money is due National announced their fee was doubling to $60 (guessing in anticipation to offset loosing between 40-50% of youth membership that belonged as members of the LDS). Now our local council tells us for this coming fall their insurane fee is going up to $36. So we aren't in a real wealthy area, I mean at $50 last year we had several boys families need assistance thru a secret donor who helps out kids in need wanting to do Scouts. Now this year the fee is already at $96 with out the Pack adding on any. I know it's a years round thing but people bitch. Though they happily shell out $65 for Little League which lasts maybe 2 1/2 months.

I'm an Eagle Scout and when I was younger I always looked forward to the day I'd have a Son or Sons to see thru Scouting. Now that they are just starting in to it I just don't know. It's not the same as it was in the 80's which is good in some ways and way worse in others. I think they are definitly adding to the pussification of America's youth but at least the kids going thru it will be more prepared for a lot of life than the kid sitting on the couch playing video games or the kids only out kicking a soccer ball or throwing a baseball around.

 

Good morning Country Guy,

Great info; appreciate this.

Looking at the pending "macro" / national picture, am wondering what will evolve into a national youth group for the outdoor skills. Do you have an idea how the various youth groups will fare are the national level...thinking of Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, 4-H clubs, ... ?

Those after school sports activities are just too costly when considering the public school budgets are destroying the middle class (along with health care costs).

Some of the US Citizens Corps has programs for teens, eg CERT, Neighborhood Watch, but don't know how BSA will be replaced as far as the outdoor / wilderness skills.

 

I don't think Scouts is going away anytime soon. There are a lot of dedicated leaders and families. Even if Scouts BSA (it will always be just BSA to me) folded I think many people would soldier on in some fashion. Honestly the biggest threats to Scouts and I think all other youth programs are insurance and lawyers. I mean the BSA is getting beat over the sins of the past with molestation issues but also there have been quite a few large lawsuits against them for things like kids that were hit with lightning at camp and killed and kids killed in van crash on a Scout outing. The BSA was always self insured which allowed it to keep down costs for things like camp and high adventure trips and so on but the massive lawsuits and settlements have wiped the coffers clean.

Honestly I think it's only a matter of time until groups like 4H, Traillife, Royal Ambassadors, Civil Air Patrol and so on all get beat down with the same things or until the burden of insurance becomes so great they just can't afford to put on programs. Kids have been loosing interest and in the last decade or 2 with the rise of video games and kids becoming couch potatoes or like you mentioned families having kids in year round costly sports as they think little Johnny or Suzzy will be the future millionaire pampered Pro athlette hasn't helped. I also notice it seem, not to suprisingly, that the rural areas still tend to be the enclaves of Scouting. I find it ironic that the author of the article you posted is only about 5 miles away from where we reside. And he's correct, even around here interest have wained. Troops and Packs all tend to be chartered thru churches or there are some thru Legions. Used to ones would be thru Elks, Moose, Eagles and similar social organizations but even many of those are going by the way side. I could see Sportsman clubs sponsoring groups of youth but most of those I've belonged to over the years usually have their own money issues or so much bickering they likely couldn't decide to help if they wanted. One I belong to here hosts the winter Klondike weekend for the BSA yet when I was at meetings before and mentioned usingthe internal 3d ranges for the kids to come learn to shoot their like "oh they'll ruin the range...blah blah blah.." I'm like are you F'ng kidding me. They sit and bitch that members are dying off and they aren't getting younger people. I'm like duhhh how about you help teach them and pass down the love of the sports be it archery, rifle and pistol or just even hunting. I could see several of the old crusty musties totally missed the point.

For teens (and up to 20) most people don't know much about the BSA's Explorer Posts, Venturing Crews or Sea Scouts but I could see tie ins with CERT activities for some of them, especially some of the Explorers which are to be a way for kids to explore potential career paths like law enforcement; Fire & EMS; Trades, Aviation and lots more. Honestly I could see that being used more to help direct youth off the "all kids must go to college" train wreck path and more to actual careers, letting them get OJT while deciding if it's for them.

 

There is another side to this for many troops that most people don't know . I was the scout leader for a group of scouts . Maybe it was just the group I was in charge of but my scouts all came from messed home environments . This included one kid that said his dad wore panties to kids whose dad was in prison or sometimes even worse situations . I found myself trying to help these kids outside of scout activity time , taking them hunting and so forth . One in particular stands out as he became a life long friend that has traveled as an adult 500 miles to my retreat .

 

In today's sue for-profit and fun environment no group that deals with kids is going to be able to survive on a national level. All you have to do is wait for 20 years and then sue them because you claim someone there molested you. I know that this is true sometimes but unless that group knew and allowed it they should not be liable. On the other hand when they are proven to have known and done nothing that is different. All of the orphanages that were run by charitable donations are closing. The legal costs of operating them has far far exceeded their ability to operate. How many kids that were helped and saved from miserable lives will now be tossed aside into government-run hell holes and for-profit foster care because one kid MAY have been molested? as far as I'm concerned kill the person that did it. Maybe kill any above that knew and did nothing but why tear down the entire program?

Boy Scouts should be for BOYS. It is insanity to destroy something that does so much good for boys mostly because most girls have no interest in it and so the Girl Scouts only exist to sell cookies. If a group is about Christian belief then non-Christians need to form up their own groups not tear down the Christian one. As far as the Gay thing goes it is mostly ignorance. Being Gay does not mean that you are a pedophile. Those are two totally different things. I would like to live in a world where people didn't judge people by their skin color, nationality or Sexual preference. that is not the world I live in though. I wouldn't want to send my black son to a Scout Troop that was in a Klan Town and at this point in time i wouldn't want to send my gay son off into the woods with a bunch of redneck teenage boys. Both situations are just asking for trouble.

Slowly the racial bigotry has died down. If the media would stop stirring $hi+ it would die down even more. Eventually, people will understand that you are born black and born Italian and you are born gay. But for now, let's at least decide that if the Boy Scouts don't want gays that is their right. they didn't take them in because they wanted too they let them in for the same reason that they allowed black boys to join white troops. It was forced on them by government laws. Having someone or something crammed down your throat never works well but the government will never figure that out. They sit up on their high thrones and never have to live with the crap that they stir up. hell, they even exempt themselves from the same laws that they make for the rest of us. evedently.

 

Good morning Country Guy,

This is interesting and informative. Thank you.

I knew about the molestation issues but wasn't aware of the lightning strike casualties and van crash examples.

The rest; the warfare going on, am familiar and I support the BSA.

 

Good morning TexDanm,

All pertinent material above.

One thing I've been following is a MAJOR change going on in American society - social, economic and political.

Re: "wait for 20 years and then sue...";

There are some of these types of cases currently going on with our celebrity politicians and their celebrity constituents.

The key case that I followed was Alabama's Judge Roy Moore - believe was also a member of the Alabama Supremes -

He was charged with events from 37 years prior. For the record, my personal political and theological views are different than Judge Moore's. The fundamental question to American society is how does one defend against these decades old charges ?

If I was charged with events of 37 years ago, all my witnesses would already be dead.

Something is going on in American society - social, economic and political.

Are we experiencing a changing form of government ? ... or is all of this really the same as always with different varnish ?

I won't waste my time researching the history of the Statute of Limitations.

You'be brought up key pertinent material here; just can't use the web to respond to all specifics.

 

Just had to create this meme. LOL I'm not the best Photoshop editor, but you get the point.

 

I hate to say this, but if I were to jump start the boy scouts I'd mandate all male and female leaders be given a lie detector test and ask, "are you sexually attracted to little kids?"

You really have to do that as evident with this most massive chapter 11 in U.S. history.

Now I'm really into computers and what have you, and I've been on the "dark net" and saw a website for pedophiles and it had some of the most disgusting shit you'll ever see. And get this. The membership for this website was well into the range of 200k. UNREAL! I promptly reported that site like I don't know how many times. I don't think it exists anymore.

 

This issue of Off Grid Magazine has an excellent article on Survival Books for Kids. They offer several with reviews on each from a child's perspective, and from the author's perspective. I thought it was very good. It should still be on the newsstands.

 

When I was a cub scout many moons and suns ago I got a magazine in the mail called Boys Life. It was a pretty interesting Mag, but what I found interesting in the Mag was that it talked about the movie that came out back then staring Arnold Schwarzenegger called Total Recall. Lets just say that this movie was rated R to the top, featured nudity, sexual innuendo, and a LOT of profanity. I think the F-word was used once every five minutes. LOL Good movie though. Waaaaay better than that crappy remake. But having this movie talked about in Boys Life was crazy!