Educate.

**LostOutrider** · 08-01-2008, 12:32 PM

Like it says in my profile, I teach. When you read that, your memory likely belched up a batch of ideas and beliefs, experiences and stories involving maybe your own education. Schools you loved or hated. Maybe teachers who were great or terrible. Could be your child's experience you think of. Everyone has an opinion and if they don't, they should.

A lot of teachers went into the profession because they always wanted to teach. They loved setting their dolls or younger siblings up to play school, wandering down the pen 'n pencil aisle at the supermarket. . . you know, crap like that. Not me. I hated school as a student. The older I got, the more I fought the system. Most times the system won. It took me a while, but I learned that the best way to change it is from the inside. Don't complain about it - wade in and fix it.

I work only with teenagers. Junior High, mostly. Kids that have been labeled - for whatever reason by whatever authority - as "at risk." Of what? All sorts of things. At risk of expulsion, of dropping out, of shooting up, of giving up. At risk of being another statistic. There's all sorts of scary research out there that maps out the rest of their lives if they keep falling behind. Lower salaries, shorter life expectancy, greater risk of incarceration, greater risk of perpetuating the cycle they found themselves in. Those are my boys.

Now, the reason this post isn't couched down in Introductions is because I want your help. This does apply to a forum on General Survival Discussion. In almost twelve years of doing this, I've come across some things that hook my boys immediately and permanently. (90% of the teens I work with are male . . . something that should send chills up your spine. How have we failed our sons and why?) On the first day of class, I give them a scenario very similar to some of the games we play in these forums. I give them tools to pick from, a situation to survive in, and a chance to explain. Then I have a lot of fun telling them all the colorful and hideous ways they just died. Then I point them to resources that they can read and watch and hear - and let them go at it again. Of course, then I have to teach them the mental tools to read, watch, and hear better. To explain their thoughts and back up their assertions. In Teacher-Speak, you could say my goal is to halt their educational decline, address their deficiencies as literate individuals, and improve high stakes testing scores. Me, I just want to teach them to think - to care - and to learn for their own reasons. Once they do that, everything else follows.

Here is where you come in. Improve my library of information to put in front of these guys. Post titles, websites, youtube links, or stories of your own that I will take back to my boys. School is starting up again and I'll have about a hundred pairs of eyes on me in a few weeks. I'm considering linking this forum as a part of the class, give them an authentic way to learn and discuss, but that'll come later. (What better way to show how much you think, care, and know about something than a place like this? Sure beats a multiple-choice test.) Right now, give me what you got. I'll use this thread to give you guys updates and share progress with this new crew of mine.

I already have quite a bit. Certain primary texts are the SAS Survival Handbook and the US Military's FM 21-76 Survival manual and a few other manuals that I found for a good price at various Surplus shops. The Game and Fish Commission sends me sets of all sorts of publications that they make available to the general public, and I have a couple of hunter's ed. books. They read McManus and Paulsen and entirely too many other authors to list - because you can learn things from fiction as well as non-fiction. But don't hold back from posting everything. There's more I haven't thought of. If you have questions of your own, drop those as well.

Thanks.

**Rick** · 08-01-2008, 12:37 PM

Well cudos to you! A very worthwhile vocation. We can probably do that in spades. As for the manuals. Don't buy them! They are free. You can download any of them. Just be respectful of Steve's bandwidth and download only what you need.

http://www.stevespages.com/page7c.htm

**Gray Wolf** · 08-01-2008, 01:18 PM

Be glad to help if I can.

**Sarge47** · 08-01-2008, 02:26 PM

Your post asks a very important question: "How have we failed our sons & why?" We have failed them with all of our new laws, politics, as well as what it takes for people to survive financially these days as both parents working gives little time for the attention their kids so desperately need. You have my support 100%! You are in the best position to judge the age, experience, sincereity of interest, & learning potential of your students! Add to that your passion for wanting to help them & I'm blown away!

I will throw out a few items that may be of interest here, starting out with Cody Lundin's book, of course: "98.6 Degrees: The Art Of Keeping Your A$$ Alive." The title alone should help draw your students interest. (Check out my Blogs for the info regarding this book as well as some of the other stuff on their, then read everybody elses.

)

How about a visit from a qualified "Search & Rescue" person? Should make a great "Q & A", & you will probably get even more Survival stories than you can handle. BTW, thare already many interesting stories posted around this site which you may want to try to find. Perhaps Nell & Rick can help.

J. Wayne Fears' book: "The Complete Book Of Outdoor Survival" is a great book for illustrative survival stories.

Also, & I'm sure you already thought of this, I would make sure every student has a "dedicated" notebook for both their study notes as well as a journal. You might encourage them to start making their own "Survival Kits." (don't forget the most important item...their mind.)

And a final idea, if you can find the time with everything else you're doing is to start up your own Boy Scout Troop or Explorer Post for the very serious ones who want some "Bush Time".

Just my "Buck-Two-Fifty."

Sarge.

**GVan** · 08-01-2008, 04:02 PM

Everyone teaches others to some dgree or another. Parents teach children, siblings teach each other. Even bumbs on the street corner teach execs not to kill their bosses and quit their jobs.

Good luck.

**crashdive123** · 08-01-2008, 04:08 PM

LostOutrider - One of our members, Pict - has some fabulous videos on Youtube. A link to them is included in his signature.

**LostOutrider** · 08-01-2008, 06:13 PM

Thanks for the quick responses - though, I gotta tell you I'm not surprised considering what else I've read around here.

Sarge - they do indeed keep a notebook. A portfolio, actually. There is a district and state curriculum, mandatory and carved in stone. As with any organizations there is The Way Things Are Done. Where I come in is with my guys, if all of that worked for them the way it was designed. . . well, they wouldn't need me in the first place. I still follow all the standards, directives, mandates, oversights, benchmarks, and policies. What makes me different is that I have to be unconventional about it. That's where this little project comes in.

You want to talk about survival? These kids know how to survive. Imagine being convinced to the core that you were the absolute worst at your job, and all your co-workers knew it - - - but still going every day for thirteen or more years. Imagine being forced to do the one thing you are simply horrible at, and that one thing being used year after year to assess your worth. I can't even scratch the surface of what is going on outside of school for a lot of these guys. Don't need to. You know. So, a few years back I figured why not use that as a hook to bring them in. 'Think you can survive? Think you're tough? What would you do here?' Then let 'em go. The key is interest. Once you have them interested, hungry, curious - they won't let you stop teaching them. Eventually, when it works the best, they don't even need you to teach them. That is my favorite part. Where I come in is finding all kinds of ways to meet the curriculum, standards, mandates, and so on through their interest.

I've got a few grant applications in the works to restock the classroom library. The titles are appreciated.

The first scenario that I use, the one that gets them thinking like a team, is to play the first few seconds of the LOST pilot - - you know, the one with the plane down on the beach and the survivors wandering in shock and chaos. Then I stop it and let them discuss what they saw for a bit. Then I read a piece from the beginning of Lord of the Flies. It does a real good job of describing what the terrain looks like after a crash. They begin the writing as individuals on the beach, with freedom to describe who they are and what they have. They write out the first hour and the first day. As we share, revise, discuss, argue, edit, and rewrite . . . I teach what I need about writing, reading, thinking. I tell them who is going to die, and why. They get a chance to revise, rethink, replan. Of course, then you have to research. I'm sure not going to just tell them. Get out there and find it. Think, plan, rethink. Write.

When we get through that, they're hungry for another scenario. By the end of the year, sometimes by the middle, they're giving each other scenarios. That is the best part. Some branch off into the fantastic (one kid wrote a manual on how to fortify a Walmart in the event of a zombie invasion) and others stay grounded in the real world (another kid last year began tackling a historic fiction piece about two boys exploring an old Civil War cache and getting lost/trapped underground). Now, I don't just focus on this all year (though many of them continue working on it all year), simply because there is so much more I have to cover. But this is my biggest, most consistent success - so I lead with it and let them take it as far as they will.

**Riverrat** · 08-01-2008, 06:27 PM

As well as survial, ask the local emergency responders to come in and give a talk. I know we used to go into the schools and teach basic First Aid.

**LostOutrider** · 08-01-2008, 08:12 PM

Good idea. My dad is an EMT - as well as part of a volunteer rural Rescue Squad. He's all the time heading out to find lost deer hunters or dragging for drunk boaters. Won't be able to get him this far up (he's 300 miles away), but I can swing a video conference easily enough I bet. EMTs have some awesome stories.

**crashdive123** · 08-01-2008, 08:25 PM

LO – does your school or curriculum allow for field trips, or possibly an overnight hike and camp out. Learning to rely on yourself and others may be a valuable lesson for them. Probably goes a long way for trust as well.

**LostOutrider** · 08-01-2008, 08:36 PM

I'm pretty limited with resources as far as after-school activities go. I have been trying to work out a way to do a day hike, but I'd have to make sure all the liability issues are covered. Shame you gotta worry about stuff like that, but it would blow your mind how quick folks will lawyer up over just about anything.

Safer thing to do - and likely longer lasting - would be to get in touch with a local Scout outfit and see if I can partner with them. I don't know much about Boy Scouts, but I'm waiting on Sarge to fill me in some.

**crashdive123** · 08-01-2008, 08:39 PM

Don't know if this is feasable or not, but maybe a relationship with a local boy scout troop could open up some opportunities.

**Arkansas_Ranger** · 08-01-2008, 10:36 PM

I also am an Arkansas resident and taught school for two years in three districts. I couldn't stand the way schools were going thus I had to get out of the vocation. I didn't have the personality suited for it.

Teaching 10th grade biology, 11th/12th grade anatomy and physiology, 7th grade life science, and 8th grade earth science was fine, but when I was made to teach chemistry I decided I'd taught enough. I hated the subject as a student and couldn't entertain the thought of having to teach something I didn't like again.

Becoming a teacher was never something I imagined doing. I finished college with a bachelor's degree in general science (basically) and a certification to work as a paramedic (EMT) so I got a part-time job with an ambulance service and enrolled in a very brief programmed called the non-traditional licensure program to get my teaching credentials.

Back to my second statement in this reply: I attended a school of approximately 750 students in grades k-12. It was a suburban district with a lot of advantaged students. When I considered becoming a teacher during my last semester of college, in an effort to earn a paycheck, I was only able to reflect on my experiences as a student. I didn't like going to school everyday even to the extent that I never participated in extracurricular activities. Most subjects were easy for me, and everyone in my classes generally got along with limited troubles. This was not the case in any of my teaching experiences. Not only did I get bored teaching the same thing over and over again I also got sick of kids who hadn't been raised properly enough to act civil while in public.

When I finished college I obtained a job teaching, without a license, in a school district that was 180 degrees opposite of what I had grown up in. I was clueless on how to relate to the students, and I had to fight the battle of classroom management and discipline. I was a December college graduate so I started teaching there in January. For many months before taking the job the students had nothing but a substitute teacher as their previous teacher retired early in the year and his replacement was ran off in two days. I stood my ground, made a lot of enemies, and endured the rest of the year.

My second job was teaching full-time in a school with a similar student body as the one I attended growing up, but it was in such a rural setting that according to one father, "These kids don't need no school learning. They'll be getting a job with a farm or in the tire plant." The tire plant is closing down, and people aren't starting any new farms so... I left there at the end of the year mostly due to the chemistry incident.

I then got a job in a district in my hometown yet not the one I had attended. It was identical to the first teaching job except that I was the teacher that "retired" early in the year. The district told me what I was to teach and when I was to teach it, yet I was never given the resources to do so. When I was told that I needed to buy lab supplies out of my own pocket I said no thanks and left.

I subsequently quit and got into law enforcement which suits me much better. I became a police officer in my hometown, and I had a lot of fun especially when I had run-ins with problematic students and parents.

Oddly enough, I left true street-level law enforcement to become a park ranger, but I have a lot of fun with this job because of the diversity in job tasks. I can still do law enforcement, plus I have a two page word document listing my other duties. Today I revived an unresponsive elderly male, took a report on breaking or entering and theft of property (both felonies), justified expenditures from the budget that I planned and created, assisted the sheriff's department with a helicopter medical evacation, and looked online for flatware for the lodging facility I manage. Diversity - I think so!

I look back on my career in teaching and reflect on my attempts to get out of the classroom including beginning a master's degree in public school administration and working towards P.E. credentials. Sadly, I can say I never enjoyed a day of being a teacher. I was told that my attitude changed the day I quit teaching. I went from being very sour, short-tempered, and agitated to kinder, gentler, and more laid back. My health even improved. Even though I tried a variety of approaches I just couldn't do it.

Oh, btw, I don't have siblings, I never enjoyed walking down the pencil aisle at the store, and I never tried to teach dolls.

I often frequented teachers.net for ideas.

**crashdive123** · 08-01-2008, 10:42 PM

See - there - don't know how close you two are, but there may be an opportunity for the kids at the park that AR works in.....if the insurance allows it.

**Sarge47** · 08-01-2008, 10:59 PM

I've already PM'd LostOutrider on my view of the Scouts; but I'd like to see existing Scouter's come forward & share as well. What a time for Rick to be out of town.

**BraggSurvivor** · 08-01-2008, 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by Sarge47

I've already PM'd LostOutrider on my view of the Scouts; but I'd like to see existing Scouter's come forward & share as well. What a time for Rick to be out of town.

I wonder what he is doing right now...... being the big anniversary and all.