Syllabus for Teaching Wilderness Schools

**Rick** · 06-18-2008, 07:59 PM

Many of you teach some form of wilderness survival. I'm curious about the syllabus for your class. I'm not asking you to provide a detail of the class. But I'm curious at a generic level about how your class is taught. Some examples might be:

1. 4 hours of class room
2. 12 hours of field work including an overnight exercise.
3. Students must pass making a fire with bow and drill OR make a debris shelter OR be able to show the essentials of first aid. Something along those lines.

I'm not trying to start a school or anything. I'm just curious how many different types of schools/classes there are and how survival is being taught. I've never attended a class and I'm just interested.

**Jay** · 06-21-2008, 03:11 AM

Greetings Rick,
I've turned up again...like the proverbial bad penny!
The basic course I teach consists of 20 hrs of lectures and 64 hrs of field work.

**Rick** · 06-21-2008, 06:25 AM

One thing about me, Jay, I always stop to pick up a penny.

It's good to see you back!

That's a number of hours. I suspect you teach a bit differently than some of the other folks in that you teach escape and evasion tactics. Does this class include everything? Fire, shelter, water, food, e&e or do you focus on a select few?

**klkak** · 06-21-2008, 02:36 PM

The class I teach the most is a basic course. It consists of 2 to 4 hours classroom time and a day in the field. The other course I teach has 4 to 6 hours classroom and 2 days / 1 night in the field. My class's are directed at "Home schoolers" and "Church groups". I don't charge a fee but will accept donations which are used to buy materials.

Some of the subjects covered are;
Preparation
Shelters
Fire
Water
Signaling
Health / Hygiene

**Jay** · 06-22-2008, 12:01 AM

Does this class include everything? Fire, shelter, water, food, e&e or do you focus on a select few?[/QUOTE]

This class consists of the basics which I have made conpulsory. The have to do this before moving on to the more advanced stuff. Here are some of the titles of the subjects in the basic course.

Introduction to survival
Psychology of survival
The Basic Survival Kit
Water procurement & purification ( solar stills, gipsy wells, roots, vines, desalination, filtering, purification.etc)
Fire ( seven field expedient methods)
Shelter,
The Basics of Man-tracking (identification, age, speed, number etc)
Man tracking 1-4 (Sand pit, grassland & vegetation, Dirt road, gravel road, forest leaf litter etc.)
Survival in diverse ecosystems in Sri Lanka 1-3 (Sea , Sea shore, coastal areas, jungle , savanna, mangroves, high plains, mountains.)
Counter tracking & deception
Plants for survival (food, medicinal, poisonous)
Natural Pisscicides
Dangerous snakes of Sri Lanka (Identification, habitat, handling)
Animals as food (Sea & seashore, Forest and grassland, etc and how to prepare them for consumption)
Trapping for survival
Anti- personnel devices.
Natural cordage ( what to use and how to prepare)
Celestial navigation (direction finding etc)
Awareness. (Recognize, the natural rhythm of the jungle, detect alarm calls & behavior. Sentinels of the jungle & their warnings. Concentric rings
Stalking (sensory perception, silent movement, detecting silent movement.
Dangerous animals. (Elephant, Sloth bear, Wild Buffalo & Crocodile-agressive & warning behaviour, deterant methods etc)

Sometimes it takes a lot more than 64 hrs of practical work before they get a handle on it.