Camping class gently introduces immigrants to Ontario wilderness

Well...I don't know...Exactly how much camping skill can you develop/teach in a classroom? Though it could be a lot safer I suppose. But man...you gotta get out there. I liked the tern nature deficit disorder. You don't have to be an immigrant to experience that. I know home growens who don't have a clue and think that the local park is wilderness.

The article certainly emphasized the humongous blessings and the richness in wilderness land that we have. It also pointed out cultural differences that were interesting. Sort of like we keep dogs as pets while other societies keep them to eat.

 

True - I remember when I started teaching outdoor skills. I got the same reaction and we are not talking about immigrants. And you are right about getting them excited about the idea of exploring camping.

I started by having the group [about eight boys 10 and 11] cook simple soup. Of course that meant they had to find wood, build a fire, light it, get water from the stream, boil it, add the soup mix, cook it, and then - eat it. FUN STUFF! While they were eating soup and crackers I introduced other possibilities and asked for a show of hands it they were interested. Yep...they were.

 

I think that camping, like so many other old-timey pleasures, has just kind of been lost in the hectic lifestyle of many people (especially city-dwellers) nowdays. Living in town; and even worse , a large city, people are just not close to any place to go and canp, and many of them seem to have no interest in doing so. Kids are playing computer-animated games, and sometimes, even getting them to go swimming at the local park is not easy.
I think that having a "camping experience" training session is a great idea. Of course, they can't begin to learn every single thing that they need to know about camping; but they can at leat get an xperience and see if it interests them or not. And it is proabably way better than just leading up the kids and wandering off in the woods to a campground for the weekend.

 

Agreed - what concerns me is that our youth are missing out on opportunities to be adventurous in a real world, void of any electronic device.

 

I totally agree with you about that , Dancer, and these kids nowdays have no idea what a great experience that they are missing. I think that camping, and other outdoor activities , are things that we can pass down to our children and grandchildren. My folks enjoyed going camping and fishing, and when I had children, then I also took them out horseback riding, camping and fishing.
Now, I enjoy seeing my oldest son posting pictures of taking his children out into the wilderness for the wekends. They enjoy traveling on the narrow mountain trails, and going places that I (or my folks) would probably ever have gone.
I imagine that one of these days, they will be grown up and married and teaching their children how to enjoy the out of doors.
Most of the city kids just never get to do much better than a trip to the local park, and they probably take their cell phones along to text while they are there.

 

We are becoming a nation of "inside people" in many ways. It used to be that a lot of people lived in the country, or at least in a house where they had a large yard, room for a garden, and a swing set for the kids to play on. There would be some kind of a wooded lot off down the road where we could build a fort, or just hide out, or play cowboys and indians.
Now, when you look at a neighborhood; often the house is huge, and takes up most of the lot. No garden, and sometimes there are flowers, but usually just landscaping shrubbery.
People come home, go inside, and except for a BBQ on the back deck; they live in front of the television or the computer. Many of the kids seem to exist in some virtual online world of gaming or wars. When these people do go outside, they are slathered in sunscreen; and drive their air-conditioned car.
If our economy ever does collapse, or an EMP hits us; these people are going to be in a world of hurt, because they have very little connection with the real world.

 

I find that if I wear my summer hat and sunglasses, I usually don't need sunscreen; plus it is much more sophisticated looking for going out in society.

 

I am going camping soon