On the trail.

demonstating throwing stick techniqueThe principal goals of this course were to provide activities that would challenge the target groups and thereby offer a risk-taking alternative to drugs and alcohol, and to replace the gang mentality with a tribal consciousness, which would allow greater co-operation and less peer pressure.  We attempted to foster love of nature and respect for all living things.  The specific goals within the structure of the program were to teach the acquisition of shelter, water, fire and food from the landscape.

While we fell short of some of our goal that everyone be able to accomplish fire and water acquisition skills, each group successfully built a debris hut, achieved a greater appreciation of nature and was able to identify some wild edible plants.  As far as a feeling of tribal unity was concerned, the achievement of this was one of the great successes of the program. At the end of the course, children were much more respectful of each other and much more willing to help each other than they had been at the beginning of the course.The children developed a sense of accomplishment from having survived the program itself, which was often physically demanding. At the end of the program, we interviewed a cross-section of students, asking what they had learned and what they had done when they got home from the camp each day.

These interviews indicated that the children were engaged not only in the camp, but in their time afterwards as well. Some of the activities, such as the experience of being blindfolded for a long period of time, seemed to have made a deep impression on the campers.
The parents felt more connected with their children as a result of this course. 80% said that they would now like to go camping with their children.

The program helped mainstream individuals who had been classified by their schools. Five out of the fifteen campers in our second week’s program were in special ed, four of these were classified as ADHD. The instructor did not need to make any special accomodations for these individuals, and their behavior was not outside the normal range of behavior for the campers as a whole. In fact, we did not know that one of our campers was classified ADHD until after the program was completed, and when the instructors were informed by the parent, they were shocked. This individual had demonstrated maturity, had paid attention, and in fact had shown leadership skills and was often cited as an example to the others, especially when it came to the painstakingly detailed work of tracking. We conducted 1 minute interviews with a dozen of our campers, and I have included the raw data here:
What did you like best about the course?
I liked doing activities and playing games and going into the water and learning how to survive out in the woods
What did you do when you got home from the camp?
I built my own hut and forts
Would you like to take another course like this?
I would like to take another
What did you learn in this course?
How to make a fire in the wilderness and how to make a hut out of sticks and dried pine needles.
What did you do when you got home from the camp
I showered and talked to my mom about what we did in the camp.
Would you like to take other courses?
Yes

What did you lean in this course?
You could move through the woods quietly and track all different kinds of animals.
What did you do when you got home from the camp?
I went outside and played with my friends.
Would you like to take another course like this?
Maybe. Depends.
What did you learn from this course?
Trees are important like people are important they have families like they do.
What did you do when you got home from camp?
I remembered stuff that Matt talked about in camp.
Would you like to take another course?
Love to take another course.

What did you learn from this course?
How to make a hut,
What did you do afterwards? We took a shower, ate and fell asleep.
Would you like to take another course after this one? Love to.

What did you learn from this course?
That a blind person can go through woods.
What did you do when you got home?
Work on spoons and thought about what I did over last few days
What would you like to learn about the most? To live alone in the woods.

What did you learn from this course?
Build a fire and a hut.
What did you do when you got home?
Thought about nature and animals and stuff.
Would you like to take another course after this one? Yes another course.
 What would you like to learn about the most? Finding out what I can eat in the wilderness.

What did you learn from this course?
Tons of things. Right way to carve, much more about tracking, different way to make a fire, the best wood to use. More deep things. I’m  closer to nature and god than ever before.
Would you like to take another course like this? No course would be the same as this one. All the skills are fun to me.
 What would you like to learn about the most? I really like stalking.
What did you learn from this course? More about animals, you have to face your fears, or else they'll get worse when you get older, and whole lot of stuff about nature.
What would you like to learn about the most? I like to practice stalking animals.

What did you learn from this course? I learned different paths, new world that the teacher is talking about . Friendship and dedications, and everyone like K. in my whole entire life he never helped me, but he's helping me, and I feel better because the people I used to know helped me and now I feel like a tribe with them and that makes me feel good.
Course: Stalking.
What did you learn from this course? If you follow other tracks, you may be able to find other animals that ate the first.
I learned how to make a fire and how to make a hut, and how to hunt.
I thought about how I did so good in the woods and how nice the woods are.
I want to do more carving.
I asked the kids to explain how the course would help them stay away from drugs and alcohol:
The more attached to nature, the less attached to drugs.
In survival, you do not watch TV, no commercials and no drugs and alcohol.
Woods takes people's mind off drugs and alcohol.
Staying in the woods gets the mind off drugs and alcohol.
These are new distractions from drugs and alcohol.
I learn to like the woods, not drugs and alcohol.

Benefits the parents saw: The children learned a lot, positive things, skills that they never had before. It made them more respectful, it has been a little helpful, helped me. Other courses? Yes. survival skills and woods. Life skills.
 

I have seen positive influence. different attitude toward nature.
It will Help toward preventing drug abuse.

I saw definite benefits, because J used to be afraid of everything, including heights, and having her in trees, and pushing her fears really helped her. She had a whole new tremendous awareness of plants and animals she didn’t even know existed.
If there were other courses? Definitely, I’d enroll her. For adults? For myself, I’d say yes, I’d definitely be interested.
It gives the kids a focus and keeps them involved and catches their interest, my kid was really into it, and was very sad when it was over. It showed her that she didn’t have to stand alone, that the kids could stand together to survive. This is the kind of focus and lessons that will keep kids drug-free.
 

Instructor’s reaction:
What do you think were the program’s biggest strengths?
One of the biggest things I saw was the kids really learned that if they want something, they have to put their own time and energy into it and the at things aren’t just handed to them. Self-motivation.

What do you think were the major achievements of the first week’s program? C getting a bow-drill fire from a set carved from sticks, not brought cedar, and they were carved with rocks. That was a major accomplishment. By the end of the week, the kdis were taking care of each other and the older kids acted more adult-like towards the younger kids, even among the group.

What do you think the major achievements of the second week’s program were?
The kids let go of their fears and immersed their selves in nature. The debris huts the second week were far better than the teenagers did. Exceptional quality debris huts.

How do you think the nature of the community of STR and the background they offered, how was this a positive or a negative?
For one,it seems the kids in this community play alot together. It is more open than most communities, so the kids were more comfortable with each other in group settings, and they knew each other so that was definitely a strength. The only weakness I noticed, were the encounters we had with the outsiders in center homes yelling at the kids.

What were the program’s biggest drawbacks?
What would you do differently next time?
One of the I would have spent less time in the camp area and more time fully in the woods. Ideally, though it may not be realistic yet, I’d like to have a full-on five day long sleeping in the woods type of thing because I believe that by going home each day you reconnect with your separation from nature and after a week you break with the comforts of home.

How do you think this program will stem the use of drugs and alcohol for these kids?
I think that by learning to connect themselves with nature kids of all ages will find their own uniquenes sand their own selfworth which makes them value themselves mroe and they[re less prone to do things they know are harmful to them. Also the kids bond with each other and that way they can have their friends but they are all into the same thing which isn’t drugs. Group friendship does not revolve around the “normal” things that gangs of kids revolve their time around, plus it’s something exciting and challenging and it has some of the same appeals of drugs, kind of dangerous, kind of on the edge, something they control, and gives them separation from the norm.