A survival course, from the other side

[forestwalker]

I hve just spent a week in the real world (i.e. the forest), being one of a team teaching a surival course in Sweden. I won't bore anyone with the minutae of the curriculum and so on (nor I hope get the mods upset by plugging said course), but I guess that some observations are ok.

* Not everyone is at home in the woods. I allways have to stop and think, and realize that for some the woods is not the safe and familiar plce it is for me.

* The look on peoples face when they start a fire without matches (we used FC steels: no time in a basic course to teach the bowdrill). Allways the same same "I did it!" expression.

* Plants. I am always reminded of Mark Twains essay "Two Ways of Seeing a River". That flower is still pretty, even if you know that the leaves contain methylsalicylate. But it is really an eye opener for most people, to learn what you can use plants for.

* Attitude to comfort. The students spent three nights out, with minimal gear (just basic clothes and a piece of plastic tarpulin, a knife, a plastic cup, a FC steel, some minimal fishing kit and a small compass). For a beginner that means an uncomfortable night until they get the hang of shelter building and fires. For some the lack of comfort (and food) is major issue, for others it is not.

* How much fun it is to teach.

 

[hog]

True words and wisdom in them.

 

[Dannytsg]

Some very good observations and never truer words spoken.

 

[Harvestman]

I love teaching. Even though I only get to do it on an ad-hoc basis, I still find that I can't turn off the teacher in me. If the opportunity is there, I'm in.

I think a love of teaching is usually accompanied by a love of learning, too, and few things make me happier than learning something I didn't know before.

 

[bushwacker bob]

I saw the title and thought you had failed the course and had passed over.

 

[horsevad]

* Not everyone is at home in the woods. I allways have to stop and think, and realize that for some the woods is not the safe and familiar plce it is for me.

This is really important, and so easily forgotten. Only when we take the time to actually understand the anxiousness and unsafe feeling some people get from being in the natural environment we can begin to help them to advance in the direction of self-sufficiency. The danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard actually wrote a great deal about this "The art of Helping"- not in the wilderness survival context, but in a more general way.

I have found a english translation for Søren Kirkegaards "The art of helping", which is quoted below. For me, it is something I try to remember each time I am teaching a course:

If One Is Truly to Succeed in Leading a Person to a Specific Place, One Must First and Foremost Take Care to Find Him Where He is and Begin There.
​

This is the secret in the entire art of helping.


Anyone who cannot do this is himself under a delusion if he thinks he is able to help someone else. In order truly to help someone else, I must understand more than he–but certainly first and foremost understand what he understands.


If I do not do that, then my greater understanding does not help him at all. If I nevertheless want to assert my greater understanding, then it is because I am vain or proud, then basically instead of benefiting him I really want to be admired by him.


But all true helping begins with a humbling.


The helper must first humble himself under the person he wants to help and thereby understand that to help is not to dominate but to serve, that to help is a not to be the most dominating but the most patient, that to help is a willingness for the time being to put up with being in the wrong and not understanding what the other understands.

​

(From "Kierkegaard’s Writings, Volume 22, Chapter A2" (translated by H.&E. Hong)


Btw, are you with "Överlevnadssällskapet"?


//Kim Horsevad

 

[forestwalker]

I have found a english translation for Søren Kirkegaards "The art of helping", which is quoted below. For me, it is something I try to remember each time I am teaching a course:
...

If I do not do that, then my greater understanding does not help him at all. If I nevertheless want to assert my greater understanding, then it is because I am vain or proud, then basically instead of benefiting him I really want to be admired by him.


But all true helping begins with a humbling.


The helper must first humble himself under the person he wants to help and thereby understand that to help is not to dominate but to serve, that to help is a not to be the most dominating but the most patient, that to help is a willingness for the time being to put up with being in the wrong and not understanding what the other understands.

​

(From "Kierkegaard’s Writings, Volume 22, Chapter A2" (translated by H.&E. Hong)

That is a very good summary. I am a teacher, so I understand those words ever so well. One should allways consider why one wants to teach. For me it is because I love imparting, sharing understanding and knowledge.

Btw, are you with "Överlevnadssällskapet"?

Yep. The course was our basic course (I'm trying to sort out of it would be possible to run a version of it in English next year, more on that when I (a) know for sure and (b) have sorted out the membership stuff here so as to not anger the mods).

I love the woods up here (put your finger on the middle of Sweden: about there): still some deep woods left, pretty small lakes with fish in them, I've seen tracks of both wolves, lynx and bears in the region.