​​​​• This course will look at living/teaching in the outdoors utilizing traditional skills and classic camping style. Skills will reflect the philosophical underpinnings presented in the Case Studies discussed during the course.

 

• The focus of the course will look at the changes to American camping techniques over the past century – how they have changed, why they have changed, what impacts have been created by these changes, and how recapturing traditional skills might affect program outcomes and our future.

 

Elders of the Tribe

    Each Case Study has a number of biographies of

historic/influential people that should be reviewed.

You will be assigned three Elders of the Tribe that

you must research and present in class – this is a

short biographical sketch along with any unique bits

of information about that person as well as their

contributions to our camping traditions. (Elders are

listed at the bottom of each Case Study question form).

Here are 2 sample reports - John Burroughs and

Horace Kephart.    

 

Projects

    Each Case Study will have specific skills that relate

to the topic of discussion – Woodcraft to LNT =

Traditional Edged Tool Use; Camping As Commodity =

Fire Making (From Flint to Matches); Why Teach

Woodcraft = Bindcraft to Ropecraft, etc. Specific

projects may include knife/sheath making, bow saw

making, Bushcookers, rope making and uses, Ditty

Bags, spoon carving, as well as many practical

skills like hearth management, fire lighting, cooking,

tent and tarp use, knife/saw/axe use and more.

 

Course Study Guide

    As designed, this course relates directly to the text – Camping In The Old Style - but contains a variety of readings, links to on-line resources, study questions and a file of resources that you may wish to consult for additional study on the subject. Much of this material is from the instructor’s files and has influenced his thinking about the subject.                         

    Which brings us to a topic of concern. It is no secret that your instructor does not agree with much of the dogma that is presented in many of the outdoor-related (Adventure Education) courses offered for study at most universities in this country. It will be his task to present you with materials that will help you see why he feels that way.  It will be his goal to unabashedly bring you to a more centrist point of view than has been offered to you in the past. This will require you being exposed to some “radical” * ideas about outdoor education and how it is being used as a pedagogy (a way of teaching).

 

• rad’ ikel 1. of or pertaining to roots or origins; fundamental. Radical emphasizes the idea of going to the root of a mat­ter, and this often seems immoderate in its thoroughness or completeness: radical ideas; radical changes or reforms.  Random House Collegiate Dictionary

• NOTE – Compare this definition to what is available on-line. All reference to this word meaning “roots” or “fundamentals” has been updated to imply “change” rather than  “origins”. “Radically New” should be an oxymoron.

 

    Is it safe to disagree with the instructor? Absolutely yes, and you will not be penalized for it so long as you have a valid argument to the contrary. This may require some study on your part. You do not have to “out debate” the instructor, but you should have a valid argument for your counterpoint. Hopefully this will be an enriching exercise and fun for everyone rather than an “I win – You lose” process.

 

How This Study Guide Works

    Now that you understand the ground rules, let’s get started. Each class will start a new Case Study. 

• Open the file for the Case to be discussed. In the file will be a document entitled – Case Study #_ Overview  –  this will contain the Case Study and the study questions. Review it first and it will speed up the reading process.      

• Next, open the file entitled – Case Study #_ Text - this document will contain an overview of the case, reading excerpts and links to complete text files if you want to read them, reference resources to help you with your study questions, links to videos as well as links to other interesting bits of information. 

• Additional sub-files contain background information that may be of interest to you in the future should you wish to continue further study.

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