The first two interviews I conducted for my problem occurred in the classroom where we are learning the process. These are, in a way, “controls” as neither person was a part of my target demographic, but that is okay because the conversations we had still pertained to my problem and my research. The first interview was with Deeb and my second was with Alana. Both have limited knowledge and familiarity with Boy Scouts; therefore, the conversations steered away from scouts in particular and more towards education, media, and information.
Deeb expects Boy Scouts to learn knots and to begin learning them early on in their scouting careers. He is familiar with Cub Scouts and knows that even they have to learn knots before they’re even Boy Scouts. Deeb spent some time living in Canada, and he was a little surprised that – even in a place where the winters drop well below freezing – outdoor skills based knowledge isn’t available or isn’t considered as pertinent as other information, especially in school. It amazes me to think that there are people who don’t know how to survive a snowstorm or power outage even though they live that far north.
Alana expects Boy Scouts to know survival skills almost immediately. How else would they be able to go camping and hiking if they didn’t have those skills already down? A reasonable expectation for sure. As our conversation began to leave scouting, she talked about how the media was influencing everything and how it can be more effective on impressionable young people – especially gripping or compelling media. She was also having some troubles in a class: a teacher was making things very difficult because the class doesn’t have access to many ancillary materials. Also, the teacher has a hard time being clear and engaging with their students.
From all of this, I glean three major things. First, many people think outdoor skills, such as fire starting, knots, etc. is something all scouts know and that they learn these things early in their careers. Second, I see that access to learning materials is often a hindering factor to learning – whether that’s because of money, medium, or other obstacles. Finally, being clear, engaging, and amiable is an absolute must have when trying to teach effectively.
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