Bushcraft club - help!

[RobD]

Sorry if this is the wrong thread but not sure where this fits in!

Help, am I looking at this all wrong? Here's the deal:

I'm a teacher and am going to run a simple bushcraft club for the kids in my school - age 10/11 - along the lines of simple knot tying, using stoves (Trangia types etc), navigation, tent building, shelter making, wide games... you get the picture. It's designed to try and engage our lost boys back into something they can talk and maybe even feel good about themselves in.

Well I told them to call it The Bushcraft Club I was derieded by the female staff for picking a wholly inappropriate name for the club. I was a bit lost but they then explained that 'wouldn't it look funny if Mr D was teaching children BUSH craft skills' - the connotation referring to female anatomy!

Now not sure if I should change the name of the club. What does the community think? Is this OTT or am I not seeing it right?

[FishyFolk]

Those female teachers obviously need to fill a few gaps in their education...
Keep the name.

[Tony1948]

Thats there hang ups not you'rs or the kids.Call it wot it is BUSHCRAFT.

[comanighttrain]

Change it to Muffskillz group

[fish]

why not just start your own branch of the forest school?

[AdrianRose]

why not just start your own branch of the forest school?

Unfortunately that can't be done. They have copy written the name and it's takes a few thousand pound to become one of their "approved" instructors.

I looked into it a while ago then when I saw the price for a qualification in something I've been doing for 20yrs I ran to the horizon.

Ade.

[jus_young]

Show them a copy of Mr Mears book and sugest to them that they should write and inform him that he uses inappropriate terms and that all his material and TV shows should be edited to reflect this. Then see their reaction and tell them to stop being so petty as this is the terminology that has been used for decades.

This kind of narrow mindedness really !*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!* !*!* !!!

[mrs fish]

keep it what it is bush craft

[comanighttrain]

Beaver club?

[jus_young]

Beaver club?

Strangely this one already exists. Its the Scout group for the younguns before they join Cubs. Never been a problem for them.

[comanighttrain]

Strangely this one already exists. Its the Scout group for the younguns before they join Cubs. Never been a problem for them.

haha what? really?

[comanighttrain]

http://scouts.org.uk/beavers/

bwahahahah no way... well there you go.

[fish]

scouts vary from group to group,my kids stopped going,after all the xpense of costumes!, our local group just do colouring in and play tag in a hall!

[Reaps72]

You can approach the scout association to set up an official scout troop in your school!

[jus_young]

You can approach the scout association to set up an official scout troop in your school!

Sometimes this just won't work. There is still a real stigma associated with the Scouts and if you have troubled youngsters - the idea of going to 'Scouts' will not go down well. Its a shame really as some of these kids would love to run around the woods with knives and axes setting light to everything, I know my Scouts do :ashamed:

[AL...]

You could call it the Woodlore club if you you dont want to call it by its real name Bushcraft.
Think those female teachers need to bloody well grow up a bit!

Cheers
AL

[jus_young]

And as my good lady just stated, these female staff should get their minds out of the gutter and get over it :D

These kids are going to be 10/11 year olds and some of these anatomical terms are going to be meaningless to them at this age, and by the time they realise the 'other meaning' , the appreciation of our outdoor ways will already be set.

[Silverback]

what a crock of sh1t.....makes your blood boil people getting offended on behalf of people who arent offended et al ad nauseum

[paulthefish2009]

Think there being a bit childish to be honest,but if it really is a big deal then how about "woodland land club"? or as Tony says, stuff em and keep the name. Paul

[Oakenwise]

Don't pander to the uninformed and the immature. Those were adults to whom you were speaking? Really? That's shameful.

Just explain that Bushcraft is a very popular term.

Keep it.

[Silverback]

You can have a tv adverts for 'lady garden topiary tools' and the varying shapes, and ooooh bodyform, and ooh lets cure feminine itching with some 'clunge cream' but people get all bashful over the word BUSH...oh FFS !!

[jus_young]

Speaking of females, the wife and kids have been baking. I've just had a lovely fudge muffin :ashamed:

[SimonB]

Shove a fox brush up her nose.... She's trying to play the politically correct card..... Worst thing ever created... Bushcraft is just that... The term was there long before all this namby pamby hoity toity do goody bunch of nesbits... And as for Beavers?... I was a beaver leader and the kids were fantastic... Luckily we had a group leader who believed in the old traditions, and my lot spent more time playing hide and seek in the woods and cooking sausages on sticks than they spent indoors..... They LOVED it !! I am sure your kids will love it just as much... Tell the bint to wind her neck in...

[comanighttrain]

fudge muffin

that can mean something else and I think people find this offensive. Please call it a "wheat based sugary snack with coloured cocao and sugar-blocks"

[Raven]

i think that bushcraft has become a word much more related to Mr Mears nowadays than the other, most kids of that age would have seen or heard of him and there for not a problem, says a lot more about that person to suggest the other meaning if you ask me, but if its a bother to you, use anything, woodland skills would be my choice!


oh yeah, my seven year old is in beavers, made me chuckle when i first heard the name but i didn't assume he would be learning ......umm.....skills above his age grade.:ashamed:

[Humakt]

So when you take them out and start cutting branches and things, will you be trimming each other's bushes?

[RobD]

Think it was cause all the other staff had no real idea of what bushcraft is all about. I did have to explain it to them and cite Ray Mears. At this point a couple went, oh right so that's what it is all about then.

Had no funny comments since!

In an effort to redirect the main point I wonder does anyone have any thoughts on what might constitute some good things to teach the kids.

[FishyFolk]

Think it was cause all the other staff had no real idea of what bushcraft is all about. I did have to explain it to them and cite Ray Mears. At this point a couple went, oh right so that's what it is all about then.

Had no funny comments since!

In an effort to redirect the main point I wonder does anyone have any thoughts on what might constitute some good things to teach the kids.


How to use a knife safely
Fire starting
Don't leave a trace
Debree shelter
Rowan whistle (in the spring)
If you get snow, - Snow shelter


Oh and before you go out with them in trhe forrst....call in their parents and teach them how to clothe their kids for a day out, will save you a lot of grief

I took my wilderness group (10-12) year up in the mountaoins in winter, sleeping overnight in a tent, and thought them how to survive avalanches...kids that age are amazing if you dare let them.