Why Earth Skills?
Connecting kids with physical reality
by Thomas J. Elpel, Director

     In a culture where people are increasingly detached from the natural world, it is more and more common to see printed warnings and instructions for things that should be plainly obvious, such as coffee cups that say "Caution: Contents may be hot."

     In the past when kids had little else to do, they went outside and played physical games. But now kids spend more and more time engaged in mental recreation, watching movies, playing video games, or surfing the internet. Our educational institutions are also highly focused on mental learning, especially the regurgitation of facts and figures and the ability to complete complex calculations. It is easy to measure this kind of learning progress through written tests, but none of that really means anything if you cannot connect it back to physical reality.

     I've seen it in kids and adults who wonder why a big stick won't ignite with the flame from a single match. They have no concept of basic physics. Other people have asked the most bizarre questions, like "Where do they put all the animals in Yellowstone Park at night?" They simply have no concept of reality. As a society, how can we function that way? How can voters make sound choices at the polls when they are not connected to the most basic things, such as where the electricity comes from when they flip on a light switch?

     I've seen the work of professors with lots of credentials behind their names who have crunched all the numbers and "proved" that it is impossible to create a sustainable society, even if we try. We will just hum along consuming all the resources on the planet until we crash and burn. And yet, I am building a house right now that is designed so that it will not require either fossil fuels or biofuels like firewood to heat and power it. Through basic physics and simple design concepts, it is projected to stay warm through the long Montana winters solely on sunshine, and with some efficient appliances powered by a few solar panels, it will produce as much or more electricity than it consumes. If that is the standard that we use when building or remodeling houses, then sustainability just isn't that difficult. But you cannot get there on a piece of paper alone. To make the mental leap, you have to have real experience with solar design in the physical world.

     A friend of mine has a Ph.D. in economics. Although he has a good paying job as an economist, he has expressed repeatedly how useless his formal education seems, because he didn't know how to do anything with his hands. It's kind of like having a brain in a box on a shelf--what good is your brain if it isn't wired to your body in a way that enables you to interact with the physical world? How can you truly claim to understand the world we live in if you've only read about it?

     Even here in Montana, where we are surrounded by nature and wilderness, Montana's youth are becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural world. Many of our young people have lived here all their lives, yet never hiked up to a nearby mountain lake or even camped out overnight, except on their own lawn. Kids are so engrossed with indoor activities involving computers and multimedia, that many of them never discover the fields, woods, and streams right outside their doors.

     The purpose of our Earth Skills Education program is to connect kids with the world they live in. The program has evolved in bits and pieces over the years, starting with volunteer work I did when our kids were in grade school. I made it a goal to get each of their classes out each year for a fun and educational day of primitive skills and nature awareness. Day trips in elementary school led to overnight camping trips in junior high, which turned into a school tradition, and led to the desire to do multi-day canoe trips in high school.

     On these outings the kids learned to do things in very physical ways---building shelters with branches and bark, starting campfires by rubbing sticks together, identifying and harvesting wild plants, stalking through woods looking and listening for wildlife. But along the way I also noticed a huge, but hard to quantify, cumulative difference in the kids. With only one short experience each year, they seemed to become more and more comfortable in the outdoors, more resourceful and confident in their abilities, more sensible in their logic of what works and what doesn't work, and more respectful of the natural world. Sure, they were maturing the rest of the year too, but compared to classes of older students that didn't have the benefit of previous field trips, I could see a big difference.

     Inspired by the results that I've seen, the Earth Skills Education program we have created is intended to make it possible to get every kid from every grade out every year. The program is cumulative, building upon the skills learned each previous year, such that by the time kids graduate from school, they will be more comfortable in the outdoors, more respectful of nature, more confident in everything they do, and a bit more connected to the physical world.

     The Earth Skills Education program started out as intermittent volunteer work, but we are now running it as a commercial enterprise, with hired instructors, and funded mostly by grants. To date we have worked al most exclusively with our local school, but we hope to expand to other local schools in the near future.

     At the same time, we are beginning to draft a K - 12 Earth Skills Curriculum Guide with lesson plans that will make it easy for teachers anywhere in the country to incorporate this kind of experiential learning into the classroom, in a way that ties directly into existing curriculums. Stay tuned for more!

Earth Skills Programs for Public Schools
We Connect Students with the Real World!

Elementary School: Earth Skills Classes
     Learning should be fun, and there is no shortage of that when we turn young students loose in the great outdoors. We prefer to have our classes in the field for an entire school day, while we cover a range of complimentary active and sedentary topics with age-appropriate material such as animal stalking games, fire-safety, and story-telling for younger grades, or wild-clay pottery, flint and steel fire-starting, and botany for the older grades.

     Students get hands-on history and science lessons as they learn the basic living skills of our native and pioneer ancestors for building shelters, starting fires without matches, making cordage from natural fibers, and sewing pouches or making containers to hold things, as well as learning about useful plants and how to stalk and observe wildlife. Classes are held at the nearest suitable farm, ranch or public property where we have permission to teach.

Junior High: Overnight Camping Trips
     The overnight camping trip with junior high students has a way of bringing kids together in an inclusive, meaningful, and memorable way. Some students who have never been camping before are initially afraid to go out in the woods and get dirty, afraid to sleep in a shelter that might have bugs in it, or reluctant to participate in activities with the other kids. But it doesn't take long for the fun of the learning experience to become completely infectious among everyone. Even after camping in the worst possible weather, our participants beg us for the chance to go out again!

     Students learn to start fires without matches by "rubbing sticks together" using the bow and drill. They build or repair the shelters we sleep in. They learn to cook great meals without modern dishes or utensils. They learn more advanced botany and ecology concepts, engaging in science, history and writing throughout the two-day experience. Junior high camping trips are held on a private ranch near Willow Creek in shelters built and tested by previous classes.

High School: Adventure Education
     The epic journey of Lewis and Clark helped shape the destiny of our country for the last 200 years. Today, every student should have their own epic journey to shape their own personal destinies. Fifty years from now they won't be spinning yarns about a movie they watched as teenagers, or how they wandered around the mall for hours on end. But they might reminisce about how they spent five days canoeing the Jefferson River following the trail of Lewis and Clark. For many students, this can be the adventure of a lifetime and an experience that can spark their confidence to pursue all of their great dreams.

Academically, students learn lifelong skills for responsible outdoor recreation. They get greater immersion into natural science and ecology, the history of Lewis and Clark on the Jefferson River, and they have an opportunity for uniquely introspective writing projects and poetry. Trips are scheduled in the spring before water levels rise, or in the fall. The Jefferson River is surrounded by ranches and roads, yet still retains it's historical feel.

Looking for a unique educational experience for your school?
Please Contact Us to explore the possibilities. (Only available in Montana.)

Looking for adult primitive skills programs with Thomas J. Elpel?
Please check out our programs at Green University.

Check out these books by Thomas J. Elpel!

Participating in Nature

Botany in a Day

Direct Pointing to Real Wealth

Living Homes

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