fitzo
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- Aug 14, 2001
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Back in the days when I hunted, our “deer camp” was a friend’s farm up in Wisconsin. It was a family camp, often 30 or more people. Almost yearly there were new young people joining the hunters to learn.
My recollection is that there seemed to be two types of young people with large differences between them.
One type always seemed mature for their age. They realized that the adult hunters were happy to teach them everything they knew as long as they didn’t make a nuisance of themselves and did their part to learn. After all, passsing on knowledge to good students of the younger generation was a time honored tradition. The novice hunters mostly kept quiet and tried to learn by the example they were seeing in the adults. They knew that they would receive good answers to good questions. The very best realized that they were being taught in a way that would bring them along as a hunter, and that those who were teaching them knew best what they were doing with their advice. They realized that if they made a pest out of themselves they would become unwelcome, and made sure not to do that. They followed suggestions closely. If corrected, they listened and learned, never acting like a pouty child. They understood they needed the adults to learn from, not the other way around. Every one of those young people turned out to be excellent hunters, often surpassing their teachers.
Then there was another type that was invariably immature for their age, not prepared yet to learn. They seemed to think that acceptance as a student meant they were an equal member of the hunt. They needed to always be the center of attention. Constant non-relevant questions were spit out just to be heard by the adults. They talked incessantly. They didnt really learn much because they spent more time talking than listening. They missed all the suggestions to be more quiet, too self-absorbed to admit they were a total pest and poor student. If corrected, they would grow petulant and pouty, and try to make the adults seem like all their problems were the adult’s failing instead of theirs. Like children years younger, everything was always someone else’s fault. As soon as someone stroked their ego a bit they would “forgive” the adults and expect to be treated nicer. Slowly but surely, though, the adults would realize this child wasn’t really interested, and was mostly just wanting attention. Once in awhile they would get the hint and turn into the type who made good students. When the teacher realized they now had a good student, they were welcomed. Often, though, they blamed everyone else for their failure and went away sullenly. They never were honest with themselves.
I can’t remember one of this latter type, never self-honest, who ever made a good hunter.
I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about this lately, but just thought I’d share this observation.
My recollection is that there seemed to be two types of young people with large differences between them.
One type always seemed mature for their age. They realized that the adult hunters were happy to teach them everything they knew as long as they didn’t make a nuisance of themselves and did their part to learn. After all, passsing on knowledge to good students of the younger generation was a time honored tradition. The novice hunters mostly kept quiet and tried to learn by the example they were seeing in the adults. They knew that they would receive good answers to good questions. The very best realized that they were being taught in a way that would bring them along as a hunter, and that those who were teaching them knew best what they were doing with their advice. They realized that if they made a pest out of themselves they would become unwelcome, and made sure not to do that. They followed suggestions closely. If corrected, they listened and learned, never acting like a pouty child. They understood they needed the adults to learn from, not the other way around. Every one of those young people turned out to be excellent hunters, often surpassing their teachers.
Then there was another type that was invariably immature for their age, not prepared yet to learn. They seemed to think that acceptance as a student meant they were an equal member of the hunt. They needed to always be the center of attention. Constant non-relevant questions were spit out just to be heard by the adults. They talked incessantly. They didnt really learn much because they spent more time talking than listening. They missed all the suggestions to be more quiet, too self-absorbed to admit they were a total pest and poor student. If corrected, they would grow petulant and pouty, and try to make the adults seem like all their problems were the adult’s failing instead of theirs. Like children years younger, everything was always someone else’s fault. As soon as someone stroked their ego a bit they would “forgive” the adults and expect to be treated nicer. Slowly but surely, though, the adults would realize this child wasn’t really interested, and was mostly just wanting attention. Once in awhile they would get the hint and turn into the type who made good students. When the teacher realized they now had a good student, they were welcomed. Often, though, they blamed everyone else for their failure and went away sullenly. They never were honest with themselves.
I can’t remember one of this latter type, never self-honest, who ever made a good hunter.
I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about this lately, but just thought I’d share this observation.
