School boys survival kit-what went wrong ?

[ratamahatta]

I think now everybody try's to be politically correct and not to be themselves. I got my edumication in 97 and I carried a pocketknife, now I carry a bigger knife and .45 acp with, MAN I LOVE THIS FORUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[pitdog]

I have to smile when I think my dad used to insist I take a knife into the woods with me incase I found any mushrooms, he always insisted I cut them at the stalk rather than pull them up !

 

[nc527]

G'day Pit



They have upgraded their PSK's to mobile phones, MP3's & PSP's (essential "survival" items for the modern school kid ).



Kind regards
Mick

I would trade my ipod and psp to be able to carry at school.

 

[Mistwalker]

Hell, even some scout groups BAN knives, even the SAK.

That makes about as much sense as handing out speeding tickets at an Indy.

And yet some troupes of "the Scouts" are participating in a "youth border control" volunteer training program where the kids train to assault buildings wearing body armor and armed with air soft MP-5s.

Seems to me the scouts...much like this "republic" in general...have wandered far away from how they started.

 

[nc527]

Thats why Im not in the scouts. I can do almost anything that they do, and I would be kicked out for carrying my busse NMFBM. (BTW, I am 13)

 

[ripoil]

During my high school years (the early 80's) in East Texas, most of us hairy-legged fellas wore 110's on our belts in class everyday...sort of a status symbol and we usually had a deer rifle or shotgun in the back window racks of our pickups in the school parking lot. If someone got a new knife or gun we'd all gather around and inspect it in class or in the parking lot with no SWAT appearances whatsoever. It just never made anyone nervous. Growing up using and respecting these tools puts people in a different frame of mind. You don't fear the tool, you hold the user responsible for how it's used.

 

[nu3gawhat]

When I was in 4th-5th grade in the mid 90's I was "caught" with a SAK. Had to goto the principles office and got suspended. This was in a downtown city school.

 

[dougo83]

That makes about as much sense as handing out speeding tickets at an Indy.

And yet some troupes of "the Scouts" are participating in a "youth border control" volunteer training program where the kids train to assault buildings wearing body armor and armed with air soft MP-5s.

Seems to me the scouts...much like this "republic" in general...have wandered far away from how they started.

To ensure that this is not confused with a bunch of tots in Boy Scout uniforms:

http://www.theepitaph.com/border/177-border-patrol-explorer-program-preps-youth

These guys are, in fact, Explorers which are a part of the BSA, but they tend to focus on leadership and occupational goals for their members. This program is actually sponsored, IIRC, by the Border Patrol as well as a way to foster understanding of their mission.

 

[dougo83]

I graduated HS in 2002. I always had a small pocketknife of some sort on me. As well as a leatherman and my shotgun (or bow, depending on the season) in the truck. Usually a fishing pole and a tacklebox as well. When I got a job as a property maintenance guy my senior year, a machete, axe, and hatchet were added to the bed of the truck. I don't recall anybody saying anything. However, I almost got suspended my junior year after I sprained my neck playing football. I didn't register my prescription for vicodin with the office and kept it in my football locker. Apparently, I could have been selling them to fellow players. :jerkit: I sure as hell wasn't...my neck hurt like a mother...

 

[cssims]

that is why you dont see ye old pocketknife in the pockets of kids anymore. Hell, even some scout groups BAN knives, even the SAK.

That is a sad statement indeed. My first pocket knife, at least I'm sure it was my first, was a Boy Scouts of America SAK. Given to me by my parents in the early 80's when I was in Cub Scouts.

Through out most of my school years I had a SAK of some sort on me. The one I had and still do somewhere, it's a fake SAK I think, but still. Then in my early 20's through nearly my early 30's I carried the Victorinox Champ. Did I ever have a need for a knife while in school? Yes, to sharpen my pencil's, as the pencil sharpeners never did nearly as good of a job as when I sharpened them by hand.

Now I carry 3 knives daily. Swiss Classic on my keychain(Scissors are the main use.), Farmer in a pocket and a Kershaw Leek clipped to the other.

Tools, not weapons. Thanks goes out to the media and worthless parents! Edit: and while some may not like the word it fits some, Thanks to the sheeple also.

 

[sodak]

During my high school years (the early 80's) in East Texas, most of us hairy-legged fellas wore 110's on our belts in class everyday...sort of a status symbol and we usually had a deer rifle or shotgun in the back window racks of our pickups in the school parking lot. If someone got a new knife or gun we'd all gather around and inspect it in class or in the parking lot with no SWAT appearances whatsoever. It just never made anyone nervous. Growing up using and respecting these tools puts people in a different frame of mind. You don't fear the tool, you hold the user responsible for how it's used.

You made me laugh!! I went through HS in the 70's in rural South Dakota, we all had pocketknives. If you opened a car hood, then kids would hover like flies, cars were the big things back then. Everyone usually had a gun in the trunk for hunting, that was a given. There wasn't a huge interest in knives or guns, they were more seen as tools to get the job done. Everyone had them, they just weren't that interested. I guess that makes me the oddball..

 

[Todd A]

It kills my son( 10) to leave his Altiods kit(he has a JK tin knife in it) and SAK at home when he leaves for school.

He feels naked with out it.

His last troop leader would not allow fixed blades for the scouts.I even got the raised eyebrow at the last campout.

He has a new one now as a Webelo, so I'll have to check before the next family campout(for him, I'll still have one or two ).

 

[Bushman5]

I'm very tempted to start a new "scouts" group. After some basic training, MANDATORY kit would be a SAK, fixed blade, small forest axe and a rifle. And unlike the neutered liberal dominated scout groups here, campfires would also be a must (except during fire bans when forest conditions are bad).

 

[koyote]

I

His last troop leader would not allow fixed blades for the scouts.I even got the raised eyebrow at the last campout..

Not to derail the thread, but I think one fo the reasons the Scouts have been so off on fixed blade knives over their history is that people can and will show up (I was in Scouts, and I've seen this to be the majority case) with cheap 'rambo' knives, 10 inch bowies, sword bayonets, and other such stuff. I'd say crap but it's not all crap in the right environment- but it is in Scout camping.

If parents politely went to the scoutmasters on an individual basis for the next few years and tried to suggest fixed blade knives that have the same approximate blade length as a regular folder- 3 to 4 inches- we MIGHT be able to gain some ground. Explain the safety factors, the skillsets, volunteer to have some classes.

I'm very tempted to start a new "scouts" group. After some basic training, MANDATORY kit would be a SAK, fixed blade, small forest axe and a rifle. And unlike the neutered liberal dominated scout groups here, campfires would also be a must (except during fire bans when forest conditions are bad).

I've seen this tried- for various reasons (gender inclusion and religious dogmas being high on the list) we've look into Campfire and Spiral Scouts. Campfire is - at least locally- dying off. Like, selling off the cabin retreat, the whole group for the county appears to consist of one family we know plus 2 other boys (6 kids in all), and... no oomph. It's ripe for a takeover, though.

Spiral Scouts is DOA. A few people try, but you get too much kumbaya mixed up in it and soon you can't have a cookout because you can't decide if combustion is moral and it's downhill from there.

My son is 6 and we're about to toss him into cub scouts just because there isn't anything else. Campfire actually sounds great, but there's not enough activity in the whole Sacramento area to hold a mini jamboree.

 

[jca21]

well....

that is why you dont see ye old pocketknife in the pockets of kids anymore. Hell, even some scout groups BAN knives, even the SAK.

i was invited by a friend of mine whose a local scout leader to talk about some wilderness skills to his scout group. i was pretty damn excited and was getting stuff ready and planned to bring my grohmann #4, a CANADIAN knife to show the kids while we looked around for edible berries and plants in the woods. i also wanted to show them how to build a lean to and find natural building materials in the woods. he told me that i couldnt bring a knife, so i told him that i aint gonna come because being in the woods without a knife just plain damn retarded.

And yet some troupes of "the Scouts" are participating in a "youth border control" volunteer training program where the kids train to assault buildings wearing body armor and armed with air soft MP-5s.

Seems to me the scouts...much like this "republic" in general...have wandered far away from how they started.

maybe the gubmint is training its future soldiers for a military state??

When I was in 4th-5th grade in the mid 90's I was "caught" with a SAK. Had to goto the principles office and got suspended. This was in a downtown city school.

you think thats bad? i got caught with matches in the 4th grade and was suspended for a week! if i had been carrying a sak i probably woulda been suspended and sent for psychiatric evaluation. lol.

i carried a swiss army cadet from grade 8-12 and had it in my pocket on graduating day. no one really freaked out about me having it at school as i was usually discreet carrying it and the reason i had it is because i usually had something in my lunch that needed some cutting up (fruits and veggies or a sandwich that i didnt feel like eating all of). one time an older teacher (shop class teacher) yelled out loud in the middle of class, "does anyone have a blade". i was kinda suspicious and replied "is that a trick question?" and he said "no, i forgot my leatherman in the car." so i proceeded to hand over my sak when he said "nice sak," opened up a package holding camshaft assembly and returned my knife. i was amazed.

just goes to show you that times have changed a bunch. we see people here from all different times in life and definetly things have gone from good to bad to worse.

 

[coaldigger]

Like most of you...I also carried a slipjoint of sometype to school for a long time. No one paid any attention to it & like was said usually the teacher was borrowing it. As for the scouts around here...not very active, all they do is sale stuff. No outdoor activities or anything like that. If I had the time I would love to work w/ the scouts & try to bring it back to what it should be.
My father,Brother & Myself will be doing all the teaching my twins will need for the outdoors

 

[fishiker]

My son is 17 and he could not believe it when I told him I carried a knife to school almost every day. He really had a fit when I told him the first day of deer season was an excused absence if you had a note from a parent.

 

[sodak]

I went to college in the early 80's, and the first week of deer season most of my teachers in the Physics dept. were gone as well. It was the only week that TA's actually taught classes.

 

[ZombaiO]

I carry a knife in school.Mostly my Buck 110.It's no problem here - I mean - it's forbidden,but who cares A friend of mine carries a kukri in his school backpack...

 

[Don Rearic]

http://www.donrearic.com/kstuff1.html