The Catch 22 of Bushcraft In Schools

B25 Bomber by Frank Kovalchek from Anchorage, Alaska, USA [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The only significance of the picture of the B-25 above is that it was the type of aircraft which the main character of Joseph Hellers classic novel 'Catch 22' Captain John Yossarian serves aboard as a bombardier. The popular phrase 'Catch 22' comes from this novel and defines a situation from which there is no escape due to contradictory rules.

That is how I feel about the idea of teaching bushcraft in schools; it absolutely should happen, I'm convinced that it would be in the best interest of young people to be taught bushcraft skills, particularly skills which increase their appreciation for and understanding of the natural world. BUT although I think it SHOULD happen I'm equally convinced that school would be a terrible place for that learning to occur.

Teaching about the natural world and environment is something which the curriculum is not very good at facilitating and something which schools are notoriously bad at. The situation was almost worsened during Michael Gove's disastrous stint as Secretary of State for Education when he almost succeeded in having topics such as climate change and sustainability dropped from England's national curriculum. For someone with that level of apparent disdain for the environment and sustainability to now fill the role of  Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is frankly disturbing.

Michael Gove by Paul Clarke [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Although I think learning bushcraft skills is a great way not only to learn about the environment but is also a fantastic way to develop resilience in children as well as benefit their physical and mental health. However; just because I think buschraft skills should be taught to children of school age doesn't mean that school would be a good place to do it. As a further education lecturer, forest schools leader and trainer of forest school leaders and having worked with schools delivering extra curricular environmental education, Duke of Edinburgh's Awards and various other things I don't think schools are really equipped to deliver bushcraft in a meaningful way. Also because schools are so driven by the National Curriculum and a desire to satisfy the whims of OFSTED and be ranked favourably amongst other schools in the area teachers and leadership teams in schools will struggle to justify adding something else to what the school delivers.

While many schools do now run very commendable outdoor education programmes the pursuit and delivery of outdoor and environmental education in schools has often been down to the whims of one or two particular teachers who might have a personal enthusiasm for the outdoors or environment. While this enthusiasm might be commendable in an individual it isn't always backed up by technical expertise or subject knowledge.

I have seen some excellent good practice amongst Forest School practitioners I have had the privilege of working with and teaching but this is unfortunately not consistent and is demonstrated by people who already have considerable outdoor experience or experience of other skills such as woodworking, bushcraft and who are experienced teachers already rather than by people who are coming to forest schools leadership because they have a little bit of enthusiasm for it and their school has nominated them to run forest schools. In those cases activities come out of books or from the internet and there is little innovation to their programmes and no challenge for the students. Also a lack of environmental knowledge on the part of forest school leaders seriously undermines it's constant comparisons to the more well established outdoor learning programmes from Scandinavia as most British Forest Schools simply can't deliver the quality of environmental learning that could be provided by a subject expert. That's not to say they have to as Forest Schools in the UK is largely focused on social and emotional development and principles such as free play rather than nature as the Scandinavian (particularly Swedish) equivalents are.

The progression towards being able to influence society on environmental issues as described by the Swedish Friluftfrämjandet and as delivered by their programmes including Skogsmulle which  influenced and is often compared to the UK's forest Schools

I have drawn attention to this issue in the past as it affects the outdoor education sector as a whole:  There is a well used claim by outdoor educators that outdoor education teaches an appreciation of the environment and delivers the objectives of environmental education and have been quite critical of this claim and highlighted a lack of evidence to support it. One of the reasons for my opposition to this general claim is that outdoor educators are not necessarily subject experts when it comes to the environment. Although the outdoor education industry recognises that outdoor educators need some level of environmental knowledge to be able to answer questions about the areas where they are leading groups but this knowledge is the not the same as the subject specialism and expertise required to teach environmental education.

This would be my fear if bushcraft was suddenly added to the national curriculum that a teacher with a bit of enthusiasm for bushcraft and a good collection of Ray Mears and Bear Grylls DVD's would suddenly become the schools 'bushcraft' teacher without the skills and expertise to back up their enthusiasm.

Based on the standard wages for forest school practitioners and teaching assistants I doubt very much that a school would be willing to pay a full teachers wage for a specialist bushcraft practitioner unless a serving teacher was willing to teach bushcraft in addition to their other duties and that's where the problem begins. Suddenly you have an inexperienced person teaching buschraft, which devalues bushcrafts contribution to learning and potentially creates health and safety issues if techniques arent taught properly.

You only have to watch a few youtube videos and do a quick search of the internet to see that poor technique and inexperience abounds amongst so called 'expert' bushcrafters; people who would teach someone to carve a feather stick like the one bellow and pass it off as good technique; 

By Jim Thomas (Jomegat) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

So that would be my fear for bushcraft if it was taught in schools that it would be done poorly by people who were inexperienced partly because of the education sectors historical reliance on people with an enthusiasm for the outdoors to deliver outdoor elements of their provision and partly because I know, having worked in education long enough, that there would be no proper funding for a bushcraft teachers role if one was suddenly required by the curriculum.

These two obstacles would mean that buschraft was taught poorly, possibly dangerously and without the subject knowledge to back up the learning or contextualise it in terms of it's application to other subjects.

Ultimately bushcraft won't ever be included in the curriculum anyway because it's outcomes aren't measurable enough or closely linked to priority subjects or progression to higher learning. I think it SHOULD be but it WONT, would be done BADLY if it WAS and CAN'T be because sadly it's benefits aren't recognised by education policy makers.

Examining the Differences between Forest Schools and Skogsmulle

Skogsmulle

By In Donaldismo Veritas (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Mulle is a troll who lives in the woods (skog) of Sweden and teaches children about nature with the help of his friends laxe, fjällfina and nova. Skogsmulle is for children aged 5 to 7 and is preceded by courses for children as young as 2 and is a precursor for educational programmes aimed at older children, teenagers and adults. The programme was introduced by Gösta Fröhm in 1957 to supplement the skiing and ice skating which made up the normal programme of children's activities and education provided by the friluftfrämjandet (fresh air foundation) at that time (friluftsfämjandet 2012).  

Forest Schools

One of the tree faces made by a nursery group I thought
a six week forest schools course to in 2011 

Forest Schools are a relatively new idea in the UK, based on similar well established programmes in Scandinavia such as Skogsmulle in Sweden or naturebørnehaven in Denmark. Primarily aimed at younger children (primary school age or younger) it is easy to link forest schools courses to the national curriculum even up to level 3. Due to the relatively recent establishment of Forest schools in the UK there is little data to indicate whether learning simple ecological principles such as food chains and plant identification in a forest school setting prepares learners for more advanced theory in the classroom or in FE, this begs the question; are students more environmentaly aware in countries where these programmes are well established and heavily subscribed to?  In a vocational education setting Forest Schools is relevant within the subjects of countryside management an outdoor education as these students may require training to deliver Forest Schools programmes in the future. 

Comparing the Two

Here I will compare the goals and also the approach to delivering and embedding the programmes.  

	Skogsmulle	Forest Schools
Goals	The need to Improve children’s relationship with nature and make them aware of the environment to the point that they can influence society for the better (friluftsfrämjandet 2006).	Primary goals include development of creative skills, physical development, personal and social skills and general knowledge (Knight 2009) with the development of environmental understanding a secondary goal.
Curriculum model	Environmental principles revisited in ever increasing detail throughout skogsknop (2 to 3 yrs), skogsknytte (3 to 4 yrs), skogsmulle (5 to 7 yrs), stövare (7 to 9 yrs) and on to educational programmes for teenagers and adults.	Forest Schools is often used as an ’extra’ activity (with links to published curriculum being very unclear) for young learners, it may have valuable learning outcomes which will help children in the future but these are not always obvious and may even form part of a hidden curriculum.

The two although superficially different are fundamentally similar, perhaps more entrenched in the culture and formal education in Scandinavia, but there is time for that to develop in the UK.  

One question springs to my mind though, why the emphasis in the UK on personal and social development rather than the 'nature' element of the programme. I hope it's not because our 'system' here values nature so little that there had be some other, more measurable, justification for Forest Schools. 

Potato Peelers or Knives for Forest Schools?

 

I’m not convinced of the usefulness of the potato peeler in introducing children to carving or knife use, the only thing you can realistically do with a potato peeler is to peel bark from sticks and even then only if it soft. Simple tasks like the preparation of a stick for marshmallow toasting lend themselves excellently to being a child’s first experience with knife use and if suitable supervision and assistance is provided there will be no safety issues. If the course is long enough even young children can become confident in the use of edged tools.

A child would certainly struggle to do this with a potato peeler. I think the reason for potato peelers being suggested as an alternative to knives in the first place lies with the health and safety mad culture that has become evident in recent years, But if properly supervised and instructed and provided with knives appropriate to their age; ie small short bladed whittling knives, or paring knives for food preparation children can be allowed to use knives safely and you would be surprised just how able and confident they become with them in short order and also how much they respect knives and tools. 

This picture shows my son and daughter helping each other cut shaggy parasol fungi we had foraged earlier that day.

 

 

Shelter Building

Shelter building is a great activity for groups learning outdoors, whether as part of a forest schools activity or a bushcraft course shelter building allows great opportunities to help students develop their group working skills, build teams, teach about the properties of natural and man made materials, teach the concept of risk assessment, conduction of heat through different mediums to name a few.  

A few things to consider when shelter building;

·        

      ‘Widowmakers’;

       Overhanging branches and dead tree tops are often known as 'widowmakers' as even with no                      encouragement from high wind they can often crash down without warning.  proper survey of a                      shelter building site should be made before shelters are constructed to ensure there are none of these              overhanging hazards.

·         

       Guy lines;

      This picture clearly illustrates the need for care when pitching shelters which require guy lines, young children are particularly likely to forget about guy lines so brightly coloured lines possibly with coloured tassels attached. Glow in the dark lines are also available.

·         Hazards on the ground:

      One site I use is a well-established farm shelter belt planted with a mixture of broad-leafed tree species but part of this belt covers what was an old dairy and  a lot of the concrete foundations and ironmongery from the old building, although now mostly covered and almost invisible under vegetation, still present a trip hazard and could inflict very severe injuries if someone was to fall on something like this. Area like this should be avoided for shelter building. 

·       

              Structural integrity of the shelter:

      Especially with regard to natural shelters which may have heavy poles or a considerable weight of material above the occupants, the shelter itself must be very secure and strong with the frame ideally being made of green wood for strength and any necessary lashings being made very securely. Shelters such as this thermal A frame should be constructed with a strong green wood frame allowing a considerable weight of dead wood from the forest floor to be used to build up the walls of the shelter before leaf litter can be stacked on top to a depth of 1-2 feet. This kind of shelter will keep you warm even without a sleeping bag if you fill the inside with dry leaves or grass. 

Fire; 

Fire and shelter generally don't mix but sometimes you may need to use the fire to heat the shelter such as a lean to style shelter and a long log fire designed to keep you warm without a sleeping bag in winter conditions, or more likely in a Forest School setting as a focal point of an outdoor classroom such as this;

this particular shelter was used as an outdoor classroom, incorporates a fireplace and is made entirely from natural material in small broad-leafed copse surrounded by an area of coniferous plantation. The roof and walls of the shelter are made from strips of cedar bark left over after where a harvester had cut a block of cedar.

How to make a bow saw

Both a useful tool in the forest school setting and an excellent activity for older groups;

Health and Safety Considerations
Construction	Only older participants should be allowed to take part in the construction of bow saws, although young learners are able to use them. Constructing a bow saw required some degree of physical strength and the setting of the blade would be beyond younger participants. The appropriate tools should be made available and close supervision given by the forest schools leader.   Learners should be provided with heavy work gloves which must be worn when heating the saw handle and positioning the blade.
Fastening	The blade must be fastened securely and checked by the leader to ensure that there is no chance of the handle springing out and causing anyone harm.
Material	Non toxic woods, high quality saw blade to avoid breakage and accident, pre prepared dowels to reduce risk to learners from small carving and poor   material selection. Dowell’s must be hard wood  or they will break under the pressure the handle exerts on the blade and may break quite spectacularly.
Use	AS for the use of any other bow saw or tool, the saws must be checked by the forest schools leader on completion and prior to use to ensure they are safe to use.

 First take a green stick much longer than the saw blade itself and warm it over your fire to loosen the fibers in the wood and make it easier to bend, Next begin to bend the stick across your knee measuring as you go against the length of the blade, make sure there is still plenty of spring in the stick so that the handle you make will hold the blade taught, if the blade is not tight it won’t cut.

 

 

 When you have created a curve that is the right size cut off any excess length in the stick and make two notches in each end, one to accommodate the blade of the saw and the other perpendicular to it to accommodate a small hardwood dowel which will secure the blade in place.

 

 Prepare a small dowel for each end of the blade, it will have to be whittled from hard wood as the flex of the wooden handle will put a lot of pressure on the dowel.

 

 

 Insert the dowels into the holes at each end of the blade and slot the blade and dowel into the notches you have made.

 

 The first end will be easy as for the other end you will have to bend the stick over and slot the opposite end of the blade and the dowel into their notches, this might be quite difficult so be careful not to get your fingers trapped as you locate the blade in its notches.

The finished article in action

Forest School Activities and Useful items

Spider web

This spider web was created as a temporary feature of the Forest Schools site for use by the children taking part in the Forest school course. There are many ways it can be used. Most effective with older groups where it is central to an excellent team game, the team must all get from one side to the other without touching the web and without using a hole more than once, to use the topmost holes requires some ingenuity and exertion from the team members as they lift their teammates through the holes. For younger children this lower level web was built and with assistance from adult leaders proved very enjoyable for the children, in retrospect and even lower one would have been better. As a permanent feature of a site these webs can be made quite elaborate. For relevant risk assessment see appendices.

Health and Safety Considerations
Location	The spider web should not be set up against trees that may be a risk to the children eg Hawthorne or Blackthorn. The ground should be cleared of nettles or other plants which may be a risk. The area should be checked for insect nests and other environmental factors which may cause a risk.
Securing of Spider Web	The web should be secured at solidly so it does not collapse under the weight of children climbing through it, where it is secured to the ground, there should be no pegs left protruding which would be a health hazard should a child fall, nor should anything that is used to weigh down lower stands pose a trip hazard.
Environmental	It should be carefully ensured that the set up of the spider web does not disturb any birds nests etc.
Material	The spider web should be constructed from high quality bungee rope which should be checked regularly to ensure that the material is not fraying or at risk of breaking and causing an injury when it recoils.
Use	Depending on the age of the children the spider web will be set up differently. For older participants (teenagers) the web can be full size and as long as they are supervised they can lift each other through the upper gaps in the web as part of the team building game.  For younger learners a ground level web will be more appropriate. Close supervision will be required at all times.

Name Badges

Simple name badges for adults and learners certainly help to identify children for the first session or two. It can be fun to allow children to personalise their own name badges. On the first session of the course make shift name badges were made from large leaves which the children wrote their names on. From the second session onward these more permanent name badges were used and the children kept them at the conclusion of the course.

Health and Safety Considerations
Construction	If learners are to make their own name badges close supervision will be required while they use the appropriate tools to complete the task, a first aid kit must be on hand at all times during and the forest school leader must maintain close control of the tools while in use. Depending on the age of the participants this activity may not be appropriate or at least certain tools may not be.
Fastening	Ideally the lanyard for the badge if it is to be worn around the neck should have a breakaway fastening to avoid any injury should the cord become tanged during activities. Alternatively the badge could be attached to clothing so the child does not have to wear it around their neck
Material	Name badges should be constructed from non-toxic wood and be secured with strong thread, the name badges should be a shape which will not cause injury should a child fall on the badge.

Benches

These simple benches were constructed for use around a camp fire on a Forest Schools site, easy to make and very secure the long benches can be given extra security by a loop of wire attaching the bench to the legs, although not necessary and possibly undesirable as it makes the bench harder to relocate may be desirable from a safety point of view to give extra stability and avoid trapped fingers.

The simple round lengths could be used as effective seats or as pot stands for camp fire cooking or as props for activities such as Toxic River.

Health and Safety Considerations
Construction	If learners are to be involved in the construction of these benches they will do so with hand tools only. The forest school leader will not use a chainsaw while supervising a group as the PPE required cuts them off from the learners and does not allow the correct level of supervision to be given. Bench construction would only be appropriate for older groups due to the heavy lifting required and the tools used.
Fastening	The Benches are safe and stable without any fastening however, there is a risk that children could trap fingers between the legs and the seat if the seat rolls at all when people are sitting on it. To avoid this they can fastened together with a strand of high tensile wire and fence staples. This is a secure way of fastening the two pieces and avoids the use of nails and screws so there is no risk of injury from those.
Material	Non toxic woods, with no thorns or attached ivy etc.. which may be irritant.

"Rich in Potential, Strong, Powerful and Competent"

A pine resin candle made by eight year old visitors to a residential environmental education project.

I was doing some reading as part of my studies towards a Masters degree in outdoor education recently and came across this quote in a paper; the author describes the children he is working with as being trusted to be "Rich in Potential, Strong, Powerful and Competent" (Edwards et al 1998), this was describing children in an indoor mainstream nursery setting but it stuck me that this quote can sum up the aims of forest schools, and early years outdoor education in the UK.
The social development and empowering of children is a key aim of these programs; is there a better way to empower children than give them opportunities to be outside, use tools, light fires, cook food and have their own adventures. I don't really think there is, however much responsibility you give to a child in a classroom they are still ultimately controlled by their surroundings, the layout of the classroom, the walls, the rules of being indoors; don't be too messy, don't be too loud etc.... By taking them outside and letting them explore and discover they are empowered to develop their own understanding and skills, with some element of guidance and facilitation from a supervising adult of course, but that freedom of being outdoors and being told to "go and explore" or "here's a firesteel, make a fire" must be far more empowering than being inside, mustn't it??    

A 'Fairy boat' made by seven year old's 

References

Edwards, Gandini L, Forman G (1998) The Hundred Languages of Children - Advanced Reflections. Greenwich Connecticut. Ablex Publishing; cited in Harker E (n.d) How can I carry out Masters level educational research without abandoning my own educational values? available from http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/tuesdayma/ehee06.htm [accessed on 04/11/2010]

Child Development in Forest Schools

Children and young people are living in the ‘most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth’ (Robinson 2010) however for many young people much of this stimulation comes in the form of video games and TV, Forest School is an excellent way of introducing children who may not have the opportunity before to the most stimulating environment that exists, THE OUTDOORS!

Many educational professionals advocate the use of displays, posters, and other things which enrich the environment in their classroom, even including music, and scented candles to create a sensory rich environment (Jensen 1998).   But the perfect environment for learning already exists THE OUTDOORS!

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory identifies distinct stages in a child’s development and suggests that at the 3^rd stage of Psychosocial development which takes place during preschool years children begin to assert control over the world through play and other social interactions, successful development at this stage equips a child to lead others and feel capable. Forest school activities which focus on the social development of a child should then ensure that these requirements are met and the very nature of Forest Schools, encouraging children to learn and develop through play  which the individual or group of children directs themselves means that this development will be aided by taking part in Forest School programs. In fact the word used to best describe the activities during this period of a childs development which will most help his or her development is EXPLORATION (About.com 2011). This stage of development is where children will develop initiative and if in a Forest School setting they can develop the initiative to break their normal boundaries and take part in more adventurous activities it will set them up for life to be proactive and enthusiastic about achieving their potential. It is my opinion because of the modern shift towards sheltering young people from the outdoors environment and trying to put more and more control and restraint on activities which may be perceived by parents and policy makers as risky that need to explore is not met and even young people well into secondary school and even beyond would benefit massively from being given a chance to take part in Forest Schools where the boundaries are different and they have the opportunity to take the initiative and make of the experience what they want whether that be self-motivated and governed activity or learning specific skills or subjects which are relevant in an outdoor setting but also in everyday life. Eriksons theory goes on to break down the development of a person up until maturity and death and there is no reason that Forest Schools in one form or another could not help development at any stage this process.

Another relevant theory within Child development relevant to Forest Schools is that of Jean Piaget, but it is my opinion that this theory is relevant to Forest Schools only in that Forest Schools goes against Piagets theory. Piaget theorised that intelligence developed in the same way across individuals however Forest Schools gives participants the chance to choose their own way to develop, with a much more open agenda than classroom based learning participants can choose to work as groups or individuals and there is also a lot of choice as to exactly what they do with their time on a Forest School course, with the teacher being there purely as a facilitator to allow the participants choice of activity to be possible. Unlike a classroom where despite any teachers best attempt at ensuring differentiation between the needs of individual learners, teaching in a classroom setting does put a limit on this however in a Forest School setting there is no such limitation and differentiation can truly be seen working as it should with learners who want to learn outside learning outside, those who prefer to be inside retiring to a shelter or building their own, those who work best in groups developing the social skills  to gather likeminded people around them to form a group and chose activities to be involved in while people who are more comfortable working on their own can do so. It is also an excellent pressure free way of breaking boundaries such as helping those who work poorly in groups develop better teamwork skills.

The general ethos of Forest Schools and approach to teaching is best described by the humanistic learning theories. The humanistic school teaches that emotional and personal development should be valued higher than academic achievement based on formal testing and grading. It teaches that learners should be allowed to pursue their own interests and talents in order to develop according to their own agenda (Petty, 2004, pp. 16-18) (Hunt, 2009) (Patterson, 1977). This certainly applies to Forest Schools and while delivering Forest Schools courses (see the evaluation of the Forest School course I delivered in my portfolio) I found myself adjusting my approach and recognising that I should have been even more humanistic in my approach to delivering the course. That approach is what make Forest Schools for the participants. The benefits of this approach can be seen among learners and it is clear how this kind of approach supports student development, with the children able to pick their own activities much of the time and manage their own risks Forest Schools are the ultimate form of discovery learning. The concept of discovery learning is basically that the most effective way of understanding a principle or subject is to allow a learner to solve a problem related to that topic  (Bruner, 1966) (Bruner, 1971). As teams and individuals children taking part in Forest Schools will be confronted with numerous ‘problems’;

·         Shelter building

·         Camp fire preparation

·         Scavenger hunts

·         Blind trails

·         Team games

All these things contain an element of problem solving and although the forest school leader will support the participants throughout it is by discovering their own solutions that the children will develop most. While not bound by the rules of a classroom or the constraints of a strict curriculum these discoveries will come thick and fast in such a stimulating environment as the countryside.

In fact with so much stimulation in the outdoor environment I believe it is impossible for children not to benefit and develop as a result of any outdoor activity but the Forest School program with it’s balance of education and adventure makes the most of that opportunity.  

References 

For a full reference list see my full essay at; http://www.academia.edu/4813212/Forest_School_Essays