Hunting: Teaching Life's Lessons
In modern times hunting tends to have a negative stigma associated with it. The conveniences of modern life have caused people to lose touch with exactly how mother nature works, and how the earth itself as created by God, provides us with our food on a daily basis. We have lost touch with nature and this is directly affecting the children in the world today.
It doesn't take much effort to look around and see the deterioration of our society, especially when we are talking about kids. Every night on the news you are exposed to numerous unspeakable acts that today's youth, children and young adults alike, are involved in. Where is this behavior coming from? I think it can be directly attributed to the lack of basic life lessons that the youth of today are missing, and that the youth of yesteryear acquired by participating in an activity that has been around for hundreds of years...hunting.
Hunting teaches many life lessons. These lessons will also extend into adult lives and teach kids to be positive role models for how people should act. Hunting, and the respect for the outdoors that it creates, can have an undisputable positive impact on a young child's life. There are many lessons that hunting can teach, but I think they can be broken down into 5 major areas:
Discipline: In order to be successful in hunting you have to abide by certain rules. If you don't adhere to these rules you will dramatically reduce your chances of being successful. You have to be disciplined about shot placement, and preparing yourself to make the proper shot for an efficient kill. You have to be disciplined about sitting in your stand, and making sure you are at the right place at the right time. You have to be disciplined about your equipment and making sure that it is properly maintained. All of these different things directly feed over and help to teach discipline for every day life.
Respect for Nature: Respect for nature is key in today's society. Hunting and the respect for nature that it teaches is a lesson that many kids of today have failed to learn. By having this respect for the outdoor world, kids learn to not only love the natural world, but also want to protect it and keep it maintained and beautiful for future generations. This respect will teach children about the world around them and make them want to protect it that much more. By acquiring this respect for nature through hunting kids will take that with them into their normal lives and understand the importance of the natural world and how it fits into the whole scheme of life.
Cause and Effect: This is probably the most important lesson that hunting can teach. By hunting, and the goal of ultimately killing an animal, kids learn how the choices they make directly affect the things around them. If you don't stay still deer will spook. If you take the shot on an animal, death can result. Most kids in the world today don't understand that the choices they make ultimately result in, depending on the choices made, a positive outcome or a negative outcome. Hunting teaches that you are directly responsible for the actions that you take. This is a very important lesson for human life. The choices you make affects how things turn out, and it could be positive or it could be negative. You make the choice. Is there a better lesson that could be taught to our children?
Appreciation for Life: Hunting's ultimate goal is the killing of an animal to provide food. By being directly involved in the death of this animal kids will acquire an appreciation for life. They will gain a respect for the gift of life, and although they will kill from time to time to provide food, they will gain that respect for life that many kids are lacking. It will directly relate to how they view human life and teach one of the most important lessons in life; that life is valuable and should be respected.
Patience: Patience is of one of the biggest lessons that hunting can teach. Kids today want direct results. They don't want to wait for the prize, they want instant gratification and unfortunately that is not how society works. Patience while hunting is taught in a variety of ways. It is taught while waiting on stand for an animal to appear. It is taught in the off-season while waiting for the season to arrive. Nothing is instant in nature. She takes her sweet time and that provides an excellent lesson for today's youth.
All of these lessons, which are provided by hunting, go along way to teach kids the important lessons of life. They will teach them how to be a positive influence in the world today, while also allowing them to realize how precious and important nature, and the animals in it, are to the good of the world and the human cause. What other activity can you think of that will provide these life lessons while also teaching the love of nature that hunting does?
Get your kids out hunting today. It will teach them to be model citizens and have a positive impact on their community and people around them.
Published by Art S.
Art is a Michigan based writer who runs his own outdoor website. He also helps to moderate an outdoor website forum as well. View profile
- How to Teach Kids to Go GreenThis article offers 5 easy ways to teach kids to go green.
- Teach Kids the Value of Money Through Edible CoinsChocolate coins, the wonderful treats sealed in foil decoration, are great tools to teach kids the value of money. They can also double to show how quickly that money can be eaten up.
Teach Kids to Volunteer by Setting Example with Family Volunteer ProjectsA family volunteer project will teach kids invaluable lessons that will remain with them throughout their lives.
How to Teach Kids to Go GreenWondering how to teach your kids to go green? Here are five tips that will help teach kids how to live a green life...
Share Nature with Your Children Through GardeningParents who want to share with their children a love and respect for nature have no further to look than their own back yard. Growing your own family garden is an excellent way...
- Humans and the Natural World: Is it Necessary for Humans to Care for Nature?
- The Hunting Camaraderie
- Christmas Gifts for Kids of All Ages in Boulder and Longmont
- Living in the Mountains Teaches You How to Have Respect for Nature
- How to Teach Kids to Cook Safely
- Teach Kids on Basic Phonics at Home
- Simple Ways to Introduce and Teach Kids "Green Living"
13 Comments
Post a CommentBeautifully said. When the respect for conservation is embraced and a knowedgeable,eperienced hunter takes the time to teach a child sportamanship, integrity, respect for a gun, and the privilege of bringing the gifts of the earth to the table he has then provided experiences some of life's most important, difficut and often never learned lessons.
Recommended reading: The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
Excellent!!!
Unfortunately we are never going to see eye to eye. At this point your mind is made up, so my arguments with you are futile. Your arguments are based on emotion, and no matter what facts I show to you you fail to see them.
The number of children that are killed in hunting related accidents is very low. Cars, ATV's, and drowning kill way more kids than hunting accidents do. That is a plain and simple fact.
In the end, though, your mind is made up on this topic, and we will never see eye to eye.
That's the bottom line.
I will be putting a video together on danger of hunting to children. We do not need to teach children to kill and also we do not want to lose our children by you people corrupting their head about using guns and arrows where they end up killing themselves. Do you know how many children are injured or killed from hunting accident? When I finish my video I will post it on my blog once I find out how it works HERE but I do have other website where I exposed the disgusting reality of hunting . WE DO NOT NEED OUR CHILDREN TO LEARN TO KILL AND THUS KILLING THEMSELVES!
"humanely placed shot"
The link is one of about 20 I found on tracking wounded deer. This one is called "tracking wounded whitetail deer"
Tracking Wounded Whitetail Deer
http://www.imbmonsterbucks.com /info.php?id=128
Look at these places needed because the animal death is NEVER "QUICK"
How to Track a Wounded Deer
Guide To Trail the Deer with Its Blood Stains
How to Handle a Gut Shot
I cant fit much so I will post on my blog
There are plenty of suffering involved in "sports" hunting especially bowkilling. That is why there are so many sites on how to find wounded deer so that they can retrieve the trophy. If you read some of these sites you know they do not care about animals suffering some even say to go home until they die like in gut or liver shot.
they also want to find the deer so the public would not find millions of wounded or animals with arrow stuck on their bodies or half dying in the autum leaves. .
Here is a few sites you should google it and read up.
The link is there and you can see how these animal die from 'hunting' and how these wildlife killers only concern is to retrieve their trophy. Most bowkillers are trophy 'hunters. Mind you that gun is just as bad and seen plenty of deer suffer and die but not like what I have seen in bowkilling . Believe me when I say that 99% of the deer hit with an arrow does not die "instantly" so its hardly ever a "humanely placed shot"
The link
Is this what the public wants hunters to teach their children?
This video is called "Doe down" and this innocent sentient creature of God was hit with an arrow and died a horrific death. They do not care to end the suffering of the animals because most bowkillers enjoy the power and the pain and they can inflict on the innocent life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWzomZIh26A
some of the comments
XTERRAROC (5 days ago)
F#CKIN AW SOME!!!!!!
ptgoldman (1 month ago)
That was an intense video. Nice shot! What range was that from?
camomine (1 month ago)
What kind of camera you using?
actionsports111 (1 month ago)
OMG. That rage was rockin! I do have to say though that was really gruesome. At least it was pretty quick.
"pretty quick"?
blackfeatherarchery (1 month ago)
Excellent shooting. That's the rage correct!
couchman23 (1 month ago) Sho
3 or two blade i got the three blade yesterday getting ready for the winter bow season
"While health officials have not recommended a ban on deer hunting, they are closely monitoring deer hunters and their kills. Hunters might be at risk when they contact blood or tissue while gutting animals, or from eating the meat, Brown said."
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20030521deer0521p5.asp
Bosque believes no one knows enough about CWD -- more commonly known as mad deer -- to say that eating venison is safe. "If it was very transmissible, we'd know it," he says. "But if it was somewhat transmissible, like BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow] in England, it would be hard to know."
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2002/10/21/maddeer/index.html
A quote from one mad deer disease article
"Some hunters too squeamish to eat their kill are donating the venison to pantries for the homeless. "
Hunters knowingly been giving possibly diseased venison to the pantries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXBHdzFsChk
Deer carcass that are brought in by wildlife killers are not USDA inspected and it may even have pesticides.
"Prion diseases are so awful and the proteins so unpredictable that scientists take extraordinary precautions against infection when studying them in the lab. Patrick Bosque, a neurologist at the University of Colorado in Denver, studied prions in hamsters and mice, which do not appear to be transmissible to people. Yet he routinely wore disposable gloves, shoe covers and a gown, and avoided carrying his lab notebook or other potentially contaminated material out of the lab.
Whenever he conducted a procedure that might spray or splash prions, he worked in a special hood to shield his face and upper arms. "Then you're going to tell me I'm going to eat deer?" Bosque asked. "I definitely would not eat deer I thought had been infected."
"While health offi
Carolinect,
I'm not sure we are every going to see eye to eye on this issue. I think you have closed your mind to the entire topic, so you can't even begin to understand my points of view. I'm having a hard time with a rebuttal, because I'm honestly having a hard time following your argument.
To say hunters don't eat what they kill is a complete and utter lie. And how dare we provide some extra meat to people in need? What were we thinking? I can't believe that you hate hunting so much, that you would rather see those less fortunate go hungry, than allow a hunter to donate lean, healthy venison to them. That is a shame. And what have you done to help the needy lately?
I guarantee that venison has less chemicals in it than any store bought meat ever thought of. It is also completely free of antibiotics. And not raised under harsh conditions.
To say we allow animals to suffer in their own homes is also a lie. An arrow brings death in a matter of seconds. Have you e
Carolinetc,
I respect your opinion, but quite frankly its more like a fairy tale. Anything that we humans do as a species has some effect on wildlife. Whether we build a house, drive a car, or hunt, we affect wildlife in some way. There is no such thing as "no human impact" when it comes to animals.
I know for sure, that my kids will have a deep respect for animals. They will have a deep respect for all things living because they hunt!!!! Hunters have more of a deep connection with nature - and our quarry - than non-hunters. We have intimate knowledge of them, and know that the meat from their bodies provides us energy.
It would be nice to think that animals have the same feelings as we humans do, but quite frankly, they don't.
My kids will be taught all about hunting, and about fishing. And it will provide them with tools to survive all of life's challenges.
Thanks for the comment, even though we disagree.