mboudreau's Link
My one daughter is crazed to hunt, my other doesn't like higher powered guns, but can shoot the eyes out of a squirrel with the .22 . And they both like to catch fish. Both love fresh fish and venison, neither would ever eat McDonald's.
I don't push them, but it helps we live in a semi-hick town where other kids hunt & fish.
Funny thing, is that my birkenstock wearing liberal self feels the same way about societal impact on kids regarding the outdoors. I swear, other kids look at my kids funny when they do things like bring antlers to school for show and tell or talk about or backyard chickens, or being proud of winning the fishing derby (Emily flipped her lid to learn she'd won her group at the Petersham Gun Club derby last spring - thanks to Bowtechgirl (if still lurking) for dropping the trophy at my folks for her!!)...
At the same time, the kids themselves... while they act like it's weird, then they get curious really quick. The friends want to learn about wading round in a brook to muck for crayfish and bugs... KIDS LOVE THIS STUFF. It's the parents who think 8 year old Timmy/Tammy who does 1 more sports camp is getting a free ride to a D1 University (note - s/he's not, look up the percentages. And 2, if your kids talented enough to start D1 or make a D1 roster they will be THE BEST 1-5 kids in your local school program through high school - and it wont be close. Even if they dont have the best specific skill, they will be faster, more agile, more explosive and have better natural understanding of the specific sports tactics. Not being debbie downer, just keeping it real) Sorry - tirade done.
Point being... Parents are pulled with all these pressures to get kids on the right track. What is more important, taking Jane fishing or making sure she gets into harvard?
In reality - taking her fishing.
What % of kids get into Harvard?
What % of kids get to have lots of time with a parent/uncle/aunt etc who love them, and who can, through other activities, help them learn both about the world around them AND add to the breadth of knowledge they could blend with scholastic/community/sport related work they are experiencing?
It's the latter who are going to remember, or really, learn, how to solve problems resourcefully. Learn how to fail over and over and over and over - resiliently, so they can learn and grow from those failures.
That latter kid is coming out robust, resilient, persistent, thoughtful.
they may or may not get into Harvard or some other big U. Maybe they become a plumber or small business owner. Who knows. But they will have the life skills to blend with the skills and knowledge learned formally to lead great lives and help change the world in their own LITTLE way.
End point, I dont think it's a liberal thing pulling kids from the outdoors. Lib's love stuff like sustainable living, organic foods (most are not vegetarians), positive environmental stewardship etc. the catch is that kids families are essentially pressured into thinking they have to do all these things to reach college and have a happy life. Have to keep up with the Jones so to speak.
All we can do is try to expose them to other things, and hope that it sparks a curiosity that eventually they try to explore.
There are some really great point made above. I particularly agree with your sentiment Texbow. Name calling and umbrella statement generalizations will only hurt us. I think there are a few other contributing factors that haven't been mentioned.
A complete disconnect from our food is certainly to blame. We can go to a grocery store and purchase nicely packaged pieces of meat, as if they were just dropped there by a little meat fairy and it becomes so easy to entirely separate ourselves from the fact that this meat was once a living breathing creature. I had dinner with some family friends a few weeks ago. Hunting came up in conversation and most at the dinner table, even the young kids, were very interested in hearing about my hunting. However, the host and owner of the home is obviously anti-hunting and began making a series of snide remarks, disguised as jokes, to make his stance clear. By the way, he was gorging himself on chicken and and farm raised Atlantic salmon at the time, had we been in a different setting I would have made is hypocrisy more evident to him.
There are also many groups with very deep pockets who are running extraordinarily successful media campaigns against hunting. They have been successful at convincing the general public that we are blood thirsty animals, who are just out to kill and remove heads from the woods and that all animal populations are on the decline. Back when I was on Facebook there was a short video, with many millions of views, regarding the decision to give the power back to the state of Alaska in regards to managing its own wildlife laws. But what this video stated was that wolves and bears could now legally be hunted from aircraft's and killed and even gassed inside their dens. They accompanied these statements by showing blood bath shootings of bears and wolves, meant to pull on peoples heart strings and persuade them to believe their nonsense.
Let's also not forget, you can walk into any Whole Food's and find a long line of liberals waiting in line for their free range, organic meat. Unfortunately, a certain percentage of these people probably have mixed feelings or are completely against hunting. These are the folks who might think differently about hunting when given real information as opposed to being inundated with propaganda.
