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Author
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Topic: Doing it right
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted March 20, 2018 08:14 AM
Make fun of little old Kansas and our backward ways all you want. We may not be as enlightened as those of you on either coast, but I think we get it right more times than not, and definitely more times than many of your states. From a Secretary of State who is on the front line of preventing illegals from voting nationwide, to having our people on point protecting the President from his detractors and manning the helm at the CIA, and soon to be the State Department. We may not be setting trends, but we have our shit together most days and this article that appears in today's Abilene Reflector-Chronicle illustrates that point.
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In Kansas, children need to be 11 years old to take a hunter safety course. Of the 1,445 schools in the state, only 63 offer such a class to their students and one of them is after school at Eisenhower Elementary School.
Jeremy Lebo, kindergarten through fifth-grade school counselor for the Abilene schools, teaches the course and said his method is a little different than the traditional one full day on Saturday and one half-day on Sunday.
“I think 11-year-olds don’t learn everything in a day,” he said. “I teach my course one hour a day after school, for a little over a month. They have 24 to 25 actual contact hours with me.”
He quizzes the children and checks for understanding constantly, because it is vital they comprehend and appreciate the concepts he is teaching.
“Usually the day after the lesson, I will quiz them. If a number of kids miss a specific question, it isn’t because they didn’t learn it, it’s because I didn’t teach it well enough. I go back and reteach that concept,” he said.
At the end of the course, the students take a 52-question test. They must score 84 percent to pass. However, it is at Lebo’s discretion if a student remains in the class and receives a Hunter Safety Certificate. He has had children who he felt were not responsible enough yet to receive a certificate.
“I will contact a parent and tell them ‘your child won’t be in class anymore and here is why’,’” he said.
The class is voluntary and all students must have parent permission to take it.
The class does not include any kind of marksmanship or the use of weapons, but the children are given the opportunity to handle different types of firearms. At the end of this year’s course, Lebo brought in several firearms as he had done earlier in the course. All guns brought into the class are unloaded and inspected by the school principal and a member of the Abilene Police Department.
The students showed maturity and confidence as they held and treated them with the respect necessary to ensure safe handling.
Respect
“I want them to go away with a respect for firearms, a respect for the environment, a respect for other users of the outdoors and an understanding of the gravity of possessing and using a firearm,” Lebo said.
When he talks to the children about respect for the environment, he touches on several topics. He talks about the difference between public and private lands and the importance of respecting the landowner.
“So much of Kansas land is privately owned. If you are going to hunt, there’s a good chance you are going to be doing that on private land,” he said. “We have to have respect for other people who are out there. On public land in Kansas, people can be out there for any number of reasons. You have to be respectful of all the people out there using this resource.”
They also talk about leaving the environment better than they found it and how sportsmen are the stewards of the wildlife.
“You have a responsibility to the actual animal you are hunting to be accurate,” he said. “If you are out there to harvest an animal or a bird, you owe it to that animal to be efficient in your shot. We don’t want to wound things. We talk about taking every possible step to recover that animal – it would be unethical not to do so.”
Safety
Through the course, he has what he calls Fun Fridays. He will often bring in wild game that he has harvested and cooked, but it is clearly not all fun and games.
“I read to them the hunting incident reports from the previous year that detail some of the hunting accidents that have happened. We talk about those and how they could have been avoided,” he said. “I try to teach them how things that have happened out there can be permanent.”
Zoe Cox, 11, who is taking the course said she has shot at a shooting range and has fired her brother’s BB gun, but only when her parents were present.
“I took this course because I want to be about to trust myself with a gun and around guns,” she said.
Other safety topics, in addition to those directly related to firearms, include tree-stand safety, survival, outdoor emergencies, water safety, and how to handle outdoor emergencies.
Responsibility and ethics
Responsibility and respect are terms the children are familiar with as they tie into the school’s mission. However, not all 11-year-olds have the same level of responsibility and some are still learning those concepts.
“I give the kids little opportunities to prove to me, to show me responsibility throughout the course,” Lebo said.
He is quick to point out how even the littlest actions can show responsibility. One example he said is simply bringing a pencil to class. They will likely write something in their workbook every day. He tells them while he certainly has extra pencils, it’s not about using a pencil. It is about having the responsibility to remember to bring the pencil to class.
“A quote I always use with them is, ‘if I can’t trust you to be responsible enough to bring a pencil, why would I ever trust you with a loaded gun?’,” he said.
The students have heard him say that enough that they will often finish his sentence when one of their classmates has forgotten a pencil or didn’t do a homework assignment.
They have a lesson about early firearms and how hunting has evolved from a means of survival to a sport.
He also tries to instill in them that being a hunter and owning and operating weapons puts them in a distinct group.
“We talk about not being irresponsible with our firearms and shooting up signs and mailboxes and old farm machinery; how that casts a bad light on hunters everywhere,” he said. “And how they are part of a group now that will be held to a higher standard and will be looked at differently. I tell them that all the time, ‘I am looking at you differently because you are in this class and I will hold you to a high standard.’”
Weston Rock, 11, said he likes to hunt but also knows how important it is to be safety conscious.
“If you’re in this class, you’ve probably already shot a gun. It’s more about safety,” he said. “And stuff not to do while hunting; how not to be stupid with a gun and to use your head.”
At the conclusion of this year’s hunter safety course all 16 students who started the class received their certificate.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted March 20, 2018 09:22 AM
I like it!
I have the feeling that if somebody tried that shit out here, some timid supervisor or mayor or other Liberal official would put a stop to such a dangerous practice.
On a brighter note, I see that the State of California may split. My reaction: Dream on!
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31449 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted March 20, 2018 10:32 AM
Calif. has been babbling about splitting off since the first rein of Gov. Moonbeam. Ain't gonna happen.
Southern Cal. needs the tax base from the North's agriculture to support it's welfare state & the north needs the voter numbers of the south to retain power.
Mayhap selling Southern Calif. back to Mexico would solve a lot of problems ???
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7576 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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ATexan
Knows what it's all about
Member # 6799
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posted March 20, 2018 05:17 PM
I would love to see something like this in Texas schools. Being from a more rural area of Texas, I would like to think this type of program would go over very well. The instructor is spot on with his approach. He tells his students they will be held to a higher standard and will be looked at differently. I think every gun owner is now in that category. We all have a responsibility to educate the people around us why it is important that the 2nd Amendment is never taken away, or why gun ownership/use must always be taken seriously, and the implications of not having away to defend ones family and property. The list goes on and on. But the sure fire way to start off on the right foot is by teaching the young and teaching them right.
Posts: 112 | From: Texas | Registered: Mar 2018
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