My family and I have been to several compass classes held by the Phoenix Park system. They also seem to make it complicated instead of making it simple and usable. I had my first compass class in the Army in 1973. They had us pace and learn how to take a bearing. We were then sent out in teams. We were given a paper with points, distances, and compass directions to the next point. It was big fun. Since then I have always had a Silva/Brunton base plate compass. I have taught my 4 boys how to use a compass. They would not let them have the compass until they could demonstrate how to use it. They had to tell the difference between true north and magnetic north. They had to set their compass to magnetic north and point to true north. They had to orient a map with the compass taking declination into account. Then they had to pretend they were at one point on a map and had to get to another point. They had to plot the compass direction on the map and then adjust their compass and point to the direction they would have to go taking declination into account. Once they did that I let them have the compass. They are all in Scouts.
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