Three words for you, Jim:

LEAVE.
IT.
HOME.


Why in the world would you want to teach kids to be sloppy and stupid? It's like teaching navigation with a GPS before they've ever even seen a compass and map.

Cell phones don't always work. Depending on your terrain, you might be in a blind spot. And it is actually possible to just be out of range. Along with all the other issues, like parents not wanting thier kids to have cell phones.

Personally, as part of an USK and as urban EDC, I feel cells have they have thier place. As part of a car kit, certainly. But don't depend on it, ever, they die too easy.

And I admit to having a small anger management issue towards people who's total PSK is a cell phone. In some parts of the US, they charge morons who bite off more than they can chew and then expect to be saved becuase they make a phone call. In the places that don't, I understand that a lot of SAR groups would like to be able to. Personally, if you are underequipped and didn't plan, and expect a cell phone bail you out, I feel you that since thinking and carrying the right equipment was incovenient for you, finding you should be at the convience of the searchers.

The things make people complacent and careless. I swear, if you have a cell phone with you in the wilderness, even the most experinced people I know who are under 50 suddenly loose about 20 IQ points. The older guys are fine, they remember when it didn't take an hour to get an ambulance to some of the place I go becuase there was no ambulance in this area even in town. But the rest, they get dumb, they take chances they wouldn't if they knew they were on thier own. They take stuff out of thier packs, like extra water and emergency food, the spare thermal layer, all fairly critical stuff, becuase they have thier cell phone. They at least have thier skills to fall back on; most people don't.

I suppose if I had to look at this issue from a positive light, I suppose that Darwin's Mighty Chainsaw could theoretically shapeshift into a cell phone.

Oh, and 98.6 degrees Farenhiet (sp) is human body core temp.