"Mad Max Curriculum" - article in Wa Post

What's most interesting about this article is that it is in the business section of the Sunday Washington Post.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...id=sec-business

For Prophets Of Cataclysm, A 'Mad Max' Curriculum

By Sara Behunek
Sunday, July 26, 2009

...a three-day "Urban Escape and Evade" course offered by onPoint Tactical, a New Jersey-based company that teaches urban survival skills to soldiers, police officers and, increasingly, civilians.

...sales at camping supply and military surplus stores, which are up 50 percent?

People have always anticipated the end of days. And in truth, while having survival skills -- whether they are tactical or horticultural -- could save your life, in reality they aren't likely to do much more than what stockpiling canned beans and toilet paper did in preparation for Y2K: that is, lend a sense of security.

Law enforcement must love having this guy come to town.

"What's most interesting about this article is that it is in the business section..."

No, not really. When people get scared, sales of certain types of things go up, even in a poor economy. There will be a lot of people/companies jumping onto the preparedness bandwagon as our economy continues to spiral downward. And, no matter what the economy, there are always people with money to buy.

Based upon the curriculum, I'll bet its quite popular.

Hi Dagny, both Susan and celler are correct, but there is also a little more to it.

Sara Behunek (author) is a financial blogger for TheDeal.com. So it was also a financial rag that paid her for the story.

The Story was First Posted Under This Title:
Survival School Why more Americans are learning to pick locks, bust out of handcuffs, and avoid surveillance.
http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/experience/2009/07/16/survival-school

Here is a working link to the reprint, the above link didn't work for me:
For Prophets Of Cataclysm, A 'Mad Max' Curriculum (the abridged version)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072404169.html

The first link it better because it has video (shot with my camera:)

It was fun class.... Kevin Reeve also worked for Tom Brown, Jr's "Tracker" school for a number of years.

This is a class I wish they taught in school. Maybe I would have paid more attention (instead of spending a lot of time day-dreaming about what I could be doing other than sitting at an uncomfortable desk in a boring classroom).

Truth be told, I really wish schools would teach more life-skills lessons. Basic survival, basic mechanic skills, how to shoot, how to fish, how to manage finances, basic cooking, basic plant identification, basic compass/map/gps skills, basic security/awareness/self-defense techniques, how to make a major purchase without getting screwed, how to properly care for a child, ect.

Basically, all the skills that one will use (and use often) once they enter the real world. Fact is, a lot of kids need help in these areas, especially in modern times when more and more kids are getting less and less parental guidance. Plus, I think it would help to keep school attendance up if kids were actually learning something they thought was useful.

I grew up in a very rural school, they actually took us out and had us shoot .22's in 7th grade, teacher started to help me because I was looking at the gun funny but I told him there wasn;t any problem, I was just comparing their bolt action to my semi auto.
Even though kids are getting less parental guideance these days, I'm not sure I want the school teaching my kids how to care for a child, the school's political views in that area don't usually agree with mine.

A couple of years ago our local high school went through a major remodel. One of the things that the adminstration was going to do was to elimnate the shop. They ended up building one that was 1/4 the size of the one in the old building. We were able to get them to do that because it could be used to build sets for the theater.

I agree that more pratical classes would be good, things like how to unstuff plumbing, but the parents don't want anything but collage prep.

BTW there still is a range and shooting team in the school.

Cap, try not to forget about the effect of insurance and injury lawyers on what schools can teach. It is a lot harder for a kid to get injured in a math class than in a shop class.

I don't even think they teach students how to balance a checkbook so I admire your thought but it would never work in the current 21st Century. With zero tolerance I guarantee no marksmanship. You can't kill the fish so no fishing. Heck even the 'camp outs' are basically just a giant sleep over outside, there is no real outdoorsmanship going on.

Unfortunately, our ideals of rugged individualism and outdoorism has become a disinfected emasculation of manhood.

Whilst out sea angling a few weeks ago, a fishing buddy caught a nice 6lb Cod. At the end of the day he asked if I wanted the fish. Are you not going to have it for your supper when you get back home? I said. No I'm going up to my new girl friends house this evening, Why don't you show your new girl friend your catch? I asked. She won't allow me to bring any more fish back to her house. Apparently he had previously made the mistake of showing his new GF a previous catch in an attempt to try to impress her with his manly fishing skills and promptly proceeded to gut, fillet and grill this previous fish for his supper in front of her. Apparently she was not impressed in the least and she made an excuse that she couldn't believe that a fish caught from the sea was edible. She thought that only safe edible fish came from the supermarket.

So anyway I have now got a 2 hour old fresh line caught 6lb Cod. I was going now to have a very tasty supper this evening as I went to visit my mothers house. As soon as I showed the Cod, all I got was 'Your not really going to eat that are you?' Argggghhhhh.

It has just go to be a feminist conspiracy!!