The Action Will Answer Your Questions

Last November I attended a bushcraft course taught at Tim Smith's Jack Mountain Guide & Guide Service in New Hampshire - instructed by both Tim and Mors Kochanski. I read his blog post early this morning and read a perfect distillation of Tim's stance on experiential learning. I'll let his words do the telling (below). I am tempted to show my interest in the Quebec trip he is advertising - I highly recommend his courses.

Focus On Doing

Last summer I guided a trip to northern Quebec where we spent a week with Cree guides David Bosum and Lawrence Capissit. They were born in the bush and have spent their lives living off of the country there. One day one of guys on the trip was asking David some questions about winter trips. David answered a few questions, but as they started to get more involved he said;

“The action will answer your questions.”

People are hungry for knowledge. Our culture has taught us to ask questions until we get verbal answers. But it might not be the best way to learn something. Through the act of doing it and having the experience, many more questions will be answered than could be by a verbal explanation. The hard part, for most modern Americans, is that this way is foreign to them. It’s not how they learned to acquire knowledge in school.

I get a lot of questions about our programs, and about bushcraft and survival and guide training. I often feel like I have a foot in each of two different worlds. I try to answer as many questions as I can, but I know that David was right. If you do it, you’ll know. You’ll know better than anyone could ever tell you. And you’ll know even better if you do it several times.

We’re heading back up to northern Quebec for a canoe and bushcraft trip running August 10-16. If you’re interested, more information is at:

http://www.jackmtn.com/quebec.html

You can also check out the video and photo gallery from the 2007 trip.

cheers,

Mungo