Spending time in a classroom in front of books is wasted time when your kids can be out in the woods with you and your new hunting rifle or high-performance bow. Bagging game gives them a better education anyhow. Here are five reasons why.
1. Real biology. "Hands on" learning is one hundred times better when those hands are covered in the blood of a kill. A bowie knife is as good as a pencil. Field dressing game will give your kids an understanding of mammalian biology better than any computer model or diagram. How can a picture compare to holding a real heart in your hands or smelling the actual contents of an animal’s bowels?
2. Evolution in action. The strong survive and the weak die or adapt. You’ll learn that pretty quick if you let what you’re hunting catch sight or scent of you. Critters that are too stupid will end up in your sights and the strongest ones will live on to keep their population strong – and be killed another day. Being at the top of the food chain, you and your kids share the confidence knowing that evolution ends with you.
3. Character building. The thrill of the hunt and the adrenaline rush of releasing that arrow or squeezing that trigger will teach your son or daughter more about themselves more than any lesson in school. Hunting that nerd in the locker room pales in comparison. There’s also nothing like partying afterward and drawing silly faces on passed-out hunting buddies.
4. Acquisition and competition. Websites with pictures of skulls, bones, horns, and feathers are so boooring. Valuable space that is taken up by books can be better used with the actual skulls, bones, horns, and feathers of animals you’ve hunted with your own two hands. Collecting trophies for your wall or bookshelf beats collecting good grades any day.
5. FIeld study. Linnaean classification, biological diversity, natural taxonomy…zzzzzzz. Wha, what was that? Those words put me to sleep. They are better sounding art rock band names. Being outdoors with your weapon of choice, sitting silent awaiting your prey, you will observe more of the diversity in nature than any egghead with a computer is able to write about. You also don’t need complicated theroems to know why you missed that shot.
