What are your kids learning about first aid, dealing with emergency situations?
By veromar
@veromar (1453)
Argentina
February 10, 2010 6:15pm CST
I'm curious to know what kids are being taught these days in school and at home. When I was in school we had fire drills, tornado drills (midwest), hurricane drills (east coast), earthquake drills (west coast), etc. I was also fortunate to have been a Girl Scout. While in the Scouts, I learned basic first aid. I learned how to treat anything from snake bites to sunburn. I was also instructed in CPR, can build a fire from scratch and dig my own latrine if need be. My father also held fire drills at home on a regular basis. Although I've never really had to use any of these skills, I feel very fortunate to possess them. What are your kids learning? Do you think these skills are important enough to teach them yourselves or are we more in a society of "dial 911" instead?
1 response
@goldeneagle (6743)
• United States
12 Feb 10
I was a Boy Scout when I was a kid, and we did A LOT of Emergency Preparedness stuff. I have the merit badge to prove it. LOL My Scoutmaster was a former Navy pilot, and he took the Boy Scout motto (BE PREPARED) to heart. We learned a lot of useful stuff, including water rescue techniques, a lot of first aid stuff. We also had to learn how to do pattern searches to locate missing "victims" and to locate people who were "lost" out in the wilderness. We honed our orienteering skills to near perfection, and we could find most of our objectives with ease since we practiced so much. We even had to go down into a ravine once and "rescue" a fallen hiker. We had to secure him to a back-board and get him out of the ravine and up to a nearby road where the "helicopter" (it was actually the Scoutmaster's old beat-up Ford pick-up truck) was waiting to take the "victim" for medical treatment.
The exercise was actually pretty well designed, because we had to use our orienteering and searching skills to locate the ravine and find the guy, our first-aid and knot-tying skills to get to him, treat him, and get him out of there, and then we had to use our map and compass skills again to get him to the place on the road where the truck was waiting. We did this with a live person, just like it would have been in real life, and we managed to do it without further "injuring the victim", and with only minor scrapes and bruises to a few of us "rescuers". You could see the Scoutmaster beaming with pride as we came out of the woods less than 50 yards from where his truck was parked on the side of the road. We had the Assistant Scoutmaster with us to make sure we did things right, and that no one got hurt for real. It was really a fun experience, and thankfully they picked a really small guy to be the victim that we had to carry. I couldn't imagine having to do that with someone who weighed 300 pounds
@veromar (1453)
• Argentina
16 Feb 10
Sounds like you had some amazing experiences as a scout, Goldeneagle! I, too, became a fully decorated scout. I earned every badge possible and I think what I learned in the process is invaluable. For us girls, we had knot tying, cooking, friendship, aviation, water safety, etc. I was also fortunate to be selected for what was then called a "wider opportunity". Mine was spending a summer on a ranch in Wyoming learning how to herd cattle and barrel race. It was amazing! Some of the stuff has really stuck with me....especially the campfire songs! lol. I also think the instruction in first aid, orientation (as you mention), water rescue techniques and things of that nature are almost necessary to possess these days. You just never know what's going to happen with Mother Nature, as has been shown a lot in the past few years. My brother was a boy scout and made eagle. We used to have the most fun saying our motto's and comparing badge requirements! Be Prepared. I still live my life by this creed.
