Adult Programs

Hands on experience with guidance from experienced instructors is critical.  We learn best by doing. Too much emphasis in modern education is placed on audio-visual stimuli toward the theoretical and abstract.  Being far too sedentary and “mental”, this approach does not facilitate the full development of the person who would otherwise be engaged in meaningful activity.  We we favor a more experiential, hands-on approach that emphasizes being an active participant in the natural world with meaningful as well as measurable outcomes. Every course in each of the Curriculum Strands supports necessary skills for the professional outdoors person.

Students should expect that they will apply the course content learned at Maine Primitive Skills School toward daily living as well as expeditions through remote north woods regions as professional guides.  The direct experience of what you’re learning is made more vital by the need to accomplish specific tasks to live comfortably.   You will learn by living in the outdoors for extended periods of time.  Suffering is not a standard, it is sub-standard. The focus begins with effective survival, and quickly moves toward living with efficiency, ease, and the productivity that come with extensive experience.

Tactile involvement in making the situation better for all involved is essential. Using your hands to build useful items from materials gathered on the landscape not only builds self reliance, it develops a deeper connection to your surroundings. Our species needs tools to live.  Pottery, Bow Making, Snow shoe making and building effective shelters from materials gathered from the landscape increases nature literacy and makes you self-reliant.

Without modern infrastructure life is different. Living a simple, efficient life with minimal supports presents predictable challenges. Personal and community hygiene practices hold greater importance. Composting all that rots in order to grow food is something that is put in to practice. You will learn and implement viable strategies for manifesting bounty as a result of your interactions with the natural world. Your benchmarks for success will include the fire you build to boil the water you needed to make the tannin wash for the hand sanitizing tub that you crafted from the pine bark you gathered.  Each benchmark is a measure of success toward a greater understanding of the needs of your being, the beings around you, and the long and short term needs of the landscape that supports you.

Learn to identify your “edge” regarding specific needs, wants, and boundaries. It’s important to know exactly what you need to function well. How much sleep or water you need to operate at full capacity?  How much of a bed do you need to make in order to sleep well? Know yourself and what you need to do to keep alert, healthy, and well. The only way to learn it is to live it intentionally.

This takes the term, “leave it better than you found it” to the extreme.  We practice permaculture concepts in our gardens and in our wooded areas because they are one in the same.  A hunter-gatherer is a gardener. We cultivate and harvest roots, shoots, leaves, tubers, berries, fruits, nuts, meat, and soils. We balance populations, increase diversity, and are invested in the health of the landscape we participate in, from the soils to the apex predators.

We come to these skills through long lineages of dedicated teachers from our collective ancestry.  We share skills with powerful tools at our disposal. Used recklessly, or in ignorance these tools can destroy and imprison as profoundly as they can free and heal.  In the interest of healing grief and finding answers in the context of the modern world we honor those who have gone before.   We don’t proclaim any tribal affiliations accept to be the best human beings we can and work authentically to leave bounty in our wake.  This holds true for ourselves, our families, and our communities, to include the Earth and the soil we work.  We recognize that some folks don’t even have that, and so we are grateful to be able to share these things.  We believe grief can be worked through, and that it is an individuals choice and a communities responsibility to tend to these things toward the best outcomes possible.

Before sharing anything important, we must be in a state of calm thoughtfulness. Anger, worry, and grief must be cleansed or removed from within before sharing skills with students. This can be done through ceremony, meditation, and grief technologies. During a class it may be necessary to step away from a situation to be able to re-center and re-acquire a quiet mind.

We must recognize that the skills we teach are a physical representation of the collective consciousness of our ancestors. Our words and actions must be sacred and healing. Our presence should nurture and encourage community, safety, and passion. We are the role models upon which students will re-pattern themselves. We are spiritual warriors and healers of the heart.

Everything is connected. We respect the smallest blade of grass as we do the most revered elders because we realize that everything is a thread in the ever-changing fabric of life. To put this concept to work we must have Unity of Mind- meaning that we lock arms in agreement, ever striving for the strength of mutual understanding.