Airsoft as a teaching instrument

[PTE. Pyle]

I spent a night talking with a good friend of the family who was a former Capt. in the army. he has since retired and is now a high school social studies teacher(among other subjects) He spent a great deal of time over seas, in cypress, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Somalia ect. he has spent allot of his life in places few people will voluntarily go. He was saying how much he would like to be able to give his students a small feeling of what war is, since you can only learn so much from books and movies. He organized a large one day event a few years ago in witch students used props and such and basically lived the life of a soldier for a day. but unfortunately he doesn’t feel they picked much up from this. after learning about airsoft he was quite intrigued on the idea of a student based 2 or 3 day milsim type event where more than just doing the actions a soldier dose they could actually interact and feel what they feel. the fear and comradery. Now he dose not want to glorify war or to simply let the kids go nuts on each other, but to really let them experience what war is like. all legality’s aside, what do you guys think about this approach. do you think it would do any good for kids to actually get to experience this or is it a waste of time and money.

sorry if this doesn’t make allot of sense but I don’t really know how to explain what we talked about any clearer

[pugs144]

Why are you asking on ASC? Why don't you ask BCAC (if they'll even talk to you), Op-for, or Panther Paintball for input on the feasibility of your little project. Never mind the legality, think about the SAFETY issues that pop up when you give 20+ inexperienced highschool turds realistic looking guns to shoot each other with. Give your head a shake.

[PTE. Pyle]

ok let me make one thing clear I never said that I would like to make this a reality nor did my friend. secconondly I agree giving 20+ kids guns is not the best idea, I was simply looking to see what people think of the idea. sorry if i came across asking how to make this happen. Im not stupid enough to think that a school would actualy allow an event like this. it was meerly discution.

[Janus]

What is it exactly they do in cadets?

[swatt13]

i dont see how its different from having the kids play paintball in gym programs, i think its a cool idea, but i cant see it coming to light.

[Kokanee]

Groombug might have the best idea, of looking into CF support ie running the kids thru a tiny basic. May be hampered by the lack of reg force army in the province, but it's still worth a shot. Have the teacher get the school administration to contact some nearby reserve units.

[Deftonius]

Airsoft already teaches. I mean, come on... Who else would forcefully tell you that you spelled "instrument" wrong? No one. We use harsh language to get the job done.

[Amazing KG3]

yeah the idea would easily flop, where are you gonna find 30 AEGs? Maybe they should get a tour of the base.

[Skruface]

Sisler High School here in Winnipeg runs a 1-day roleplay workshop called "In Exile - for a While" about what it's like to be a UN refugee. The students are taken to a local national park by bus, and as soon as they arrive, they are met by a truckload of men in camoflague who take them off the bus, goo through their stuff, take away their lunches and personal goods, then lead them off through the forest. They go through a variety of roleplays, including having to cross a minefield and having some of their group "separated and abducted" by militants who presumeably kill them. You can look it up on the internet as there has been a ton of media coverage about this event in recent years. I tried to organize one of these myself and was promptly told by my administrators that there was no way they would support this.

More info on this roleplay here:
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/ed...23_86726_86726
http://www.mcc.org/inexile/

[Red_Star]

Well when I was in high school, our administration was always organising paint ball events. I do not see how air soft is that much different, aside the way of how the guns look.

[SovietHippie]

Actually, My highschool that I'm currently in, actually has an underground Rifle range, but they cut the funding because insurance became too high. I'm not sure how old the range is cause my highschool was originally built in the 1800's and burnt down in 1952. then was rebuilt. Ack, sorry kind of got off topic, as previously stated the biggest this is getting 30 AEG's and permission forms signed, but I think that UN Refugee thing is excellent.

[Moderate]

Originally Posted by JanusDP

What is it exactly they do in cadets?

Go to canadian forces bases and fire C7s, fire .22 and pellet guns in the basements of schools (where the Cadets meet weekly), go on camping trips for 2 nights and eat MRE's (or IMP's), do lots of drill work and learn how to tie knots from civilians that don't know what the hell they're talking about (One guy was telling us that this knot will save your life if your over the edge of a cliff or something, then someone else came over and told him he did it wrong and that we'd all be dead if we tied a knot that way).

Instructors are civilians from Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, and misc. retail stores, and some are retired cops...

----------------

That aside, was he the teacher that previously organized some sort of event that got on the national news? (positive news that is).

All I can remember from that news broadcast was them throwing grenades that were just packets of powder that exploded (powder went everywhere) when they landed. And lots of kids being involved because it was a school event/class event.

[quiggers]

I had a hard time when i was in high school trying to be snake plissken for halloween, apparently my orange cap gun was a weapon. So i doubt many school boards will be interested in this instrument of teaching due to the fact of the zero tolerance policies many schools have on weapons of any kind.
andrew

[Blackthorne]

Originally Posted by Skruface

Speaking as a teacher, there is absolutely NO WAY he would get perission from his administrators to have any student handling replica firearms, never mind shooting them at one another.

I salute you. I could never be a teacher in this PC society.

I won't even contemplate being a parent.

[Gato]

Originally Posted by Blackthorne

I salute you. I could never be a teacher in this PC society.

I won't even contemplate being a parent.

Word .....