Patrick L
03-25-2007, 09:34 AM
Some of you that know me know that in my other life (the one I am forced to lead in order to earn a living and finance my shooting life) I am a high school music teacher. Political climate as it is here in the great Northeast, most of us that enjoy shooting are pretty quiet about it. Not super secret, but we don't wear our Charlton Heston T shirts to work.
Anyhow, this past Friday was a Superintendent's conference day, or more commonly known as a staff development day. The theme this year was wellness. We were offered glut of workshops to attend in order to improve our general health, mental state, etc. Under this very broad umbrella, there were workshops on everything from stress relief, lowfat cooking, yoga, gardening, pottery, you name it. Apparently, hobby type workshops were featured because people with an outlet for the stresses/tensions of work tend to cope better, and are more productive.
I was SHOCKED to see among the course offerings a trip to a local rod & gun club to tour the facilities and have a supervised exposure to .22 rifle shooting, trap, skeet, and sporting clays. It seems one of our teachers, a female elementary reading teacher is very involved in smallbore position shooting. She competes at the state level and from what I understand places quite well. I know this girl because she is also a cello player and has performed on many of our faculty recitals. I never had any idea she was a shooter. She proposed this idea to our administration and they got behind it and endorsed it.
About 40 teachers signed up, most (30+) with no firearms experience. The hosting club showed an NRA safety video, and provided eye & ear protection, all ammunition and guns, and lots of volunteers to demonstrate, coach, and supervise. They probably had 20 guys there to tend to 40 shooters, so there was lots of one on one instruction. In small groups shooters visited the rifle range where the took 10 shots at steel silhouettes, the skeet range where they took about 5 shots at station 7, the trap range where they took about 5 shots from the center pad, and a sporting clays station where there was a fairly basic outgoing pair.
It was really great to see so many young people taking their first shots. Grins were spanning ear to ear. The club was to be commended for setting up scenarios that were fairly easy to be successful at, and also for using reactive type targets that provided entertaining results when hit. These people had FUN! Since I was an experienced shooter, I was suddenly everyone's hero. People that I knew professionally for several years now saw me in a very different (and positive) light. I extended offers to several to take them shooting in the future, and I suspect several will be taking me up on it.
I think we gained a few to our ranks yesterday. It was truly refreshing to see a school district take a very objective and open minded stance on what has regrettably become a somewhat controversial topic. Makes me think there might be hope yet.
Anyhow, this past Friday was a Superintendent's conference day, or more commonly known as a staff development day. The theme this year was wellness. We were offered glut of workshops to attend in order to improve our general health, mental state, etc. Under this very broad umbrella, there were workshops on everything from stress relief, lowfat cooking, yoga, gardening, pottery, you name it. Apparently, hobby type workshops were featured because people with an outlet for the stresses/tensions of work tend to cope better, and are more productive.
I was SHOCKED to see among the course offerings a trip to a local rod & gun club to tour the facilities and have a supervised exposure to .22 rifle shooting, trap, skeet, and sporting clays. It seems one of our teachers, a female elementary reading teacher is very involved in smallbore position shooting. She competes at the state level and from what I understand places quite well. I know this girl because she is also a cello player and has performed on many of our faculty recitals. I never had any idea she was a shooter. She proposed this idea to our administration and they got behind it and endorsed it.
About 40 teachers signed up, most (30+) with no firearms experience. The hosting club showed an NRA safety video, and provided eye & ear protection, all ammunition and guns, and lots of volunteers to demonstrate, coach, and supervise. They probably had 20 guys there to tend to 40 shooters, so there was lots of one on one instruction. In small groups shooters visited the rifle range where the took 10 shots at steel silhouettes, the skeet range where they took about 5 shots at station 7, the trap range where they took about 5 shots from the center pad, and a sporting clays station where there was a fairly basic outgoing pair.
It was really great to see so many young people taking their first shots. Grins were spanning ear to ear. The club was to be commended for setting up scenarios that were fairly easy to be successful at, and also for using reactive type targets that provided entertaining results when hit. These people had FUN! Since I was an experienced shooter, I was suddenly everyone's hero. People that I knew professionally for several years now saw me in a very different (and positive) light. I extended offers to several to take them shooting in the future, and I suspect several will be taking me up on it.
I think we gained a few to our ranks yesterday. It was truly refreshing to see a school district take a very objective and open minded stance on what has regrettably become a somewhat controversial topic. Makes me think there might be hope yet.