Over the last year or so I've noticed several discussions which focus on teachers, on authority, on certifications, and so forth. Who is the better teacher of a skill (old kung fu movies come to mind, "My master is better than yours!") is a question many students wish to know the answer to, because they strive to become qualified in some way. There are many schools out there focusing on bushcraft, outdoor living, self reliance, and survival. A student can spend an enormous amount of money going through all this training and certification, and then hang out their own shingle as an "expert" because someone else said so.
At the academic level, we do this all the time without thinking. Universities teach courses and offer credit, and at the end you get a diploma which proves to the working world that you might know something about your subject of expertise. But Harvard doesn't offer Masters in Bushcrafting right now. so we have to make do with other forms of training and trust in the quality of that training.
I'd like to paraphrase one of my respected teachers, Alan Watts, on the subject of Authority. It was originally written regarding spiritual authority, the word of the church, and so on. But I think the theme is equally useful to consider in any pursuit of recognition.
What is the source of a teacher's authority? He can tell you that he can speak from experience. That he has experienced situations which have made him profoundly skilled or understanding or clever or whatever it may be. And you have his word for it. You have the word of other people who likewise agree with him. But each one of them and you in turn, agree with him out of your own opinion and by your own judgment. And so it is you that are the source of the teacher’s authority. And that is true whether he speaks as an individual or whether he speaks as the representative of a tradition or a school.
So the question comes back to you. Why do you believe, why do you form this opinion? Upon what basis does all this rest?
So, in the case of the various survival and bushcraft schools--which I choose not to name because I'm not trying to pick a fight with them--or any number of other groups who offer training, followed by some form of certification that you know what you're doing, it gives the student a sense of superior accomplishment because we tend not to trust our own experience and authority in complex skills and decision-making. These schools might say that their way will prepare you to be confident, prepare you to teach, or prepare you to survive, and that this way must be obeyed in a certain way or else you won't pass the class, and your time will be wasted. But their ways are held to be effective and right only because we say so.
Now, there are times where the authority of teachers is far more obvious, and I'll put medical training up on this pedestal readily. I would not suggest that one can become an EMT or a doctor without going through extensive and rigorous training, to acquire knowledge that is not readily available to the average person. The basics of anatomy and medicine are available to most people through good books and online resources, but the difficult lessons of how it all actually works, depends on life-and-death judgements, and that is probably better left to experienced teachers, rather than self-education.
But when it comes to more humble experiences like starting a fire, building a shelter, obtaining food, signalling for help, or even purifying water, there are so many resources available to the common person that there is no excuse for not getting outdoors and testing it for yourself. And in this way, through your own experience, you create your own authority and wisdom on the subject of living and recreating outdoors. It may take many nights outdoors for you to earn your experience and gain confidence, but the false lure of paying thousands of dollars and holding up a certificate risks confusing the symbol with the real thing. That certificate isn't going to keep you warm at night unless you use it to start your campfire with, nor will it fill your belly or stop your bleeding or quench your thirst. These are all things you have to learn for yourself. Good teachers help, of course, but reliance on dogma is not a reflection of an adaptable mind, which I think is far more important in any situation human beings find themselves in.
As the cliques and popular groups tell you they have "the way" for being successful outdoors, remember that they live by all the same rules you do - they need to eat and drink, be sheltered, and generally have the same powers of observation and reasoning as you do. I think that the sharing of experience, and of hard lessons learned, is a good thing for all of us, but I find it puzzling why people go so far out of their way to elevate to "rock star" status certain personalities or groups when the body of their teaching is, and has been for quite some time, very much in the public domain.
Some people are more effective at communicating information than others. That's to be applauded and maybe even invested in, but the egos which attend our community do us no service at all, in my opinion. Any discussion of who is "in" or "out" of a group takes away from the reason we're all doing this to begin with, and that is to have joy in our outdoor experiences.
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