The Woodsman School Self Development Courses

     Since I have become interested in the Bushcraft pastime I have been looking for a structured method for furthering my education. Sure, I have learned copious amounts of information through many hours of internet searches and online videos. During my time online I also located several books by various authors of various time periods that helped expand my pool of knowledge. Authors like Mors Kochansski, Dan Beard, George Washington Sears, and several others have contributed great amounts of information to the field that any person interested in Bushcraftt would greatly benefit from.
     During my time expanding my knowledge I realized that while I was learning a great deal, there was no "method" to what I was studying. With my background in training, I prefer a structured method to learning new subjects and find a more "hap-hazard" approach not very conducive to learning. This realization brought about a search for this mysterious structured method I was looking for. Being a "newbie" I did not want to outlay a great amount of money or time for this education until I had, what I believed, the "fundamentals" of the topic covered. My research led me to several schools that had on site training from one day to several week long immersive courses that ranged from less than $100 to several thousands of dollars. None of these options seemed to be what I was looking for at my particular location along the Bushcraft learning continuum.
     This lead me to look for online programs of study. The first I discovered was the BushClass available at the BuscraftUSA website. This class is very well put together and thoughtout, in my opinion. It has three different levels with instructional videos from several instructors and required tasks to be submitted to attain "certification". After completing the BushClass Basic Certification and having completed the majority of the requirements for the Intermediate Certification, I began to look for something more on the cognitive domain than the psychomotor method of producing an object for evaluation.
     I wanted a self contained course that would cover a broad range of topics that did not require attendance of an on-site course, along with the extra outlay of tuition costs, in order to obtain certification. I looked at the Pathfinder School's Home Study Certification program of Phase 1 and Phase 2, however, to complete Phase 2, a student must attend the Advanced Survival Course to obtain certification, at a cost of several hundred additional dollars. The primary advantage to this course of study is the advertised possibility of becoming an Associate Instructor at the Pathfinder School upon completion of Phase 3. While becoming a certified instructor is very interesting, it was not my goal at the time.
     During my time of learning and searching for a course that fit my idea of what I desired I discovered a gentleman named Derek Faria. I had viewed a great deal of his videos on YouTube and I enjoyed his no nonsense teaching style. Derek has a physical school site known as The Woodsman School and offers classes in New Hampshire. Also offered through the school are Self Development Courses available via mail. The courses are listed as Ledgers and are Ledger 1, Ledger 2, and Ledger 3 and build on each other incrementally. These courses are very reasonably priced and very well thought out, in my opinion. The courses require a great deal of study and research on the part of the student and this is the best part of the course. While there is something to be said for a fully self contained course in which all material need for the course is supplied, the student only gets one viewpoint on the subjects being discussed. I believe, that the way The Woodsman School Self Development Courses have been developed opens up the student to the opportunity to learn the information from many different sources thus providing a greater depth to the knowledge obtained than learning from one source. In his video about the courses, Derek explains that the student "gets out of the course what they put in to it", that is to say if the student wants an easy and shallow course they can get it, however, if the student wants a challenging course that will bring a great deal of information, that is possible as well.
     I have completed Ledger 1 and have recently began Ledger 2 and I can say that these courses have provided the structure that I had been searching for. The courses are laid out to follow the survival priorities that are covered in the on site courses at The Woodsman School. The amount of research required is necessary to insure that the students are gaining the base knowledge required to complete the objectives that must be submitted for certification. In all, I personally believe that if you are unable to attend a class in person or are looking for a structured learning environment at home, you can't go wrong with The Woodsman School Self Development Courses.