Absolutely no sense of direction!

[Trevorum]

The thread about promptness (or lack thereof) and the inability of some people (who shall not be named) to accurate sense the passing of time got me to thinking about other sensory disabilities.

 

My job requires field navigation and orientation skills and, over the years, I've worked with a number of people who have absolutely no sense of direction. They get lost even with a compass in hand. Those impaired folks have mostly changed careers (or work for the gov't).

 

I've also had the opportunity to teach orientation to bunches and bunches of scouts. Some take naturally to field navigation while other poor fellows, well, they get lost a lot.

 

So I've concluded that some people have a natural aptitude for orienting themselves in the world, while others have no clue. Sort of like math.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

My father is amazing, we can be in an office building, go up a flight of stairs and then down a hall way, make a few turns and end up in a waiting room where he tells me to take a seat along the north wall. I have no idea how he does it, but upon investigation he is always right. I can use a map and compass ok, but without them there would be another news story about a lost scouter.

[Trevorum]

OGE,

Yep, your dad's a good example of what I mean. Have you ever read about how pigeons navigate? My theory is that some people are sorta the same way, with microscopic magnetic particles in their brains. Other people, well, they get lost a lot!

[jr56]

Interesting theory, I've also read an article on how as a general rule, men are better at a sense of direction than women. But women tend to be more observant. People have been getting government money for years to do studies on things like this.

[Fuzzy Bear]

There is no absolute direction, so those without directionality may more nearly reflect reality, unless they are in the woods.

[SSScout]

One of my favorite things to do if I'm doing 'Map and Compass' at CS daycamp or even IOLS, or Camporee is to gather the class/crowd around me and say" ALright! On the count of three, everybody point NORTH! ONE< TWO< THREE!!" and watch out for the eyes that get poked out...

 

(got this from a "3 Stooges " routine)

 

Then I'll take a vote, and then start in on how NORTH really can't be a democratically selected direction...

 

KISMIF