Scouting/ Baden-Powell

redpepper

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Catfish and Rarechild: Ooh, can we call ourselves a "pack"? or is it too Baden Powell?


I imagine old school Baden Powell; scouts dressed in uniform around a fire chanting the scouts vow. Then going off in the woods to learn about knot tying and how to build shelters from a piece of string and a tarp.

I grew up in the scouting movement. Both parents were very involved. They were in their wedding even. This is a whole new take for me! :D
 
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Daniel Carter Beard

I imagine old school Baden Powell; scouts dressed in uniform around a fire chanting the scouts vow. Then going off in the woods to learn about knot tying and how to build shelters from a piece of string and a tarp.

I grew up in the scouting movement. Both parents were very involved. They were in their wedding even. This is a whole new take for me! :D

My dad and my brothers and I were involved as well. Dad ran the camp kitchen for years. He collects all manner of handbooks, but this exert from Daniel Carter Beard (pre-Baden Powell, turn of the century) is by far one of the best examples why...

New Woman on Stilts

"According to the newspapers, walking on stilts is the very latest fashion able amusement of the "new woman " in London. If there is any truth in this statement, it is safe to say that it will not be long before you boys will be called upon to make stilts for your sisters.

There can be little doubt that the time is coming when a book written for boys will be the only one girls will read, or, rather, every book will be written for young people, and will be addressed to both boys and girls.

Just why girls should not walk on stilts or engage in any similar sport no one yet has given a satisfactory answer. Twenty-five years ago the boys used to make stilts with very low blocks for their sisters, and the girls seldom would use them, but insisted upon using their brothers' high-blocked stilts."

http://www.inquiry.net/traditional/beard/ohb/index.htm
 
In the US the Boy Scouts finally just instituted a dont ask, dont tell policy for gay leaders and boys. Believe it or not this is an improvement, showing that scouts are at least a decade behind the actual military. They were pressured into it because public schools stopped hosting scout meetings as the scouts were discriminatory. Also one of their top funders, The United Way, had stopped funding them.
 
Well, put it this way. If you are discriminating against gay Leaders, you are discriminating against gay, bi or queer boys as well, indirectly, no? I know of more than one boy who chose not to go to Eagle Scout for just this reason.
 
My favorite gay young man quit scouts over it. :(

It was so sad for us, because he quit the same year my son moved from cubscouts to boyscouts and as a result, Sweet Pea lost interest in pursuing BoyScouts. He was already on his way to being able to get all of the possible awards, he got all of the possible awards in cubscouts including the arrow of light (only one you get to keep through boyscouts).

But, when our friend quit (he's older) Sweet Pea just lost momentum. He was so excited about joining the same troop as the older boy... now he just doesn't care.

:(

I'm glad that they are progressing, if slowly. There are some good things that the kids can learn in BoyScouts.
 
Yeah. My ex was an Eagle Scout, and he was great to camp with.

My gf was raised as a boy and went to Eagle. Was a Scout camp counselor every summer.

She's a whiz with ropes and that is quite beneficial in some of our... play. :p
 
............ There are some good things that the kids can learn in BoyScouts.

Scout program used be be a super program. A lot depends on the leaders and parents though. Seems it's faded. All those self reliant skills have lost glitz in the current culture. And they never instituted a Neediness badge ? :)
But of course they HAD to keep the Religion. Maybe that's what sank the ship ?

GS
 
Scout program used be be a super program. A lot depends on the leaders and parents though. Seems it's faded. All those self reliant skills have lost glitz in the current culture. And they never instituted a Neediness badge ? :)
But of course they HAD to keep the Religion. Maybe that's what sank the ship ?

GS

EVERYTHING depends on the parents and the leaders. The biggest problems arrise when a group is church run. The LDS groups are famous for having leaders that really don't want to be there, they are there because that's where they have been told to "serve". They are also the groups that most often "forget" to get their leaders the required training.

Most groups that are Non-Church run, practicing a religon is encouraged but not primary, nor are they supposed to dictate which religon is to be practiced.
 
As a Cub Scout leader my self I know there is still a lot of great things for boys to learn. This year last year was the 100th birthday for scouting. They have re done our scouting books and change some things up a little. It seems to be focusing mainly on respect, decisions and knowledge. As a leader I can do all kinds of great things with the boys in that one hour a week, but with out the parents support it is hard to get everything done. I have a younger group and can't wait for them to get to the point where they are doing really cool stuff. A good foundation is needed in any part of our lives so that is what we are doing now.

The truth is there just isn't the support for the kids to learn this type of stuff any more. Peoples lives are too busy to take their kids to scouts an hour a week.
 
"How to light a fire" or "Finding your tent stakes with a cell phone display"

I'm re-posting this link for two reasons: Its principles lie at the very root of Scouting in the United States and, more to the point, it is fun.

http://www.inquiry.net/traditional/beard/ohb/index.htm

Folklore is defined as artistic communication in small groups. Folklore, of any kind, is dualistic: conservative, yet dynamic. The future for Scouting seems to fall subject to this. How does Scouting conserve its primary, historical ethical principles while dynamically moving into the 21st century so as to remain a viable resource for empowering young people?

I expect that it will be a combination of organic development and forced social change. The fear, for those of us who know the benefits of Scouting, is that it will hold so closely to its conservative principles that it will in effect become out of touch and obsolete.

Sounds challenging, at best. How does one teach young people about solid fuel combustion (campfire) and culinary artistry (foil dinners) through a blog, tweet, post, thread, or text?
 
As a Cub Scout leader my self I know there is still a lot of great things for boys to learn. This year last year was the 100th birthday for scouting. They have re done our scouting books and change some things up a little. It seems to be focusing mainly on respect, decisions and knowledge. As a leader I can do all kinds of great things with the boys in that one hour a week, but with out the parents support it is hard to get everything done. I have a younger group and can't wait for them to get to the point where they are doing really cool stuff. A good foundation is needed in any part of our lives so that is what we are doing now.

The truth is there just isn't the support for the kids to learn this type of stuff any more. Peoples lives are too busy to take their kids to scouts an hour a week.

Very true. I was a leader all through cubscouts. It was a lot of work. The two nearest boyscout troops to us are both 30-45 minute drives away. The meetings are 2 hours long. So that's a 4 hour evening for us. One meets on Tuesdays, the other on Thursdays. :(
It's not something we can do as a family, because we can't get home til nearly 11pm. Our 3 year old HAS to be in bed before that or she'd make hell for all of us. The 10 year old who would be doing the scouting in the first place, SHOULD be in bed before that.
Not to mention dinner, there is no time to make a dinner before scouting, there's no food at the meeting-so that means leaving there and scarfing fast food for him once a week.
:(

It's a bummer.
I looked up starting a new scout troop or doing his scout stuff as an individual except for the bigger weekend events, which he could do with the groups. But that wasn't an option.
Furthermore, both groups have primarily highschool boys and no middle school boys-so he feels totally out of touch with them and isn't interested in "hanging out" with them.

While I don't mind being a supportive scout parent, it sure would be nice if it were possible for the weekly meetings if we could switch off with another family to take both boys. But-there aren't any. :(
 
As a Cub Scout leader my self I know there is still a lot of great things for boys to learn...............As a leader I can do all kinds of great things with the boys in that one hour a week, but with out the parents support it is hard to get everything done. .........
The truth is there just isn't the support for the kids to learn this type of stuff any more. Peoples lives are too busy to take their kids to scouts an hour a week.

You're correct on the 'support' problem.
And what's missed here is that the whole (or big part) of scouting is based on self interest and desire. The kids have to have that desire themself, albeit encouraged by good mentors (leaders, parents, other interested adults). A meeting or two a week cannot POSSIBLY accomplish serious forward progress, only play a supporting role.

Of course this applies more to Boy/Girl scouts than Cubs or Brownies. The whole Merit Badge program is intended for kids to pursue interests and knowledge on their own. To seek out the proper mentors that have the knowledge in the various areas. That networking itself is a valuable skill !

This is usually overlooked.
We live in a society where we expect people to "provide" for us ! If it's not handed to use on a silver tray we cry foul. It's all THEIR fault I'm a schmuck !

Don't get me going..............

GS
 
Getting going...

Silver tray...yep, I know that one. I sat through a high school graduation a couple of years ago and listened, appalled, to the superintendent and the principal claim that the graduates DESERVED our respect and pontificate d about how these kids were the "next greatest generation"...

It's not like the kids cured cancer, for crying out loud. They graduated high school. Yes, congratulations, but now it's time to get to work.

As they handed out the diplomas, I was struck with the image of high school graduates more appropriately being handed picks and shovels.

It has been my experience in the college classroom, and my colleagues will concur, that a large portion of incoming freshmen believe that the World owes them a living. It appears as though there are role models in their youth that feel the same and lead their young flocks to believe that life tastes better when eaten off a silver spoon. In talking to friends and relatives who teach in the public school systems, I have come to understand how the current paradigms in public education put our kids at a disadvantage when it comes to functioning in what my father always referred to as "The Real World".

A few years ago, I had the honor of building a Finnish soapstone masonry heater for a new Girl Scouts of the Glowing Embers Council facility in Kalamazoo. When asked what they, the girls, wanted for the new building, they almost unanimously said "a pizza oven". So, as a community, we made it happen. After completion, we taught the older girls how to fire the masonry heater and bake oven, leaving it them to teach the younger girls.
(I believe the build and the finished fireplace is on YouTube.) I bring this up because it remains in my mind as a fine example of the following statement:

"It takes a village to raise a child."

Inside and outside the classroom there remains a struggle to get the bulk of parents involved, and might I add accountable, for their children's education. While I detest the parental drive that forces a child to engage in activities that they would rather not, I think the parental responsibility is to stand firm in their child's involvement in activities that will enable them to be self-reliant, participating members of their community.
 
On the subject of merit badges I loved working towards them as a child. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. I started out with things that I already had a grasp on and worked out towards things that I had never experienced before. Some of it was positive and other things made me realize that they were things I really wasn't into at all. But now I have all sorts of info in my head to draw on if I need it.
 
On the subject of merit badges I loved working towards them as a child. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. I started out with things that I already had a grasp on and worked out towards things that I had never experienced before. Some of it was positive and other things made me realize that they were things I really wasn't into at all. But now I have all sorts of info in my head to draw on if I need it.

I like the tangible, physical records of accomplishments, though my wardrobe these days would "clash with the sash". I seem to still own a staggering amount of olive drab clothing, however...
 
I like the tangible, physical records of accomplishments, though my wardrobe these days would "clash with the sash". I seem to still own a staggering amount of olive drab clothing, however...

I still fit in my girl guide uniform.
 
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