Re: 21 year old Cub Scout leaders?
poneilgdo (poneilgdo@ALPHA2.CURTIN.EDU.AU)
Wed, 14 May 1997 20:19:47 +0800
On Tue, 13 May 1997, James E Lade wrote:
> This is more pointed towards all of those in Cub Scouting. I know that
> when I was going through Cub Scouts, all of the Den Leaders and most of
> the adult leaders were parents of one or more of the boys in the pack. I
> was thinking of at least helping out, if not being active in Cub Scouting
> as well as Boy Scouts. Considering I'm 21 and single and don't have any
> children, I was wondering if people would worry about me helping out a
> pack.
This is a variation of a theme I have often come across and annoys me
immensely - the assumption that if someone does not have children of
their own in scouting that they could only possibly be interested in
being a scouter as an opportunity to prey upon young people. The
implication is that all scouters who do not have children in scouting
must be some kind of paedophile - an assumption and implication I find
deeply offensive.
In my own case, I was much like James - someone who had been a scout, and
having enjoyed and got a lot out of the program wanted to maintain my
involvement and put back into it something of what I got out of it. At
the age of 18 I was an assistant cub leader - none of the parents seemed
to have any concerns with this or think I was there for any hidden agenda
(it probably helped that I had previously helped out as a cub instructor
for part of my Queen's Scout service) At the age of 21, after a 2 year
break while serving as a Latter-Day Saint missionary, I became a scout
leader. At this point in time I have been involved in scouting as a
scouter for a total of 7 1/2 years (not continuous) and only in the last
1 1/2 years have I had a son involved in scouting - even then he has been
in a different section to the age group I work with.
James, my message to you, is that if you would like to be a scouter, to
continue your involvement in scouting and put back in something of what
you yourself have gained from scouting, GO FOR IT! Sure, the majority of
scouters are involved because they are parents of scouts, but there are
also plenty of us who are there mainly because we loved scouts when we
were young ourselves. If anyone raises eyebrows about you wanting to be a
scouter without being a father of a scout, I would say _they_ are the
ones with a big problem. It's a sad state of affairs when someone cannot
desire to serve an organisation that means a lot to them without having
some very ugly aspersions cast on their character simply because they
have no obvious reason that they _should_ be involved. Heaven forbid that
somebody should be a scouter simply because they might _want_ to be.
And yes, in case it is not absolutely clear, this is a very touchy
subject with me... Nobody ever made any such suggestions to me when I was
a scouter before I had children of my own, which is perhaps fortunate for
the health of anyone who may have thought in that way!
YiS
Grant O'Neil
AVL 2nd Ballajura Venturer Unit
Swan Valley District
Western Australia
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
