academic requirements
David Grima (dgrima@COURIERPUB.COM)
Mon, 22 Dec 1997 16:21:54 -0400
It sounds fine to set a high grade point average as a requirement for
various troop offices. But I think it is a bad call.
Boys fail to get high grades for a variety of reasons. Being bad boys is
only one reason, and is usually the least important. Other reasons include
having a genuine learning disability, having a family where study is not
encouraged or even made difficult, and having a wide range of personal and
social problems. None of these need have any real root in the boy's
personal choices, attitudes or behavior.
I know boys in my Cub Pack who will never have great grade points averages.
But they have a good chance to be fine and knowledgeable Boy Scouts some
day, with a good grasp of practical skills.
Whenever there is some writing component in my Webelos den, there are boys
who cannot do it. I merely pair them up with boys who can, and together
they get it done. Both buddies know instinctively, and from my personal
example, that this is a good Scouting attitude.
Enforcing school academic standards on such boys robs them of the safe
haven which Scouting should be for all. It just reaches out and extends
judgments made on them in school and other circles.
My thumbs are both down. Back off from it it gently, I say, for the sake of
the boys we all know.
David Grima
CM P206
Rockland
Maine
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
