Re: BOR Help -- to retest?

On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, Stephen Hoar wrote:
> >
> I enjoy reading Pauls comments as they are grounded in common sense.

I can use all the adulation you can dish out! Keep it up. :-)

> Too often we get so focused on the details that we forget the goal. It
> all harkens back to the Goal of scouting. Is the goal to produce good
> wlderness campers skilled in low impact camping and out door skills?
> No. The goal focuses on producing leaders well grounded in the ethics
> of what it takes to be a decent and productive member of society. The
> BOR therefore should be measuring the progress the scout is making
> toward attaining that goal. The skills, the game of scouting is merely
> the framework withhin which we take him toward that goal. Where you
> have been is not so nearly as important as where you are going.
>
Ah, but part of the "game" is to disguise the goal. Why is it that the
Official Scout Handbook doesn't come right out and discuss the aims and
methods of scouting? They have to be "teased" out of the chapters in the
back (if they're there at all). We don't say to the scouts, "Your goal
is to become a good citizen. These ranks requirements are just steps to
achieve that goal." No. We let the scouts pretend that we think the
ranks are the goal. We keep them distracted by learning the requirements
for the next rank, while we're (unbeknownst to them) teaching them
ethical behaviour. Alas, for some parents, we disguise the real goal
from them, too. It is _so_ much easier for them to treat their son as the
Webelos cub he once was, and lead him by the hand through the ranks. :-(

Keeping their eye focused on the goal works just great in daytime. When
you try to keep focused in the dark, you can't see what you want to.
Thats why you have to use peripheral vision in the dark.

These scouts are "in the dark" when it comes to ethical learning. If
they focus on ethics, they don't get it. If they focus on scouting, they
learn the ethics.

(OK, so the analogy isn't perfect. Neither am I. I just try....)

<snip...much good stuff deleted>

YiS,

Paul H. Brown, UC, GW District, National Capital Area Council
phbrown@capaccess.org

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