Setting the example.
Paul H. Brown (phbrown@CAPACCESS.ORG)
Sat, 29 Mar 1997 19:38:34 -0500
On Sat, 29 Mar 1997, dave livingston wrote:
> We've had a really fun time with this one. What we've shown is that we
> don't really know. I've gotten policies from different councils on smoking.
> If it is banned, why the policies, but that is another thread.
>
> The original premise was that the JLT Scoutmaster (who was a district
> commissioner) gave a briefing on tobacco use by scouts and the consequences
> of the usage of this product since it is illegal. His line in the sand was
> that if you break the law, you are done.
If we can get off of demon tobacco for just a minute, I think we can
generalize this discussion into other areas. There is the training, and
then there is the application: how does this work in the real world of
scouting?
When I took SMF, I was warned about using liquids to start fires. I
thought it was hokey, but, hey... its scouts and the scouts have a way to
do things. Within half an hour of the lesson, we had lunch. Cooked over
charcoal. Started with...you guessed it: charcoal lighter fluid. (By a
staffer other than the one who'd told us the rules about liquid fire
starters, BTW.) So, we asked questions. The SM allowed as how the cook
crew hadn't gotten the word. (Cook crew probably would've asked: how do
you expect me to start the charcoal, then?)
The rules are do's and don'ts (mostly, don'ts). Not very good on what to
substitute for the don'ts we've learned to use. Sometimes, it appears
that the authors of the don'ts don't think through all of the situations
in which they may apply. Which leaves some of us frustrated.
The YPT discussion has brought up other examples: what do you do with a
scout whose parents are late picking him up. Presumably two scouters
remain until all of the scouts are gone home. Changing the practice of
scouters taking scouts to and from meetings has required lots of
adjustments. (Once we realize that two adults aren't required in each
car, things get a lot less difficult. :-) )
Back to smoking. Some wonderful scouters have the habit. It has killed
other wonderful scouters. Other than the smoking, some of these men and
women have attributes I'd love my sons to emulate. There is the rule
(Don't smoke around scouts.). Then, there follows the application phase:
where can scouters smoke? How far off into the woods must they venture?
Must they go downwind? When we ask scouters to sneak off for a smoke,
are we training the scouts to do likewise?
Everything isn't simple in scouting. Everything isn't simple in life.
Maybe, for some, it is simpler than for others. Cultural collisions can
be lessened by living the Scout Law, but the collisions aren't
eliminated. Relations between smoking scouters and those who don't smoke
can be better if each would remember the Scout Law, too.
YiS,
Paul H. Brown, KD4UPD
I used to be an Antelope, WB 82-66
Pack Committee Chairman, Unit Commissioner, Roundtable Commissioner
George Washington District, National Capital Area Council, BSA
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
