Wood Badge Youngsters?

Third hand to you folks:::

A good friend just contacted me about his first WB weekend. Lots of good feelings, but one thing surprised him; and me when he apprised me of it.

Among the participants were two 18 year olds. My friend said they were full participants, both Eagles, one a paid Scouter in Council, the other a Scouter in his old Troop while he goes to college P/T and works in a techy industry P/T.

I said that seemed a bit young and (dare I say it) inexperienced for WB. But then, who am I to judge?

I too had several teeny boppers in my class. My Patrol has a just turned 21 year old that just switched roles in his crew from member to adviser. He joined Venturing at 18 years old in order to go on a backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. He brought 3 other youngins with him. There were also a couple of 18-19 year old aged out Eagle Scouts too. Their gung ho attitudes were a little much for some of us (especially at 6:00 AM). You can tell that they have no real responsibility yet (family, job, bills, etc). Our patrol member was ticked off that we couldn't meet 3-4 times during the daytime between sessions. Evening meetings would crimp his social life. He didn't get that day meetings would crimp our employment status.

I'm all for a minimum age limit and experience level for the course.

I've discussed in another recent thread my experience with wet-behind-the-ears manchildren who have not had their first true AW-#### moment in life yet.

To me, a clear AW-#### moment is the prerequisite, not chronological age.

Seems like y'all seriously disagree with National's goal that everyone complete Wood Badge within two years of registering as an adult leader.

Sometimes I wish I was that carefree again. I know that for some adults, events like WB and the OA are chances for them to be like that again.

I also know a balance is needed between "energy" and "experience"

Bet that "youngin" had served on summercamp staff where being a "program freak" and full of enthusiasm is not only required, but saves ones sanity during the long days and short breaks of that job. And yes probably that enthisiasm continued over to WB as all the WB courses I've heard about, yes I haven't done WB yet but hopefully 2011 will be the year, there is an element of youthfull playfulness in the forms of hiding misplaced flags, doing crazy things with the service and program patrol totems, etc.

At least the young man in your class didn't have the problem a very good freind of mine had when he did WB at the age of 18: being bored out of his gourd. Since he had just staffed JLT 2-3 months before his WB course, he really didn't learn a whole bunch of new stuff.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

I thought paid scouters had to be over 21?

SctLdr,

If memory serves, a Paraprofessional can be under 21. Another good friend of mine who worked JLT staff was a parapro for a Scoutreach program back in the day, and I beleive he was 19 or 20.

Remmebr that jingle,

Wish I woulda known what I know now, when I was younger?

So, we don't wish that for others

Not sure how excluding youth as participants you are working with at Wood Badge helps meet the Wood Badge goal of helping adults become more prepared to work with youth.

If you find youthful enthusiasm troubling and diverse points-of-view a hassle, there are lessons to be learned in Wood Badge, were you willing.

TAHAWK,

Very good point, but one minor error: someone who is 18 and serving as an ASM, ADL, or AWDL is an adult. We all know "Youth" can't take WB

Seriously though I am all for "Gray Area Scouters" taking training.

Also thinking about my college days, I have one possiblity why the young man may not have been able to meet at nite, and it's not his "social Life." Could the young man be working nites, and thus the nite time meetings be a problem for him and his employment status?

I know that I had some "challenges" doing group projects with fellow students in school b/c I was a commuter who worked 2 jobs in addition to goign to school FT. So the only times I was one campus was working job #1 and classes. One reason why I prefered avoiding classes with group projects, not not always avoidable.

"I am all for "Gray Area Scouters" taking training.

I know that I had some "challenges" doing group projects with fellow students in school b/c I was a commuter who worked 2 jobs in addition to goign to school FT."

This is precisly the reason a youngster should not be taking Wood Badge. Right now they have other important things to do. Personally, I think our highly motivated, goal-oriented, young Scouters have one goal in mind when taking Wood Badge, particularly when they've been staffing NYLT: beads.

I'm sure there's an exception out there, and good for him.

BDPT00

BDPT00,

Not necessarily. The CD was a very dynamic individual who encouraged those with a lot of potential to take as much training as possible, and actively recurited him and myself to take the course. I couldn't do it b/c one weekend was a wedding, but the other guy was able to do so.

Upon some reflection, maybe the beads did have a small part to play. As someone posted elsewhere, there can be an ideology among some adults that if you don't have beads, or as I have expereinced are younger than them, then you didn't know what you were talking about.

Personally I think he wanted as much trainign as possible tomake a difference in Scouts lives.

Odd that people have a problem with this. Would these young men be better off not taking it at all, or waiting until they are old farts like the rest of us?

I would not be surprised if they were bored. But if taking WB keeps them interested, or gives them added motivation then good for them.

I was a (sort of) youngster when I went through WB, being 27 when I went, I was about the youngest there. There were around 4-5 of us who were about 25-30.

If I had gone through 7 or 8 years earlier, in my case, it probably would have been more of check the box and get the beads type of thing. But with college, grad school, and significant work experience, I got a lot more out of WB than I thought.

When I went, I had just come back to scouting after about a 9 year absence (concentrating on the fore mentioned things), and I was recruited by the course director, who was our District Chairman and a previous ASM when I was a youth. I was hesitant to go, especially since I hadn't been involved in a while, thinking I didn't have the experience to go....I did, although it wasn't Scouting experience. That's the key, experience, and I think an 18 year old ASM, most likely has neither the Scouting or life experience to make WB a worthwhile course.

I originally thought I didn't need to attend WB because I was an Eagle, and that's an attitude I received from my father. He became an Eagle in the early 60's and when he originally became an ASM, he was told that the "outdoor skills" from WB weren't necessary. I guess that might have been the case 50 years ago, but now, I think WB is useful for all who have enough experience to "get it."

Anybody who has been through WB could easily see how a youngster could just "check the box" in order to get the beads and get absolutely nothing out of it. I sort of see how WB is kind of like B-school or other graduate programs in which work a lot better when the students have a decent amount of knowledge and experience to make it work.

It's not the age, it's how he thinks of himself and his place in the troop. If he is still "Bob" to all the kids he might be best off waiting until he becomes Mr. Smith.