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  • LATEST POSTS

    • Perhaps it is just my highschool, but as a parent of a teenager I have to say expectations of what teens must do far exceed what was expected of teens 20, 30, 50 years ago.  First, they are expected to take college level courses in high school.  When I was a kid, I took 2 AP courses, now ... If you want any chance to get selected by a highly selected university you need at least 8.  Plus you need to have nearly perfect grades and an ACT/SAT that is very high.   Then look at sports.  When I was a kid you can simply walk on to most teams and the sport lasts the season.  Now, the best teams are not even at high school and nearly all teams except you dedicate yourself to that sport all year (and expect to travel). Add in the expectation you also have a job, volunteer, become president of a couple of clubs, etc. Free time for far too many kids is rare.  They are jumping around from studying for an AP test to travel baseball to mock trials, etc.  Participation trophies are a thing in the past.  My kids participated in years of various sports, never received a trophy and were told they were no good for travel and should simply quit. As a parent of a couple of kids today I think the lazy argument is that kids today are babied.  Actually, in many ways, I think kids today are abused.   Expectations are far too high any far too many sacrifice childhood to become mini adults at age 9.  The kids that don't are left feeling like they are failures. It's incredibly sad. Scouting is the one organization where you are not judged if you are not the "best" at something and you don't leave feeling like you failed life just because you didn't ace an AP test while also throwing a baseball in the mid 90s at 16.  I honestly think that is why we need scouting more than ever.  It allows kids to try a variety of activities, fail, learn , have fun and just be kids.  Everything else is rushing them into adulthood.
    • I think you're right on the money here. Part of the reason things have turned out fine generation after generation is that the youth were guided skillfully enough by elders who didn't give up. The youthful perspective is important, but so is that of the elders. Both are needed. So it's important to rouse wakeful energy and confidence when they start wanting. We can make a difference, there is a point, even if youth don't show it as you do the helping! Also, youthful mistakes as well as parenting mistakes tend to correct themselves with more reality feedback. Can't imagine people who being parents to job interviews get many offers, and most likely get told point blank it's completely inappropriate eventually. Rough and unfair in a sense, but... From a larger history POV, probably corrects itself.
    • Thanks, you are of course right in the general way.  We have it much better today than in the past.  That in itself may be a contributor to the seeming lack of too many to fend for themselves.  There is no doubt that many young people are babied so badly that they do not have a clue of reality in the wider world.  At the same time, some of us on here can extoll the benefits many of our mentees have garnered from being asked to think and act on their own.  I keep getting reminded that while I too often get annoyed at the absolutely ludicrous ideas with which the proverbial helicopter adults confront us pop up, there are many examples of youth that inspire and give hope.  And we have the privilege to interact with more of them than some adults.  Just need to not get distracted by the brash foolishness.
    • Even with a red passport in addition to a blue one, I represent US scouting with the BSA when I'm in the BSA uniform. The Swedish flag goes on the Swedish scout shirt, the US flag on the US scout shirt. Puerto Rican flags make sense for Puerto Rican scouts. So unless they're in Scouts Ukraine in a Ukrainian scout shirt...
    • Well, considering that the youth of today have been terrible since the days of Aristotle, I'll say it could have gotten much worse 😂 Are you familiar with the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling? He's got a few TED talks that are lowkey inspiring in terms of building a better world. We in high-income countries don't feel it day to day, but the world is actually a much better place now than in the past. Even here, things are better in a lot of ways. It's good to remind oneself sometimes.
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