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LATEST POSTS
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By SiouxRanger · Posted
And I will just have add: When things go really bad in the outback, and your life depends on it (the news has stories weekly of folks who have died), having MASTERY of a skill is potentially lifesaving. And if not saving your life, will make a stressful situation more comfortable. Louis Pasteur's quote "Chance favors the prepared mind" means that the better prepared and more knowledgeable you are, the more you'll be able to take advantage of any chance opportunities or observations. Once, headed into a federal wilderness in winter time, the rangers, after looking at our gear said we passed and could go in. Knowing the difficult decisions rescuers faced in crisis, I told him, if a crisis, come look for us last. We will be OK. (Well, and not knowing the future crisis, maybe that doomed us, but we were confident of our skills.) And, many times merely having confidence in one's ability, allows one emotionally to continue on to solve an unknown crisis, that without that confidence would have caused them to hesitate and be lost. THAT is what Scouting did for me. -
By SiouxRanger · Posted
Interesting comment, presents the question: is Scouting an "experience" or "learning (skills mastery)?" "Experience" implies: "Go through the steps, complete them in some measure of demonstrated competency of skills and you are done." (Whether you remember them tomorrow or not.) "Learning" implies: "You've made 8 failed attempts and now you've demonstrated the skill 3 times perfectly-you've learned. Come back tomorrow and if you can do it again, you've mastered it and passed." An anecdote: While on that camp staff in 1969, the waterfront director at an evening staff meeting, asked me if I could put bow lines on all of the 20 camp canoes down at the waterfront. He said, "I don't want rope just tied on, I want ropes eye-spliced on to the front, and end splices on the tag ends. Do you know how to do that?" "Yes, I do." I slipped out of the meeting, (I was a minor nobody), went to the commissary, cut a number of lengths of manila rope for the job, and went to the waterfront. My flashlight, attracting billions of mosquitos, I shut it off…hmmm…lovely…I eye-spliced 20 bow lines in the dark, by touch. I returned to the staff meeting saying nothing. The waterfront director came up to me at some point and asked when I thought I could get the bow lines put on the canoes. "It is done." That is mastery. I don't expect a scout to be quite that skilled, but they at least have to get it right once, and then once again after some interlude. -
That is a new one I haven't heard before: It's not coaches, then, but lurking predators who scope out kids and swipe them off the field in view of the public, other kids, parents, and ubiquitous surveillance cameras? Interesting. I guess these lurkers don't go after the tuba players very often. I think it's significant that BSA, the youth organization that probably has the most data about child sexual abuse cases over time, and that could produce information useful to scout parents and leaders as well as all other youth organizations regarding incident characteristics, age, gender of victims and perpetrators, setting, type, perpetrator profiles, etc., has never compiled or produced any useful or comprehensive research or reports about it. Many other youth or youth linked organizations have done so on CSA, mental health, safety, etc. Never BSA, the organization that you hope all other youth organizations will emulate. -
That’s some serious wishful thinking! Those “two hours in public view” are just the tip of the iceberg! From there, while noble coaches are trying to guide kids into a lifetime enjoyment of athletic pass time, the neighborhood predator, on the field or in the stands, is getting acquainted with hundreds of kids and ranking them by vulnerability. Sports and band camps are notorious for providing first exposures to pornography and worse. Some of the kids who are routinely assaulted at home:work their way up in the structure to where they can propagate assault. USA Gymnastics learned the hard way that large numbers of their athletes were extremely vulnerable because of inordinate trust in professional positions. The types of assaults that I became aware of as my kids advanced through varsity sports made me (and their coaches) nauseous. Moreover, because there is no national oversight of leadership in youth sports, we have no idea of the risks to participants. With what I’ve learned now, would I still allow my kids to participate fully in athletics? Yes. Do I believe that structures like Sandusky laws have helped mitigate risk to some degree? Yes. Do I believe we’ve had a net effect of protecting our nation’s youth from CSA? Jury’s still out, my hope is that one day overall risks to youth will be as low as BSA’s rate, but we have quite a way to go. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
Recommend a different thread. I never retest the Scout. Yes, we discuss the experience. "How did you like the badge?" "Tell me about a challenge you had, and what you did to deal with it." "Did the Merit Badge Counselor require you to do anything more than the written requirements in order to receive the badge?" "Would you recommend this badge or counselor to your friends? Why or why not?" etc. The attitude here is not to play "gotcha", but to gauge the Scout's experience with the badge and counselor. So, if a Scout comes to me with a Hiking MB card, for example, I would love to hear about his 20-miler. That is no small feat! If the Scout says, "Well, we never did a 20-mile hike", then we have a problem, and I have a further conversation with the Scout along the lines of previous posts. Then I have a conversation with the MBC, or the Program Director at camp. I'm not being the Grand Inquisitor as you seem to think. But I do not turn a blind eye to unethical behavior, when it arises. That would only perpetuate the "dirty little secret". Over time, I am seeing more and more instances of Scouts not completing requirements as stated, and Merit Badge Counselors (or Camp Staff Instructors) signing off badges when they should not. "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." This includes the Merit Badge program...
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