JMHawkins

I think moosetracker's on the right track so to speak, though maybe the tutu's are gratuitous. Or would that be gratutuitus? (Sorry, been reading over too many skit ideas for my IOLS weekend, puns and bad jokes are stuck in my head). We ought to stick to what we do best. For Scouts, I think that's an outdoor, camping centric program. The whole foundation of Scouting was to teach boys important life skills by making use of their natural inclination to seek adventure and peer group membership. That doesn't mean you can't teach important things without camping. You can, but that's not

The requirement doesn't state demonstrate. It says teach. There are requirements that state demonstrate. This isn't one of them. To me that is getting dangerously close to teaching the boys to be locker-room lawyers, parsing words carefully and looking for every shortcut. Isn't the spirit of a rule more important than the legalistic wrangling over the words used to define it? As far as taking the Scouts word for it, sure you should do that, and there's nothing inconsistent with taking his word and asking him to show you how he did it. SCOUT: I taught my little brother how t

And the OP has a valid complaint. The requirement states "teach someone" not "teach someone only when the SM is available to watch" Shrubber's SM is adding to the requirements by requiring a Scout to do this teaching so they can watch. But it seems to me that underlying everything is the notion that, as Beavah said, the Scout becomes proficient at the skill. So, regardless of who the Scout originally taught, it seems perfectly reasonable for the SM to ask that the Scout demonstrate how he did it. If he really is proficient at teaching a square knot, it won't be a problem. If he's not a

"Do we know for certain that there will be no eye damage as a result of exposure to this item through play in the hands of a Scout?" Can't say for sure about the device you linked to, but an actual "Laser Tag" gun has no chance of eye damage, since it's a blinkin' (so to speak) infrared led, not an actual laser. Heck, shining a flashlight in someone's face is more dangerous to their sight than a laser tagger. The biggest chance of injury from laser taggers is if one boy accidentally clunks the other in the chin with one. So from a pure "safety" standpoint, a real game of Laser Tag with

Beavah: "To my mind the only time a COH should honor an adult is when the youth unanimously agree. Somethin' like a brief thing at the end of the CoH to say goodbye to the SM of 50 years who is retiring. " Engineer61: "I think CoH is the perfect time for the Scouts to recognize and show appreciation for the adults that make Scouting possible. No adults...no scouting." There's some common ground - the Scouts recognizing the adults. I guess the difference is whether it's unanimous or a simple majority, but I think that as long as it's the Scouts making the decision who to honor, how

I've been wondering about the amount of heat behind all discussions BSA/LDS related, and I suspect that part of it is just the natural temptation we all have to tell each other "Oh, you fool! You're not doing it right!" I'm as guilty of that as anyone. But I think there's another factor, kinda subtle, but there. For non-LDS units, the relationship between the Scouters and the CO can generally be described as the Scouters approaching the CO and saying "Hey, Mr. (Legion Hall/Rotary Club/local church/etc) Representative, we have this great program set up by the BSA, and we'd sure appr

In my troop growing up, we had three "regular" patrols and one "older guys" patrol. The SPL was the PL of the older patrol, which had most of the 15+ year olds. That patrol functioned like a normal patrol as far as tents and food. The assumption was the older boys were experienced enough to handle troop leadership roles and still plan their one patrol stuff. If you only have 2 patrols, then I think I like something akin to Stosh's setup, where the senior PL functions as the SPL (and I suppose the other PL functions as the ASPL). Essentially he's wearing two hats, but based on the Patr

Are you saying this is not so? Have we/I been wrong in our impressions? I honestly don't know. The site you linked to doesn't appear to be an official LDS church site, but it does seem to be run by members of good standing. At one point, the guy writing the FAQ explicitly states "Let me make it clear that these will be my opinions. I do not speak for the LDS church". The site does seem to indicate that a lot of myths and rumors make their way through the ranks of Mormon families about what's going on in their church, both as it relates to Scouting and other things as well. No

All this LDS talk got me to looking around LDS and Scouting sites, I found this and was frankly amazed as its counter to what I continualy hear about Homosexuality and the LDS/BSA relationship OGE, I'm not sure I understand what the question is. The statement from the ldsscouting site just says that, even if the BSA were to change their policy about this (either voluntarily or under court order), the IH of LDS units would be under no obligation to ask (ie. "call") openly homosexual people to server in unit leadership positions. I imagine the leadership of the LDS Church wouldn't be very

I was a decently athletic kid, played sports, lettered in Basketball, was reasonably active. But like Stosh, I didn't have a whole lot of upper body strength. I hated pull-ups. I hated 'em, and I couldn't do very many. But I could do a couple. Three maybe on a good day. As a kid, I wasn't opposed to exercise or running or even doing lower-body weight workouts. But I really disliked doing upper-body work because I was so bad at it. Then in college, my roommate convinced me to go to the gym. Mostly to look at girls, I think, but while I was there I did hit the weights. I still di

I just received my new advising list and a couple of superannuated scouts from the troop I serve are on it. Their parents were similar to JMHawkins in their involvement (if his description serves well), so I'm going to see how 'needy' or 'prepared' these guys might be. I'll bookmark this thread so I can update with news. Ha, now I'm confused (but I admit I got sorta lost around the cockroach discussion). What description was that? Parents who focus on their kid's resume instead of his character?

First Aid was my first. Hard to say what was my favorite (been a while!). I know that Citizenship in the Nation was my favorite graphic design.

btw, not to put down your rigger, but I have known plenty of riggers that consider it standard practice to fuse the end of a line. He lists four objections (this is from The Complete Rigger's Apprentice): 1. melting synthetics gives off toxic fumes and molten sludge 2. the fused end is hard and sharp and "will slash away at sails, brightwork, and crew." 3. They crack without warning ( whipping will show some wear first). 4. "They are ugly." He also notes that a couple of constrictor knots are nearly as quick. I'm not so worried about 1 and 4 (do it outdoors and don't wor

lrsap, Congratulations! Your son stepping up to lead when you arent around (the science teachers comment) wa a great step. But Im even more impressed with the flag ceremony. That was him stepping up to lead even when you were there. Think about that for a minute. He not only has the confidence to lead, he has the confidence to lead in the presence of someone who outranks him (e.g. Dad). Thats fantastic. He didn't just defer to someone more experienced, and he didn't freeze up with you watching. He carried on with the job. He hasnt shown he needs you NOT to be there. He

Since we ought to be preparing these boys for the corporate world some day, personally I think we should teach FRACK: Fad Recognition, Avoidance and Containment Knowledge EDGE seems like yet another Consultant-generated fad that, while not necessarily objectionable in itself, is indicative of a silver bullet, one-size-fits-all shortcut mindset. If the requirement was to use three different teaching techniques, one of which should be EDGE I would be happier with it. Expose the kids to a couple of ideas: theres more than one way to teach something, and that teaching is i

Incidentally, when I was a scout, using a match to fuse a rope seemed vaguely like we were doing something that was forbidden, not because matches were dangerous, but because of the prevailing view then that scouts ought to "whip" a rope. I haven't whipped a rope in 40 years, but whenever I burn the end of one with a match, I take a look around to make sure my old scoutmaster isn't watching A master Rigger by the name of Brion Toss calls fusing a rope the "butane backsplice" and looks down on it too. I'm with Blanchmange on this, if a DE was arguing a scout couldn't, under supervisi

Yah, that kind of sea lawyer interpretation is just fine if you're an attorney tryin' to manipulate things to get your client off on a technicality, but it has no business in raising kids unless yeh want them to someday need a lawyer to get 'em off on a technicality. Beavah, I'm going to print that out and frame it. Though I'm not so sure it's really okay for an attorney trying to manipulate things either... but that's another subject entirely. Yah, OK for Cub Scouts, but not OK for Boy Scouts. In Boy Scouts we EDGE, eh? That means after yeh explain and demonstrate, the boy has to

Doh! I completely misread the requirement. I thought it said 21 additional MB, but it's 21 total. Thank you, glad I made that mistake here and got set straight. Education is what you get when you read the instructions carefully and experience is what you get when you don't. Well, now I'm more experienced. For what it's worth, the BSA website says the average age at which Eagle is awarded is 17.3. So, while there are middle school Eagles running (flying?) around, they aren't the majority. I'm making a mountain out of a molehill.

Let me pose a question. One that may ruffle some feathers, so to speak, but it's not meant to do that. It's asked in good faith to generate a discussion. Assume a Scout receives his Life Award and sets out to earn Eagle in the minimum time, 6 months. He needs to serve in a POR, so he takes over as PL for Panther Patrol. During the next six months, he completes his 21 additional MBs (an average of nearly 1 per week) as well as planning and executing his service project. During this time, he is also presumably continuing his schoolwork, and whatever other community involvement he has

Realistically most parents could careless if their Scout can tie a knot, do a presentation or actually lead. They care about that extra line on the college resume, Period. Funny, I was going to reply "well, we ought to focus on the kids who are in the program to learn rather than earn." But then it hit me that kids who have parents driving them that way, focused strictly on the paper resume instead of the real person and character behind it, they might be the most in need of the experience a well-run program can give them. Of course "most in need" isn't the same as "will benifit th

JMH please accept my apologies in advance if the following offends you, but your opening post was one of the most judgmental I've read in quite a while. No worries Twocub - I've got pretty thick skin, so let me know what you think, I'm not going to be offended. Of course, I don't think being judgmental is necessarily a bad thing so I'm not offended anyway. I think you can be judgmental in a bad way, or use poor judgment in it, and perhaps you think that's true of me here. Could be (hey, judging is a two-way street). But I do think it is important to be willing to make judgements and

What happened to simply meeting the written requirements? Those are the bar. Not the lowest nor highest...simply the bar. Packsaddle, the thing is, what constitutes meeting the bar? Take the cooking requirement I mentioned earlier. It says "serve as your patrol's cook." Okay, so a boy serves as cook. He burns dinner, forgets to add any of the seasonings, the PL needs to remind him to clean the pots and pans, an ASM had to show him how to start the stove because he didn't practice before the trip, and he forgot to bring the extra fuel bottle so there's no hot chocolate for desert.

I know, I know, I'm probably being too critical here. Maybe I'm a bit shocked still at the sheer number of Eagles I run into since I've gotting involed in Scouting as an adult. In my old pack.. ah, jeez, next I'll start yelling at kids to get of my lawn. Okay, here it is. To me, and Eagle badge is supposed to represent a significant achievment, something out of the ordinary. Any young man who has earned - really earned - his Eagle is somewhat exceptional. Especially if he earned it young. To actually earn an Eagle by 14, that's a lot of work in a short period of time and anyone who

Sorry Packsaddle, been kinda busy (it's recharter time. Got your YPT done? Dues in? Do you know if Cole's mom plans to be on the committee next year? Oh, and how's popcorn going?). To answer your question, the Scout was letting the district leaders know about a Council-wide program. His troop, perhaps his Lodge, are heavily involved in it. Good for him doing that, sure. And I appoligize if folks dislike the term Eagle Mill, I didn't mean to push buttons and I'll be more circumspect going forward. Moosetracker and Evmori's definitions are pretty close to what I meant by it.

The vast majority of American kids have been in co-ed schools for over a century. For decades, those schools failed girls at a shocking rate. Over the last generation or so, our public schools have made significant changes in order to better serve girls, with the result that girls are doing much better and getting better educations. The results are also pretty indisputable that our schools are now failing boys at a shocking rate. Surprise surprise, boys and girls are different and respond better to different environments. Most boys will learn better in an environment and program tai