Kudu

18 games of tag by Daniel Beard, including a few that are still politically incorrect after I cleaned them up: http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/summer/tag/index.htm [ Black Man ] [ Bloody Tom ] [ Brown Ear Wolf ] [ Bull Ring ] [ Cattle Rustling ] [ Cross ] [ Dixie's Land ] [ Fox & Geese ] [ Iron Tag ] [ King's X ] [ Last Tag ] [ Monkey Tag ] [ Over the Hill ] [ Prisoner's Base ] [ Red Ogre ] [ Tommy Tiddler ] [ Wild Beasts ] [ Wolf & Sheep ]

Trevorum writes: "An interesting idea! Since you would be recreating these uniform pieces, they would be reproductions and hence not official BSA uniforms." hot_foot_eagle, Since you did not specify which month of 1910 you wish to "reenact," perhaps one possible way to avoid arrest by the Uniform Police is to recreate the kind of Scouting Uniforms that were worn in the United States from 1908 until the BSA's incorporation on February 8, 1910! Before the BSA, boys based their Scout Uniforms on Baden-Powell. You could call them "February 7th" Uniforms :-/ Detailed plans for a Traditional Baden-Powell Scout Shirt can be found at The Inquiry Net: http://inquiry.net/uniforms/traditional/shirt01.htm These instructions appear to be for a shirt photographed in 1921, but according to the author, Geoff O'Callaghan, they date back to the 1800s: "In fact, Baden Powell designed the scout shirt after the military shirt worn in India and Africa. The origins of this shirt go back to the Long Shirt (Kameez) worn by Islamic men in Afghanistan. The Closed Front design was made in India, and traded all over the world in the 19th century." O'Callaghan is usually willing to answer historical questions. Perhaps he can tell you how his Baden-Powell shirt would have differed (if at all) from a shirt worn by Scouts imitating Baden-Powell in February 7th 1910. Kudu

packsaddle writes: "100 years ago, the majority of the population was rural, today the vast majority is urban, mostly in coastal areas. There have been vast changes in most aspects of society: communications, transportation, commerce, just for instance. The kinds of opportunities that come with those changes were, I think, unforeseen 100 years ago...at least the technologies certainly were. And not all of those new things are bad. In fact, because we've embraced them so strongly as a society, it could be considered evidence for the degree to which we value them. At the same time, with the move to urban life comes less access to the outdoors and the wild. Let's face it, wild places have been greatly diminished." CalicoPenn expressed similar ideas in the "Press and Discriminatory Story Writing" thread about a week ago. If I understand the idea correctly, the unspoken premise here is that Scouting was invented to teach practical skills that were important to a rural population 100 years ago, but now we need to move on and focus on the technological skills needed by an increasingly urban population. However, Scouting was designed to address the shortcomings of an urban population which had already undergone 100 years of industrialization! Ian Hislop addresses this subject neatly in the BBC's recent program, "Ian Hislops Scouting For Boys." Hislop details how Scouting came about as a result Baden-Powell's rise to national hero status in the Boer War. The war had left the nation badly shaken, "One of the reasons that the British army had performed so badly was that compared to the Boers -- the healthy outdoor farmers turned soldiers -- the British Troops had been weak and sickly... The Edwardian establishment was terrified that after a century of rapid industrialization, Western society might be, in their words, degenerating." Baden-Powell's solution was to make useful citizens of the children of this industrial society by using nature to mold character and improve physical fitness. To this end he employed the structure of the camping and reconnaissance skills featured in his military book, Aids to Scouting, which had become a best seller during the Siege of Mafeking. Before B-P invented Scouting, similar nature-based organizations had already been established in the United States including Dan Beard's "Boy Pioneers" and Ernest Seton's "Woodcraft League of America." Of the three, Seton was the most detailed about the human need for city-dwellers to occasionally immerse themselves in nature by systematically learning the woodcraft skills necessary for intensive recreation. A century later, Richard Louv would echo this idea of a biological need when he discussed the human "inborn need for contact with nature:" the nervious system's need to be "reset" in the environment in which the human senses evolved. However, as Seton notes in his "Nine Important Principles of Woodcraft," to do so you need a structure: Not long ago a benevolent rich man, impressed with this idea, chartered a steamer and took some hundreds of slum boys up to the Catskills for a day in the woods. They were duly landed and told to "go in now and have a glorious time." It was like gathering up a net full of catfish and throwing them into the woods, saying, "Go and have a glorious time." The boys sulked around and sullenly disappeared. An hour later, on being looked up, they were found in groups under the bushes, smoking cigarettes, shooting "craps," and playing cards -- the only things they knew. Thus the well-meaning rich man learned that it is not enough to take men out of doors. We must also teach them to enjoy it. The purpose of this book is to show how Outdoor Life may be followed to advantage. See: http://inquiry.net/traditional/seton/woodcraft/9_principles.htm packsaddle continues: "The ability to pursue the BP ideal in the way he originally thought has changed. But the ideal remains the same. So I was wondering if that ideal couldn't be met through those other kinds of opportunities? For me the problem is how do we do it? And does it really meet the ideal?" There is in Scouting a deep longing for the popularity that it once enjoyed, and most talk about "the ideal" seems to boil down to using some popular pastime to achieve the so-called "Aims of Scouting," the BSA's use of Soccer in the Latin community, for instance. However as Beard, Seton, Baden-Powell, and Louv point out, organized sports do not provide the recreational encounter with nature that Louv presents as an actual biological need. As the BSA moves on to other things, we now need some organization to step up and offer the Scoutcraft structure specified in the BSA's real "mission statement," their Congressional Charter. Richard Louv presents an interesting account of this dilemma in Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Here is a excerpt offered without comment for now: At Scout headquarters at San Diego's Camp Balboa, an urban campground created in 1916, Narayan and Karyl T. O'Brien, associate executive director of the regional Girl Scouts Council, spread out a stack of literature to describe the rich programs they provide to more than thirty thousand girls. Impressive, but over the past three years, membership in the region has remained flat, even as the population has grown precipitously. This region's council markets itself aggressively. It offers such programs as an overnighter with the city's natural history museum, a daylong junior naturalist program, and popular summer-camp experiences. But the overwhelming majority of Girl Scout programs are unconcerned with nature. Included (along with selling cookies) are such offerings as Teaching Tolerance, Tobacco Prevention, Golf Clinic, Self-Improvement, Science Festival, EZ Defense, and Financial Literacy. Soon, Camp CEO will bring businesswomen to a natural setting to mentor girls in job interviewing, product development, and marketing. The divide between past and future is seen best at the Girl Scout camps in mountains east of the city: one is billed as traditional, with open-air cabins and tents hidden in the trees; the newer camp looks like a little suburbia with street lights. "I flipped when I learned that girls weren't allowed to climb trees at our camps," says O'Brien. Liability is an increasing concern. "When I was a kid, you fell down, you got up, so what; you learned to deal with consequences. I broke this arm twice," says Narayan. "Today, if a parent sends a kid to you without a scratch, they better come back that way. That's the expectation. And as someone responsible for people, I have to respect that." Scouting organizations must also respect, or endure, outrageous increases in the cost of liability insurance. This is not only an American phenomenon; in 2002, Australia's Scouting organizations Girl Guides and Scouts Australia reported increases of as much as 500 percent in a single year, leading the executive director of Scouts Australia to warn that Scouting could be "unviable" if insurance premiums continued to rise. Considering the mounting social and legal pressures, Scouting organizations deserve praise for maintaining any link to nature. Narayan pointed out that most of the two thousand girls who attend summer camps are touched by nature, even if indirectly. "But we now feel compelled to put tech labs in camps or computers in a nature center, because that's what people are used to," says O'Brien. Scouting is responding to the same pressures experienced by public schools: as family time and free time have diminished, Americans expect these institutions to do more of society's heavy lifting--more of its social, moral, and political juggling. Ask any Boy Scout how difficult that act can be. Justly or not, the public image of the Boy Scouts of America has shifted from that of clean-cut boys tying knots and pitching tents to one of adult leaders who ban gays and expel atheists. Like the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts struggle to be up-to-date -- and marketable. At the new National Scouting Museum in Irving, Texas, displays use virtual-reality technology to allow visitors to climb a mountain, kayak down a river, and conduct simulated rescues on mountain bikes. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) activists launched a campaign to convince the Boy Scouts to drop their fishing merit badge. In 2001, the Dallas Morning News reported that some Boy Scout councils across the country were selling off wilderness camps to pay their bills. For the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, it's not easy being green. Today's parents push such organizations toward even safer, more technological activities. Scouting struggles to remain relevant, to be a one-stop shop, to offer something for just about everyone. That may be a good marketing policy. Or not. (An astute book editor once told me: "A book written for everyone is a book for no one.") As the scope of Scouting has widened, the focus on nature has narrowed. But a slim minority of parents and Scout leaders is beginning to argue for a back-to-nature movement. "They're usually the older adults," says O'Brien, "The ones who can remember a different time." Could this set of adults offer a targeted marketing opportunity to future capital campaigns? Rather than accept nature's slide, or suggest that non-nature programs be dropped to make way for the outdoors, why not ask these adults to build a whole new nature wing to Scouting? Interesting possibility, said O'Brien. In fact, it makes sense not only as a marketing tool--define your niche and claim it--but also as a mission. Scout leaders emphasize that Scouting is an educational program that teaches young people about building character, faith traditions, mentoring, serving others, healthy living, and lifelong learning. Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell surely sensed that exposure to nature nurtures children's character and health. The best way to advance those educational goals (and, in a marketing sense, revive Scouting) as a return to the core orientation to nature -- an approach that many parents and Scout leaders support [Last Child in the Woods, pages 152-154]. See: http://tinyurl.com/yr3qol Kudu

packsaddle writes: "Kudu, what you say makes sense ideally. As a practical matter, Baden Powell formed his ideas before certain aspect of our habitat attained their current status. This brought fewer opportunities of some kinds and greater opportunities of other kinds." packsaddle, would you give some specific examples?

I'm sure it is a minor inconvenience compared to the joy that floods over you when the BSA breaks the heart of a six-year-old who does not live up to your precious "religious principles." I would love to watch Jesus separate the sheep from the goats on that issue! Kudu

Beavah writes: "A bigger question is whether we should have a more concrete fitness goal for 2nd and 1st Class, eh? After all, we don't say "improve" on your swimming, we say the requirement is to swim. Seems like maybe we should have a similar, concrete basic fitness requirement for a boy who has reached da "good scouting citizen" level of First Class Scout." The bigger question is what do these relatively recent indoor school gym class requirements have to do with Scouting? The answer is absolutely nothing. The idea of Scouting is to mold citizens through the very indirect means of a rugged outdoor game called "Scouting." Scouting is "education" (understanding from within) as opposed to "instruction" (facts learned in lectures). Scouting was designed as an alternative to school and church school. In Scouting, Scouts learn important natural principles through their desire to directly encounter the natural world ("education"). These experiences later supplement their formal school and religious "instruction" with real-world knowledge (read Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder). BSA Scouting has been destroyed by dumbing down the Outdoor program and replacing it with the school model for achieving the so-called "Aims of Scouting." For instance school citizenship classes to meet the "Citizenship Aim" and school gym class exercises to meet the "Fitness Aim." This is Wood Badge Logic and it is the opposite of real Scouting. In a real Outdoor program, Beavah's "concrete fitness goal for Second Class" is to make a journey of 8 miles with a couple of other Tenderfoot Scouts. The concrete fitness goal for First Class is hauling a backpack for 14 miles on an overnight journey with another Second Class Scout. In BSA Scouting, we no longer even require the tiny 3 mile journey for Camping Merit Badge! This allows a Scout to add "Eagle" to his business resume without EVER having walked into the woods with a pack on his wimpy "show improvement in 30 days" back! As far as swimming requirements go, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Scouting (on an island, no less!) it is significant that while Baden-Powell firmly believed that every boy should learn how to swim (a radical idea at the time), he did NOT include any swimming requirements to become a First Class Scout. Kudu

For easy-to-follow directions on how to make traditional 32" square neckerchiefs from a bolt of cloth, see: http://inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief/how_to.htm At a Committee Meeting find out if anybody knows of an individual or group that would be willing to hem 27 pieces of cloth 33" square each. Don't be shy, a local church group may be willing to volunteer. A few times we have found a neighborhood sewing enthusiast who was happy to volunteer for a limited project such as this. When you have found a volunteer, then stop at a few local merchants, odd-lots stores, and flea markets until you find someone who will sell a bolt of cloth to a Boy Scout Troop for the wholesale price. As the above instructions indicate, all you do to prepare the cloth for the volunteers is rip the bolt of cloth down the length of the bolt 33" from the edge, and then rip 33" pieces across the length of this 25 yard piece. When they are hemmed, you will have 27 neckerchiefs 32" square for about $2 each. If you closely examine Norman Rockwell paintings, old Scout literature, or the opening of the Indiana Jones movie with Jones as a Boy Scout (pop quiz: what rank is he?), you will find that most of the early Boy Scout Neckerchiefs were this 32" square size and featured NO patterns or Troop identifications! Some troops use this traditional no-pattern design (which certainly beats tacky silk-screening after a few washings). Other Troops purchase standard or custom neckerchief patches (neckerchief patches are usually shaped as an upside-down triangle), which they award to the Scout when he earns "Scout" or Tenderfoot. Other Troops leave the Neckerchief blank until the Scout sews on his first summer-camp patch or memorable high-adventure patch. For general information about the advantages of 32" square neckerchiefs over skimpy triangular neckerchiefs, see: http://inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief/index.htm Kudu

[i meant to post my reply to this, the "Scouting History" Forum.] 33 minutes into the BBC's "Ian Hislop's Scouting For Boys," Hislop sits on Brownsea Island and says "This is a set of extraordinary photographs taken on that first camp in 1907, and it shows the boys literally here taking part in the various exercises that Baden-Powell had dreamt up." The 12 photographs that he shares are high quality and sharply focused. If you know what they look like, perhaps you can spot the three boys in the video, and maybe more photographs exist in this collection. The closing credits do not specify from which archive they were borrowed. Hislop reports that "Among the fatalities [of WW I] were five of the 20 boys who joined Baden-Powell on Brownsea Island." Kudu

33 minutes into the BBC's "Ian Hislop's Scouting For Boys," Hislop sits on Brownsea Island and says "This is a set of extraordinary photographs taken on that first camp in 1907, and it shows the boys literally here taking part in the various exercises that Baden-Powell had dreamt up." The 12 photographs that he shows are high quality and sharply focused. If you know what these three boys look like, perhaps you can spot them in the video, and maybe more photographs exist in this collection. The closing credits do not specify from which archive they were borrowed. Hislop reports that "Among the fatalities [of WW I] were five of the 20 boys who joined Baden-Powell on Brownsea Island." Kudu

Gunny2862 writes: "Mine have a little pilling but considering what they are made of and the use they are put to I was waiting for it to happen." Would you explain that, Gunny? We switched from olive-drab poly-cotton military "BDU" pants to olive-drab nylon "zip-offs" for our Troop's Scout pants almost ten years ago. The comparison photo-chart is one of the oldest pages on my Website: http://inquiry.net/uniforms/bdu.htm We tested many different brands over the years but never encountered any "pilling" (nice neutral term, btw, our boys call them "pant boogers") until we switched to the Switchbacks. None of the other nylon was described as "Supplex," however. Some of the oldest pairs (EMS "Pinnacle Performance") are still in service. The BSA design is most similar to an REI design from about five years ago, especially the odd-sized pockets, lack of well thought-out cuffs (should have elastic shock-cord to adjust length rather than specific inseam sizes), and "soft" nylon material. Kudu

Scouting is a game! No Little League executives ever suggest that the baseball skills Scoutingagain practiced so diligently should be replaced with more "practical" skills for the 21st century such as Leadership Theory and "Making Ethical Choices." Rather than hitting a ball with a stick, or moving a ball down a field with your feet, Scouting is based on "hands-on" skills such as knot-tying, fire building, cooking, following a trail, etc, with which humans interacted with the Outdoors and each other ("Citizenship") during their entire evolution, and which in turn caused the human brain to develop the way that it did. In Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv writes: "Frank Wilson, professor of neurology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, is an expert on the co-evolution of the hominid hand and brain; in The Hand he contends that one could not have evolved to its current sophistication without the other. He says, 'We've been sold a bill of goods--especially parents--about how valuable computer-based experience is. We are creatures identified by what we do with our hands.' Much of our learning comes from doing, from making, from feeling with our hands; and though many would like to believe otherwise, the world is not entirely available from a keyboard. As Wilson sees it, we're cutting off our hands to spite our brains. Instructors in medical schools find it increasingly difficult to teach how the heart works as a pump, he says, 'because these students have so little real-world experience: they've never siphoned anything, never fixed a car, never worked on a fuel pump, may not even have hooked up a garden hose. For a whole generation of kids, direct experiences in the backyard, in the tool shed, in the fields and woods, has been replaced by indirect learning, through machines. These young people are smart, they grew up with computers, they were supposed to be superior--but now we know that something's missing'." Also check out The Order of Nature: Considered in Reference to the Claims of Revelation by the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A. http://inquiry.net/ideals/order_nature/index.htm Kudu

packsaddle writes: "I recognize that an Eagle advancement conference would be a rare event if adults were required to meet 25 miles from the nearest parking lot." This minor inconvenience would be more than offset by the subsequent weeding out of the wrong sort of adults :-/ An outdoorsman who hikes to such a meeting is not likely to deny a Scout his Board of Review over an issue with his Uniform. "But I believe the so-called 'Great Satan' of scouting is less well-defined than his rendition and his comparison to a myth tends to distract from the message..." OK, how about "Leadership Development is the Great Cuckoo Bird of Scouting?" Many Cuckoo species are "brood parasites:" they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. The Cuckoo chick usually hatches earlier and grows faster than the host's offspring. Have you ever watched a nature program on Cuckoos? The fat Cuckoo pushes the parents' chicks out of the nest and the tiny Warbler-sized parents work all day to feed the fat Cuckoo's open mouth, its rump and stomach extended over the edges of the little nest built to raise an entire clutch of much smaller offspring. Likewise, "Leadership Development" has kicked the Patrol Method and the Outdoor Method out of Wood Badge and consumes all of its resources. We are feeding a fat brood parasite: 1. Troop Elections: a) The introduction of Troop Elections for SPL (replacing pre-White-Stag PLC Elections for SPL) moved the leadership of the Troop from the Patrol Leaders in Council to the SPL (Troop Method Chain of Command, "Ask your SPL!"). b) Position of Responsibility (POR) requirements for Advancement and regular Troop-wide Patrol Elections timed to coincide with these new six month terms force average Scouts to run against more talented natural leaders because they need a POR position to advance, and Patrol Leaders with Scout Spirit will often sense that they are expected to step aside to "give someone else a turn." 2. Patrol Leader Training a) With the introduction of the White Stag stuff we started teaching leadership theory rather than specific Patrol Leader skills, including how to organize Patrol Hikes and Patrol Campouts. While "times have changed," these, the primary activities of the Patrol Method, could still be done with adults in the distance. b) Likewise, a Patrol Leader should be trained to train his Scouts how to test their cooking, camping, navigational, and problem solving skills deep in the woods (on the 15 mile "First Class Journey") as far away from the adults as possible. Leadership Development, the Great Cuckoo Bird of Scouting, gets fat while the rightful offspring of training (Real Outdoor Skills learned within the Real Patrol Method) lie rotting on the ground below the nest! Kudu

Eamonn writes: "Still it seems to me that each generation tells the next that things were so much harder, better, worse.. In the Good Old Days." It is easy enough to compare previous advancement standards to the sissy stuff that remains. For instance BSA First Class Requirement 5 was: "Make a round trip alone (or with another Scout) to a point at least seven miles away (14 miles in all), going on foot, or rowing a boat, and write a satisfactory account of the trip and things observed." "No light weight camping equipment back in them days." Exactly right, the outdoor standards Baden-Powell devised to reverse the softening of English culture are actually now much easier to meet. "While we spend a lot of time talking about "Youth Led" programs. I can't help but notice that if the adult leaders have a particular interest or are skilled in some area that area of interest seems to rub off on the entire unit. (I hate the cold, so I'm not going to offer my services to go on a week long hike in the winter. The Scouts are welcome to do what they want, but my lack of interest does kinda put the kibosh on the idea.)" Exactly right again. The Camping Merit Badge requirement to camp one night 1.5 miles from the nearest parking lot was eliminated because adults do not want to tag along. It is a lot easier to sit around and talk about "making moral and ethical choices." In the end "Eagle Scout" still looks the same on your son's resume. "With this in mind if we really think that the program offered is not challenging enough or doesn't provide enough adventure? Who is to blame?" Not "who" but "what," Eamonn! The problem is that unlike the UK, we only have one Scouting association in the United States. So there is no way to "shop around," to compare the "ethical choices" of a BSA Eagle Scout who earned Camping Merit Badge near a parking lot, with the "ethical choices" of a First Class Scout in a competing Scouting association that required him to test his skills on the traditional First Class Journey. Kudu

"What can be done to drag us back from the brink of PC/mandated mediocrity/wimpdom?" 100 years ago, Baden-Powell found the equivalent conditions in England and invented Boy Scouting as a cure. In a real Scouting program each rank's outdoor skills are tested with an outdoor trek called a "Journey." The only required Journey that remains in BSA Scouting is the dumbed-down Second Class Hike. Now any sissy can earn "Camping Merit Badge" (and Eagle Scout) without ever walking into the woods with a pack on his back. "No one doubts that there are significant economic forces pushing parents to invest so heavily in their children's outcome from an early age. But taking all the discomfort, disappointment and even the play out of development, especially while increasing pressure for success, turns out to be misguided by just about 180 degrees." The BSA with its indoor advancement requirements, indoor "Leadership Development" theory and indoor Cub Scouts at Wood Badge is Scouting misguided by just about 180 degrees. The solution is to have two forms of Scouting: one run by millionaire Scouting executives for the benefit of wimps, and the other run by volunteers with an outdoor program up to Baden-Powell's standards. Kudu

What is Scouting? I agree with all of the listed expectations and with SR540Beaver's note that how we get there is what Scouting actually is. However, if we wish the reverse the softening of Scouting we must understand that the "Eight Methods" is only a theory. Even the previous model (William Hillcourt's Methods of Scouting), should be viewed with a skeptical eye. The Patrol Method and the Outdoor Method should be so central to Scouting that they need not be mentioned as "Methods" anymore than the Food Eating Method or the Air Breathing Method. Real Scouting is learning outdoor skills while camping in the woods by Patrols, with each Patrol at least 300 feet from from the next. Real Wood Badge is learning the Patrol Method by learning outdoor skills in Patrols of Scouters, with enough theory thrown in to understand that Scouting is learning outdoor skills while camping in the woods by Patrols. The Scout Way (killed in 1972) should be restored as the First Method of Scouting: "Scouting is a GAME not a SCIENCE" (emphasis in the original). Real Advancement: Boys should be afraid to advance beyond 2nd Class, but morbidly drawn to it as to a rattlesnake or a black belt. Real Advancement is the "hard measure of accomplishment:" a final testing at each rank in an adult-free wilderness trek (called a "Journey") of increasing difficulty (2nd Class = 8 miles, 1st Class = 15 miles, Eagle = 50 miles, etc.). An ordeal. If needed in the 21st century for emergencies, adults who shadow a Scout's Journey should always be out of paint-gun range. Eagle Scouts should be rare, the absolute masters of outdoor skills. Public service should be from the heart and never included in advancement requirements. The rank of Eagle should be earned without thought for personal gain: Kill the cash-cow of lowered standards by revoking Eagle Scout from anyone who avows it on a school application or business resume. Real Ideals: Scout Law can be memorized indoors, but can only be "learned" as the practical social nuts and bolts of getting along together while using outdoor skills camping in the woods by Patrols. Real Adult Association: Adults should recognize opportunities to bond and advise while outdoors, not indoors. Real Scouting does not have Boards of Review, Scoutmaster Conferences, and Scout Spirit Requirements, but if retained in the 21st century should be convened the same distance from the parking lot as the midpoint of Journey of the rank being tested: adults interviewing a 2nd Class Scout should walk a total of 8 miles (4 miles in and 4 miles out), an Eagle Board of Review should be held 25 miles from the nearest parking lot. Real Outdoor Method: Transfer all fake-Scouting "school-marm" sedentary rank requirements and Merit Badges (such as Citizenship, Environmental Science, etc.) to the profitable "Learning for Life Fat Camps" , along with all BSA summer camp dining halls. When conducted, indoor sessions should always be preparation for the next campout or training for public service (First Aid, Emergency Preparedness, Disabilities Awareness, etc.). Real Uniform Method: A real Scout Uniform is the most practical clothing designed for learning outdoor skills while camping in the woods. All Uniform inspections should be held at least 4 miles from the nearest parking lot. Real Patrol Method: The Patrol Leaders protect the honor of the Troop. Leadership Development (invented in 1972) is the Great Satan of Scouting and chief predator of the Patrol Method. Real Scouting has no "Position of Responsibility" advancement requirements. Patrol Leader elections should be held at least four miles from the nearest parking lot. Real Patrol Leaders are the natural leaders most capable of guiding a Patrol of Scouts while practicing outdoor skills in the woods at least 300 feet from the nearest Patrol. See "Real Wood Badge" and "Real Adult Association". Personal Development (invented in 1972) is a fake method. Kudu (This message has been edited by Kudu)

"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. "I don't see outdoors listed there at all, its a method. "What do we want our end product to be?" Um, in real Scouting the end product is the absolute mastery of outdoor skills. The bearing that influences other people is the result of the values learned while achieving this absolute mastery of outdoor skills. The Mission Statement is written by the same people who cheat at the historical Baden-Powell quotations that they feature so predominately in their printed publications. This is not some minor editorial glitch, but the embodiment of the ethical and moral stance that the ends always justify the means (even to the extreme position of "I don't see outdoors listed there at all, its a method"). That these phony quotations continue to stand so boldly without anyone ever noticing is an measure of the lack in the BSA of institutional memory: how both Baden-Powell and the people who actually authored these quotes understood the nuts and bolts of Scouting. NASA discovered the same problem with institutional memory when they started to gear up for George Bush's return to the moon. None of the remaining engineers was familiar with how to actually build moon rockets. Beavah writes: "What I notice about all the other activities J-in-KC mentions is that every single one of them puts a big, big emphasis on skill development. The boys work, and work, and work some more in order to get really good at the skills for makin' layups, makin' tackles, or makin' it to the next level at Nintendo." Yes, and I bet the popularity of each of these sports is inversely proportional to the carry-over value that the component skills (layup, tackle, etc.) have in everyday life. Signalling was never about learning the most practical way to communicate thoughts (and note that American Sign Language, which is not outdated, was always one of the signalling requirement options). The point is for a boy to use his human hands to convey human code (the relationship of observation skills to secret meaning has always been fascinating to boys). Should we force kids attending Tae Kwon Do, Judo, or Karate summer camp to act like Boy Scouts and sit still for boring abstract lectures because practising Tae Kwon Do, Judo, and Karate was made obsolete by the stun gun? "Do we really have anything like that in Scouting anymore? Are BOR's really a hard measure of accomplishment like a belt test?" BORs? In real Scouting the "hard measure" of each rank's Scoutcraft skills is an adult-free wilderness trek of ever-increasing difficulty. Kudu (This message has been edited by Kudu)

OldGrayOwl writes: "What sort of poles (logs), lengths, diameters, material would be required, how many, etc.?" Lengths & Quantities: The traditional method is to learn this "hands-on" by building scale models during the winter months. See The Inquiry Net: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/b-p/models.htm Kudu

Ditto! Always the acid test: http://www.scouter.com/forums/search.asp?action=today Thanks Terry! Kudu

Nessmuk writes: "3) Well just shoot me, but am I the only one that sees the under-collar mode as very 'feminine'?." Yes, never at a loss for creative ideas, the BSA hired dress-designer Oscar de la Renta to bring the Boy Scout Uniform indoors where Parlour Scouting belongs :-) James E. West is probably turning over in his grave. As he wrote: "When I have found boys wearing the neckerchief, under instead of over the shirt collar, it developed that invariably the Scouts, and indeed their own Scoutmaster, did not understand the correct way of wearing the neckerchief. I am anxious that every Scout and Scout Official study the diagram, wear the neckerchief in the right way, and that he invite the attention of other fellows to the right way, when he finds them wearing it wrong." See: http://inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief/swn1.htm For a wealth of information about the traditional "Gilwell size" Neckerchief (32" square), including instructions on "How to Make a Traditional Neckerchief" for around $2 each, See" http://inquiry.net/uniforms/neckerchief/index.htm Kudu (This message has been edited by Kudu)

Used copies are available for as little as $12.71 http://inquiry.net/patrol/index.htm Kudu

John-in-KC writes: "I re-read "Footsteps of the Founder" last night. Even B-P talks about shirkers." Anything you would like to share? Most of the text of Footsteps of the Founder is available online, so to save typing you can Google a sentence and then cut and paste the whole passage from there to here. It is interesting to note that Baden-Powell designed the above procedure for applying for Proficiency Badges so that the Patrol Leaders in Council could put a check on the sin of a Scout working on his own advancement without spending an equal amount of effort working on the advancement of the rest of the Troop. To return to an earlier dialogue, for those who are interested in how the selection of Patrol Leaders and the SPL was detailed back when the BSA Handbook for Scoutmasters was not 178 pages but 1,142 pages I offer the following. Note William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's capitalization Scouting's program elements: "How to Select Patrol Leaders "The question then arises 'Should the Patrol Leader be elected by the Patrol or selected by the Scoutmaster?' The answer is an emphatic--and apparently paradoxical--'Yes!' As a matter of fact, he should be either elected by the Patrol or selected by the Scoutmaster, or maybe both--according to the Troop's age and its peculiarities. "Since the Scoutmaster has the ultimate responsibility, he naturally should decide upon the method to be followed. It is obvious that under different conditions it may be necessary to use different methods. A new Scoutmaster starting out with new boys with no previous Scout experience might want to select the leader himself, while a Scoutmaster, himself a Scout with several years' work with boys to his credit, because of his experience or viewpoint, would follow an entirely different course. "Under the ideal Patrol Method, the Patrol Leader is selected by the expressed wishes of the members of the Patrol he is to lead. There is seldom any danger that the boys will choose the wrong boy for their leader. If they have had a chance to come to know each other through association in the Troop, their choice is usually the boy peculiarly fitted to their needs. The chosen leader may not always be the one the Scoutmaster might have most preferred, but the wise Scoutmaster should not override the Patrol's choice, except in a serious emergency, in which case he exercises his power of veto. It may be preferable to let the Patrol suffer for a short while the handicap of an unwisely chosen leader and thus learn by its own mistakes. "The Scoutmaster's Part "If a very definitely unfortunate selection seems imminent to the Scoutmaster, through his more mature knowledge of the Scout in question, he may decide to call the Patrol together and have it a talk on the necessary qualifications of a Patrol Leader. This talk may even be so designed as to narrow the choice to the boy the Scoutmaster would like to see chosen. Almost invariably the boys will follow suggestions thus diplomatically given--and will feel that they, after all, did the choosing. "A modified election scheme is the method by which two or three boys in each Patrol are nominated by the Scoutmaster or the Troop Leaders' Council [PLC] and one is elected by a vote of the Patrol [3rd Edition BSA Handbook for Scoutmasters, pages 183-184]". It should be noted that (similar to Baden-Powell's Patrol System) in Hillcourt's Patrol Method, the SPL is elected by the Patrol Leaders, and NOT by the whole Troop: "The office of Senior Patrol Leader is also an important one, for he is the link between the Patrols and the commissioned Scouters. He serves as a Troop leader, not attached to a Patrol, and should be selected by the Troop Leaders' Council [PLC] with the approval of the Scoutmaster. He ranks in the Troop next to the Assistant Scoutmaster [3rd Edition BSA Handbook for Scoutmasters, page 128]." Kudu

Instructions for do-it-yourself Hiking Staff Medallions: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/b-p/medallions.htm Kudu

Venividi wrties: "I believe society has moved way too far away from personal responsibility." I believe that the BSA has moved way too far away from Baden-Powell's Patrol System which, after all, is a game for boys. All of this discussion about an adult judging the Scout's "responsibility" seems to have missed that point. A Scoutmaster could use B-P's principles to make this process boy-run while still working within the existing BSA structure: 1) Move the "stick" from the after-the-fact Scoutmaster's Conference to B-P's pay-as-you-go evaluation by the Court of Honor (the Patrol Leaders in Conference). 2) For each Merit Badge the Star Scout wants to take, he submits a Blue Card to the Court of Honor. 3) The SPL asks the ASPL to report on the Historian's recent contributions to the Troop. 4) The Patrol Leaders hear the ASPL's report, then vote (the COH always meets in secret sessions) and instruct the SPL to sign or not sign the Blue Card (as "Troop Leader"). 5) If unsatisfied with the verdict, the Star Scout may ask for a hearing before the Court of Honor. 6) The COH hears his appeal and deliberates in private. The Scoutmaster does not have to remain silent in these sessions and, of course, he is always free to work his "adult association" magic with the Historian at any time previous to this crisis to motivate him to contribute as he should be doing. 7) Given the existing BSA Advancement requirements, if the Historian tries some jailhouse lawyer end-run, the Patrol Leaders can always delay judgement on the Scout Spirit requirement, and the Scoutmaster does not have to be in a rush to grant a Scoutmaster's Conference. Kudu

"Seems like there ain't no reason to call people cheats and such." I use the term "professional high school cheats" with the greatest affection, in honor of my creative high school buddy and his librarian mom. "None of us get everything right even when we have lots of time and resources." Speaking of "time," the instant that I hit "enter" on my last post, I immediately received a private Email from one of OldGreyEagle's time-traveling "readers of the future." It turns out that upon reading my post a millionaire Scouting Executive became interested in the Patrol Method and for the first time in 40 years, somebody in Irving Texas actually opened one of the BSA Handbook for Scoutmasters edited by William Hillcourt. The first thing he saw at the very top of the first page of the Patrol Method was "The Patrol Method is not ONE method in which Scouting can be carried on. It is the ONLY method!" with the correct author (not Baden-Powell). Intrigued, he read the entire 48 page section on the Patrol Method. The good news is that the BSA re-adopted William Hillcourt's Patrol Method in the year 2010 to celebrate the BSA's 100th birthday. I won't mention the bad news. "I think yeh do other Scouters a disservice when yeh get quite so strident, because as often as not they'll stop listenin' to you, and then you won't have helped 'em with their problem, eh?" You called that one exactly right, Beavah. According to OGE's reader from the future, my aphorism "Kenneth Blanchard is the Baden-Powell of BSA Wood Badge" was adopted as the official Motto of Wood Badge, but in an ironic twist the BSA attributed the quote to Stephen Covey! Kudu

"However good a method works for a Troop, I feel compelled to tell future readers of these threads that appointing boys to Senior Patrol Leader or Patrol Leader is contrary to the Boy Scout BSA program....not have someone point out that not electing patrol leaders and the senior patrol leader is contrary to BSA policy on a Forum that discusses Boy Scouting would be, well, wrong." "...my only intention was and is to assure that in the future, some information starved individual does not read these posts and determine that it must be Ok if boy leadership is appointed by the adults when that is not how its written in the literature." "These forums and threads are searched by people who want information, to have a thread about appointing the PL and SPL, and not having someone point out doing so is against the program literature is not right....I do think the method to be used by the authors of the program should be mentioned." OK, but not to have someone point out to these information-starved readers from the future that the anonymous BSA "authors of the program" are not Trustworthy would also be, well, wrong. When I was in high school, one of my friends did not like to read books. He was really smart, but he just didn't like books. So whenever he was working on a term paper, he would sit down with his mother (a librarian) and they would make up phony book titles and phony authors. That way he could write whatever he wanted on a subject, and back up his views with phony references to books and authors that did not exist. The BSA "authors of the program" don't like books either. Books about Scouting anyway. So just like my friend in high school they just make stuff up. Things like the SPL should be elected by a popularity contest of the whole Troop rather than elected by the Patrol Leaders in the PLC who have to work with him. Then, just like my friend, the "authors of the program" throw in a bunch of phony quotes to make it seem like they read some old books. But the BSA "authors of the program" don't really read old books, now do they? I worried about my friend. "What if you get caught?" I would ask. He would laugh, "These are public school teachers! Do you really think they will look up references? My mom says that teaching is a fall-back position for them until they find the job they really want." The BSA "authors of the program" are like his description of public school teachers. Little guys who get stuck writing a silly three page chapter about the Patrol Method until they find a job in the BSA that they really want. If you are the Wood Badge type who thinks of the Patrol Method as a factory that provides Scoutmasters with an endless supply of popularity contest winners to teach about "leadership," then you may well ask "So what if the BSA 'authors of the program' are not Trustworthy? The important thing is that Scouts and Scouters be Obedient and Loyal. Well, try to imagine the fuss that Wood Badge Staffers would make if the BSA "authors of the program" took some Stephen Covey quote and attributed it in print to Kenneth Blanchard: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." -- Kenneth Blanchard Gasp! The error would be corrected before the second printing! Wood Badge Staffers would never allow such an inaccurate quote to stand because they would lose credibility in the corporate leadership world. After all, Kenneth Blanchard is the Baden-Powell of BSA Wood Badge! The good news is that you do not have to depend on untrustworthy BSA authors or their Wood Badge minions to learn about the Patrol Method. You can still buy used copies of the 3rd, 4th, or 5th Editions of the BSA Scoutmaster handbooks for around $5. Spend a couple days reading the book from cover to cover and you will be an expert on the BSA Patrol Method. By "expert" I mean you will be one of the approximately ten people in the United States who can recognize a phony Baden-Powell quote when you see one! The point, of course, is that if you understand how the Patrol Method was designed to work, then you can build a PLC strong enough to avoid the pitfalls of Gunny's hypothetical election while still following the program written by the BSA's professional high school cheats. Kudu