Lem

Are you and your husband opposed to knives or guns? I ask this because I think much of what you described of the behavior of this child is not necessarily disturbed or wrong-headed. Penguins are pretty ripe for boys to gag about shooting. And a craft project in which boys are told to make penguins from soda bottles would have lead me to violent thoughts as a second, third or fourth grader. He has a knife collection? Cool. Collecting is a sign of intelligence. And knives are a really interesting thing to collect. What is wrong with that? Sounds like an opportunity to go over Blade safety

The Church has a very long history of Priests starting Schools for wayward boys, from Don Bosco and Father Flannigan to the French Scouter/Priest Jacques Sevin. All these men were never considered, as far as I know, as creepy. Ancient Romans thought boys should be raised by their fathers and were tutored by Greek Slaves. Boys and young men have always posed a special problem for societies. Scouting is one of many movements and sets of solutions to aide in the transition from boys into men. I personally think that apprenticeships were pretty ingenious. I think we have gotten pretty sof

Bugles Across America http://xeml.buglesacrossamerica.org/index.xeml They have donated bugles to Boy Scout Troops in the past. Tom Day is the fella you want to speak to. Good bugles- both BSA old issue and Army Issue. Jeff

It seems that in any organization there is the established SOP and then there are the unofficial pecking orders. In sports the coaches and adult assistants are given a fair amount of respect by the players- (more than say the usual youth - adult relationship). In the Young Marines and Junior ROTC I have heard they establish a model similar to the armed forces in terms of chain of command and learning the parlance of the respective services. I was in Air Force ROTC back in the 1980s and that was certainly the model. And I am sure that all these various organizations have another informal estab

Has anyone had the opportunity to see the current training DVD for scoutmasters (if it is current- it seems dated)?? In it there is a Boy Scout Troop and two adults, one a scoutmaster(he is an African American) and a Caucasian man training to be a scoutmaster. It is a very strange video. The acting is pretty stiff. But the way the scouts are behaving seems so unnatural to the boys I have ever experienced (both good and not). I had gone along with a friend who was getting "trained" to offer him comapny and support. He wanted me to get a feel for the scouting thing and thought that I

It seems that there are a lot more organizations and activities for youth today than when I was a kid. But keeping the kids busy isn't always benign is it? I see families become themed around their children's activities, whether it is music, soccer, scouting, Church, horses, etc. The goals of our faith and of scouting and of just plain good parenting are united around common themes. If one family sets its course for Olympic Gymnastics, they can work into that some great lessons that round out the youth and family culture. The same can be said for the other activities I listed above. Scout

One example that comes to mind is football as it is played in the Middle School and high school years. There is a team captain, or captains, and on the teams I played for the coaches usually gave some discretion to the captains to run options and the like. Also- a good deal of the camaraderie and morale stemmed from the captains and other leaders amongst the lineman and special teams. But you couldn't expect the players to put themselves through the rigors of two a day preseason practices. This grueling training regime was met out by adult coaches. But by the start of the season, all

I didn't bring up the Do your best stuff. I wouldn't have. I don't like it. I know that the oath says DUTY. But if you want to have a litmus or screening test to join in on this forum go ahead scouter. I'm game. Jeff

I suppose I am an interested bystander to the scouting movement. My daughter is in a GS group. I have no interest in putting my boys in scouting for the reasons I have mentioned already. Do you have to be a registered Scouter to be on this forum? I would hope that the ideas I offer on this site can stand on their own, and that the other members of the forum can think for themselves and weigh ideas from wherever the source. But sure, if you want to say to me, "unless you have walked in a scouter's shoes, then don't comment on scouting"- go ahead. But in my humble opinion, that line of reas

TwoXForr, You make a great argument for how we should keep kids with physical,medical, and mental conditions involved in scouting e.g. By making other scouts stay at their level. But at whose expense? SHould the same argument apply in schools? Varisty for all? Maybe you have articulated the reason why so many scout troops look and feel like the Special Olympics. I am not an all or nothing guy. I suggested that my ideas be an option, a choice, for those boys who want to go farther than the bare minumum requirements. Why does the scouting movement have to be a Homoge

Eagle 77, I have a closet of nightmare stories from my childhood of competition and father's living vicariously through their sons run amuck as well. We all probably do to some extent. (Not to minimize your valiant efforts to be a great father to your son). But why not allow scouts to have a sense of quantification in terms of how what they are doing relates to other scouts, whether it is physical, mental, or moral accomplishments? Scouting seems to bandy about the idea of QUALITY for its scouters- and the measure is both numbers and following the game plan of training. Why not

Good question TwoX4, Maybe, since we are encouraging the boys to be a boy-lead or run organization, we make this a function of the will of the patrol. If a patrol were to be given the choice or the option to form a competitive team of say marksmanship, or archery, or some test of climbing or kayaking skills (I did suggest keep them activities that relate to scouting), then let the boys choose for themselves. If there were real rewards for excellence in a skill, and not just a MB that says I passed a proficiency test (if even that), then I think you might tap into a vein of youthful e

Comparing Boy Scouts to other youth programs is not invalid. Especially when you fellas keep talking about making scouting "fun". If you are looking for what boys find fun, then look, and don't convince yourself that everything other than scouting is nothing to learn from. Obviously Baden Powell and Daniel Beard and Ernst Seton got their ideas from places other than scouting. The military comes to mind. And they certainly were pretty creative and for a time at least pretty divergent on some of there views about how best to make the movent go forward. If you think the program isn't b

I have a problem I guess with the idea of "win win" activities. My kids are involved pretty heavily in music. In music, whether it be for "enjoyment" and or "performance" or whatever- it is music, and it is either done well or it isn't. WInning in this context is doing well. Music competitons help hone the kids' performance and musical skills and it gives them an idea of who the other kids are out their and how they stack up to them. THis has pros and cons- but mostly pros. Becasue it is a form of honesty. Competition is not an evil- it is can be cruel- but only usually when kids are give

If scouting is supposed to be about fun and learning then I wold probably suspend the scouting ideals portion- which requires of scouts sacrifice and a prejudice toward God and Country. Yeh, and eating disorders, in my book, are up there with the deadly sin of gluttony and other forms of abuse. Be Prepared! Be prepared for what---Diabetes and a stroke? Being an example of the scouting ideals is as superfiscial as it is substantial. WHy NOT comapre Scouting to other youth activites- especially if they are growing in size and popularity. Maybe scouters can learn from others and not ju

Do you think that Boy and Cub Scouting are perceived any more by anyone to be a program embracing any idea of elitism? We have seen the defense of the morbidly obese as mentors, and we have seen the anger that arises when the program is criticized. We see that the kids don't seem so proud to wear their scout uniforms, when in fact we see kids every day proud to wear around their soccer pajamas, sports jerseys, and camouflage hunting or militaryesque cloths from Wal-Mart. It seems that kids are not so much into non-conforming and being un-uniform as they are pretty universally put off by some

Mornin Fellas, In our area, I know of one troop that puts most of their efforts into COPE and climbing stuff. Another plays frisbee alot. One spends a great deal of time in a church gym at night with their noses in the manual. There are no or at least very few district wide events for the scouts except for derbies and klondikes. So the idea that there is some homogenous scouting experience out their is kind of foolish. And uniforms are all way on the down low as well. Most scout units are starting to look like all boy venture units. And a lot of the scouters that I have spoken with

Morning guys, I suppose this could be another random spin-off thought, but your last comment brought it to mind. My wife, who has work in Human Resources for twenty years in some very large industries, has found that being an Eagle Scout does not have really any meaning any more from her perspective. She has told me that conversations that she has had with presidents and senior executives in her current company, a few of which were Life and Eagle scouts, that they recognize that BSA is not what it once was, and that being an Eagle scout is not likely to indicate performance one way or ano

Hi Stosh, Its funny John in KC should mention Pappy and his disregard for leave no trace. (Though if I read my Pappy correctly he had managed to get his little group of scouts onto some private land to play lumberjack). My daughter retuned last weekend from a Girl Scout overnight pretty darned upset (My wife , who chaperoned wasnt too happy either). Apparently the new unit leader, a woman with a long history in Boy Scout leadership, was yelling at the girls all Saturday for various things and haranguing the moms for not having taught the girls about leave no trace, a concept apparently v

Hi Stosh, It seems that at least a couple of the regular defenders of the BSA status quos I keep reading on this site might argue that there ain't nothing wrong with the program, that instead the problems are with those folks who aren't getting the proper BSA training. That if they follow the program, they will see the results, and their units will grow and thrive. But I don't really see that this is necessarily true. It seems to me that there is a little bit of disconnect going on between BSA and boys - I don't mean in terms of BSA having to cow-tow to popular culture and its vulgar

Hi Ya Fellas, It seems to me that Left or Right, soldiering and military matters are a bit transcendent to politics and whatever your particular economic theory. You get the goose-steppers in North Korea and Nazi rallies, and the silent drill team at Arlington. There is a beauty in martial discipline that appeals to most people. We look on and marvel at the bravery of Spartans whose culture in many ways we would judge abhorant to our 21st century sensibilities. Even the word 'exercise' comes from the Roman Latin word for Army. We live in a martial civilization (you can argue that th