ba-dad

After an incident over the weekend which put me over the edge, I have spoken to two other parents, one of whom agreed with me; the other did not think what they had seen was that bad (although they were not present this weekend). I plan to speak to each parent regarding this; everyone has seen at least the yelling and pushup punishments. Ideally, we could reach a concensus and speak to the leaders as a group, or at least with one voice; short of that, I will discuss this with them speaking for myself. Given the situation, I fear it would be potentially awful for my son were I to go to

Thanks for the reality check. I completely concur about changing this behavior being well-nigh impossible. Given the personalities involved and other nuances of the situation, it would require more social finesse than I might be able to muster to affect substantial changes without permanently alienating one or both leaders. It is also for this reason that I am reluctant to contact any other authorities. I am in a bind, though, because even though my son has discussed his negative feelings about these attitudes and events, he is eight: I would hate to pull him out of a peer group, since

My eight-year-old has been an enthusiastic Scout for the last year. He is one of eight boys from the two third grade classes at his school who comprise the troop. I have attended numerous meetings and other activities. I was initially a little surprised by the martial character of the meetings. For example, the slightest whisper out of turn, putting hands in pockets, etc., is punished immediately by twenty or so push-ups. The leader also frequently (and seemingly unnecessarily) shouts to get attention. The reason I say this should not be needed is that these kids all go to a fairly s