Mike F

Similar experience while son was about 13. I wanted him to be in Scouts and pushed a little too hard. Turned into a fight. Finally realized he really was stressed over too many commitments: Sports teams, intensive church confirmation program, advanced school classes, etc. Poor kid was worn out from the running and starting to resent any extra intrusions on his time. We talked to SM about taking a breather fortunately didnt have leadership position at the time. His attendance was sporadic for about a year I resisted temptation to push. After clearing up some of the other stuff and gett

ozemu, Please forgive my boorish US-centric view widespread use throughout US is what I should have said Your comments about peer leadership and experience are on the mark. Same for troop size I cant think of any advantages to huge size. 48 is great. Thanks for keeping this thread alive. So far havent heard from anyone who successfully uses same-age patrols for the entire troop (i.e., not just for first year, or as an option to existing traditional patrols), but I still hope to.

Way to go, Mr. H! You didn't overrule the Scorps -- you just asked a simple question to help them see and address the real problem.

KL, Thanks for chiming in. Hadn't thought about philosophical continuation of Den structure - great analogy! IMHO, a change like this is a fundamental shift of the program and is beyond scope of PLC's authority. It's a boy-led program but SM is responsible for executing the program approved by CC.

sctmom, Some amount of chaos normal -- hope turned into learning experience for all. We use an older boy as PL for New Scout Patrols, too, for the first 6 months. But our SPL and SM hand-pick one of the sharper 13-14 yr olds with maturity, demonstrated skills and ability to teach. Parent's involvement is mixed blessing. They can keep an eye on their son, but do it from a distance. Sure son is going to make some mistakes and the leaders (hopefully PL) will call him down on it. Boy leaders will make mistakes, too, but that needs to be handled by the SPL, SM and his trained/exp

All, Thanks for lending your excellent insights and experience to this discussion! I had been led to believe that the use of same-age patrols beyond first year was in wide-spread use throughout scouting. I could have missed some, but sounds like Bob White is in the only troop that uses them for older boys and even they have a choice of same-age and mixed-age patrols. Is there anybody out there who uses them exclusively that can chime in? YIS, -mike f

CubsRgr8, You have every reason to be concerned. Concur with all -- sounds like there's a serious problem here. Especially concur with Bob White -- unless you have the expertise and energy to investigate and fix something that they apparently don't think needs fixing, run. There are other troops in area. Now you have a better idea of the kinds of questions to ask. Renewed search for troop will be confusing for your son. I recommend you spend some time investigating on your own or with another concerned parent. After you've decided on a troop or two that look more promising yo

Weekender, My boyhood scouting experience was very similar. PL tended to be a stable position because of maturity and rank structure. We also put a lot of effort into grooming the up-and-coming PLs with their progress being a frequent topic of discussion at PLCs. There are pros/cons to this and I don't want to start a fight about it, but a long-term PL became very effective at the job and felt a lot of ownership over his patrol. He was also held accountable for the advancement of his boys -- also a freq. topic at PLCs. Bob White, Sorry I wasn't more clear -- I do understand

Thanks for suggestions, slontwovvy! Please keep 'em coming, folks!! I was inactive in Boy Scouts for about 11 years. (Wife made me quit ASM job when second child, now the Boy Scout, was born... Couldn't wait to move up and get started again!) This same-age patrol concept wasn't around, or at least very common, then. Where did it come from? (Or should I start another thread??) Thx! mike f

Previous ideas are right on the mark. Most of the guys in school won't admit scouting itself is cool, but they're not as quick to slam some hard-core rock climbing or white-water rafting. For older boys, some supervised, but thrilling risk-taking is where it's at. And something for the younger boys to look forward to. (For some REALLY excellent insights into this, see Dr. James Dobson's newest book, "Bringing Up Boys.") We went through a bit of an in-house crisis a couple of years ago when my then 13-yr old son decided to rebel against me by dropping out of scouts. (Why couldn't he s

Greetings, Scouters! I'm seeking some insight and stumbled onto this site -- most excellent! My son is in a large Troop (120+) that starts the guys out in "Green Patrols", which is OK for a starter, but they keep them together in these patrols forever. I'm concerned about the wisdom of this and it's affect on the basics of leadership, starting at the Patrol level. Although my 15-yr old son is relatively content, the same-age patrols really do not function well at all, in spite of a weekend JLT at the start of every 6-month term. I know he could benefit more from the scouting p