Oldscout448

Sorry , If I had stopped and thought I would have realized I was" preaching to the choir" I guess it's still a knee jerk issue with me after all these years.

If the older scouts do not know the skills well enough to teach them, then obviously the adults have failed to properly teach the older scouts. Example let us assume a new troop Year 1. The SM teaches totin' chip Year 2 SM. has a class with the scouts on how to teach before the next crop of webelos arrive. The scouts then teach while the SM. sits in back and makes necessary corrections. hopefully minor. Year 3 The younger scouts teach the newbies while the older scouts sit in back making necessary corrections. The SM. sits 50 feet away listening, sipping his coffee, and smiling. this is boy scouting

I just remembered one case from 15 years back that might just be even more telling. The new SM arbitrarily canceled all elections and appointed the SPL, and PLs. The troop was quickly reduced in size from 35 to about 20 as most of the older scouts quit en mass.

And " If you didn't show up, shut up!

I cannot think of a surer sign that the troop is adult led and run than the Instructors and SPL being forbidden to sign anything off . The canary isn't looking sick, it's dead.

We have the meeting open to any scout who wishes to attend. In practice very few do unless they are required to be. Spl, pls, scribe who takes notes, and the Qm. who gives a report every 3 PLC.s or so . We expect the PL to brief his Apl.on what was decided at the meeting before he tells the rest of the patrol.

And taken as Holy Writ by most politicians!

Ok, if the dad is jumping in then it's definitely a talk to SM. time.

Methinks I opened Pandora's box.

If I were the PL. I probably wouldn't go to the SM. but I would absolutely talk with the SPL. It sounds like Mr. Hurt Feelings scout is angry enough to cause some serious division in the patrol. If not outright rebellion. The SPL.needs to know asap not be blindsided.

Only the happy few!

Not all those who wander are lost. J. R.R. Tolkien

Not everything you read on the internet is true. Abraham Lincon

I encourage the scouts to fill them in. Not so much for advancement as remembrance. After a few years campouts like everything else begin to blur in the memory. At eagle courts of honor, it's worth a paycheck to listen to the "old" scouts 17-22 years old who have come to honor their friend, sit and laugh as they recount their days as tenderfeet. "Remember the time the tarp fell over... in the rain... and then the raccoons ate all the poptarts...and the SPL ...well it wasn't my fault ..." and on and on. Now that I'm near the other end of the trail, I dearly wish my old battered scout handbook had a spot for my scouting history .

Life is too short not to live.

We tend to whip our ropes

As a parent who has raised both genders, I beg to differ. They both need equal amounts of love, care, and discipline. But epual and identical are two different things.

We seem to have two threads running simultaneously here. One is cutting corners which in my mind is like a policeman pulling you over and giving you a point or two for speeding. Where is taking the entire card is like pulling your license for reckless or drunk and driving. On the subject of singing for something lost it has to actually be carelessly lost, not just on a table for a moment with every intention or retreving said object. Heck, they made me do it when I left my Scout jacket at a function because had a sick Scout to get home. the scouts gleefully picked it up and told me I had to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider if I wanted it back. I just been with me for many a year and has patches on it nearly 50 years old I have no compunction about singing a small song to get it back I didn't consider to be degrading or humiliating. one Scout some years ago was asked to sing I'm a Little Teapot he protested he didn't know the words he never heard the song. In today Society I quite believe it so his whole Patrol came out stood next to him and sang the song for him all 7 of them and he got his stuff back. He found out he had several friends that day who would come to his Aid when needed and the whole troop gave him a standing ovation. Let us not paint with too broad a brush. Can singing a little song be construed as hazing? I guess it could be micro-hazing (although I'm not at all sure I am ready to concede such a thing exists) , but I remember all to well real hazing and attempted hazings that left kids bleeding and bruised. If any good came out of that I utterly missed seeing it. I'm not trying to imply that everyone is turning into a fragile snowflake, but the world is a hard place sonetimes, I don't think we serve the scouts by keeping them enveloped in bubblewrap.

" What you have inside your shirt is vastly more important than any patch or medal on the outside." Scoutmaster to a newly minted eagle scout, circa 1970.

I've been saying that for years. To little affect unfortunately

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Thomas Paine

Always place clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark. Lazarus Long

To teach is to learn twice.

The best leaders of all are the ones the people do not know exist. They turn to each other and say "We did it ourselves! " Sun Tzu

The dad was on the Glen Beck radio program this morning.