qwazse

b540mom, Bottom line: Ask detailed questions, including why the boy chose the team he did. Take the list of "did he's" in your original post and turn them into "how did you's". Did he do the work himself? ==> How did you divide up labor? Did adults do all the work? ==> How did you employ your adults?** Did he delegate well? ==> What tasks did you ask others to do, and what did you do yourself? Did he problem solve well? ==> How did you solve the biggest road block in your project? **(Note: not a problem if they provided lots of manual labor or expertise.

So (besides not letting a good post fade away prematurely), there are two suggestions that I will not follow ... 1. Pretend that the 11 year old boy in the original post must mean that he's simply "fed up" with the God of his parents and is fishing for an offering from a pantheon of options from our pluralistic society. Life is far too short to not take a boy at his word. 2. Swift and sure dismissal in the name of BSA policy. In spite of Merl's protestations, there is -- as with many policies -- room to be deliberative. There's also room for individual courses of action. I li

Eng, much as I'd like to agree, the ability to enforce will be nearly impossible. Sooner or later, there's going to be a campout where your guard is down and the fuel is smuggled in. I like the "incremental enhanced educational opportunities" approach. I wouldn't see it as punishing the troop. You're just "sharing the love". And if the boy needs to be suspended from a hike into a drought area because of your love for the outdoors, then so be it. Scoutfish -- The Firem'n Chit card is not a bad idea for younger scouts, for older scouts it probably won't have the desired effect. Unl

I've been in situations like this and made exceptions. But it sounds like these guys want a routine. Also tent walls are thin. Boys will catch on. Did they have a designated driver? How many cold ones? Do they realize that there are troops who've lost drivers because of DUI? Do they know they could have an adults-only affair on their own time? If your COR does not have a zero-tolerance policy, it's up to the adults in the troop to decide how much is too much. Here may be a polite way to pull in the reigns: Does your troop try to do the patrol method? Require the boys

That's funny, qwazse, there are quite a few atheists who were forced to attend church when they were 10 years old, because they were 10 years old. ... How many 10-year-old atheists do you know, anyway? And there are quite a few believers who were denied church as children because their parents were athiests. And lots of folks in between. I agree with you that there's no point in mincing the kid's words (like scoutfish is). The OP is clear that his scout's statement was athiestic. And I've known several kids who made statements like that.** But, on the flip side I've known kids to

Last check, M., no rules ignored. Most atheists I know don't go to church with their families. (Unless we're talking about 2nd century Christians who were burned at the stake for their "athiesim".) So the boy's actions aren't aligning with his words, better to give him time work that out on his own. On the bright side, this gives you leeway to assume that every boy who spouts off religious rhetoric before their "age of accountability" is just going through "a passing phase" on the road to cynicism.

Written apologies from a 10 year old are a waste of time. If the two kids won't settle the grievance then the agressor (or winner, if you really can't tell who started it) is out of the pack. Done. Tough part: convincing everyone else this is the right thing to do.

There's always a few who make rank while incarcerated.

The Orthodox will tell you he is very much real. The secular portrayal is a contrivance of Madison Avenue, but his passion for the impovrished was notworthy and inspiring. Chances are he'd enjoy a good slice of cured venison and port over sugar cookies and milk. I actually told my kids that every year. Never did get any deer jerky though.

Thanks for volunteering! Will you have a den chief from your troop helping your W2's? Use him for a foil. Every meeting have one open-ended question up your sleeve about the troop. (E.g., What is your favorite campout? What do you like about meetings? What's a cool merit badge to earn? Who's the best at fundraising? How did you manage to learn all these knots?) It's a little counter-intelligence on your part. But it may also get your boys excited about crossover. Also, today's den chief may be tomorrow's SPL!

My favorite line to Sunday school kids 3rd -5th: "You seem to be having a tough time with compliance today, I guess we'd better have you join your mom in her class." Fact is, I try very hard to avoid using the words "time out", I don't even call them "three warnings". At the beginning of the year I say, "If you're having a tough time being respectful in class there are three things that we will try to do to help you. 1. We'll let you know your being disrespectful, just in case you didn't notice. 2. We'll let you sit away from the class for a minute because sometimes you just need a mom

Pack, I think the "first stone" thing was in reference to a G2SS violation (venturing age female found in the wrong tent). The log-in-the eye reference I made earlier is the closest fit to this context. There is a line of Christian thought that frowns on casual references to Satan as well (no "Ache Eee Double Hockey" sticks loosely either). When I was in Italy, vain references to Madonna (the virgin, not the pop star) were common -- and equally frowned upon. One's belief in virgin birth was irrelevant. My point is, unless you divulge your doubts to a scout (and I've only k

Great points. And, when I became "the first crew advisor I ever met", I wish I had read a couple of them. It's one thing to get it from one manual, but to hear it from a bunch of other folks ... While your boys are coloring their flag or whatever, you need to start coaching the adults. Explain ... - your vision for "boy led." - the troop's need for a pool of locations to practice "minimum impact camping". - that you will have other needs as the boys reflect on the activities they want to do and how they want to do them. - that you would eventually like to only explain things to

What if the next day the scout performs CPR and revives his cell mate? Do you get the stamp back out?

FYI - Thats very different from how we do it. SM and any available ASM's meet with the boy for his Eagle SMC. Only committee members and the district representative sit on our EBORs. SM introduces the boy, then leaves the room and waits more or less patiently in the hallway.

I used time-out and whacking with my kids. Whacking was a quick way of sparing them the time-out. If they were acting violence on one another, it was a way of saying their actions were begetting violence, and we (mom and I) will firmly stand in that path and block their way with force if necessary. It immediately re-opened paths to them, but some paths they would tread with fear. Time-outs were an exquisite form of tourture because it forced them to comply to a behavior we wanted. (e.g. "Be still for as many minutes as your age. And, when you come out I expect you to apologize/do

Anybody ever read an Arabic Bible? The word for God is "Allah", same as in the Koran. As far as the Semitic religions go, it is not a matter of "what" or "who" but "what He did." Most agree He called the universe into being ... beyond that, things start to diverge. So, yes, inasmuch as we reference the font of all creation, we worship the same God. If I believe niel_b is blonde and had a cup of coffee after his/her last post and you believe he/she had a glass of milk. If we both reply to niel_b's post we still are replying to neil_b. And, if a pre-teen is still going to church w

It would be interesting to find out how well informed the Eagle scout who testified was during his youth. Was he shown "A Time to Tell"? Did someone challenge his thinking like BrentAllen suggested? Here's another harsh reality, folks. Even with the best education, it may take years for an abused youth to take a stand against what's happening (or happened). So educate, but don't expect it to be like a light bulb turning on and exposing the predator in the corner. A skilled perpetrator has learned to hide in plain sight making sure that those around him are unwilling or afraid to

Niel_b, Jesus was always getting accused of breaking rules like working on the Sabbath or eating with gentiles. I guess if he was a scout he might get his advancement denied for not being reverent enough. Jesus always asserted that he was acting in accordance with his own beliefs. As a youth he was, by all but the most partisan accounts, a good Jewish boy. He might get docked for not getting a parental release to hang back at Temple. (After all boy scouts love paperwork. ) But he's pass on Reverent. Not saying you shouldn't tell a boy that breaking the 3rd Commandment in your

NielB - There is no mention of not taking God's name in vain ... Scouting is non-sectarian, ... If the boy feels he is doing his best to satisfy his personal religious obligations and demonstrates that in tangible ways (like attending church) it is not for you to impose your personal religious beliefs on him as a Scouter. I was not referring to my own personal anything. I was referring to a practice common to young scouts where they violate the tenants of the religion they claim as their own. Is there a religion where the needless spouting the name of a deity (especially one that is

Minimize the drama. Focus on the one issue you're being asked to attest to: the project. Was it completed as planned? Did the boy show some leadership? Then sign. If not, don't sign. There's no need to resign. If there are issues that will come up at his board of review: make sure you yourself are focusing on the boy's tenure while at Life rank. If your concerns apply to that period, let the boy know which ones you will be bringing up at the board of review and expect him to have honest and thoughtful replies to each of them. If he is concerned that he may not, he should as

I am reading from my fellow scouters that they ignore these when it comes to advancement. ... Not so. If a boy says he believes in God, attends church twice as often as his religion requires, keeps fasts, prays, reads scripture, etc ... But routinely takes the Lord's name (yours, mine, or his, it doesn't matter) in vain. He is irreverent. He does not advance until he can go a day without sputtering "OMGs."

You should define your regular meeting place to include the lake. Talk to your scout executive. Assuming that meetings always include adequate supervision, 20 plans for mostly paddling in a controlled area is excessive. The tour plans should be for the real trips 1+ miles.

I'm sure you can split hairs all the way down through every sect of every religion, but here are some broad pejorative categories that I've heard bantied about ... Clearly folks who have no religious life and mock everyone else who does are irreverent. Folks who promote their religion to the exclusion of others are overzealous. (Unless they're right, then they're just zealous.) By definition, folks who hold themselves up as religious yet live their life in opposition to their religion are hippocrites. Folks who think religion is above or beyond them, so they just stay home and muddle thr

BD: Should it be measured? How is it measured? As soon as I pull this log out of my eye, I'll let you know how to measure the speck in my young scout brother's! Is a scouter qualified to measure it? I think that misses the point. The goal is to get the boy, over time, to measure it. It may be that his theology will line up perfectly with yours. It may be not. A higher authority is, well, higher than that. But, we want our young men to reflect on this question early in their life. Because not reflecting on it until after you're guarding some enemy POW's and some cra