vol_scouter

I am a physician, Hospitalist, at a university hospital and a research scientist with degrees in medicine, engineering, and physics. I am an Eagle scout and Brotherhood OA. I have served as an ASM, Philmont crew leader twice, Philmont staff at the healthlodge twice, and have been on the EB and EC since 1994 and I am currently the council membership chairman.

A couple of comments. On trained leaders: As someone said, many of the leaders were WWII vets and others had been raised on the farm. There connection with the outdoors was greater than for most of us today. I think that they required less training than some adults do today. Oftentimes the best leaders are former scouts - once again someone with outdoor experience. I am not sure that training can make up for the youthful experiences in the outdoors.

Second comment: Since most parents now were not raised on a farm or rural setting, they are afraid of the outdoors themselves and this fear is mapped onto their children. I agree that society is somewhat more matriarchial for many reasons but the most important being the high divorce rate. Boys and girls need both parents to best develop. So an overstressed mother with no connection to the outdoors is more likely to be overly concerned about injury.

Third: Our culture is sports crazed! People are too consumed by sports to do anything else. This has led sports to be far too time consuming for our youth. Even if they would still not be scouts, this is not good for them. Sports in general teaches to win at all costs and take drugs to help one do so. These are not good values.

Fourth: I agree that computers and video games that up far to much time for youth and many adults. We have soaring childhood obesity rates leading to Type II Diabetes Mellitus in age groups that were previously not affected.

I believe that our society is doing great harm too its youth and will pay a dear price for that in the future with early illness and distorted views of the world.

I refer you to "Wilderness Medicine", By Auerbach for an excellent discussion. In general, stay away from highpoints, bodies of water, and the base of trees. Do not seek shelter under a lone tree. Squat down (do not lie down due to possible ground currents) so that only your feet are touching the ground. This makes you the smallest target. Lightning can strike as far away as 10 miles ahead of the thunder clouds! Once again, consult "Wilderness Medicine" and visit www.wms.org