AOL to Boy Scouts

[MollieDuke 10]

Do I read it correctly that a boy who has completed his Arrow of Light can immediately join Boy Scouts their age and school grade notwithstanding? Doesn't this mean that some much younger boys will be able to cross over?

 

I'm just curious with this because I was under the impression that the school grade and their age were the more deciding factors. As Webelos is a year-plus some program, I felt that it seemed to be a real rush job to try to get into BSA that soon.

 

Anyone with experience in this? Thoughts on how it seems to work?

 

Thanks.

[scottteng 11]

"Boy Scouting, one of the traditional membership divisions of the BSA, is available to boys who have earned the Arrow of Light Award and are at least 10 years old or have completed the fifth grade and are at least 10, or who are 11, but not yet 18 years old. The program achieves the BSA's objectives of developing character, citizenship, and personal fitness."

cut and paste from nationals web site.

http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=by

[Lisabob 13]

Mollie,

 

Current requirements are that a boy must be AT LEAST ten years old no matter what else - this is effective 5/15/04. You can find these (among other sources) at:

 

http://usscouts.org/advance/boyscout/bsrank1.html

 

Joining Requirements:

1. "Meet age requirements: Be a boy who has completed the fifth grade and be at least 10 years old, or be 11 years old, or have earned the Arrow of Light Award and be at least 10 years old, and be under 18 years old. "

 

 

I've heard of a few cases where there was a boy who had skipped a couple of grades so that his den mates crossed over when the boy in question was still only 9. Some troops would unofficially welcome such a boy regardless of the above requirements (which I believe to be a bad strategy simply from an insurance perspective), while others would ask him to wait until he was 10.

 

My opinion is that very few 9 year olds are emotionally or physically mature enough to handle many of the things boy scouts do. Keeping in mind that boy scouts range from 10-17, the gap between a typical cross-over (usually closer to 11) and a 17 year old is tough enough without adding in an additional year's difference. There's less adult supervision in boy scouts than cubs too so this age/maturity difference may be more noticeable without adults to "referee" scout behavior at all times. In most cases I don't think you'd be doing a boy a favor by pushing him into this setting at such an early age when he may be ill-prepared, thus increasing the chance that he will drop out.

 

As for grade - we have boys who have been held back in school but elected to continue with their age-peers in scouting. So we'll have a couple of boys who are 10 or 11 and finishing 4th grade, who have earned their AoL, crossing into the troop this year. That's less of an issue in my mind because they will be less likely to be physically or emotionally behind their age-peers in a scouting context, where a boy's school grade isn't that important. And it is specifically allowed for in the joining requirements.