He's not getting it: HOW MANY??

[John-in-KC 311]

I'm convinced most of our Scouts want to do the right thing, and learn at a reasonable pace.

 

I'd like your gut-check: Over the years, how many young men have you had to lean on to get the leadership position or POR done to standard?

 

As I have said elsewhere, I've seen one young man get fired; he was ASPL but so disruptive he was sent home from Scout Camp. That was the last time we ever saw him. That covers five years of Scoutering Troops and Crews and 6 years of youth membership waaay back when.

 

 

[GernBlansten 10]

Over the years, how many young men have you had to lean on to get the leadership position or POR done to standard?

To be honest, all of them. Some because they don't understand our expectations, others because they are truly slackers, still others because perhaps our expectations are unreasonable, the rest are just too busy with other stuff. Never have I seen a scout exceed our expectations with no coaching/mentoring from us.

[evmori 11]

I would agree with Gern. Most of them don't get it. I attribute this to their age & understanding at that age. It seems boys between 12-18 just don't process the information the way we as adults do. That's why they need more guidance & mentoring.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Hunt 11]

I wouldn't use the term "lean on" to describe the kind of guidance a well-intentioned boy needs. That being said, in my son's troop there have been boys who did need to be "leaned on" because they didn't respond to more gentle guidance.

[John-in-KC 311]

Allow a clarification: 11-18 year old young men are doing many things for the very first time, including the responsibilities of tasks.

 

I expect 90% of all young men to require teaching, mentoring, and support.

 

That said, some, hopefully a very few, refuse to participate or do a bare minimum of their work with a maximum of grousing.

 

As I said, in 11 years of youth membership and Scouter experience I've seen ONE SCOUT fail completely. I've only seen a couple be truly "at risk" of failure.

 

Have I clarified my question?

[Venividi 35]

I think that prevelance of this in a unit is highly dependent on the culture of the unit.

 

Units with long tenured scouters that understand and have successfully indoctrinated scout-run into the troop will have good examples for new scouts to follow, and expectations of what is required coming from both the scouters and fellow scouts.

 

Units that are only beginning to move towards scout-run don't have those examples of scouts "getting it", and are more likely to have a culture where a scouts do not step up to the requirements of their PORs, because that is what they have observed. A conundrum for this type of troop is how to help scouts "get it", and grow the troop towards more scout-run without being put in a position where a few of them have to be fired for lack of effort.

If there is sufficient adults involved, each POR holder could be assigned an adult to push and prod until culture changes. If not, perhaps POR's are better off left unfilled.

[Beavah 205]

I'm with Gern. In most units, youth run isn't quite fully in place, and the youth-to-youth mentoring Veni describes ain't very complete. Mentoring's a different skill anyway, eh? One that even a good youth leader might not have yet.

 

So it seems to me in most units that kids need a fair bit of prodding/support. Most common is not realizin' that doin' a good job takes dedicating extra time.

 

I'd much rather see a kid develop to the point of reachin' some level of success (and feelin' proud o' that!) than givin' him a patch for time served and havin' him move on.

 

Beavah