Going Solo

[Kudu]

 

Beavah writes:

 

Now here's a question for yeh: Does the same apply to Proficiency (Merit) Badges? Should lads who hold Backpacking MB be able to backpack on their own, well-separated from others?

 

I go more by personality than policy, how about you?

 

My short answer is that they should but mostly I provide opportunities for them to learn those skills. If they want to hike or climb alone it is up to them to arrange such excursions themselves. That is how we did it when I was their age. We never even considered asking our Scoutmaster for permission to go hike or climb.

 

It should be more common in Scouting. To be considered a First Class Scout Baden-Powell required a "Journey alone or with another Scout" of 14 miles by foot or boat, or 30 miles on an animal or bicycle. From there the length of the Journeys increased with every rank. Solo or one-buddy Journeys were Baden-Powell's real-world test of Scoutcraft skills and the spiritual means to discover for oneself what he called "The Religion of the Deep Woods."

 

It is interesting that Tim Jeal uses the term "expeditions" in the passage about Parlour Scouting in the parent thread, because "Expedition" was the term used to distinguish an outing on the move (such as a Patrol overnight hike or a solo Journey), from a "static" camp in one place (as described by Eamonn). The First Class Journey was dropped from the BSA sometime around 1927 when the Parlour Scouting memo was written.

 

When I was a teenager, I spent an entire summer solo backpacking in the Adirondack High Peaks Region. I bought two months of dehydrated food from the Mormons, boxed it up, and left my parents a schedule of which post offices in the High Peaks area to mail the boxes to me general delivery in two week intervals.

 

So I know that some teenagers are perfectly capable of rising to Baden-Powell's expectations, and they might stick around longer if we provided more of those opportunities.

 

When backpacking on established trails with my last Troop, I did not have the same policy for all Scouts. The trick was to get them to pair off with a buddy who walked at a similar pace, and to let them change off during the day as necessary. Some of the Scouts could be trusted to meet us at the top of the mountain, or for lunch, or at the evening destination. Other pairs I would require to wait for a specific older Scout at every trail intersection. I'm getting old so I always work Sweep.

 

How about Whitewater? Climbing?

 

Both Whitewater and Climbing are outside of my comfort zone. I can not read moving water well enough to be responsible for a Troop of Scouts, and when technical climbing I tend to get machine-gun leg less than 50 feet up a vertical rock-face

 

So when the PLC plans Whitewater or Technical Climbing I look for Scouters who are licensed guides or otherwise certified, and we pay them if necessary (by the way, this is where the Scouts meet competent outdoor women that they sincerely admire).

 

The White Water stretches can only be run by one canoe at a time, so they do get a taste of being separated from the others. At the end of the day of canoeing, after the gear has been removed from the canoes and set up, the guides take them out to try the risky moves (including one-man canoe runs) that are likely to swamp the canoes.

 

As far as climbing goes, I had a really difficult time with one 11-year-old Scout. It was impossible to keep him from climbing. He was a young prodigy who looked at every vertical surface as a puzzle that could be solved with multiple answers. He was tiny (4' 7"), and on his first day of summer camp he climbed up the inside of the main lodge's large stone chimney and down the outside. I was often in trouble because of him.

 

I tried various sanctions until one day he pointed to the forward of Baden-Powell's Scouting Games and said with eyes flashing, "See, it says right here, Scouts are supposed to climb!"

 

Knowing that I considered Baden-Powell to be the final authority on Scouting, he had me:

 

Then in addition to the games mentioned in this book we have adopted other activities in the Scout movement in the shape more particularly of swimming and climbing. These are for the fuller development of the boys morally as well as physically. Morally, because swimming gives a sense of mastery over one of the elements and of fitness for service to them as a result of exercising pluck and perseverance; and climbing similarly gives a sense of self-reliance and power through achievement in overcoming a difficult adventure. They are good physically, because both activities are the better agents for developing health and strength in that they are not artificial like "physical jerks," "setting-up drill," etc., but are natural and appeal to the boy so that he continues to practice them voluntarily in his spare time.

 

I gave him my old copy of Bergsteigen: Basic Rock Climbing, and tried to limit him and his younger brother to bouldering and tree climbing on BSA campouts that lacked qualified supervision (by 12 he was already organizing his own outings).

 

He moved to Cape Town where he now studies economics. His climbing gets a significant amount of press coverage, enough so that Google corrects you if you spell his Lithuanian last name wrong

 

He is now the top-ranked sports climber in South Africa, finishing more than 2,200 points ahead of his closest rival in the 2007 National Bouldering League Final.

 

Kudu

 

[Kudu]

This just in from South Africa: Some corrections from my former Scout:

 

1) "I suppose it does make me the top guy, but in bouldering, not sport climbing :)"

 

2) "I'm doing my final year of Masters in Finance at the University of Cape Town."

 

Regarding Bergsteigen: Basic Rock Climbing:

 

"That book is actually what started it all. Every one of my first adventures here in South Africa was a direct result of what I read in those pages. The techniques used were horribly out of date, but we managed not to kill ourselves til we learnt the proper way of doing things."

 

 

[packsaddle]

I think I understand the tension for this topic. I feel it every time I camp with a group, whether adult or boys. There is nothing as sublime as the sense of serene reverence of being alone in the deep forest with no sounds or sensations other than the wild around you. When this unit backpacks I accept that there is almost nothing I can do to gain this feeling while surrounded by the boys. And I know they can't experience this either, as part of that group. So I take the view that a boy who is proficient can go it alone with one important qualification - he must not peel off from a troop event.

If the troop has planned a troop event, then I require everyone, everyone...to pitch in to the troop event and that means I would not want anyone to go solo. I view this as part of the mentoring component...the proficient members need to stay close enough to provide the best examples of proficiency.

There is also an element of safety. If a boy is allowed to go solo from a troop event, a boy who is not proficient might also decide he has similar license.

So if I am in charge of a troop event, we do it as a unit, no exceptions. And at the same time, I encourage anyone who is proficient to go solo anytime they want to do it...on their own.

[Beavah]

Yah, hmmm... There I go again, havin' problems speakin' da language properly, eh?

 

I really wasn't meanin' soloing on backpackin' trips, or certainly on rock! Though I find nothin' wrong with soloing myself, in fact, I like bein' in the woods and on rivers alone.

 

I was tryin' to extend Kudu's counter-cultural notions about patrols campin' apart from each other and adults, eh? I was wonderin' if the same should apply to patrols / small groups for other activities. Kudu makes a case for T21 bein' supported by separate patrol-method camping. What about MBs?

 

So, for example, to earn Backpacking MB, should the lads have to demonstrate their backpackin' skill as a small group, but well separated from other youth and adults (for the whole 5-day trek)? Demonstrate they can backpack on their own.

 

To earn Whitewater MB, should the lads have to demonstrate paddling skill as a small group on a river, but well-separated from other youth and adults - runnin' their own safety, makin' their own decisions, watchin' their own pace, and weather, etc.

 

Just because they're outside our individual comfort zones as adults doesn't strike me as bein' relevant, eh? That's why not everybody should be a MB counselor for whitewater, and why in Venturing we use consultants. The question is what opportunities and challenges we provide for the kids, not what we personally are good at.

 

Takin' a lad top-roping on a climbing wall is a nice guided tour or amusement ride, eh? But I can't help but feelin' that it's only when we teach 'em enough to run things on their own, and give 'em that opportunity, that they really develop leadership, and character, and judgment.

 

Kudu's young friend Marijus was willin' to push him, and pull his fellow scouts to develop independence in climbing skills, eh? I think that's what all lads really crave. Not climbing amusement rides or tourist whitewater raft trips. Really becoming accomplished at those things.

 

I wonder if such independence shouldn't be our goal in all of scoutin'. Might be worth it for some troops to give it a whirl, anyway.

 

Beavah

 

[Kudu]

Beavah writes:

 

Just because they're outside our individual comfort zones as adults doesn't strike me as bein' relevant, eh?

 

It is the sub-text of all such discussions, isn't it?

 

Beavah writes:

 

Should the lads have to demonstrate their backpackin' skill as a small group, but well separated from other youth and adults (for the whole 5-day trek)?

 

Should the lads have to demonstrate paddling skill as a small group on a river, but well-separated from other youth and adults - runnin' their own safety, makin' their own decisions, watchin' their own pace, and weather, etc.

 

When you wonder if "such independence shouldn't be our goal in all of scoutin'," you are not exploring "counter-cultural" notions, Beavah, you are expressing Scouting's true "Traditional Values."

 

As outlined below, those activities were standard requirements in Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts Association.

 

So why do so many Americans love to quote his Aims but insist that his methods are "old fashioned"?

 

I think "That is too old-fashioned" is the Scouter equivalent to when a kid says "I hate that!" when he really means "That is outside of my comfort zone!"

 

Beavah writes:

 

That's why not everybody should be a MB counselor for whitewater, and why in Venturing we use consultants. The question is what opportunities and challenges we provide for the kids, not what we personally are good at

 

Yeah, "should." I wonder how often a Troop gets beyond the comfort level of its adult leaders, except at summer camp where Scouts have a few more options. For many Troops the program does not get very far beyond what is required for advancement, does it?

 

In the thread "13/14 Year Old Eagle Scouts" you wrote "Eagle shouldn't be a middle school award. Not even for a bright, high-achieving middle-schooler."

 

The problem is that while the book-learning instruction (which is intentionally excluded from Scouting in B-P's program) is at high school level, what remains of the English progression toward total independence in the wild at King's Scout, ends in the BSA with the five mile hike.

 

B-P's Second Class hike is eight miles without an adult or older Scout. The BSA five mile hike is not as ambitious but it is not too bad: Notice that it does not actually require adult supervision!

 

But there you go: If that kind of true independent accomplishment is what Scouts really crave, then building outdoor independence on the road to Eagle ends at Second Class, which before 1972 was usually earned around 7th grade.

 

So given the current outdoor requirements, Eagle as a middle-school award is about right.

 

Here is the sequence of Baden-Powell (some are after 1938) with some of the adult-free land or water requirements that you suggest:

 

Second Class:

 

Go by day, on foot, with other scouts on a journey of 8 miles.

 

- Your Patrol Leader will set your route, and a specific objective will be given.

 

- Make an oral report from notes to your Patrol Leader immediately upon your return.

 

- Your Scoutmaster must know your hiking route, and must approve your plan in advance.

 

- If additional Scouts are taking the test, each will report independently.

 

First Class:

 

Primitive Camping. Build and sleep out in a bivouac and cook a backwoods meal.

 

The First Class Journey. Go on foot, with three other Scouts, on a 24-hour journey of at least 15 miles.

 

- Make all the necessary advance preparations, and organize the packing of food and gear.

 

- In the course of the journey, you must cook your own meals, at least one of which must include meat or a protein substitute.

 

- Find a campsite and camp for the night.

 

- You must carry out any instructions given by the examiner as to things to be observed on route.

 

- Make a log of your journey sufficient to show you have carried out those instructions, and submit it within one week of your return.

 

Scout Cord (Star)

 

(Explorer Badge) (optional, but encouraged)

 

1) Arrange and carry out an expedition for yourself and at least 2 other Scouts, of not less that 2 days and 1 night duration to a place you are not familiar with.

 

- All equipment to be carried in backpacks and to include food.

 

- Each backpack to weigh not more than 30 lbs.

 

Bushman's Cord (Life Scout)

 

(Venturer Badge) (required)

 

1) Complete an adventure journey as a member of a Patrol in which you shall play a leading part.

 

- The journey, which may be short in length, must include at least 5 incidents such as rescues from fire or heights, compass work, Signalling over distance.

 

- Water incidents to be included for Sea Scout Troops.

 

2) Make a journey of at least 20 miles on foot or by boat, with not more than 3 other Scouts.

 

- Route must be one with which the Scout is not familiar and should, if possible, include stiff country.

 

- Sleep out, using only the gear carried in a backpack.

 

- Maximum weight 31 lbs which must include food.

 

- The Examiner may set the candidate 1 or 2 tasks, which require a specific report but no general log of the journey is required.

 

King's Scout (Eagle)

 

(Senior Explorer Badge) (optional, but encouraged)

 

- Take part in an expedition with not less than 3 and not more than 5 other Scouts. The expedition may be on foot, boat, or on horseback.

 

- The expedition must be planned to last at least 4 days, and at least 3 nights must be spent in tents. All necessary equipment and food must be taken and all meals prepared by members of the party.

 

- All Scouts in the party will take an equal part in the planning arrangements before and during the expedition, but it is not necessary that all participants should be under test.

 

- A detailed log of the expedition must be kept be each member of the party, having previously agreed between themselves a different emphasis for each log - eg weather, geography, history, architecture, archaeology, botany, ornithology.

 

- The route and special log subjects must have the prior approval of the examiner.

 

- An expedition on foot will cover at least 50 miles in wild country. The 3 nights will be spent at different campsites.

 

- An expedition by water will cover at least 50 miles and the log will cover such points as the state of the river, conditions of banks, obstructions to navigation etc.

 

- An expedition on Horseback will cover at least 200 miles. In wild country, camping at 3 different camp sites.

 

- An expedition, whether on foot or otherwise, must be a test of determination, courage, physical endurance and a high degree of co-operation among those taking part.

 

(This message has been edited by Kudu)