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Outdoor Code for Non-Americans


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I would tell the Scouts they have the option of saying what they want there, within reason obviously.  This also raises the question of why "As an American" is in there at all.  The Scout Oath and Law

I have 8 boys in my den. Only 2 are presently legal American citizens; the others are immigrant citizens of Mexico, China, and Taiwan. But I tell them that since they will grow up in this country, and

You don't.

I would only worry about this if the scouts express concern about implying that they are something they are not. Or, they think they might not take the oath seriously if they aren't American (as if saying they will do stuff "as an American" somehow gets them off the hook for as long as they aren't citizens).

Two possibilities come to mind:

"As a sojourner in America ..."

"As a {insert provenance here} ..."

It also wouldn't hurt to find out if there is something of the sort that people from their homeland would say.

Edited by qwazse
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43 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said:

I would tell the Scouts they have the option of saying what they want there, within reason obviously.  This also raises the question of why "As an American" is in there at all.  The Scout Oath and Law do not specify what the speaker's nationality is.  One should respect the outdoors not because one is an American, but because one is a human being.

I believe that was because LNT (an American based company) assisted with and help create this program for the BSA

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1 hour ago, JasonG172 said:

What do you mean they are non-americans?

Don't you have to be an American citizen to be in the Boy Scouts of America?

Absolutely not.  Living in a large manufacturing area, we get families with parents in engineering, design, and computer programming from all over the word that come and work in the States for a few years before returning to their home country.

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2 hours ago, JasonG172 said:

I believe that was because LNT (an American based company) assisted with and help create this program for the BSA

No and yes. The roots of LNT start with the BSA and Bureau of Land Management in the 80's. In the 90's NOLS took over with the US Forest Service.  Other government partners joined. Government funding of these education programs was always a problem. which lead to the creation in 1994 of  LNT, a non-profit educational program which marketed courses to many groups including the BSA. :confused:

More details at this link.

https://lnt.org/sites/default/files/Leave_No_Trace_History_Paper.pdf

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3 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

No and yes. The roots of LNT start with the BSA and Bureau of Land Management in the 80's. In the 90's NOLS took over with the US Forest Service.  Other government partners joined. Government funding of these education programs was always a problem. which lead to the creation in 1994 of  LNT, a non-profit educational program which marketed courses to many groups including the BSA. :confused:

More details at this link.

https://lnt.org/sites/default/files/Leave_No_Trace_History_Paper.pdf

And the Outdoor Code was adopted in 1954, I believe.

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24 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said:

And the Outdoor Code was adopted in 1954, I believe.

Here is a GBB Boys Life article about it:

https://books.google.com/books?id=oB4YsDfcXA4C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=green+bar+bill+outdoor+code+bottle+beach

 

Sounds like BSA meant it to be not just for scouts but something that was evangelized to schools and civic groups hence the generic patriotic "American" reference. Sort of like an early Keep America Beautiful campaign.

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1 hour ago, JasonG172 said:

For those that have never seen the video, couldn't get away with this in this day and time

I'm not so sure about that.  It is respectful to Native Americans.  In fact, you could interpret it as being kind of anti-NON-Native Americans.  (And justifiably so, especially at the time.)

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