Online Training Is Horrible.

[Eagle94-A1]

So I attended my first event today with the new troop. The SM is "trained," but admitted he doesn't consider himself "trained," and is glad I am joining the troop. We started talking, and from the discussion,  I realized a lot of info was left out of the online training.  We are trying to recruit new Scouters, and I have a feeling I will be doing some informal training with them on camp outs.

[Tron]

On 1/17/2026 at 12:42 PM, Eagle94-A1 said:

So I attended my first event today with the new troop. The SM is "trained," but admitted he doesn't consider himself "trained," and is glad I am joining the troop. We started talking, and from the discussion,  I realized a lot of info was left out of the online training.  We are trying to recruit new Scouters, and I have a feeling I will be doing some informal training with them on camp outs.

I think a lot of new leaders really need to take all of the training (like SM & committee & COR & etc ... ) to get a real good picture of how a troop should run. There is also the issue of the training doesn't quite line up with reality due to a lot of leaders just doing their own thing; which in turn confuses new leaders. 

It also bothers me that NONE, absolutely NONE of the online training ever mentions any of the troop leader guides. 

[DuctTape]

Yeah. So much of the training misses how to get the Scouts to do things for themselves. I remember sitting in on a SM specific training and they went through how to do an annual calendar. They literally trained the SM to do it without the Scouts. The closest they came was the phrase "with scout input". Later, when I spoke with the person in charge they replied, "we have them in a group like the PLC so they can experience the process just as the Scouts will". I have heard this type of response in similar trainings. The end result is adult scouters thinking they do all the work "with scout input". The entire training framework from basic, IOLS, up to Woodbadge needs re-working.

[Eagle94-A1]

14 hours ago, Tron said:

I think a lot of new leaders really need to take all of the training (like SM & committee & COR & etc ... ) to get a real good picture of how a troop should run. There is also the issue of the training doesn't quite line up with reality due to a lot of leaders just doing their own thing; which in turn confuses new leaders. 

It also bothers me that NONE, absolutely NONE of the online training ever mentions any of the troop leader guides. 

Here is the irony, he is fully trained and is scheduled to go to WB in the near future.

[jcousino]

21 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Here is the irony, he is fully trained and is scheduled to go to WB in the near future.

Will be on WB staff next time around.

[Tron]

On 1/21/2026 at 10:03 AM, DuctTape said:

Yeah. So much of the training misses how to get the Scouts to do things for themselves. I remember sitting in on a SM specific training and they went through how to do an annual calendar. They literally trained the SM to do it without the Scouts. The closest they came was the phrase "with scout input". Later, when I spoke with the person in charge they replied, "we have them in a group like the PLC so they can experience the process just as the Scouts will". I have heard this type of response in similar trainings. The end result is adult scouters thinking they do all the work "with scout input". The entire training framework from basic, IOLS, up to Woodbadge needs re-working.

This is a good method if the instructors are clear that "Hey you're doing this pretending to be the members of the PLC, you're learning through their eyes". That's not often clear though right? 

On 1/21/2026 at 10:42 AM, Eagle94-A1 said:

Here is the irony, he is fully trained and is scheduled to go to WB in the near future.

WB will help if your council actually runs WB correctly. My local WB is so disgusting that leaders are starting to travel out of council in order to try and experience the process correctly. Here's a juicy quote from a fellow leader "I'm going to PTC to do WB because I want to be able to come back and audit the local WB and tell these idiots how they don't have a clue as to what they're doing." 

[DuctTape]

6 hours ago, Tron said:

This is a good method if the instructors are clear that "Hey you're doing this pretending to be the members of the PLC, you're learning through their eyes". That's not often clear though right? 

Certainly not clear. I would argue that it is not even a good method. The adults do not, and cannot learn through the eyes of a plc by pretending to be them. Adults have skills and experiences which the scouts do not have; they think differently so the experience is nothing like what the scouts will experience. The adults get zero training with this method in how to guide, and mentor youth in any of these exercises. IF, the method was to be employed, not only must it be abundantly clear that the exercise is simply to understand the task the scouts will be engaged in, but that is not the training. What must be incorporated is discussion and training in how youth have undeveloped executive functioning skills, and lack the experience of the adults. Training in how to mentor the youth to not just fulfill the task, but grow and lead their fellow scouts.

The training and focus cannot be the tasks and exercises with clarity that "this is what the scouts will be doing and you will learn through their eyes by experiencing it now". That is crap. What needs to happen is:

1. A dissection on the differences between how adults with skills and life experiences will engage in a task vs how youth without those skills and experiences.

2. How to guide youth to develop the skills, reflect on the experience, make adjustments and grow.

Focus is not the task or exercise, but how to interact with the scouts as young leaders to help them develop. The training exercises need to focus on the scouts, not the tasks. When I led modules in IOLS, this is how I did it. Sure, if the adults did not know the basics, we did those but the main focus was how to encourage the youth to use, practice, and lead the skills within the patrol method. We also had participants reflect on their troop practices which may deny these opportinities to the youth. I recall one participant who had been a SM for many years (never did IOLS), tell me afterwards that he realized that the troop had been doing the same activities/camping locations and plans for so long that the scouts did not have to do any planning nor use any of the skills they should be developing. He realized that the "well oiled troop" was not the goal and actually the journey needs to include more failure for the scouts to grow.