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It may be that the most difficult thing to get about Scouting is figuring out what it isn’t. It is not a boys club, a baby sitting service, an academic system, an ideology, or a program of activities.
The Scouting movement was born as a simple response to the inherent need of boys to have some direction and structure to their lives as they go about becoming adults. The proof of Scouting’s universality and genius is it has been adopted in vastly different cultures and locales over more than a century.
Scouting, as I have said before, is more gardening than management. Provide the right elements for Scouts and they blossom with potential.
One element we often miss is a sort of “benign neglect” that allows them room to grow;
- Neglect the imposition of regimentation and rules – but encourage Scouts to discover the necessity of both.
- Be a little indifferent to achievement and advancement – but foster the challenges that create them.
- Forget that you have answers to their questions – help them develop the habit of finding their own way.
- Take a step back and let Scouts lead Scouts, then take another step back – maybe even two or three more.
- Neglect the opportunity to criticize and heap on the encouragement.
Scouters maintain a safe, secure environment for all this to work. We guard against both excess and inaction. We maintain focus. Our Scouts benefit from a wide latitude to find their own answers, set their own standards, and live their own lives.
I’ve been experimenting with a new exercise at our regular TLT (Troop Leadership Training, nee JLT) weekends at the changing of the guard. I collect real issues from the troop and pose them to subgroups of the TLT. Example: what should the troop policy be for scout cell phones? Example: can a scout sit for more than one Scoutmaster Conference in the same night (e.g., Second Class and First Class in one night)? Example: how do we select participants for outings that have limited slots? I have the scouts examine the issue (practicing listening skills) and draft a recommendation at the TLT. A scout is chosen by the group to take the recommendation to the Troop Committee. By and large, the recommendations have been good or excellent and the Committee was pleased to accept them as troop policy. The scouts are running their troop and I get to take a step back.