Scoutmaster Podcast 148

And now it's the old Scoutmaster.

Camping to me is when room service closes at 10.. If it's 10.30, I go: wow, I'm camping, Like that survivor show. I watch it. it's interesting to watch, but I don't understand it, Because if I wake up in the morning and I have to look in the woods for breakfast, you don't have to vote me off the island.

I'm putting out my own torch.

Make some real cool breeze. Not a night of wind. Listen through the trees. Night of stars on my ceiling. The glow in the dark. Go open up the windows. We can hear the birds in the car. I'll put wild kingdom on my TV. This might not be camping, but it's pretty close. I like this primitive as you are made of it. This might not be camping, but it's close enough for me. Alright, so I get it. So not everybody loves to go camping, Not as much as we do, right? Hey? this is podcast number 148..

Well, this is Clarke Green. Welcome back to the Scoutmaster podcast. Let's take a look in the mailbag here to get things started. Going back to podcast number 147, we talked about the first of four steps to advancement. a scout learns, And I heard from Bill Fleming who said: I have found that many of my scouts really learned when they instruct a skill to others. Using the edge method has promoted this across all of scouting And hopefully our fellow scouts are seeing the real reason behind this requirement. We often pass the scout for completing certain requirements, but it's often long after tender photo first class that we actually witness the skill being part of their individual skill set. I hope you keep this great topic rolling and we will. Thanks for being in touch, Bill, Again about last week's podcast Mark in San Diego- San Diego, Get it, Get it. San Diego Wrote in to say podcast 147 hit the mark with me in many ways Right off the bat, in the opening was your quote from that paleo gearhound for his capart- I get it, And I sent the passage to some deserving leaders right away. Another was a song about a woman who loves a man, who loves to camp, And we played a little bit more of that right at the beginning of the podcast. I think I have another tune for the slide show for my son's upcoming Eagle Court of Honor, hopefully in about two months. Oh yeah, I think that would be a worthy addition to an Eagle Court of Honor soundtrack. Mark, And congratulations in advance, by the way. Lastly, was the main topic on how a scout learns. It's forever the task of a Scoutmaster to kind of mosey the helicopter parents away from their sons and to let them learn the scout way. I now have a few more phrases in my Swiss army knife of Clark quotes to help parents understand why they should be letting their son figure out this stuff in his own way. On another note, thank you for the explanation of advertising on your site and how it contributes to keep it going. I wish I'd heard this from you previously. If I had, there were many pieces of gear I would have purchased through your links as opposed to just going to the vendors directly online for purchases. I will do so from now on. Keep doing. I'm enjoying the great work that you do Well. thank you so much, Mark. I certainly appreciate that. So the song that Mark mentioned- and you heard a little bit more of it at the beginning of the podcast- is by Christine Laban. The title is appropriately camping, And you also heard a little bit of Comedian John Panette's routine on camping. There's links to both of them in the post that contains this podcast at scoutmastercgcom if you're interested in getting them for yourself. Within the past couple of days I heard from Mike Malone. Mike joined us on one of our podcasts to talk about his book 4%, the story of uncommon youth in a century of American life. That is the kind of this definitive Eagle Scout history book. Now a number of you have waited patiently and I'm happy to tell you that that book is now available in a hardcover edition. It's a must read. I think it's a great book. It will be appreciated by any Eagle Scout, whether he's just walked off the stage of his court of honor or became an Eagle Scout decades ago. Head on over to scoutmastercgcom and you'll be able to find a link very easily to 4%- the story of uncommon youth in a century of American life.

So in this podcast and Scoutmaster's ship in seven minutes or less, we have our third in a series of five installments about Scout advancement, And you know what That's going to be it for this podcast. So let's get started, shall we Scoutmaster's ship in seven minutes or less? So this is third in a series of five installments about the four steps to scout advancement. In the introduction we contextualize advancement within the other methods of scouting And the message there is that advancement is one of many ways that scouting helps boys. In the last podcast we discussed the first of the four steps to advance it, and that is a scout learns. We talked about that. Scouts do what Scouts do, Not just because they're going to advance, but because it's what Scouts do. this time around We're going to look at the second step to advancement, And that is a scout is tested in the advancement and that is a scout is tested. So these four steps are: a scout learns, a scout is tested, a scout is reviewed and a scout is recognized. So before we start talking about this, I want to go back to something that Baden Powell said in AIDS. to Scoutmastership. He said this: the standard of proficiency is purposefully left undefined. Our standard for badge earning is not the attainment of a certain level of quality of knowledge or skill, but the amount of effort the boy has put into acquiring such knowledge or skill. If he is a trier, if he gives things a try, no matter how clumsy, his examiner can accord him the badge, and this generally inspires the boy to go on trying until he wins further badges and becomes more capable. Now Baden Powell went on to say: some are inclined to insist that their scout should be first rate before they get a badge. That is very right in theory. You get a few boys pretty proficient in this way, but our object is to get all the boys interested At the same time. we do not recommend the other extreme, namely that of almost giving away the badges on a very slight knowledge of the subjects. It is a matter where examiners should use their sense and discretion, keeping the main aim in view. And then let's take a look at the most current Scoutmasters Handbook when it talks about this step in advancement, and it says this: a scout wanting to complete an advancement requirement must demonstrate to his leader that he is fully mastered a skill at the level expected. He might be tested by adult troop leaders or by their own patrol leaders, troop guides or another junior leader, provided the boy leader has already earned the rank the scout is aiming for. Completing a requirement is often more a check off process than a formal examination. It's easy to tell, for instance, when a scout has taken part in a required number of troop and patrol activities, when he successfully spent a night camping out and a tent he has pitched him, or whether he can swim a certain distance. And then our third resource that I want to bring in here is from the Guide to Advancement 2011.. And for all of you who love the numbers, it's section 2.0.0.3 and it's titled: personal growth is the prime consideration, And it says this: scouting skills- what a young person learns to do- are important, but not as important as the growth achieved through participating in a program. The concern is for total, well rounded development. We know we are on the right track when we see youth accepting responsibility, demonstrating self-reliance and caring for themselves and others, When they learn to weave scouting ideals into their lives, and when we can see they will be positive contributors to our American society. As they do this, we must recognize each person's unique combination of strengths and weaknesses. As watchful leaders, either adult or youth, we lend assistance as called for and encourage members to help each other according to their ability. So that's an awful lot of talking there, But I think those are three prime references in considering how scouts are tested. Now, what do your scouts think of when they hear the word test? I know what I think of. You know, I see a piece of paper on my desk in school and that piece of paper is a test, and a test is something that you pass or fail. It's not likely that you're going to get a second chance at it or you're going to get much credit for the effort that you extend on it. You either pass or you fail. There's no almost passing or almost failing. That's the academic model of learning. but we test scout requirements much, much differently. We don't pass or fail in the academic sense. The test is not the end. Scouts just keep doing it until they complete the challenge. An important thing for us to understand about this step along the advancement trail is that scouts are tested once. Once they have successfully met the challenge of the requirement and that has been signified by somebody signing it off in their book. that's it. The knowledge or skill that that requirement represents will certainly be challenged many times in the natural course of they're doing what scouts do, but they only have to pass this test once. When a scouts successfully completed it, it's signed and he's never going to be tested on that particular requirement again. In my 30 plus years of scouting I have yet to see anyone collude with a scout to certify a requirement that he's not actually completed. I've never seen that happen. I've had my doubts that the requirement was understood or evaluated correctly, but never that it was just out and out bypassed by a lie. In the rare instances where I find that someone may have misunderstood a requirement, we don't penalize the scout. The signature always stands Once he's been tested and the book is signed. that's it. What I will do on those rare occasions is I'll speak to whoever signed the requirement and help them better understand the responsibility involved and encourage them to become a better examiner, And scouting is designed that way. We trust the signature. If we don't trust individuals, you know, the atmosphere of mutual trust and respect we predicate all of scouting on begins to come into question. So just to bring this home, a scout is tested once. Now he can challenge a test many, many times, but once he has successfully passed that requirement and it signed, it's done. Now, if we go back to what the Scoutmaster handbook had to say, there are basically two types of tests. The first is what the Scoutmaster handbook calls this check off process. A lion's share of tests for requirements are really just a simple certification of what the scout has done, as a representation of what he's able to do. So he either did or did not attend a camping trip or swim a given number of yards or anyone of a dozen different things, And once he's completed those things they get signed off and he's done. The second is what the Scoutmaster handbook implies is a formal examination And I would call, I would define this as those instances where judgment is required on the part of whoever's certifying the requirement to determine whether the scout has completed it or not. So these kind of requirements require someone to make a judgment call And there's some important concepts to apply to these kind of judgment call requirements And these concepts I think were described pretty well by Baden Powell. He said the standard of proficiency is purposefully left undefined. When testing a requirement requires judgment when it's not just a simple polarity of yes, a scout did this or no, he did not. There's really no specific standard of proficiency. What we want to learn in evaluating these requirements is what the scout knows and what he's able to do based on the effort he's extended. The Scoutmaster handbook says that a scout has fully mastered a skill at the level expected And that level is different for every scout because we are recognizing each scout's unique combination of strengths and weaknesses. We're looking for total, well-rounded development. We know we're on the right track when we see them accepting responsibility, demonstrating self-reliance, caring for themselves and others, and that they learn to weave scouting's ideals into their lives. That's the kind of concept we need to apply to making these kind of judgment calls, And I think it's very important to understand whose judgment this gets to be. Now we've arrived at one of those things in scouting that causes a lot of contention: Who gets to make a judgment about whether a scout has completed a requirement or not? I think it's important to invite the scout's own judgment into the question of evaluating this. So if a scout has come to me and said: I need to get, I need to be tested in this requirement, I need you to sign this off for me. I ask them to read me that requirement and then I ask them what they understand about that requirement. I go on to ask them if they think they've met it and to explain how they make that judgment. Sometimes I'll ask more questions that help them discover things that they may not have understood about it, And I do this to keep the main aim and view- Remember Peyton Powell talked about that. to keep the main aim and view, Can this scout exercise the kind of integrity to evaluate himself fairly. Is he weaving these concepts into his character? Is scouting enabling him to learn these important things in life? So this makes the scout himself responsible for evaluating himself. It's a guided discussion. We ask lots of questions, we go through it and we let them make the final determination whether or not they've completed that requirement. It kind of turns things a little bit on its head from what a lot of us are used to doing. I would encourage you to give it a shot, see how well it works. I really depend on it. I think inviting the scout's judgment into the question is a very important thing for us to do. The other aspect of these kind of judgment calls are two extremes that Peyton Powell described. One is almost giving badges away on a very slight knowledge of the subjects. The other is to insist that our scouts should be very first rate before they can get a requirement. Between those two extremes, Peyton Powell describes kind of a middle path, a right way, and he says examiners using their sense and discretion, keeping the main aim in view. Now, the main aim is put succinctly in the Guide to Advancement. I'm going to repeat it for a third time. We know we're on the right track when we see youth accepting responsibility, demonstrating self-reliance, caring for themselves and others, and when they learn to weave scouting ideals into their lives, and when we see that they will be positive contributors to American society And that's really everything right there. That is what we want to be looking for. That is the aim that we want to keep in view when we're going through this testing part of advancement. Finally, we need to understand that none of us individually owns advancement. We don't own the awards. I've never personally sat down and embroidered a Marriott badge patch for presentation. I've never personally sat down and written out all the requirements for a Marriott badge. We don't add or subtract from the requirements. It's not our responsibility to protect them from the unworthy. What our responsibility is is to keep the main aim in view. If we go back over the history of scouting, if we go back and we start in 1910, if we go back to the earliest years of scouting, we're going to find adults getting frustrated with the quality of scout skills. It comes up again and again. It's nothing new. Getting frustrated is a pretty good indication that we may be missing the whole point of what we're doing, or the main aim, If a scout can't tie a square knot weeks or months after he was tested and approved as having attained that skill. some of us are going to see it as a deficiency in instruction or a laxity of standards and really the impending end of any kind of integrity in scouting at all. If our main aim was producing boys who could tie square knots on demand, I'd be worried about that. Thankfully that's not our main aim. Obviously we want the best for our scouts. We really want them to learn things In some measure. their performance is also a reflection of our own work, right? So it's possible that a tinge of selfishness clouds our judgment when we get defensive and we try to protect advancement by insisting that scouts be first rate. As Baden Powell said, this is all very right in theory, in theory. So if we get misdirected by this idea that high proficiency in scout skills are our aim, that's very right in theory. But what it does is it leads to some very negative things happening. We start to crack down on the slackers and tighten things up and we get pretty intense about making darn sure that we aren't giving any requirements away And we get this kind of golem-like preoccupation with the precious, this state of rigorous perfection, and that diminishes the joy of scouting for us and for our scouts, and it's just plain frustrating. If we think about what Baden Powell said and we dedicate ourselves to keeping the main aim in view, we learn that this kind of dogged pursuit of perfection is having really an absolutely opposite effect of what we'd hoped it would produce, and that is happy skilled scouts. Okay, What we end up doing is producing, perhaps, scouts who can tie square knots on demand, but they are deriving from the program what the program is aimed at. F Darnell Daly Jr is the Advancement Chair for Area 6 of the Northeast Region and he wrote something that has been circulating around for quite a while now and many of you may be familiar with it, and it's a. it's a little writing called Guardians at the Gate and I want to read a little bit of it to close out this installment. He says: some of you appear to be standing guard at the gate. like good guards, you are not letting anyone pass who does not have the correct password. When someone appears at the gate who does not have the correct password, you send them away. The treasure that you believe you are guarding is the sacred advancement requirements. You believe that you must guard the gate to make sure that no boy advances who has not only met the requirements but who has met the requirements 110 percent. Your watchword is: we've gotten soft on Boy Scout Advancement. The problem is that you've got your orders wrong. you're guarding the wrong side of the gate. The treasure is not behind the gate but in front of it. The treasure is the character of the boys in our care. Your duty is not to prevent boys from passing through but to make sure as many boys as possible do pass through. I'll have a link in the post that contains this podcast to that complete quote. It creates a picture that I think really helps drive this home. So a scout is tested. a scout gets tested once. He can challenge a requirement as many times as necessary. Some requirements are certified through a simple check off process, Some require some judgment. If we invite the scouts personal judgment into the question, it will help both them and us. And finally, we don't want to follow either extreme of just giving stuff away or guarding the gate. We want that middle road where as many boys as possible do pass through that gate, And we do this by keeping the main aim in view. So in the next podcast we're going to talk about step number three in scout advancement, that is, a scout is reviewed. Love to have you get in touch, and you're going to find out how to do that in just a moment.