The Benefits of Benign Neglect

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. 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. That the most fundamental ideas of Scouting has been adopted to vastly different cultures and locales witnesses its universality and genius.

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 to do the work demanded of them; Neglect the imposition of regimentation and rules – but encourage Scouts to discover the necessity of both. Be indifferent to achievement and advancement – but foster the challenges that create them.

Forget that you have answers to their questions – let 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.

Overlook the opportunity to criticize and heap on the encouragement. We must maintain a safe, secure environment for all this to work. We must guard against both excess and inaction. We must maintain focus. But other than this our Scouts benefit from a wide latitude to find their own answers, set their own standards and live their own lives.