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Once in a while a young, energetic Scout leader bounds up on my front porch here and says: ‘I have a great new idea!’
The old Scouter grips his cane, stares over his bifocals and replies ‘There is nothing new – now get off my porch!’
They walk away muttering under their breath ‘ What a curmudgeonly, cane waving, old man!’
No one has actually called me that (at least not yet). But sometimes I do feel a bit like those old guys I ran into again and again when I was a 24 year-old Scoutmaster 27 years ago. At the time I swore I would never become one.
Now I understand what it’s like from both sides of the conversation.
When you run into this kind of response from an old Scouter it could mean a lot of things –
- They are resistant to change and innovation simply because it is change.
- They have already tried that particular idea and it failed.
- They know things that you don’t.
Some long serving Scouters get tired of explaining things, they just want you to accept and act on their wisdom unquestioningly. They become jaded and forget what it’s like to look at the things they know so well for the first time. In the worst case old Scouters may be suspicious of new ideas; they may resent or devalue them – they use their knowledge as a weapon and hoard resources like a dog in a manger.
If you are reading this chances are you are parent to a boy between the ages of 11 and 18. You share in the joy of their discoveries, the sharpness of their disappointments and probably attempt to explain why things are the way the way they are. You get frustrated when they don’t accept your advice or follow your directions. To them you are the curmudgeonly, cane waving old person.
The world at large and Scouting in particular needs both bounding, energetic game-changers and older folks with knowledge grounded in years of experience. There will always be some tension between the two. It is incumbent on the older folks to strike the balance, respond and not dismiss, to help realize the potential of new energy and enthusiasm.
I have great respect for the crotchety old Scouters who explain WHY that newfangled idea might not be as good as I think it is – who can describe the unintended consequences and who patiently share the stories of when they tried (and failed) at the same thing. I can learn from those kinds of discussions.
I have no respect for the “leaders” who are either unwilling or unable to explain why. If you can’t or don’t teach, then the new scouter learns nothing but resentment. You are in the way. It would be better to let the new scouter try and fail on his/her own than to try to impose your “wisdom” without the teaching.
Welcome to the club Clarke. Now let’s go get our canes and thwock some folks!! Right. Over. The. Head. 🙂
As Groucho said ‘If I could join the club I’d beat you over the head with it.”
This really hit home with me. I am teetering between being a new energetic leader // crotchety old dude, and what a fine line it can be. I have just recently registered as a den leader with my son’s pack in which he is a Tiger (rising Wolf). I am an Eagle Scout but haven’t been active since my youth days back in the early to mid 80’s. I find myself full of energy and enthusiasm and ready to “get my boots dirty” with tons of program ideas and plans in my head for next season. This past weekend we had our Spring District Camporee which was my son’s first, real multi-day camping experience(my only official capacity was as his Dad, I haven’t assumed my duties as Den Leader yet) so I was able to spectate a bit. It was held at the same council Boy Scout Camp I attended as a youth some 25-30 years ago. As excited as I was about the great program, the fun the boys and their families were having I also spent a portion of the time comparing “how it used to be”. I remembered where everything “used to be”, the “newfangled stuff we didn’t have(like showers and flush toilets at each campsite)” and how much more rustic the campsites were when I attended there for summer camp. I had a bit of self-evaluation and ended up keeping my mouth closed, I started imagining the Bill Cosby routine where he spoke about his father and his school days “We had to walk to school, 5 miles, in the snow, uphill. . .both ways!” and “I asked him for $.50 for the school picnic and he told me how he killed a Grizzly Bear with his loose leaf notebook”. So as fine a line as it can be I hope I don’t get too jaded one way or the other.
“They have already tried that particular idea and it failed.”
A favorite of our old SM…except the ‘idea’ is not always what failed, ‘it’ could be the Scouters execution of said idea…if that was true we would have never had an Apollo mission after 1 exploded.