Why Youth-Led Scouting Works

One troop is led by adults, one is led by the Scouts.

Recently I have come across a couple of instances of rule making that have rubbed me the wrong way.

Adolescence is an often difficult, unstable time and adolescents tend towards actions and attitudes that we find upsetting.

(Historic fiction inspired by comments on this post – have you ever had a call like this?) After a weekend camping trip a twelve year-old Scout throws his pack into the trunk and gets in the car.

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life.

If your perspective of developing leadership is limited to what you believe needs to happen rather than observing what is actually happening you’ll miss opportunities, Let’s imagine we’re sitting around a table with the patrol leader’s council before a troop meeting.

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.

Who are the most important volunteers in Scouting? They have more power and influence than Council Presidents, Commissioners, Scoutmasters and Cubmasters all put together.

Is Scouting really competing with sports, clubs and similar activities? Aren’t our goals somewhat similar to those of organized sports, preforming arts, debate, and the many other extra-curricular activities available to our Scouts? I’ve adopted the attitude that we cooperate with these other activities in offering our youth every advantage in learning something about the world and developing important skills.

Scout leader training tends to focus on the practical and, I fear, often misses the big picture.

… People can be pushed, but the minute you stop, they stop.

Andy the net commissioner asks “Are we really that smart?’ … before we start changing things around to suit ourselves, we’d better be asking ourselves, “Have we really come up with a better way of doing things, or have we just violated or depleted something that’s fundamental to why Scouting works in the first place?” In other words, are we really that smart, or have we merely found an easier (for us) way to do things? Are we really being sensitive to the emotional needs of youth, or are we merely being driven by some emotional need (or shortcoming) of our own? Do we really have the Chutzpah to think we can play fast and loose with a program and process that’s worked for a century, in more than a hundred countries, among tens of millions of youth? Andy is right on the mark.

Scouts are expected to engage actively in all aspects of good citizenship.

Scouting is outing but Scouting is not just an outing club or another activity.

Around a campfire one evening during our vespers observance I asked all the Scouts and leaders to bring a stick with them before they sat down.

There he is, waiting for our reply; how do we respond to a Scout who wants to quit? Not every boy is going to maintain an active interest in Scouts, it doesn’t automatically mean that anything is wrong with them, the program, or ourselves.

Green Bar Bill’s analogy of Scouting as a game get’s me thinking about what would happen if we altered other games the way we sometimes see Scouting misunderstood.

Frustrated with your youth leadership? Does it seem as though every effort to get them motivated falls short? Wish for ‘the good old days’ when ‘Scouting really meant something’ and boys were able to think for themselves? See if you don’t share some of the frustrations expressed by this Scoutmaster: We are continually being told that our Scouts want to run things, for themselves.

Effective Scouters are alert to possibility, to the challenge of the moment.

In the past I have been guilty of griping about Scouts who ‘don’t know their skills’ and troops that were ‘Eagle Factories’.

Frank Maynard’s blog Bobwhite Blather is a must-read resource written form the perspective of a troop committee chair.

When humans participate in ceremony, they enter a sacred space.

Use this image as your Facebook Cover: here’s how On my honor, I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight Be Prepared Do a good turn daily How do Scouts advance ? By doing the things that Scouts do .

Think for a moment about the way a Scout-aged-boy’s mind develops - He is becoming increasingly able to think abstractly.

Experience, maturity and skill are not prerequisites to leadership; they are the traits produced as we practice leadership.

CA Scouter comments: It would be interesting to hear your reflections on Scouts putting off Eagle til they’re 17.

Author David Dobbs’ article in the October 2011 edition of National Geographic Teenage Brains is a must read for Scout leaders.

“At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome.

Here’s the latest question posed by Scouting Magazine’s ‘What Would You Do ‘ column: Commanding Respect Our troop has just seven Scouts who are 14 or older, including me, and then 15 to 20 younger Scouts.

Canned programs for Scouts are attractive because they are easy.

Adolescence is serious work.

Some bemoan the lack of competition in Scouting and the tendency to make everyone a winner.

Imagine you are watching your favorite sporting event as the game begins and the players take the field.