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When I served as a camp director I got some complaints about our dining hall steward’s attitude towards Scouts setting or clearing the tables.
Scouts rotate the responsibility of serving as a waiter at our camp. They go early to set the table, serve the food during the meal and clear up afterwords. At any given meal there are Scouts who are new to the experience and they make mistakes. My dining hall steward was growing increasingly frustrated with their inexperience and yelled at them making them even more jumpy.
I listened to his complaints and told him that these were not marines taking a beach but boys carrying plates. There would be few times yelling was justified. I asked him to keep his voice down and try to help the waiters instead of barking at them.
Scoutmasters have to remind themselves that their Scouts are experiencing things for the first time. Scouts want to do well, they want to be well thought of by those in authority. But sometimes they make mistakes, and even willfully disobey. When this happens we have the opportunity to be their older brother and look after them.
When they try our patience we need to remind ourselves in almost every case they are trying to make good rather than trying to make trouble.
I’m absolutely SURE… I’m sure. Good grief.
Ok, maybe I’m just absolutely. Who knows anymore?
LOL Larry! I read it with the “sure” in there without even realizing it wasn’t!
Great post Clarke! Pretty timely for me too.
As usual, I take a slightly different tack. Particularly with the dining hall staff. I warn my guys that the dining hall staff tend to be a little bit grumpy and that they will holler at you if you don’t keep things spic and span. They’ve got health inspectors, camp directors, Scout Executives, Scoutmasters, parents and all sorts of camp staff on their case all the time.
So the best way to keep them happy is to avoid being a normal, 12 year old boy in the dining hall and try and act like your mom! Keep stuff clean, clean up after yourself and help out other guys who forget. If the staff comes out of their food cave and holler at you, you’re on your own. I cleaned up my mess!
This is one of those cases where learning about the real world on your own can be instructive. There is a current of wild eyed craziness that runs through dining hall staffers. That’s appropriate. We are invading their space and they expect some respect. I’m absolutely there is a line where it can become real abuse, but I’ve never seen that. IMHO.