Why Youth-Led Scouting Works on ScoutmasterCG Archive

The Troop Pivot Point

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

One troop is led by adults, one is led by the Scouts. What’s the difference? At the risk of oversimplifying the answer the difference is focus.

Troops run by adults are focused on results.

Troops run by Scouts are focused on process.

I accept that between the two extremes of fully adult and fully youth led there are many shades of grey but I think the basic conclusion of focus hold up.

Rules or Spirit

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I have come across a couple of instances of rule making that have rubbed me the wrong way. You know what I am talking about – long lists of dos and don’t s with associated penalties and even a place for a signature.

Basically a behavior contract.

Rules and contracts can stifle the spirit of Scouting. As soon as a contract is drawn or a rule is established a compelling reason will arise to make an exception because Scouts are individuals and have individual needs. We are not in the business of soldiering, Scouts are not our employees, we are all playing a game.

Second Chances

Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

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

Recent research points out that much of the chaos of adolescence is owing to a period physical brain development we are only now beginning to understand. One can draw the reasonable conclusion that people in their adolescence are not willfully refusing to act on more mature and reasoned thinking but that they are actually physically incapable of doing so at times.

Scouter's Sunday Phone Call

Sun, 23 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

(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. His parent asks, “So, what did you do this weekend? Did you get a lot of work done? Was it fun?” He rubs his eyes, “It was great, we cooked a lot and then we ate, and we played some games and walked around,” he yawns, “Mostly we cooked stuff and cleaned up and kind of sat around the fire.” The parent pauses, “Didn’t you do some advancement requirements?”

The Why Behind The How Part Two

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

Albert Einstein What is our measure of success as Scoutmasters? The metrics of attendance, advancement and the size of the roster may be indicative of success but are not the real aim of our work. If we make boosting the numbers our focus we miss the target. Are our Scouts working towards Einstein’s most important motive? Are they discovering and developing capabilities and interests that make them valuable members of the community?

Can You See What Scouts See?

Fri, 22 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

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.

There’s a lot of chatting and dithering around, you turn to the senior patrol leader, and he reigns the council in. They’ve decided that they’ll be brushing up on their orienteering skills, and the senior patrol leader looks at you expectantly. “Sounds good,” you remark, “are you guys ready, do you know what you’ll be doing?” They all nod their heads, and the Scouts are up and moving.

B.P.'s Blog - The Game of Scouting

Sun, 22 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters. Here’s a selection from his writings.

IN the Headquarters Report of one of our Oversea branches it is stated that a large percentage of decrease in numbers of Scouts occurs in about the third month of their service in the Movement, and Scoutmasters are warned to look into their method of handling Scouting to make sure that it meets the expectation of the lads.

The Most Important Volunteers in Scouting

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

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

Without their participation and support Scouting would quickly come to a complete halt. They bring endless energy, resources and real transformational power to their role. They are the only volunteers we simply cannot afford to lose. Have you guessed it yet? The single most important volunteers in Scouting are the Scouts themselves.

Cooperation rather than Competition

Mon, 02 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Scouting offers a lot but we really shouldn’t require a Scout to choose it above all the other things he is doing. If we make Scouting an either/or decision we’ll loose more than we gain.

The Big Picture in Scouting

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Scout leader training tends to focus on the practical and, I fear, often misses the big picture. Most of the questions and comments I receive are about action oriented, practical matters. More often than not problems arise because people have missed the big picture rather than their lack of knowledge of some procedural process. What is the big picture, the grand unified theory of Scouting?

I have been working on theories but I still haven’t arrived at a conclusion. One thing I can tell you that would resolve about 80% of the difficulties that reach me for advice: Scouting is an age-appropriate continuum of development, not a list of achievements to accomplish as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Are We Really That Smart?

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Three Alternatives for Helping Scouts

Sat, 18 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

… People can be pushed, but the minute you stop, they stop. If the habit you’ve taught is to achieve in order to avoid getting chewed out, once the chewing out stops, so does the achievement. A second way to manage people is to create competition. Pit people against one another and many of them will respond… Want to see little league players raise their game? Just let them know the playoffs are in two weeks and they’re one game out of contention.

Scouts , Citizenship and Politics

Sat, 11 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

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

Citizenship and politics are inextricably linked together. What, then can Scouter’s do to minimize the divisiveness of politics while still modeling citizenship for their Scouts?

Scoutmasters should guard against expressing their own partisan views while encouraging active, informed citizenship. For those of us who are politically active this can be an especially fine line. In the coming year we have the opportunity to quell some of the inevitable divisiveness that accompanies a hotly contested presidential election. When Scouts ask “who are you voting for?” or question your opinion on some political controversy I answer that my personal opinion is simply not relevant in my role as a Scoutmaster. It is my job to get them to examine all sides of an issue and to think for themselves. Our political process is inherently confrontational because individual freedom allows for a wide spectrum of opinion. It is likely that the members of a Scout troop will have differences of opinion that reflect the wider society. But the strongest citizenship lesson in Scouting is that people of differing political opinions can share common ethics.

Scouting is Not (just) Outing.

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

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

Scouting is aimed at “preparing young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law”. We do this by applying the methods of Scouting .

Frankly all this would be a whole lot easier if we were just an outing club.

Adults can plan an outing and make the reservations in a half an hour – peice of cake. We can lead, instruct and do pretty darn good at it.

Lessons from Sticks

Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

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. Once they were seated we gathered all the sticks into a bundle.

I held them as I stood before the fire. None of the sticks tried to jump out of the bundle, none of the other sticks tried to shove the others away, they all joined together without complaining. When there’s a job to be done we need to get at it without complaining. When we are together as Troop or Patrol everyone is important – no one is excluded.

How Should We Respond to a Scout Who Wants to Quit?

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

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.

I expect that every Scout will have a tough time once in a while, because I have tough times myself. If a Scout says they want to quit imagine what you would like to hear if you were in their place. Few boys are going to approach an adult with something like this without having been told they have to, or without having agonized over it for some time. They are probably a little scared, and troubled by having to do this.

Let Them Live Their Own Lives

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

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. For example: Basketball is OK, but why all that dribbling stuff?

Letting players carry the ball would be so much easier! And hey, do we really need the baskets to be that high? We’d score a lot more goals in soccer (and it would be a lot more fun to watch!) if the opposing team tackled the goalie and held them down!

... the more things remain the same.

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

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. Is this really so? Am I the only Scoutmaster that has come out of a patrol leader’s council exhausted and apoplectic? Give my boys their head in camp and the Seniors will make one mad rush for the nearest girl, while the youngsters will (a) settle down with a comic, (b) moan they have nothing to do, (c) take a bus into the nearest town (even if it is just round the corner) and have an entertaining time wandering round Woolworths.

Effective Scouters don't let Competence Obscure Possibility

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Effective Scouters are alert to possibility, to the challenge of the moment. If we aren’t watchful, though, those transient moments of possibility become obscured by our preoccupation with competence.

There’s no inherent virtue in being an experienced Scouter, after all if you stick with something long enough you become experienced.

Hopefully experience leads to competence, but competence shouldn’t obscure possibility; As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, more able to do our thing. And it’s easy to fall in love with that competence, to appreciate it and protect it. The pitfall? We close ourselves off from possibility.

Standards

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In the past I have been guilty of griping about Scouts who ‘don’t know their skills’ and troops that were ‘Eagle Factories’. This put me on a mission to fix whatever I saw as wrong, to tighten things up and be darn sure that my Scouts earned their way.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I spent a few years discouraging Scouts by throwing every possible impediment in their path.

Top-Down Organizations

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Frank Maynard’s blog Bobwhite Blather is a must-read resource written form the perspective of a troop committee chair. Here’s his take on top-down organizations: The problems with a top-down organization are that its leaders never get the real picture because people tell them what they want to hear. They don’t get the benefit of the wisdom and initiative of the group.

Followers in top-down organizations are slaves to the hierarchy of the system; they don’t have the freedom they need to find their own way toward the understood goals. If our troops become hierarchical, top-down organizations we’ve missed the whole point of the Scouting idea. Our initiative does not come from the top of the pyramid on an organizational chart but from the base, the Scouts. via Final thoughts on improving leadership skills | Bobwhite Blather .

Scouting Ceremonies

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

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

Everything outside of that space shrivels in importance. Time takes on a different dimension. - Sun Bear Every ceremony or rite has a value if it is performed without alteration. A ceremony is a book in which a great deal is written.

Anyone who understands can read it. One rite often contains more than a hundred books. - George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff Scouting ceremonies for the presentation of awards, raising or lowering of the flag, opening or closing a meeting are “a book in which a great deal is written”.

Scouting is a Verb

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

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 .

Scouts go, camping , hiking , exploring , discovering … they build fires, cook, and eat … they plan , develop , and present… they instruct , lead, and create … they sing , speak and yell… they run, play and shout… they learn, develop, and grow Scouts are happy when they are doing something.

What's Happening Now?

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Think for a moment about the way a Scout-aged-boy’s mind develops - He is becoming increasingly able to think abstractly. He may be sharply self-conscious thinking that he is constantly being watched and judged by others; believing no one can relate to his personal experiences. He is beginning to think systematically about morality, friendship, faith, democracy, fairness, and honesty. He is beginning to understand how the thoughts or actions of one person can influence others. He is more likely to question and less likely to accept facts as absolute truths. He understands the difference between rules of common sense—not touching a hot stove—and those that are based on relative standards. His capacity for insight and judgment developed through experience increases. He does assess risk but tends to give more weight to potential rewards than to potential negative consequences. One of his most important aspirations is winning the approval of peers and social acceptance. He is better able to think about the future and to consider multiple possibilities at once. He may make abrupt changes as he chooses or rejects different qualities and behaviors before committing to them. He is concerned with establishing and asserting his independence and defining his relation to authority. He is experiencing rapid changes in his role within his family and challenging his parent’s authority. Is he cognizant of these things? Not really – he ‘s just right there in the moment likely looking for the next meal or snack or place to nap.

Unqualified, Unskilled, Immature: Perfect!

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Experience, maturity and skill are not prerequisites to leadership; they are the traits produced as we practice leadership. We often get email or comments from Scoutmasters with a troop of young Scouts wondering how they can be anything like boy led. They look around a bunch of 11-year-old boys and don’t see anyone who measures up to their preconceived notion of a leader so the adults take over the leadership and may never let it go. A lot of Scouting goes off the rails when adults think that they are the only ones with the maturity and experience to lead. To prevent this from happening I challenge you to get rid of all preconceived qualifications for youth leaders.

Last Minute Eagles

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

CA Scouter comments: It would be interesting to hear your reflections on Scouts putting off Eagle til they’re 17.5 years old and then trying to get their project and missing merit badges done in the small amount of time left. … in a perfect world, the SM has been counseling boys not to let it get to this point, but as you say, Scout aged boys do a lot of things they shouldn’t. Any reflections on this particular situation would be of value.

Teenage Brains Article in National Geographic

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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

Within the past decade brain scan studies established that the process of brain development lasted far longer than previously thought.

Initially this led many to believe that this newly discovered period of physical development classified teens as having incomplete processes of thinking that accounted for much of their often inexplicable behavior. More recent study has postulated that teens aren’t just the victims of an underdeveloped brain; that the adolescent experience is a necessary, evolutionary period of development crucial to making us who we are in adulthood. Over the past five years or so, even as the work-in-progress story spread into our culture, the discipline of adolescent brain studies learned to do some more-complex thinking of its own. A few researchers began to view recent brain and genetic findings in a brighter, more flattering light, one distinctly colored by evolutionary theory. The resulting account of the adolescent brain—call it the adaptive-adolescent story—casts the teen less as a rough draft than as an exquisitely sensitive, highly adaptable creature wired almost perfectly for the job of moving from the safety of home into the complicated world outside. This view will likely sit better with teens. More important, it sits better with biology’s most fundamental principle, that of natural selection.

The Nature of the Game

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“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.”

Avedon and Smith Play and games are valued as vital contributors to our development as humans.

Children at play are not simply whiling away the hours until they can find some more useful way to occupy their time. Play is serious work that helps us all learn how the society is organized and our role within it.

What Would You Do? - Commanding Respect

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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. On camp-outs, the younger Scouts don’t listen to us, and they give us attitude when we ask them to do something. We have tried many things, but nothing seems to work.

Could you give us some ideas?

Program - Canned or Fresh?

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Canned programs for Scouts are attractive because they are easy. They are also poor excuses for a Scout activity.

Canned experiences require little preparation, skill development or leadership. In our part of the world there are whitewater rafting trips, ski weekends, museum lock-ins and similar activities that only require Scouts show up and be led by the hand through an activity or presentation.

Scoutmasters should be adamant that activities are aimed at fulfilling the promises of Scouting and not simply entertainment.

Coaches and Players

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine you are watching your favorite sporting event as the game begins and the players take the field. Each team makes a few mistakes and each team makes a few good plays and eventually one team takes the lead. No matter what happens, though, coaches can’t leave the sidelines and begin playing. Only the players take the field and the coaches must stay on the sidelines.

A Scout Troop is much like an athletic team. We have players, (the scouts); coaches, (the adult leaders); we wear uniforms, we learn skills and rules, (the Scout Oath and Law, campcraft, etc.); and meet challenges, (a troop meeting, a campout, etc.).

Competition

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Some bemoan the lack of competition in Scouting and the tendency to make everyone a winner. When did a major component of Scouting is competing with other scouts and that there should be clear winners and losers? Boys are naturally competitive, they like to win they hate to lose.

Competing is not a bad thing in itself but misapplied competition can be corrosive.

Winning is not always good, losing is not always bad.

The Work of Adolescence

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Adolescence is serious work. The quality of the product is proportional to the value we place on it.

This stage of life requires that we question the legitimacy of the adult world we stand to inherit. A person of integrity cannot simply accept values and practices without qualification; they must be examined and tested. In this search for answers we rebel, we test boundaries, we reinvent the wheel. If the adults in our lives react defensively we sense a weakness to be exploited. If they react with understanding, consistency and Patience some of the chaos is quieted.