Understanding Scouts

I’ve seen lot’s of promotional videos – this one is the best by a mile.

If we want to end bullying we need to understand it. Author Steve Almond found the boy that bullied him in eighth grade and asked him why. Their conversation helped me appreciate the complexity of bullying from the unusual point of view; that of the bully; Sean Lynden (the bully): ” One other thing I should mention, there are different kinds of bullying and harassment at every different age. But you would not be the first person to accuse me of verbal or mental bullying....

The penny drops, the light comes on, eureka!, discovery, enlightenment, revelation. If we watch carefully Scout leaders sometimes get to witness a marvelous happening; when some part of the world opens up for one of our Scouts. Have you seen this happen? Sometimes it is the sudden realization that they can do something they didn’t think they could. Aha! I got it! Maybe it’s meeting a challenge that they were unsure about but conquered anyway....

In a partnership with Discovery Channel UK the Scouts association published this list of 14 things for young people to do before they are 14: 1. Navigate using a map 2. Climb a tree 3. Make and fly a kite 4. Cook a meal 5. Repair a bike 6. Camp outdoors with your friends 7. Build a den (survival hut?) 8. Put up a tent 9. Ride a sledge (sled)...

Anne-Marie Slaughter is the mother of two adolescent kids and a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. She’s concerned that we may be killing the skills required for innovation by over-programming our children: … The jam packed, highly structured days of elite children are carefully calculated to create Ivy League-worthy resumes. They reinforce habits of discipline and conformity, programming remarkably well-rounded and often superb young people who can play near concert-quality violin, speak two languages, volunteer in their communities and get straight A’s....

Seth Godin is a muti-talented entrepreneur, thinker and author. Here’s my edit of his thoughts on three ways to help people (or Scouts) realize their potential: … 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....

Earnest Thompson-Seton first published ‘The Birch Bark Roll’ in 1902. His work in establishing the pre-BSA organization, The Woodcraft Indians, was ultimately woven together with the ideas of Baden Powell and Daniel Carter Beard to form the program of the BSA. More than a century later Seton’s ideas remain relevant to our work as Scouters. Studying his foundational concepts help us maintain focus on heart of our work: Two other important ideas underlie the scheme....

Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. has more than thirty years of teaching experience from the primary through the doctoral level. He has authored many books related to learning and human development. His writing on the natural genius of children is an excellent endorsement of Scouting; Essentially, the real meaning of genius is to “give birth to the joy” that is within each child. Every child is born with that capacity. Each child comes into life with wonder, curiosity, awe, spontaneity, vitality, flexibility, and many other characteristics of a joyous being… These youthful traits are highly valued from an evolutionary perspective: the more species evolve, the more they carry youthful traits into adulthood (a process called “neotony” or “holding youth”)....

Teaching is listening, learning is talking. This wonderful rule of thumb, from the educator and writer, Deborah Meier, reminds us that real learning comes, in large part, from being actively involved in the educational moment. Experiential educators have long known this and frequently advocate for teaching that involves the learner and does not, as Paulo Freire famously described, treat students as empty “banks” in which to deposit information… One of the most respected scientific journals, Science, recently (and without much media attention), published a study that, in its simplicity, is astounding in terms of its significance....

This article from the New York Times reports that children with ADHD benefited from short walks in natural settings. I wonder if there are even greater benefits to a weekend in the woods? A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child’s concentration skills. The researchers evaluated 17 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who all took part in three 20-minute walks in a park, a residential neighborhood and a downtown area....

IT IS, IN FACT, NOTHING short of a miracle that the modern methods of education have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty....

Gather wood, prepare tinder, kindling and fuel. Strike a match (maybe two) and we make fire. Preparing, building, lighting and maintaining a fire involves interdependent skills, knowledge and actions that constitute a process. Comprehending and executing a process requires process intelligence. Process intelligence is a combination of experience, vision, persistence and inspiration; all fundamental leadership skills. Experience – Confidence when covering familiar ground or in inventing solutions when in unknown waters....

From an emotion development article at Edutopia: Social and emotional learning can help students successfully resolve conflict, communicate clearly, solve problems, and much more. Whether it’s in the boardroom or the classroom, individuals need the skills to communicate, work in teams, and let go of the personal and family issues that get in the way of working and learning. Such skills add up to what is known as emotional intelligence, and they are even more important as educators realize that these skills are critical to academic achievement....

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 of activities. 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. The proof of Scouting’s universality and genius is it has been adopted in vastly different cultures and locales over more than a century....

Angst, German for fear or anxiety, is used In English when we speak of intense emotional strife. Wikipedia says; ‘The word Angst has existed since the 8th century, coming from the base-Indoeuropean *anghu-, “restraint” from which Old High German angust develops. It is pre-cognate with the Latin angustia, “tensity, tightness” and angor, “choking, clogging”; compare to the Greek “άγχος” (ankhos): stress.’ Our Scouts come to us just as they enter the age of intense personal change and discovery we call adolescence....

Amanda Baggs is an autistic adult who has very eloquently opened the door to her life at Ballstexistenz writes; When I was very young, I didn’€™t perceive the world the same way other people do, but I did not have a terror of people. My terror of people emerged as bullying got worse and worse. The thing I most learned from school was to fear people and to think of myself as stupid and worthless....

The skill team approach lends itself to the dual goals of instructing Scouts and training instructors. As an example here is an application of the method in familiarizing Scouts with ten native plants for the First Class requirement #6: First gather and identify ten plant samples (leaves, flowers, seeds, etc). Select a group of Scouts (in this example they are First Class or above) to serve as instructors. Each instructor learns one, two or three of the samples according to the number of instructors and samples....

Measuring tapes are an essential tool for a carpenter; eight feet will always be ninety six inches. But measuring tapes are not indispensable and sometimes cause more problems than they solve. An experienced carpenter will tell you that they would prefer making a cut by holding a board in the place it belongs and marking it rather than transferring measurements from a tape as it is more likely to achieve a better fit....

Dave Wortendyke, ASM of Troop 78 in Boulder, Colorado – Longs Peak Council — has to say about the value of “Thorns and Roses,” and how to do it… (from Ask Andy ) “While many Scout Troops/Venture Groups either attend National High Adventure Bases, or conduct their own long-term adventures, and almost all Scouts have a fantastic time on the trips, once in a while a dark cloud can occur to spoil the trip for one or more of the participants....