By Cindy
Hello.
I realized that I neglected to properly prepare you as the webleos
parents for troop 498's interpretation of "boy led"...
I realize after seeing 3 years of boy scout involvement with my older son Randy
that there are many different interpretations of "boy-led" and many
different personalities of the different troops. So, this is
something you should keep in mind when you 'shop ' for a boy scout
troop.
I definitely did not prepare you troop for 498. This is a troop who is on
one side of the 'boy led" interpretation. Randy
picked this troop from 3-4 that he visited . For him, the fact that the
meetings were led by boys with little visible lecturing by the scoutmasters...convinced
him this was the troop for him. He was tired of cub scouts and
elementary school and ready to "grow up"... :-) So, when
he saw the meeting being led by a senior patrol leader and events being
organized by boys... he jumped in....
I would say this was one of the better decisions he has made in his life...for
his personality, this was great... It has inspired him to do things that
he would never think of doing if he only saw the adult way of doing it.
But by seeing boys just a few years older than him, doing things that seemed so
adult-like....he feels it's within his reach... and he tries and
learns....
From a parent and adult perspective, one has to grow accustomed to this type
of troop's personality... Every back packing trip has a new scout
trying to earn "navigation skills" for his tenderfoot rank.
The older boys, sit back and allow him to try...they let him flounder and flub
up and miles later, learn to recover with their help and continue on...
Every camping trip has a new "cook", every year there are new patrol
leaders that have never led before, every court of honor is run by a new MC.
Every position is being held by someone who doesn't really know what he'
doing but is giving it a shot anyway.... and they fumble and
stumble and learn to laugh at themselves and each other... and together they
grow.
As an adult, it can be sometimes painful to watch and almost always
frustrating...since nothing goes smoothly! nothing! But
after being in the troop for 3 years, I've seen Randy's confidence grow with
his skills. I've seen his humility mature with his growing
abilities. And i've seen sympathy and helpfulness (and yes,) leadership
grow side by side within him. And now, as I sit on the
board of review of the troop and listen to the high school aged scouts explain
what they are doing to get themselves to eagle scout rank, I have to smile at
the confidence and knowledge and planning ability that grew along with the
inches they gained since they entered the troop in 5th or 6th grade. I also
see, that although they are a FAR way from being young men , that they have in
their experience the knowledge that failing at first is no reason to be
discouraged, that in fact it is a natural part of learning and
growing. They all know that they can get to the next goal, because
they've done it.
So, I apologize because I failed to warn you, that the meetings rarely start on
time, the scouts are rarely fully prepared and are usually doing their best to
improvise through the activity that they had planned, calling upon each other
to collaborate on how they are actually going to proceed without full
requisites in place!
I hope this explains why I comfortably stood at the meeting while the scouts
scrounged around for firewood that someone forgot to tell someone else to
bring... and why I patiently waited for enough to come together so they
could show our webelos how to build a structure that would turn into a fire and
to finally to see how cool it is to stand or sit around and just watch the
flames....
If you have any questions or want to discuss boy scouts, please don't hesitate
to email or call me. There are many other ways to go about teaching
and learning. And this is actually you and your webelo's
mission...to find the troop that will help grow the particular boy that is
yours and what environment will be welcoming for him to grow and learn.
On Feb 5, the council is holding a "boy scout troop fair" where the
different troops will come together at a given location and webelos are invited
to walk around and see what the different troops are
about. I'll send a reminder as it gets closer, but when
you "shop" think about what would be best for your boys'
personality... boy scouts can be a great place for boys to gain
skill s that they cannot get at school or any other place, so i encourage you
to attend, and encourage your scout to continue along to the next part of
scouting...when the real fun begins (as Randy says)
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