David CO

Not at scouting activities.

Ooh. A Hawaiian themed event. I could go for that!

BSA is a business. Its sole purpose is to make money. We should not be surprised when they behave this way.

I won't.

Thanks. In today's crazy world, it can be hard to discern reality from sarcasm. I wouldn't be at all surprised if, in a few short years, BSA has its own brand of cannabis products, grown at scout camps and sold door to door by scouts. Christmas tree sales, however, will be banned since they promote a religious holiday and might be deemed offensive by some scouts.

And part of The Who recommendations since 1969. So what? Neither group shares our moral values. Apparently, neither does BSA, anymore.

BSA decided a long time ago that Chartered Organizations should all pay a fee toward one large insurance policy, bought and managed by BSA, to cover these liability risks. I didn't agree with the decision at the time. I thought each individual CO should have its own insurance. The CO owns the unit. But since BSA did force the issue, and made the CO's pay for this insurance, it only makes sense that BSA and its insurance carriers should now have the financial responsibility for these lawsuits. Even if it means bankruptcy. The moral responsibility is another matter.

Since I am always standing up for the Chartered Organizations, and saying that the Chartered Organization owns the unit, I would be a little bit hypocritical if I did not take the position that the Chartered Organizations should bear some of the moral responsibility for the abuses that have taken place in scouting. The CO's should have done a better job supervising their unit leaders.

I don't think so. I can't see why any financially struggling scout or scout unit should feel a sense of pride in BSA's ownership of the Summit, or of any other ultra expensive facility that the average person could never afford to use. I'm glad that you enjoyed the trip, but you should not expect "all in the BSA" to share in your enthusiasm for the Summit.

This was predictable. One only needs to look at the Summit to see where all the money is going. A hundred local scout camps will be sold off to help pay for it.

Would they have honored a request to not distribute birth control devices to our scouts. I doubt it.

He got off way too easy.

Well, that's the problem. I am observing hormones... and the physical result of hormones. They need to cover up.

My female students certainly aren't more prudish than in past generations. Each year, they push the boundaries more and more. If teachers call them on it, we are accused of body shaming. It's not just the girls saying this stuff. It's the mothers, too. The boys, however, are being expected to exercise more modesty. It seems like a complete role reversal from what we grew up with.

It didn't change all at once. Each local Y.M.C.A. made its own decision. Some Y.M.C.A.'s continued it into the late 60's and early 70's. It usually coincided with the change to include women and girls. It doesn't surprise me that your Y.M.C.A. had already changed its policy by the mid 70's. What I find surprising is that they had changed their attitudes so abruptly that, just 10 years later, a boy like yourself would have been completely unaware of the fact that it was once a commonly accepted practice. They simply erased it from their history. I think it is a little bit frightening that authorities have that kind of power. They can not only change commonly accepted attitudes and practices with surprising speed and efficiency, but they can also erase any mention of them from the official history of the organization. After just one decade had passed, it was gone, like it never happened. Poof.

Yep. Things change. It's not like I am advocating that we reinstate nude swimming at the YMCA, schools, or boy scout camps. I understand that this is a practice whose time has passed. We don't do that anymore. I can live with that. What bothers me is that the "powers that be" have sought to completely erase it from history. They want to pretend that it never happened. Apparently, you didn't know that it was once a very common practice. There are a lot of things like this. My childhood experiences are slowly being expunged from history. It's bad enough to be told that I am obsolete. It's upsetting that young people think my life was so objectionable that it needs to be completely erased. I suspect that someday, perhaps very soon, you will be able to look up the history of scouting and not see or hear any mention of the fact that BSA was once an boys-only group. Click, delete, and never mentioned again.

I guess it all depends on when and where you grow up. When I was a kid, we still had nude swimming at the YMCA. Didn't seem strange to me at the time, since it had always been done that way.

Quality Work As Zero Salaried Employee

I am a Health teacher. I don't use mood altering drugs.

There it is. Empowered. Along with "bullying", the words "empowered" and "empowerment" are perhaps the most overused and annoying words used by social activist types over the past decade.

So do I. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense that the SPL would offer the position to someone he doesn't hold in high regard. It also doesn't make sense that the ASPL would accept a position of responsibility which would require him to work closely with a SPL who treats him badly. At this point, it is obvious that the two boys can no longer work together as SPL and ASPL.

Yeah. This is a relatively new meaning that has been applied to the word "bullying". We never considered social exclusion to be a form of bullying. We felt that people had a right to be friends with, or not be friends with, whoever they pleased. If you don't like someone, just leave them alone. Today it is called bullying. I don't get it.

I agree. I think we should try to avoid labeling a behavior as "bullying". It is far better to identify the actual behavior.

I would suggest that you stop talking about it as if your intention is for this to be only the first step on a long series of appeals.

True. But I have never seen kids quite so eager to get into my classroom as they are to get out.