Singing for forgotten items

[packsaddle]

I imagine the good folks of this forum could express varied opinions on that.

[ozemu]

Welcome e-scouter,

 

you wrote a well thought out post. May I quote parts in our newsletter?

 

 

[Eagledad]

Happy Scouting All

 

>>A few sessions with one or more older scouts who take several minutes to emphasize the importance of miding ones own belongings and request the scout do better in the future will do more than years of an adult doing the same.

[WWBPD]

Make it a rule that people should sing when they find an item...that way it will find its way back to owner much faster. FALALALALALALALA!!!!

[packsaddle]

WWBPD, It's the little things that just nag away at me. Ok, some big ones too. But I can't figure out what song that referred to, "FALALALALALALALA!!!!"

It doesn't have enough "LAs" for 'Deck the Halls' but two "LAs" too many for 'The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring'. Help me out here.

[WWBPD]

sorry packsaddle - I only have eight fingers - I am looking forward to Christmas though

[e-scouter]

ozemu: Thanks. It's a public post, so do with it as you wish.

 

Eagledad: Thanks also. We all do have a surprising amount of influence over our scouts, but few scouters seem to realize that the lighter (and more invisible) our touch, the greater that influence will be.

 

We can not force, but we can lead and even better, we can lead the leaders.

 

Agreed - the troops with older scouts who resent being babysitters probably are being used as assistant bab

[cliffgolden]

 

Thankfully my troop never made Scouts sing for lost items and as long as I'm Scoutmaster it never will. I don't see anything positive in doing so. There's plenty of other things we can do for fun that's not done at anyone's expense.

 

If an item is lost, we return to the person who lost it. It's just something Scouts do. That's a very long standing tradition in Scouting.

 

When William D. Boyce became lost in a London fog, that unknown Scout didn't make him sing to be rescued. He did a good deed without reward, and the rest is history. I think that's how anything lost should be treated.

 

As for the Order of the Arrow Ordeal, it is an honor to be elected by your peers to become a candidate, and the Ordeal is a test or challenge that is intended to instill within a Scout the ideals of the Order of the Arrow. Each of the tests symbolize something, and that is all revealed to the candidates through ceremony.

 

Each candidate makes a conscious decision whether or not they wish to attend a fellowship and participate in the Ordeal weekend.

 

I think there is a difference between having challenging activities existing in Scouting and having hazing imposed upon people. One is meant to uplift and strengthen a Scout, while the other is meant to demean a person for someone else's amusement. Of course those things exist in varying degrees.

 

Singing is something you should enjoy around a campfire or dining hall with others, by a choice you have made. It shouldn't be a condition imposed for acquiring your own lost property.

 

If I lose my property I will not sing for it's return. If you have it and fail to return it to me, you may find yourself explaining/singing to the proper authorities.

 

Singing for lost items has no place in Scouting.

 

YIS,

Cliff Golden

Scoutmaster Troop 33

DeKalb, Illinois

[ozemu]

My Regional Commissioner wrote a nice letter back agreeing that begging for lost gear was wrong. He has informed all sections in the region of this and has taken the matter to state level.

 

Thanks for the discussion to which I refered in my letter to my RC.

 

The article I wrote (also containing links to this thread) was not published as he dealt with the matter definitively wheras my article was an appeal to my peer Scouters to cease the practice.

 

Chalk one more up for international cooperation (philosophically and practically).