Done it before?

[AdvanceOn]

Sctmom made this statement in another thread --

 

"A lot of things for the first year in Boy Scouts are a repeat of Webelos skills, but as I told my son "Done it before? Great, you should have no problem showing your skill once again. And it gives you some extra practice"

 

I decided to pull it out of the other thread so as not to change that subject too much.

 

I like your style sctmom. I wish more of our parents had that attitude. That's exactly what I tell my sons and any parent or scout when they ask that question.

 

I get SO tired of parents (more than the boys, actually) trying to get the scout out of doing something because they've done it before. One thing that keeps coming up right now as we prepare for summer camp -- "He already passed the BSA swim test last summer, does he have to do it again?" Or, "he swims with us all the time, can I sign him off on that requirement?" Just a couple of examples in a growing list.

 

Life is generally a review. We have to prove ourselves over and over again in many settings -- work, home, church, . . .once is rarely enough.

 

Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks again, sctmom. Your take on scouting is what we need more of. I wish I had you in my district. I need some good unit commissioners!

[sctmom]

Thanks!

 

I think much of our society has a "been there, done that" attitude. My son seems to have been born with that attitude! At 6 months old he would no longer play itsy-bitsy-spider once he learned it.

 

You are right that we constantly have to prove ourselves over and over in life. Never can have too much training in safety issues.

 

[buffalo2]

Not to belabor the obvious, but this addresses one more good reason for Scouts training each other...

[AdvanceOn]

So last night we had one of our older Scouts (17 year old who recently came back to finish his Eagle) do CPR instruction with the troop. Well, of course, some of the kids said, "we've already done this." He did a good job of telling them, "good, then you can be the first to do it so the other kids know what to do."

 

I was pleased with that response -- it really changed the focus from being bored with doing something again to a challenge to demonstrate their skills (and no leader intervention was required!).

[jethehiker]

well folks, I'm glad to see I am not alone. We are doing our planning meeting for 2002-2003 soon. And this subject has come up with what will be discussed at the meeting. We did not get many boys into the troop last year but did good this year, so when trying to determine what would be an agenda for our monthly camping trip those words seem to pop up "Done it before". However not for the new boys, and with new boy leadership and knowing what to expect some feel we could focus more on completing requirements rather then planning the trip and the camp set-up (this includes me).

I to have heard the parents say but he just did that last year at the WEBELOS campout.

so as AdvanceOn put it "Great, you should have no problem showing your skill once again " I think some of the problem the parents and scouts with this line of thinking is before a cub crosses over they need to be made aware of what can cross over with them and what can not. this should be done when they visit the troop for the first time when they are WEBELOS.

Well , thats my 2 cents

 

YIS

 

jethehiker