What was the best thing you learned from Wood Badge?

[dancinfox]

I went to Cub Trainer Wood Badge and Boy Scout Wood Badge, both week long courses. I used to be a FOX.

I am on staff for the council's Wood Badge for the 21st Century in August and September. Just being on Staff I have learned a lot. I find myself dealing with the youth on a more even keel. I know this sounds funny, I've been a leader for 13 years, and thought that Boy Scout Wood Badge taught me alot, but I was wrong. I think anyone who has the chance to be on staff, should, or if not, take the new course. It will help you deal with the youth in your unit in a whole new way.

[bear]

The best thing I learned from WB was that I work well with others. WB also gave me confidence about myself. We had a great patrol, though there were some bugs to be worked out, for certain. WB taught me my strengths and weaknesses, some of which were surprises! A few pleasant surprises at that. By the way, my kids know the "Gilwell" song by heart! I just break out with that song all the time, and it's been two years since I took WB!

 

Thanks for asking!

Bear (and a good ol' Bear, too)

[BubbaBear]

The best thing about Woodbadge for me was that I got a new commitment to the concept of Boy Scouting. Also, it gave me the opportunity to work with six other people in demonstrating how cooperation with totally unfamiliar people can lead to success.

 

By the way, if Baden Powell actually had a favorite patrol, he surely would have changed his mind seeing the Bears of SE326:)

[nitram]

As a participant, I found there was a feeling of togetherness and spirit of scouting I had not experienced in the decades of experience I had as a boy and adult.

 

As a staff member, I found there are scouters there who are 'political' and don't do their jobs. Course participants made several commnents about the slacker's lack of participation. When confronted, the staff circled the wagons and came to his defence. Eventually he got his ticket punched, became a Course Director and is not active any longer. By the way, it's still a 'good old boys' club with a select membership. One scouter has moved thier membership to a neighboring council and has been on the staff of several courses at other counciils.

[johnsned]

We teach infant children to speak by repetition, by encouragement, they soon realize the noises I make make Mommy and Daddy very happy, they pick me up and hug me, they laugh. Communication is a huge accomplishment met with tons of praise.

 

Under the constant assault of I want and what is that and the infamous why, when talking is an everyday occurrence, many parents treat communication as a annoyance or nuisance. And what was met with praise and attention is now met with Dont bother me now, or the familiar wait a minute which translated means, please go a way and I hope the forget to come back. Is it any wonder that adolescents dont communicate well? Or when we solicit their opinions or ideas they dont want share them?

 

I think Wood Badge showed me the need to break some very bad habits, and taught me that if I want the boys to feel I value their opinion I need to work on their trust, I need to help them overcome the impression that they are really a nuisance to me and other adults, that I must be consistent in that effort and like I got my boys to talk when they were infants, praise and encouragement, help and support, but let them talk.

 

They know when we dont care, but it is hard form them to believe it when we do.

 

[scouter659]

I learned a great deal from my Wood Badge course NE III - 151. I learned that if the program is executed correctly you can't help not to produce better human beings. There were so many fine moments on my course. If you've considered Wood Badge but aren't sure, there's something to be said about being in the middle of 50 or 60 Scouters who 'believe' in the organization aims and principles. It will rub off on you. I recently finished my ticket and am planning a bead ceremony in December. I have also been informed that I am under consideration to serve on the Staff of the next course. After having experienced Wood Badge for the 21st. Century, it would be a high honor to be a part of a group of people responsible to present this wonderful material. I used to be a Bob WhiteI always will.

[red feather]

KoreaScouter, ditto. A chance to be young again with the learning and knowledge of age.

 

It taught me how others percieve who I think I am. Enthusiasm can be infectious and not all that hard to do. Would like to go through it again as a scout and relearn, refresh what I experienced the first time.

 

Hope to have time to be on staff.(someday)

 

YIS, a good ol'beaver. (if it's not for the boys it's not worth a dam)

[wffarrell]

Hello All,

 

For me it was learning to identify and use resources. You know, you don't have to do it all yourself. That was a hard, but valuable, lesson for me.

 

I'm much better, not perfect, but much better at identifying my resources and using them; both in Scouting and at work.

 

It's a powerful tool.

 

Regards,

bill

[tictac]

I am first year colony scouter in Ontario Canada. Just completed my woodbage advanced. With the information I learned during my course; I both a better scouter and non-scouter.

[mk9750]

I am absolutely CERTAIN I know what I am bringing on myself by posting this, but..

 

IS woodbadge really this good? I've never had the desire to even investigate it bcause every time I've heard our locals talking about it, it seems less like training that will help deliver a better program for the boys, and more like Scouting for adults. Not that I have any problem with pretending to be a boy scout, but given the choice of spending time pursuing my own fun, and working directly with the boys, I'll take the latter any day.

But, I have to say, with so many of you heatily endorsing WB, maybe I should get more info and check it out. this is my first visit to this section of the forums. Maybe I'll learn more as I read on.

If you have anything that will make me see that my perception is out of whack, please post.

Mark

[tictac]

I would recommend WB2 training for anyone. In Canada we have 3 sections beaver(5-7), cubs(8-10)scouts (11-14)-16) Although my course which was 3 weekends long focused on Beaver Progam: I learned about the different programs. The knowledge and friendships will last a life time!

 

All course participants received an address and e-mail list of the people in the course!!

 

This will be an excellent resource for both them and me.

 

I would suggest that you take the WB2 course in a different area. This way you get the knowledge of different scouters. Usually scouters from certian area solve problems the same way!!

 

[KoreaScouter]

MK:

 

Good questions. WB is like many other things that require personal effort...you get out of it what you put into it. And, what you put in is mostly intangible, and therefore, what get out is also mostly intangible. My WB course was a little different from most, in that we did the whole thing straight through in a long week, rather than break it up over two weekends (had to -- it was in Okinawa and most of us had to fly there). That made some of us homebody moms and dads missing the families and wanting to get out of there, but it certainly didn't detract from the experience.

 

Very little program administration stuff; you should have gotten that in SM fundamentals. Ditto for outdoor skills; you're expected to know that when you show up. It's not a camping school; that's what National Camping School is for.

 

It's all about human dynamics, and they're very clever about how you get the message. You probably won't find anyone who will knowingly lay it all out on the table for you ahead of time. It would be like someone telling you the ending of the movie you just paid 8 bucks to see.

 

By all means, if you have a chance to go, do it. You'll have a good time up front, but your units will benefit for the rest of the time you're a Scouter...a fair return on investment.

 

KS