Wood Badge 21st Century vs Prior Course?

[Its Me]

I just finished my Wood Badge Course and after reading so many posts here, I was expecting a secret twist. All of us in the troop where trying hard to figure out the secret. But it never materialized. At least in my course there really was no BIG secret. Although some of the training sessions applied in the first session often had duel meanings, (usually a team builing theme) these were obvious.

 

Is this just a difference in course directors or this a difference between the old and new courses?

 

 

 

 

[EagleInKY]

Uh oh... something tells me you didn't get the secret handshake right. Did you at least learn the password?

[Its Me]

I got the handshakes and the passwords but I don't know which password goes with which handshake. So is back to Gilwell happy land, I am going to work my ticket if I can.

 

(This message has been edited by Its Me)

[Eamonn]

I'm a little unsure what you mean by a

secret twist?

This 21ST Century course is focused on leadership. Sure they kept a lot of the old traditions along with the critters.

I don't know anything about the old Exploring Wood Badge.

I took and staffed the Cub Scout Leader Trainer course. It covered training Cub Scout leaders. When you wrote your ticket each item started: Using the skill of Recognition (Or what ever skill you were covering) It really was a tough ticket to work.

The Boy Scout Wood Badge really drove home the patrol method and covered the 11 Skills of Leadership which you were supposed to pass on to the SPL and members of the PLC.

Some people are saying that the new course does little to teach outdoor skills and the patrol method. They are right. The course is not about outdoor skills or the patrol method. It is all about leadership.

I wish there was some way of taking the mystery out of Wood Badge, without jeopardizing the course material or content. There really is no secret or no mystery.

The course will be receiving a few tweaks in 2006. That is when our license to use the Ken Blanchard material runs out. Also some things have been moved around. The Diversity session that is now on day four is being moved to nearer the start as it is a ticket item. I was hoping that the Win All You Can game would be gone, but it seems that it is staying.

The old Boy Scout course, was never a bad course, however over the years so many people added so much stuff to it that at times the add ons became bigger than the course.

I remember some guff about a Scoutmasters Chair and it having to be where ever the Scoutmaster might decide to park his behind. People became so worried and so concerned about this darn chair that they weren't paying attention to the material. Another course I was on had the bright idea that all Staffers had to carry Scout Starves. Trying to carry a Scout stave, a flip chart and a flip chart holder across a camp site in the rain was a really miserable experience.

I am glad to see the back of the old courses along with the Good Old Boys that were there each and every year. They hadn't seen a kid in 20 years and only ever seen a volunteer at a Wood Badge course. They loved the course so much they couldn't but help to keep adding more and more junk to it.

Eamonn.

[Its Me]

I was just expecting a twist like. As if we would elect a senior patrol leader and conduct our own PLC meeting. That din't happen.

 

I was just under the impression that we were supposed to do something at the last cracker barrel. Four patrols got together and shared food but beyond that nothing.

 

 

[Eamonn]

As part of the old Boy Scout Course, the patrols did elect a "Permanent" Patrol Leader.

I kinda think if we were to do that on the new course it might mean that one person was the best leader? The aim of the course is for each and every person to do their best and leave a legacy.

The staff have always disappeared and left the participants on their own at the final cracker-barrel. It gives them a chance to share reflections of the course and the staff.

Eamonn

[Fuzzy Bear]

Watching the Good Ole Boys WB Club disappear over the hill after "staffing" every course, every year while discriminating about which one new person they would allow to be on staff was a beautiful sight. I hope that their replacements have learned that Sharing Leadership has value and they don't give us another round of the same. What I experienced was disgusting and I wouldn't have expected it out of grown and educated Scouters. They believed that their behavior was high minded but it lacked any of the qualities to make it so. That was the basic part of the "secret" that you might have missed. FB

 

 

[Its Me]

 

I am not sure what you are talking about. All eight of our troop guides were first time staffers. As far as I know positions like the senior patrol leader is changed out every year.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

I understand what the fuzzy ursinus refers to. In the olden days, (pre-wood badge for the 21rst Century)) You could tell a dedicated Wood Badger by his campaign Hat, stave and knobby knees as they always only wore shorts when in uniform. Back then you were "invited" to attend Wood Badge, actually you still are invited to do Wood Badge, except now its known you can spply for an invitation, you don't need to be accepted by the whole herd. If you didnt do "real" scouting, as defined by the Wood Badgers, then you were worthless to them. In this forum, back when the concept of the 21rst Wood Badge course was introduced there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as if changes in the Wood Badge course would rip the fabric of western civilizaiton and result in anarchy (no offense intended Anarchist)throughout the globe.

 

I took the first 21rst Century Wood Bage in the Council, and then when it was completed was told by scouters I used to respect how inferior it was to the old course and how I really shouldnt count my self as being truly "beaded" as I had taken an inferior course. Then again, this is the same group that marks the beginning of the downfall of American society with the ratification of the 19th amendment

[Vicki]

Interesting observations - perhaps some traditions were retained in some places and not others. We elected a permanent Patrol Leader at the overnight and there was a very special ceremony at the end of the last night of the course in which we all participated.

 

(Those 19th amendment folks would have been very disappointed with their choice, Eamonn, fellow ursine:

[srisom]

I took the pre-21st Century course for Boy Scouts. I really enjoyed the course. The classes were good. The outdoor sessions were also.

To me, the old course was set up to get the adult to feel like a scout and experience what a scout would experience. It was life-like.

I have not taken the new course, but have talked with enough who have, to see that it is set like so many other things today. No real patrols. No patrol cooking, meetings, etc. No outdoor activities at all. No uniformity in the uniforms by staff or participants. No consequence for actions.

The new course reflects the PC effects getting into everything. No one wins so no one has to lose. It's the feel-good experience.

 

[Vicki]

Whoops, one other point I meant to make - Eamonn, while I did not take the old WB, I do feel the new WB makes quite a point of the patrol method. Everything we did was as a patrol, and I mean everything! and in WB order, to boot. That taught patrol order by overwhelming example even if our instructors hadn't made a point, on several occasions, of mentioning that "the patrol order isn't just a method, it is the method (BP)".

 

Vicki

[Vicki]

Srisom wrote "No real patrols. No patrol cooking, meetings, etc. No outdoor activities at all. No uniformity in the uniforms by staff or participants. No consequence for actions."

 

Wow. I hadn't read your e-mail when I posted my prior reply (and BTW, that was OGE w/the 19th amendment comment, not Eamonn). I obviously didn't take the same course as the people you've spoken with, Srisom. We were the Bear patrol - yells, flags, songs, emblem embellishments and all. We ate as a patrol (in our council, whether or not that's dining hall or patrol site is a function of the camp where the training is held, not the course), met with our TG for sessions as a patrol, slept as a patrol, the whole nine yards - just like our troop does it. The whole course was outdoors with lots of outdoor activities mixed in with the butt-numbing sessions. Staff and participants were required to be in full uniform unless it was just too darn hot (August in the mid-west) - then, with permission, we took off the uniform shirt to reveal the course t-shirt underneath.

 

In terms of consequences for actions, individuals either take consequences for their own actions or they don't. I don't remember the course materials addressing that.

 

Vicki

 

[Its Me]

As the smartest creatures in the forest the Bears have a responibilty to instruct the others.

 

Mr srisom I can assure you that it was very patrol focused. We ate every meal as a patrol. We sat next to each other for all sessions and placed tents within feet of one another.

 

The cheer, totum, and main project were all done as a patrol. All food planing for the second weekend was done as a patrol.

 

We had moments of joy and periods of strife as a partol. I learned more from the two periods of strife we experienced than I did in all the sessions combined. We are the Bear patrol.

 

 

Also it was long. There were three full days each weekend with dismisal each time at 5:00 in the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by Its Me)

[srisom]

Sounds like my council dropped the ball. I have talked with both staff and participants and their experience was not like Vicki and ItsMe.

I will share their comments to other in my council.

 

Thanks for the input.