21st Century Wood Badge. -Over-trained?

[Eamonn]

I'm not very good at remembering dates! So please forgive me.

Back in 1999 (I think!)

I was a Staffer for the old course.

Everyone at that time seemed keen to find out what the new course was going to be like.

I seem to remember that there was some sort of a delay in getting the new course up and running.

 

When it did get off the ground, the fellow who had been SPL for the 1999 course was the SM for the new course.

I don't know how he went about selecting the Staff. I was invited to serve, but he also invited five guys who had served as SM for the old course.

Of course, I think it was only human nature that along the way comparisons were made between the old and the new. While some people were willing to give the course their best shot, sadly some seen it as the end of Scouting and just really didn't get it.

I served as a Troop Guide. I had never taken this then new course and in fact had only received the syllabus and guide a few weeks before the development weekend started.

The course went well and the participants seemed happy.

Being as our Council belongs to a Wood Badge Cluster, two years later it fell on us to host the next course, in fact the cluster felt that with the course being open to so many more people that we should go from one course a year to two course a year.

While there never was any real list of who would be the next SM, there was a unwritten understanding of who would be next. It wasn't me!!

Our Council Wood Badge coordinator, who had served as Council Training Chair before me, felt that the fellow who had kinda, sorta been groomed to be the next SM, didn't seem to get it??

So he asked me!! I did talk with the fellow who has been passed over. While he really wasn't very happy I think he understood why he was being skipped.

Of course now it fell on me to select the staff I wanted.

I had a staff of 26.

Two had taken the 21st Century course and twenty had never ever staffed a course!!

I was told I was nuts!!

Sadly I did have to ask two people to step down. Mainly because they for some reason just didn't want to follow the syllabus.

 

I like to think that I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the syllabus, till I had a good understanding of what it was about and where it was going.

I did very much become a real stick in the mud about following the syllabus. In part because at the Course Directors Conference I made a promise to do so.

When the course was over I think the participants seemed to get a lot more from the course I directed with a bunch of newbies than the course that was loaded with "4 Bead-ers"!!

 

I'm not really sold on the idea that you have to have taken the course in order to be able to staff it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but at the end of the day the best people to do the job are the people who are the best Presenters.

 

I know that I'm sticking my neck out!!

But I do kinda wish that when the course changed, it had been renamed and maybe the old Wood Badge course had been allowed to die.

I really think the play acting of being Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers gets in the way.

I wouldn't be upset if the critters went bye-by as well.

The two courses are very different.

While at one time people who had taken the old course were not invited to attend the 21st Century, this has now changed.

Anyone who did attend the old course and has the time and can spare a couple of hundred dollars should maybe think about attending the new course. They would need to go with an open mind and be willing to accept that it isn't the old course.

I'm a little worried that the powers that be might be guilty of trying to make this 21st Century course more that what it is.

At the end of the day it's a Leadership Training Course, not unlike many other Leadership courses that are offered by many businesses.

Eamonn.

[BeaverIII]

I attended a Legacy Wood Badge course in 1995. Although I had been offered opportunities to serve on staff it seemed I always had to withdraw for some reason or another. In spring of 2003 I was a Troop Guide on the first 21st Century Wood Badge for our council. None of the staff had attended the course, several served on multiple staffs and one was a former course director. With that said I feel the course was a resounding success. Yes there was some talk of the old Wood Badge; however as one of the participants stated so very eloquently at our opening luncheon. We dont care about the old course; this is our course and our experience (I paraphrase). I have never forgotten that statement.

 

Fast forward to 2008 and our council has had four 21st Century Wood Badge courses. I have been fortunate to serve on three of four and served as cook staff for the other (loads of fun, but another story!). Now I have been asked to direct our next course in spring of 2009 and I am facing the daunting task of assembling the best staff in the history of Wood Badge (smile). There are those in my council who are grandfathered into 21st Century Wood Badge eligibility and a lot of eligible 21C Wood Badgers that I can choose from. My task is clear; select the staffers who will do everything they can to insure this course and this experience belong to the participants.

 

As to the grandfathered rule for staffers; it is what it is. We cant change it here. What we can do if asked to serve is our best, following the syllabus and letting the participants know through our words and actions this is their Wood Badge experience.

 

BeaverIII

 

[Tokala]

Eamonn, you touch on a lot of subjects. I'd like to address a couple of them.

 

Every council had to start the 21st Century syllabus from scratch. They had to draw on people that had wood badge experience in order to create the same intensity or passion about delivering the experience. There's a lot more gained from these courses than just the material and skills in the syllabus. My council has run 4 courses since the introduction of the new syllabus. Out of 4 courses we now have a pool of potential staff and course directors to draw from to staff the next course. This has effectively eliminated the occasional lament from someone about the "old course".

 

Each time we run a new course, we find ways to ensure that we try to deliver the material in meaningful ways and have discussed what we feel is really meant by "inclusiveness", "diversity", and "interfaith". We also discuss if we do things "just because" and can we simplify what we do without sacrificing. In all fairness, I thought that the Scout's Own style of religious service offered a better basis to discuss diversity. Returning to the "Interfaith" service has made religion generic. In their attempts to not upset anyone, they removed an excellent way to teach about diversity.

 

We have had one person from Boy Scout wood badge surrender his beads and attend a 21st century course. He has completed his ticket and had the opportunity to learn some new material and meet new people. I originally called 21st Century wood badge, "Wood badge lite". It may not be as intense in certain ways, but it still accomplishes the goal of training leaders, team (patrol) formation through challenges, and inspired adults that go back to thier units and talk about how much fun they had and all the great people that they met.

[fgoodwin]

I can't respond to the idea that you don't have to go through the new course in order to teach it, but logic alone dictates that when a course is revised and first rolled-out, by definition there is nobody who has been through it who can teach it the first time!

 

I didn't go through the "old" WB. I was slated to attend the old Cub Trainer WB in NCAC back in 2001-02 when it was canceled because WB21C was being rolled-out. I transferred to a new council in '03 and immediately signed up for WB21C -- it was the second time it had been offered in my new council.

 

So I can't compare the old WB to the new -- but WB21C was still new enough that I heard all the disparaging remarks from "old" WBers, about how we weren't getting the "real" WB experience, because we weren't leaning the 11 leadership skills, how the new course watered down outdoor skills, etc.

 

I hafta say, as someone who was excited to take the new course and with no knowledge of the old, I found such remarks unhelpful, and as a Cub Trainer at the time, I thought such remarks coming from the staff were totally out of line, considering they had (I assume) agreed to teach the new course in accordance with the new syllabus.

 

Now that my council is five years into the new course, you still hear such comments from the "old" WBers every once in a while, but they aren't staffing WB21C because we now have a pool of folks who've been through only WB21C so our courses are now staffed only with graduates of WB21C.

 

But I do get tired of hearing how much better the old WB was . . .

[BeaverIII]

It wasn't "better". It was different. Did it have value?Absolutely. I use some if not all of the 11 leadership skills every day. Is 21st Century Wood Badge "better"? Maybe, maybe not, but it is different. Does it have value? Absolutely. I use some if not all of the skills from 21C WB every day. Is it still Wood Badge? Yes it is.

 

BeaverIII

[hot_foot_eagle]

I've only recently taken WB21C, so I don't have enough grasp of the "old" WB to make a valid comparison to the new. I do think Tokala's comments regarding leadership training, team building, and inspiration are spot on. Having been involved in scouting as an adult for over 15 years, I am, however, left with the impression that WB is entry-level training for those who know that they are going to be lifers, as opposed to the capstone of a long scouting career.

[John-in-KC]

I've only taken WB21C, and have yet to staff. Lord willing, I will have the time and ability to serve staff in the next couple years. It'll help solidify the concepts, so I can serve myself, my units, and my greater good better.

 

My faculty did a good job. Having seen what I've seen, I think they mix a few things from the old back into the new. We did have the weather rock, as one example. I'm not sure their definition of Diversity is what others would think of.

 

Overall... I'm a better Scouter and a better Dad for having gone to the course. More importantly, my pool of resource people has opened wide!

 

John

[Eamonn]

I think right now I'm going through one of my phases!!

While I don't think the old course did a good job of teaching traditional Scouting skills. (It was never intended to do so.)

I just seem to have a bit of a down on what I see as maybe too much time and too much importance being spent and made of Leadership.

While I have not been involved in the new youth courses that replaced JLTC, from what I have heard the new course is again a mini Wood Badge course.

OJ went to a Regional OA Officers training and I seen the stuff he came home with!! It again was a mini-WB course down to having to do something that was very much like a Ticket.

Of course Leadership plays a very big and vital role in what we do.

But we also need to know what to do and how to do it before we can lead others.

My idea of Scouting (Which might well be very different from others!!) Is not a bunch of youth members sitting around watching movies, talking about the works of Ken Blanchard or Bruce Tuckman.

Scouts learn leadership in small ways like cleaning up after a meal. They can build upon these ways with the help of knowledgeable and caring adults. But before you can lead the clean up -Someone has to know how to cook the meal.

It's just a phase!!

I'll get over it.

Eamonn.

 

[BeaverIII]

hot foot eagle wrote "..I am, however, left with the impression that WB is entry-level training for those who know that they are going to be lifers, as opposed to the capstone of a long scouting career."

 

Curious-why do you feel WB should be the capstone of a long career? When we train WB we reach acroos al levels of Scouting. Is it possible that if we give them the skills and tools of WB early that adult leader retention would be higher. The "you'll get to do that someday" mentality and attitude is what drove Scouters in my council to never attend WB no matter how great we all said it was. Now that 21CWB welcomes all with open arms and smiles and has the mentality of "come see what we have to offer", more people are being trained and kids are being better served. Remember that narrow frame of reference called "youth"? Thats the ultimate reason for Wood Badge.

 

BeaverIII

 

[Tokala]

Eamonn please take this in a constructive way...

You wrote:

"While I don't think the old course did a good job of teaching traditional Scouting skills. (It was never intended to do so.) "

I have been through Boy Scout wood badge and staffed 21st, I'd argue that Boy Scout wood badge taught & used Scout skills much more than 21st. Gone is the spliced belt, patrol method cooking, pioneering project, and orienteering. In it's place are more "conference room" type training experiences.

 

You also wrote

"While I have not been involved in the new youth courses that replaced JLTC, from what I have heard the new course is again a mini Wood Badge course. "

 

I have been a JLT and an NYLT Scoutmaster and I can assure that while the courses may seem similar, they are very different. While both use digital media to present some material and they share the leadership skills, the approach is completely different for the youth. The new NYLT seems to be a good blend of "old school Scouting" and digital media. There are many segments in NYLT that are not included in 21st century wood badge. Leadership and Scout skills are developed in segments such as the realistic first aid, geocache wide game, lunch planning exercise, and pioneering projects. I know of some NYLT courses that use the summer camp dining hall and run the patrols through the line. Many still do patrol cooking and that's the way that I'll always present the material. While the Blanchard and Covey seem out of place to present to the youth, I'll give it a second chance based on personal experience. For example, a Scout that participated in our NYLT course the summer of 2007 talked to me at one of our OA lodge weekends. He still carried his memory cue card that we gave him and engaged me in a discussion about the Leading/Teaching EDGE. The biggest problem with NYLT is the adults that try to run the course like it is a mini-wood badge. They're kids; they have to be dealt with differently. Staff development for NYLT is NOWHERE close to staff development for wood badge.

 

I hope your phase passes quickly. It's not really all that bad. Maybe volunteering to help staff NYLT will help you out of your funk?(This message has been edited by Tokala)

[Eamonn]

Tokala

I of course welcome different points of view!

You are of course right about the skills that were covered in the pre 21st Century course.

(You forgot the pioneering projects!!)

But ... ((hey you knew there would be a but!)

Given that the course was a full week, the time spent on skills wasn't that much.

I have staffed a few pre 21 courses (Nine courses) and it seems /seemed to me that most Patrols had one or two guys who were really good and the rest of the Patrol kinda sorta hung onto the coattails of these guys.

These were to guys who when it came time for the over-night hike were the guys who had map and compass in hand and while the good Scouter's did spend time passing on their knowledge to the rest of the Patrol many were just happy to be "Super-Scout".

I didn't in any way mean or intend to put down NYLT. It would be very unfair of me -Being as I don't know very much about it!!

My "Gripe" is I think we are (The BSA)going a little overboard on "Leadership"

If we were to spend as much time on say - Physical Fitness? I think we would be accused of over doing that.

 

For a while our District Advancement Chair was unavailable. Me being the nice fellow that I am took over his duties while he was away.

One task (Which I admit I really enjoyed) was approving Eagle Scout Leadership Service Projects.

I should add that this wasn't very long back. A couple of years.

While maybe the project book isn't the greatest?

A lot of Scouts seemed to have no idea about the Leadership part of the project.

After thinking about it for a while, trying to find a good way of helping them. I went back and used the good old 11 Leadership Skills and the planning process from the Pre 21 Course.

 

While I do believe that I have got something from every course that I ever attended.

The new WB course is a vast improvement on the old Cub Scout Trainer WB Course.

 

I have heard that the BSA Training is being looked at. Rumor is that the New Leader Essentials is no longer going to be Essential!

Cub Scout Training is being changed.

I don't as yet have the details on the rumor!!

 

At this stage of my Scouting career, I'm about ready to be put out to pasture. Which at times is a little painful for me!! But it's right that I get out of the way and make room for the next generation of "Movers and Grovers". Yes I'm fast becoming one of the suits!!

With that in mind I don't think I'll be invited to staff a NYLT.

But when I start putting things down that I don't know very much about? I do hope that someone will give me a friendly kick in the pants.

Ea.

(This message has been edited by Eamonn)