Woodbadge Horror Stories

[Kudu]

They mean well.

 

Do they?

 

How much of what Wood Badge has done to the Patrol Method can we attribute to sheer stupidity?

 

ScoutBox,

 

The page references are to the Boy Scout Scoutmaster Training Syllabus.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

[ScoutBox]

Sorry Kudu, The topic I found in the WB Course book at about the same pages???

 

 

[Kudu]

Scoutbox,

 

Does it list the objectives of the Patrol Method to be:

 

"Show how to establish an environment that is safe both physically and emotionally in which Scouts can learn, grow, and enjoy Scouting to the fullest [Adult Association Method].

 

"Explain that listening well is the first step in using appropriate [adult] leadership styles [Adult Association Method].

 

"Show how positive reinforcement is among the most valuable contributions adults can bring to the lives of young people [Adult Association Method].

 

"Employ various supportive [adult] leadership styles, matching them to the needs of each Scout and to the patrols and troop as a whole. Among the most effective styles are explaining, demonstrating, guiding, and enabling [Adult Association Method & EDGE]."

 

(Boy Scout Scoutmaster Training Syllabus, Patrol Method Presentation, Page 53)

 

 

 

[ScoutBox]

There are many things going on this Day1. But dealing with the question, Patrols start with Aims and Methods of Scouting, Leadership positions, Patrol Elections, and Appointments, Start, Stop, Continue. There is a Game "The Patrol Method". But found that this game wasn't very productive in learning the Patrol Method. More should be done.

 

Kudu, I find you to be lobbying to have the old course brought back, (BTW, I think that the older model should be brought back but also adding the new course)and doing all you can to show that the new course isn't what it should be. I just spent a year with a master of WB, and someone who has attended the old and the new. He has Staffed more courses then i can count. I've asked him about the great argument of which is better, why was there a change, what has happened to the older skills that used to be learned. I've spoke to several people who've taken both courses, and they have all said to me that the new course is a better course. Due to the leadership it teaches. They all say that the skills are either being learned at the Scouter's level or before hand. I've learned most before Scouting. Where many say they've learned the new skills already. Myself being a former Soldier can also say that I've learned Leadership lessons from the new course that I didn't get in the Army. And so has many others. So I can say that the new course is a good course. I found that the new course, (The only course I know) has made me look deep into myself, and search in ways that I never searched before. I have learned to listen in ways, and use most of the skills in dealing with the problems I am experiencing with the Scouts and Scouters today. I do think the Course has lost a lot of the outdoor that used to be in the older course, and this is sad. I don't understand why the change, but i have read all of your writings and findings. I do feel that the new course touches base with 90% of the problems I face in Scouting. I think that a more outdoor related course needs to be developed, and that one I would attend. Not because I don't know the outdoors, but because I'm open to the idea that there is always more to learn, and I love learning. I feel that many of the problems I read about with WB is Perception. I faced a bit of that this course I staffed in August when two participants found that they didn't like me..OH, well, I hate it that I wasn't up t where they thought I should be, but the other 35 really had a lot of good to say about me. I am a very outgoing person, and some have a hard time with that..Goes back to my Army days. You couldn't be happy in the worst of it, then you weren't doing what we were doing.. anyway, thanks for your valuable in put and information on here. I enjoy reading your posts, and look forward to more.

 

Bobwhite Mike.

[TAHAWK]

So we are to ignore the evidence that totally refutes your argument? Gee, Rick, what if we elect to look at the facts?

 

As for "what Wood Badge has done to the Patrol Method," whatever we might think of the third version of Wood Badge, it models the Patrol Method, including PLC, patrol meetings, patrol hikes, patrol spirit, and patrol camping in separate patrol sites.

 

Just reality.

[ScoutBox]

Here is does just that. It models, but lacks in explaining it I found. But our courses are all outdoors. Seperate camp sites, Patrol forming, elections, chain of command, dealing with the SPL, and not the TG. I was on site some of the time to give classes to the patrol I was with , but not mothering them. Some did. The Patrols do learn the Patrol Method, we make it a point to explain it. and there is some explanation in the guide. but not enough. On the other hand they do act as a Patrol the second after the B&G. Before being a Den.

[Jay K]

My Wood Badge horror story:

Background: At the close of my OLS Course, as most were leaving, I was invited to a dicussion of "How do we get Adults to take OLS?" with the staff and other participants. My suggestion was "Take a class to the Boundary Waters and teach it to them there." I was told "Try it, and let us know how it went. " I'm a BSA Aquatics Director, I have a Wilderness First Aid certification, and I'm a Boundary Waters Veteran. I've guided many canoe camping trips there and on rivers.

 

Wood Badge scene: I write up a goal, "Take a group to the Boundary Waters and teach them OLS. " I have others write one that says "Go to the Boundary waters and take Jay's OLS class."

 

Another scene: My Ticket Guide pounding a sheaf of Goal Sheets into his other hand and yelling "YOU'RE CAUSING A PROBLEM!" at me. I think "I DON'T need this..."

He says that Council won't let us do it. I say No, sir. If there's a problem, I found it, I didn't cause it. I appeal to Council. They say it doesn't fit the "Sweet Sixteen in the Guide to Safe Scouting." I answer each point in the "Sweet Sixteen," but they insist: "No!"

 

We write up new goal sheets...

I did an OLS class to the original plan. We wrote "Various" in the location part of the training record. It went great!

Our patrol sailed through the "Game of Life" with no problems.

I wrote up nine goals trying to get 5 approved. I did all nine of them, because I wanted to. I saw my Ticket Guide face-to face and asked "Why don't you respond to my e-mails? He couldn't say. Then he told me "I guess your e-mails went in my spam trap." Not "I'm Sorry, " or "I'll fix it" or any words of encouragement. I experience Scope Creep, things being added to my goal shets after they were signed as approved. I did it all. I finished my last goal, my diversity one, and completed my ticket, 9 days before the 18 months were up. My Course Director kept me going. I almost quit a couple of times.

 

I told my OLS people the story, and they were aghast.

While I found Wood Badge to be worthwhile; perfectly fun, it was not.

 

 

[TAHAWK]

As a "Coach Counselor" (and "Patrol Dad"), I was given explicit and detailed guidance on Ticket-writing. As a "Troop Guide" I was given very vague instructions. I could not even get a clear answer as to whether specific goals were to serve the more abstract goals (I thought they should. I thought it was implicit.) I did the best I could. I have no idea whether this problem was specific to that Course.

 

As in all human activities, persons in authority who are less than ideal to not enhance the experience. Sometimes, competency seems to be far down the list of priorities in selecting staff. (When one points out major internal inconsistencies in the Syllabus and is told "They [participants] will never notice," one concludes that excellence is also far down the list for that CD.)

[Basementdweller]

I remember sitting at the picnic table saturday night of week 2 1 hour before the ticket deadline and watched as a staff member came to our campsite and dictated the SPL's son his ticket to him.

 

guess what it got approved first trip thru.

[Jay K]

Basementdweller:

His whole ticket, or one of the goals?

 

It seems it isn't unusual for a TG to suggest 1 goal. If I remember correctly, 17 of our Troop 1 had some invovlvement in the University of Scouting that was soon after our 2nd weekend.. I was one of them. I got that first goal done about 3 weeks after the course. It was the other ones that took 17 months...

:~)

 

[Basementdweller]

He dictated the entire ticket to him.....Remember He was a staff members son.

 

The twenty something could have cared less about woodbadge, didn't participate in the patrol, screwed around with the staff, got us in trouble for disrespect a couple of times over parent child issues. I am sure parent forced son to participate.

 

Our group presentation he did not prepare his part of it.....

 

He has received his beads already.

[Jay K]

Basementdweller, that's a real horror!

I detect that your course was a bit, shall we say, dysfunctional?

I do hope that you do press through and get your beads. You were talking about "Bling" in another thread. I'm a little torn, too, but I err on the "Bling" side. When I was presented my Scoutmaster's Key at a Roundtable, the Commisioner said that It was good for our Scouts to see that us Adults were working through requirements and earning badges, just like they are. It's the old be an example thing. That made sense to me. My Scouts are proud of me, and I'm proud of them.