"old ways" for my son

[MollieDuke]

My son is becoming interested in the "old ways" of scouting. Specifically right now, he's making his own maps like the ones that used to be required for first class in 1961; semaphore flag signalling (he just got a pair of flags last week); minimalist hiking/camping with a bedroll/yucca pack; and making camp with tree limbs,rope,canvas, etc.

 

Unfortunately, his troop could care less about any of this. In fact,when they had to do emergency prep, they couldn't get past the fact that to signal an emergency you might not be in a cell phone friendly area. We live in a very rural area, so there isn't much cell service, so why that escaped them, I don't know.

 

My question is: Do any of you have suggestions to further this interest in ways he could do alone in a rural setting? He loves to go to the local fields and make maps of them and string stuff in trees to make shelter, but if anyone has suggestions for other things to try, please send them our way.

 

Thanks,

MollieD.

[frank10]

The boys in my unit found a connection to the oldways using flint and steel. Since then they have shown thousand of others how to do it. They even use it at the Klondike for the fire building event where matches are the norm. Never met a boy who didn't love fire.

 

Find out more at http://onmyhonor.com

 

 

[WHEELER]

Find an old field manuals and give them to him. Give him a potato and a half of chicken and have him run out there and cook it for himself for dinner. Learn how to lash. Have him learn to track animals and give reports of their trails and habitats. Have him give a botanical record of all that is in your backyard. A census of animals.

 

Have him work for farmers. Give him Plutarch's Lives to read. Have him read Herodotus. Give him the classics to read.

 

Your boy has a strong masculine bent in him. The 'love' of the old is a sign of it. Encourage it. He is also pulling away from you. He is asserting his manhood. Boys need a break from their mothers.

 

 

[scoutldr]

A good reference is "The American Boy's Handybook" by Dan Beard. It was recently reprinted and used ones are available on eBay or Half.com.

[baschram645]

Get your son to look at the Wilderness Survival, Pioneering, Orienteering and Surveying merit badges. The merit badge pamphlets list great reference material in the back offering more information on each topic. These merit badges will help your son along his trail to Eagle and teach him self reliance.

[MollieDuke]

Wheeler has definately got my son's number. He is exerting his manhood and breaking from mom to the point that if he breaks farther away, he'll not realize he has a mother. (kidding--well, a little kidding). I'm all for boys growing into good men. In fact, I stay out of Boy Scouting activities to please my son who says it's not Mommy Scouts and he severely dislikes the "Lysol Patrol" which is what he calls mommies that come to scout camp.

 

However, I do encourage the "old ways" because it makes him take responsibility for his own actions on a level that he normally does not. Example: if you build a pioneering structure and it falls down, you can't blame mommy because she wasn't there.

 

It's been good for him. He's already got his pioneering badge and his orienteering badge and is working on wilderness survival. At his OA ordeal, he went with a bedroll, a small tarp, a canteen, some rope and flint/steel. He made a shelter, rolled up in his bedroll and went to sleep. The other kids were fascinated that he knew how to get a shelter together so simply and came with little "creature comforts" in his bag, but that's the kind of kid he is. He loved OA ordeal. He learned a lot about himself and that was good.

 

For these reasons and many others, I want to continue to encourage him. Thanks for all the advice so far and I look forward to showing all this to him this weekend.

 

MollieD.

[Sturgen]

May I suggest a black powder or cowboy action club. With the bicentennial of the Corp of Discovery there are also tons of true old time camping experiences to behold, well at least along the path they followed.

[Fuzzy Bear]

The "old ways" of Scouting, something of a dream.

 

Your son is rejecting what he sees around him in Scouting as being less than his ideal. It is tricky to do this because it is like saying what is truth? We somehow believe that truth is somewhere hidden in our past, beyond the present, in sacred books, in a cave, with the mysterious one. People rush us and point in all directions for the new, the old, and the now truths. We have to be confused by so many true things and each one sounding better than the last. Where and what is truth? Truth is and will always be here in the present where we stand and how we act. If we speak of God, then it should be the ever present God. To do less is to keep us guessing and hiding from the fact of his eternal presence. Truth is here now in this act of writing and in your act of reading. God is here today and Scouting is here today. If a boy wants to sleep in the open under the stars, then it is the same action as a boy doing it 1,000 years ago or one doing it 1,000 years in the future. It doesn't make him any better or worse for doing it. The difference is how he reacts to that action not in the action itself. Once again, the ever present God speaks and we listen, then we act upon that message. We should carefully consider the action of idolizing the past or the future because the mystery or truth is in how we act in each present moment, each breath, each step.

 

FB

(This message has been edited by Fuzzy Bear)

[WHEELER]

Your boy is truly a Spartan. The Boy Scouts, in a sublimenal way, are based on the Spartans. He needs to read about them. Both Socrates and Plato, even though they were Ionian Greeks and Athenians, were philo-Spartans. Xenophon, an Athenian gentleman, went to live with the Spartans.

 

You will love the following extract:

 

"Puberty rituals are mainly an enactment of the psychological separation that the boy must achieve from his mother. The three stages that van Gennep identified, seperation, transition, and incorporation are visible in these ceremonies." (The Church Impotent, The Feminization of Christianity, Leon J. Podles, Spence Publishing Co. Dallas, l999, pg 48-49.)

 

Next comes from the book, Sex Differences, Modern Biology and the Unisex Fallacy, by Yves Christen, trans by Nichols Davidson.

 

In their studies, boys NATURALLY draw away from what is weak. They are in a sense repelled by the weak. Women are naturally drawn to the weak. They are drawn to children, wounded and the hurt. That is why they make good nurses and good mothers. Boys are drawn to the strong and they should be.

 

I will further post: "A mystery, The good comes thru the hard". This should help you some.

 

Next:

The definition of Truth.

 

Truth is the FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION OF REALITY. (Apostolos Makrakis)

The Criteria of Truth is consistency. This is stated in Plato's Republic. Socrates uses it all the time. The clearer demonstration is from the Laches a dialogue of Plato on courage (andrea).

 

Socrates: "And I will begin with courage, and once more ask what is that common quality, which is the same in all these cases, and which is called courage?" Noitice "same in all cases". The person would give a definition and then Socrates gives another situation and the person would find out that his definition would not fit this new situation. Then Socrates would ask "Give me a definition of courage that will fit ALL situations that require courage". The person then would discover the REAL definition of courage and then come to real knowledge.

 

An expression of this truth is the criterion sent down for the Christian Faith by St. Vincent Lerins: "What has been believed by all, from the beginning, at all times." This statement encapsulates the criterion of consistency. "Consistency" is the criterion of truth.

 

St. Maximos the Confessor said, "One man with the truth is the majority."

 

That is why Socrates was put to death. For standing for truth.

 

What is going on is that "progressive" ideas are wattering down the truth and just like silt of a river will cover the rocks, so will new ideas cover over the truth.

 

Jesus himself said, "Palios Xristos", The Old is Golden. Is not God Old?

 

Truth does not change and your son has a feel and a zeal for truth.

 

Cicero said, "Truth is not one thing in Athens and another thing in Rome. Truth is not one thing yesterday and another thing today."

 

(Notice, I can quote and the otherguy just has opinions. Whom did he quote from? Knowledge is different from opinion. People have a ton of opinions but few have knowledge.)

 

Truth is eternal. Truth is changeless. The only problem is man's perception of it and evil that seeks to obscure it. This is the paradigm of the Cave in Plato's Republic.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Truth is independent of my inadequate personal opinions, your well selected quotes, my small experiences, your large amount of knowledge, their highly controlled experiment, those very well known facts, their long established theory, and those great ideas.

 

The two small stars on the Scout Badge are there to remind us of the difference.

 

FB

[eisely]

Here are some additional suggestions.

 

Try cooking over a wood fire instead of a stove. Get some bisquick and make bread on a stick over your fire. Be sure to know what kind of stick you are using. Some plants are toxic. If you know it is not toxic, taste area under the bark with your tongue to make sure it will not impart any unpleasant flavors to your bread.

 

Use two pans of different sizes to make a dutch oven to use in your wood fire. Put your food in the smaller pan, cover it with the larger pan upside down and bury it in your coals.

 

Try tracking. I was never any good at this, but it is an old skill.

 

Mark your route with stone markers so you can find your way back.

 

Make your own safe fire starters with parafin and cardboard.