A great adventure, or just mundane

[MattR]

I had a great time this weekend and it had nothing to do with scouting or the outdoors but it did clarify why I'm frustrated with boy scouts. I went to a class reunion and had a great time reminiscing over all the adventures we had. As teenagers we were thrown together with people from all over the world and put in a place that was completely different from what we were used to. We had to figure it out, it didn't always work out, but we ended up with incredible memories and we learned how to solve problems. All in all everyone said it was a great experience.

 

It all reminded me of what scouts should be. Granted, learning how to not get lost in the woods is a bit different than getting lost in an old market where nobody speaks any language you're familiar with, but there are similarities. The big difference seems to be our parents vs us. When we were kids our parents let us do a lot more. Once my mom took me and a friend and our bikes to Calais and dropped us off. We told her we were going to take the fairy across the channel, ride our bikes to Stonehenge and we'd call her up when we got back. She was fine with it. We didn't call her for a week.

 

I started asking my classmates if they let their kids do what we did and the responses were either hell no, or you could just see the light come on and they'd just say oh. There were a few people that encouraged their kids to do what we did. We set slightly tighter boundaries and made sure they knew how to get out of trouble, but we eventually pushed them out the door and said good luck. Not many parents will do that now.

 

I see the same thing in my troop. Most parents just don't understand what an adventure is or how useful or fun it can be. This used to be just a few parents and now it's closer to half. I just had a parent bitch at me about how I should make extra PORs, whether they're needed or not, so his son can advance faster. He already has the time done so how about a 1 month special project for the POR? I kept my mouth shut but I wanted to tell him that, since he's an Eagle scout, maybe if he went camping and let his sons go on high adventure trips then maybe they might see scouting as more than a patch.

 

Someone said scouts is struggling because there are fewer parents with outdoor skills. I disagree. There are fewer parents that understand what an adventure is. Scouting without an adventure is nothing more than a classroom.

 

 

[David CO]

Some of our kids feel lucky if their parents let them go trick-or-treat.

[Cambridgeskip]

There's a book you might be interested in, called "Risk, the science and politics of fear" by Dan Gardner. It's a very good dissection of what people are scared of and why, with, as the title implies, it lays the blame very much at the feet of the media and politicians. It's quite extraordinary what people perceive as being risky and how it compares to reality.

 

Some of the statistics are astonishing. In the UK a child is far more likely to be killed by lightening than by an adult they do not know. We're talking orders of magnitude. Yet ask most parent what they are most worried about and you know exactly which of those they will go for!

 

As I always say, if you want to keep your child safe then the most important thing you can do is teach them to cross the road safely.

[Stosh]

Over the past 50 years our society has spent thousands if not millions of dollars working on making our playgrounds a safe place for children.  They slides are plastic, bolts are covered up, nothing is very high.  the ground is covered with pad-like rubber, chains on the swings are coated so as to not pinch.  Anything that can move quickly is removed.

 

So the statistics have come out and there is NO significant reduction in injury or death on the playground, but the number of car/pedestrian accidents involving kids going to and from the playground has gone up due to the increase in traffic over the years. 

 

Somewhere someone feels good that they have gone to a whole lot of trouble making it safer for our children.  Too bad no one ever spent any time teaching our children to look both ways anymore.

[qwazse]

I was irritated at the coddling of son #1, who I had to drive 1.5 miles down sidewalked streets to his best friend's.

 

Payback was daughter who got into an exercise routine of midnight runs through the neighborhood ... I'd smirk, but Mrs. Q packs a punch.

[blw2]

.......

 

So the statistics have come out and there is NO significant reduction in injury or death on the playground, but the number of car/pedestrian accidents involving kids going to and from the playground has gone up due to the increase in traffic over the years. 

......

I doubt that is true..... because nobody is going to the playground anymore.  They took away all the fun parts!

 

The part about the traffic is likely true...... the kids are just going someplace else....

[MattR]

There's a book you might be interested in, called "Risk, the science and politics of fear" by Dan Gardner. It's a very good dissection of what people are scared of and why, with, as the title implies, it lays the blame very much at the feet of the media and politicians.

I don't know Skip, I think of what I grew up with and everyone knew about it and we still got out. Late 60's to mid 70's? Not only was all that in the news but so was the fact that rock and roll was going to rot your brain. I got bused into an inner city school and they had fights between white kids and black kids every day. I learned to stay away from that. I also learned to walk away from a dicey looking street. My parents taught me that if I got robbed, just give them the money and don't worry about it. We walked around with traveler's checks and didn't keep all the eggs in one basket, so to speak. It's called being prepared.

 

Think about this insane idea of safe spaces and triggers at universities and that has nothing to do with news inspired boogie men. That's more about your life being perfect and heaven forbid it's a bit uncomfortable at times. In order to go on an adventure you have to deal with some discomfort at times.

 

We used to have two HA trips a year because we had so many scouts that wanted to do them. We're going down to one and opening it up for everyone because few of the older scouts want to go.

[Stosh]

I doubt that is true..... because nobody is going to the playground anymore.  They took away all the fun parts!

 

The part about the traffic is likely true...... the kids are just going someplace else....

Where ya gonna get your drugs if you don't go to the playground?

[qwazse]

Where ya gonna get your drugs if you don't go to the playground?

Just pull up to my neighbor's apt. and honk.   Worked until Mrs. Q got sick of it and called the narcs.

 

When I'm far enough into the wilderness that I find bear scat, I start to feel safe again.

[KenD500]

 

 

When I'm far enough into the wilderness that I find bear scat, I start to feel safe again.

 

Quote of the day right there.  

[Cambridgeskip]

I don't know Skip, I think of what I grew up with and everyone knew about it and we still got out. Late 60's to mid 70's? Not only was all that in the news but so was the fact that rock and roll was going to rot your brain. I got bused into an inner city school and they had fights between white kids and black kids every day. I learned to stay away from that. I also learned to walk away from a dicey looking street. My parents taught me that if I got robbed, just give them the money and don't worry about it. We walked around with traveler's checks and didn't keep all the eggs in one basket, so to speak. It's called being prepared.

 

Think about this insane idea of safe spaces and triggers at universities and that has nothing to do with news inspired boogie men. That's more about your life being perfect and heaven forbid it's a bit uncomfortable at times. In order to go on an adventure you have to deal with some discomfort at times.

 

We used to have two HA trips a year because we had so many scouts that wanted to do them. We're going down to one and opening it up for everyone because few of the older scouts want to go.

 

That's the point though. Things now are pretty much the same as the 60s and 70s with the only exception being dangers from traffic. But people are more afraid of everything. What I think has changed is the attitude, and indeed nature, of the massed media. They have learned and taken advantage of the fact that if you make people scared they will lap up what you are feeding them.

 

Back in the 1970s the IRA were killing far more people than muslim extremists now in the UK. Yet people now are far more afraid of terrorism than they ever were back then. The difference is that back in the 1970s by the time the paper went to press or by the time the 6pm or 9pm news bulletin came round the facts were broadly known. What we have now is rolling 24 hour news and social media coming out of everyone's ears. So when something happens, when someone is shot or a bomb goes off or there is some kind of accident we get bombarded from every angle with news media trying to fill all their channels with, frankly, nothing. So they speculate all over the place and that just ramps up the fear far more than a calm news report 3 or 4 hours later.

 

My own parents are terrified if being burgled. They are scared because their favourite newspaper The Daily Mail (a vile publication which makes Fox News look calm and objective) tells them to be afraid. They reject out of hand all the statistics that show they are less likely to be burgled now than they were 20 years ago.

 

The media have a hell of a lot to answer to in my opinion.

[Stosh]

The 90 year old woman was pulled over and she informed the police officer she was armed.  She said she had 45 in the glove box, a 9 mm in her belt and a derringer tucked up her sleeve with her hankie.  The officer was amazed and said, "Lady, what in the world are you afraid of?" to which she replied, "Absolutely nothing."   

 

Today we perceive the world far differently than we did 50 years ago.  Personal freedoms were assumed, Free Speech was not something one could get arrested for and many civil rights people died for a cause that today they in a whim wish to reverse.

 

It totally amazes me the situation our media has put us in with all this "information" being bombarded on the public.

 

A delivery man stopped by a house and noticed 2 children playing in the house but didn't see any adults.  He called it in.  3 police arrived on the scene to check it out.  The woman was busy and simply chose not to answer the door.  Seriously?  The children were in a home with an adult and 3 police had to waste time answering the busy-body delivery person's concern that no one answered the door.

 

Look at my signature.  It gives everyone just notice that being at everyone's beck and call just isn't my style.  When one calls a dog, he comes, when one calls a cat, he'll take your message and get back to you when he feels like it.   I like cats.

[The Latin Scot]

I think so much of what makes an adventure really just depends on letting the boys go their own way and being excited about what they find. I took my three Webelos on a geocaching adventure for their Camper adventure requirement. All I did was hand them a device and showed them how it worked, and then followed them as we walked through the park in our neighborhood to find it. 

 

We live in ultra-suburban Orange County, CA, but there is a lot of space here to wander, and most boys don't realize how much wildlife is right here in our own backyards. As we wandered around the park, I pointed out the various birds in the neighborhood by their calls, a few animal tracks and what they meant, and the different kinds of trees that grow in the area. Nothing fancy, but stuff that most people probably pass by. We spent maybe three hours outside looking for the geocache around trees and rocks and the little bridge by the creek, but never found it.

 

Well, as we walked home, the boys were asking questions about everything - what kind of bird is that calling? What kind of flower is that? Could deer live in this area? How come the possums don't get eaten by dogs? Luckily I knew enough woodcraft to answer all their questions, but what things I didn't know, they were excited to study and learn about at the library the next day (which I was sure to plan as a follow-up activity). They didn't care that we couldn't find the geocache - they were just thrilled to have a better understanding of the world they lived in and to explore their neighborhood with new eyes. It was an adventure for them - they had fun, they learned new things, and their world, even just their neighborhood, was suddenly a little bigger and a little more exciting. All I did was follow them around, point out the cool stuff, and answer their questions as best I could.

 

As one boy told me, "I lived by this park for years and I never knew there was anything interesting here! Now I wanna (sic) come every day at different times and see what else I can find!"

 

That to me is what an adventure should be. 

[Chadamus]

A couple nights ago my Mom reminded me how 30 years ago she inspected my Halloween candy upon my return home from a night of trick-or-treating. I went out with friends. No parents. If my folks worried, they didn't show it. Now my son trick-or-treats in the same neighborhood I did as a kid. I'd like to think I would let him do as I did at the same age, but I'm not certain. He'd rather I be there with him so we go as a family.

I wonder: if parents compared themselves to their kids at the same age, which would impress them more? Maybe not a fair question for those of us with Scout sons. (Mine is better Prepared, hands down) Perhaps we as parents need to turn off the TV/radio/monitor/etc and realize our kids can handle it. While the media's been evolving, our kids have too.

 

I set all signatures to 'ignore' after reading them once (not a fan of them in general) but Stosh I like the philosophy behind yours. Spot on about cats and dogs, but I'll vote dogs. Scout Law? Dog? Check. Cat? Yeah, right.

[Stosh]

Has any one ever noticed that if mom's afraid of mice and spiders, so are the kids.  Has anyone ever noticed that if dad's nervous about being in a certain area after dark, so are the kids. 

 

Zombies, vampires, violence in games and on TV, wearing bike helmets, don't talk to strangers, not safe to ride your bike 2 blocks to school, Child Protective Services are hiding in the bushes near your house.

 

Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

 

Is it any wonder our children grow up paranoid of everything in this world.