Positive Media for BSA

[JoeBob]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/25/how-to-turn-boys-into-honorable-men-these-six-steps-are-start.html

”Welcome to the lost boy generation. Only a few have shot up schools, but too many are failing out of them.”

1 - Help Them Choose and Chase an Ideal

2. Don’t Save Them from Fear

3. Be a Good Guide

4. Let Them Run the Gauntlet

5. Introduce a Code

6. Let Them Go

 

Anything there sound familiar to y'all?

 

[Eagledad]

Good article. Kind of on the same basis of other discussions on this forum. It won't sit well for those here who believe that both men and women are Venus. Masculinity for them is a four letter word that implies unfair power. 

When I look at the list and ponder what I gained in my youth that carried me over as a self-confident husband, father and grandfather, I must say it's the code. The moral code I learn as a youth kept me balanced over my life kept when all those around me were running around flailing their arms in the wind. The moral code is the legacy a boy will carry the rest of his life. As scout leaders, we start with the moral code so that the scouts learn to ground themselves as they practice the rest of the list.

Barry

[fred johnson]

Great article.  I've seen another recently that I thought was timely and good.  

• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html

I think scouts is the perfect environment to address many of the challenges our scouts face.  BSA is going co-ed, but that does not mean we have to dumb down or emasculate the program.  IMHO, keep the challenge and keep the out door focus.  Use that to define character through each individual's own crucible.  

[SSScout]

These inspirational articles always bring me back to the one that I think may have "started it all" . . .   This is always re-quoted in what some may see as "politically correct",  but I still like the original:    Within My Power

By Forest E. Witcraft (1894 - 1967), a scholar, teacher, and Boy Scout Executive and first published in the October 1950 issue of Scouting magazine.

I am not a Very Important Man, as importance is commonly rated. I do not have great wealth, control a big business, or occupy a position of great honor or authority.

Yet I may someday mold destiny. For it is within my power to become the most important man in the world in the life of a boy. And every boy is a potential atom bomb in human history.

A humble citizen like myself might have been the Scoutmaster of a Troop in which an undersized unhappy Austrian lad by the name of Adolph might have found a joyous boyhood, full of the ideals of brotherhood, goodwill, and kindness. And the world would have been different.

A humble citizen like myself might have been the organizer of a Scout Troop in which a Russian boy called Joe might have learned the lessons of democratic cooperation.

These men would never have known that they had averted world tragedy, yet actually they would have been among the most important men who ever lived.

All about me are boys. They are the makers of history, the builders of tomorrow. If I can have some part in guiding them up the trails of Scouting, on to the high road of noble character and constructive citizenship, I may prove to be the most important man in their lives, the most important man in my community.

A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a boy. 

[JustAScoutMom]

On 2/27/2018 at 9:05 AM, JoeBob said:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/25/how-to-turn-boys-into-honorable-men-these-six-steps-are-start.html

”Welcome to the lost boy generation. Only a few have shot up schools, but too many are failing out of them.”

1 - Help Them Choose and Chase an Ideal

2. Don’t Save Them from Fear

3. Be a Good Guide

4. Let Them Run the Gauntlet

5. Introduce a Code

6. Let Them Go

 

Anything there sound familiar to y'all?

 

Awful article until it started discussing number 1...then it was great.  People are different.  People can also be equals.  I think we should recognize what we have in common, while celebrating the differences that we have.  But that 6-list code...read it....how is that any different than how you would want to raise a daughter?  They should strive for their own code, letting them go chase their dreams, and fail as well.  Certainly we want all children to grow up to be capable adults making ethical decisions.  Now, how we accomplish this may be different...but the goals are the same.