Pale Horse Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Have several Non-Americans in the Pack. Anybody with experience have an alternative suggestion for the outdoor code ("As an American, I will do my best...) or just have them recite as is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsBrian Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 If they don’t feel comfortable saying it I would just skip the “As an American...” 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pale Horse Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 Thanks, I was thinking of changing it to "As a Scout...", but like your suggestion better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David CO Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 How about, "As a guest, I will do my best..." It rhymes. It also conveys the message that, as a guest of this country, they should do their best not to mess it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) I would only worry about this if the scouts express concern about implying that they are something they are not. Or, they think they might not take the oath seriously if they aren't American (as if saying they will do stuff "as an American" somehow gets them off the hook for as long as they aren't citizens). Two possibilities come to mind: "As a sojourner in America ..." "As a {insert provenance here} ..." It also wouldn't hurt to find out if there is something of the sort that people from their homeland would say. Edited March 12, 2018 by qwazse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NJCubScouter Posted March 12, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted March 12, 2018 I would tell the Scouts they have the option of saying what they want there, within reason obviously. This also raises the question of why "As an American" is in there at all. The Scout Oath and Law do not specify what the speaker's nationality is. One should respect the outdoors not because one is an American, but because one is a human being. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG172 Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 What do you mean they are non-americans? Don't you have to be an American citizen to be in the Boy Scouts of America? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG172 Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 43 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said: I would tell the Scouts they have the option of saying what they want there, within reason obviously. This also raises the question of why "As an American" is in there at all. The Scout Oath and Law do not specify what the speaker's nationality is. One should respect the outdoors not because one is an American, but because one is a human being. I believe that was because LNT (an American based company) assisted with and help create this program for the BSA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 22 minutes ago, JasonG172 said: What do you mean they are non-americans? Don't you have to be an American citizen to be in the Boy Scouts of America? You don't. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pale Horse Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 1 hour ago, JasonG172 said: What do you mean they are non-americans? Don't you have to be an American citizen to be in the Boy Scouts of America? Absolutely not. Living in a large manufacturing area, we get families with parents in engineering, design, and computer programming from all over the word that come and work in the States for a few years before returning to their home country. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RememberSchiff Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 2 hours ago, JasonG172 said: I believe that was because LNT (an American based company) assisted with and help create this program for the BSA No and yes. The roots of LNT start with the BSA and Bureau of Land Management in the 80's. In the 90's NOLS took over with the US Forest Service. Other government partners joined. Government funding of these education programs was always a problem. which lead to the creation in 1994 of LNT, a non-profit educational program which marketed courses to many groups including the BSA. More details at this link. https://lnt.org/sites/default/files/Leave_No_Trace_History_Paper.pdf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 3 hours ago, RememberSchiff said: No and yes. The roots of LNT start with the BSA and Bureau of Land Management in the 80's. In the 90's NOLS took over with the US Forest Service. Other government partners joined. Government funding of these education programs was always a problem. which lead to the creation in 1994 of LNT, a non-profit educational program which marketed courses to many groups including the BSA. More details at this link. https://lnt.org/sites/default/files/Leave_No_Trace_History_Paper.pdf And the Outdoor Code was adopted in 1954, I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuzzard Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 24 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said: And the Outdoor Code was adopted in 1954, I believe. Here is a GBB Boys Life article about it: https://books.google.com/books?id=oB4YsDfcXA4C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=green+bar+bill+outdoor+code+bottle+beach Sounds like BSA meant it to be not just for scouts but something that was evangelized to schools and civic groups hence the generic patriotic "American" reference. Sort of like an early Keep America Beautiful campaign. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG172 Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 12 hours ago, oldbuzzard said: Here is a GBB Boys Life article about it: https://books.google.com/books?id=oB4YsDfcXA4C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=green+bar+bill+outdoor+code+bottle+beach Sort of like an early Keep America Beautiful campaign. For those that have never seen the video, couldn't get away with this in this day and time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 1 hour ago, JasonG172 said: For those that have never seen the video, couldn't get away with this in this day and time I'm not so sure about that. It is respectful to Native Americans. In fact, you could interpret it as being kind of anti-NON-Native Americans. (And justifiably so, especially at the time.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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