Why?

[hops_scout]

I would like to know why you guys think that Scouts get a bad rap? And how you think those things could be changed to fix it.

 

I'll start..

I feel that people my age think there are too many rules

Also, I think to many, patriotism and volunteerism is not cool

 

Your turn:

[LovetoCamp]

MTV

[LovetoCamp]

the glorification of the gang banger

[boleta]

My 15 year old Eagle Scout hates the uniform. Thinks it is very uncool.

[LovetoCamp]

My 14 and 15 year old Sea Scouts think their's are cool.

[Laurie]

Good question Hops. So far the only objections I get at the Cub level are that it takes too much time (kids only meet once a week for an hour and field trips are optional), that sports is more important, that homework comes first (and we seem to have a few kids who struggle with getting homework done). The Cubs don't seem to mind the rules they've been exposed to and they love to do flag ceremonies and volunteer. I don't have enough experience to know much about troops yet, but I've seen the same boys go to a troop lacking in patrols, program, and rules then to a troop that was opposite. Guess which was cooler? Interestingly enough, the lack of rules made some uneasy. Sports is the biggest problem I hear of so far.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Try to read BL sometimes. It's audience is about 8 to 9 year old's. Somebody has forgotten about their main emphasis in an attempt to cash in on numbers.

 

FB

 

 

[Jason OK]

We look like a bunch of dorks. The uniforms do not bother me.

 

Compare imagery of Scouts from long long ago.in a galaxy far far (Norman Rockwell) compared to Today. We looked much more rugged then. More Manly. Most Scouts today do not brush their hair or even wear their A,B or street wear decently.

 

Word Association

Girl Scouts is to Girl Scout Cookies

 

As

 

Boys Scouts is to Goody Tooshoo

(Helping Granny across the street.) Which is fine but you get the idea.

 

When I was a young lad I thought it was kinda gay when I first joined. After I got involved and did all the fun stuff you don't care anymore.

(This message has been edited by Jason OK)

[Eamonn]

Scouts getting a bad rap?

I suppose a lot depends on who you ask.

There are a lot of people who think that Scouts are great. I was in getting a haircut the other day and the guy cutting my hair asked me how long I had been involved and this started an open discussion. Everyone in the shop was in total agreement that Scouts and Scouting is great. This was a place where a haircut still costs five bucks and where the owner goes to the local hospital every Sunday and does haircuts for free.

Talk to the proud parents of a Scout being awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. I very much doubt if they will give Scouts a bad rap.

I have been working with some Judges, everyone of them think that Scouting and the Scouting programs are great and feel if we could get more youth involved they wouldn't have as many youth to deal with.

Have a chat with the Lads coming off the trek at Philmont. I bet that not one of them will give Scouting a bad rap.

You can look in these forums and you will find a couple of people who don't have a kind word to say about the BSA.

In many cases the people who give Scouting a bad rap, don't like something that Scouting stands for or is against or they don't know very much about the programs of Scouting. We need to at the unit level, district level and council level do a better job of marketing. It seems a shame that the local soccer team with 15 or 16 boys can be the headline in the local paper and a district camporee with 150 boys isn't even in the paper.

Sad to say there is another group that gives Scouting a bad rap. These are the Boys and Girls that were in and quit. We need to make sure that we are keeping the promise that is made to them in the Scout Handbook.

Eamonn

[Jason OK]

I loved Philmont! I even loved being elected into OA and Senior Patrol Leader! We are not trying to get adults in. We are trying to get kids in. The BSA is like any other product out on the market. It must be marketed successfully for it to sell! Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that.

[Bob White]

I believe the vast majority of BSA problems could be solved by Charter Organizations taking their responsibility to select responsible leaders more seriously.

[zippie2223]

 

When my boy and I first joined Cub Scouts I had to hear a lot of STUFF from people who really did not know anything about scouting.

My Mother-in-law said that Cub Scouts made boy wimps. (This coming from a woman that spent most of her childrens life so drunk she could not take care of them. My wife and her sibling turned out alright despite her thanks to their grandmother.)

I took some ribbing from the guys in fantasy football league. But what the heck do they know they pretend to be football team owners and most of them dont have kids yet.

Most disturbing was a women that I work with, she made a lewd comment about me playing with seven year olds. I went off on her till she almost cried, telling her that if she or her husband spent a little more time with their son he would not be doing five years in jail for cocaine possession and if that is what she though of when I mentioned children then she must be some kind of pervert.

 

 

People Love misery and if you seem to be doing something better then them they will try to tear you down. If you do better then they are, then that mean something must be wrong with them.

 

[BPwannabe@137]

Bob White: Re:Chartered Organizations

 

Once again, you are correct.

 

 

Scouting has always gotten a bad rap because the boys are supposed to be "a bunch of do gooders". Don't forget, everyone loves the bad boy (thus the popularity of ganster rap and violent hip hop).

 

I do agree that scouting has lost it's rugged image. Sometime after the Vietnam War, this country underwent serious social changes. If you want to see how it effected scouting, read the 1970's era handbook. Uniforms became uncool and anything military was very uncool.

 

Now role around the 1980's. Although there was a new spur of patriotism, the new generation was "me" orientated. This culture of instant gratification and self importantce really went against the grain of what scouting is all about. Now I was a scout in the 1980's, but in an urban troop. Our leaders really pushed outdoors and rugged activities. Winter camping, backpacking, wilderness survivial, rifle and shotgun shooting, and other-now don't get scared-military type skills. Remember, Rambo was really big in the 1980's. So all this outdoor stuff really appealed to kids from the city. Yet we still had a traditional troop, patrol method with up to 60 scouts, a leadership corp, JASM's and about 6 scouters. Although we went to the same local scout camp each month, it still was an adventure. Oh by the way, everyone was uniformed too-and we were from a lower class area too.

 

Now that I am a scouter, living in a suburban affluent area, I see the kids parents have differnt ideas. I came into a pack two years ago and found parents who don't want to see their children given rules to follow, told what to wear, and involved in "rugged" outdoor activities. Sports are highly pushed because it lets the parents live out their dreams through their children (and often at games, they act like children too).

 

Now I am cubmaster and have slowly worked to bring traditional scouting pack to my pack. Some parents think its really cool and are now pushing their sons in my direction. Others are going along with the program. A few have expressed they do not like it and will drop out (the kids however want to stay!) Before anyone jumps down my throat, I am not teaching anything that is not in the cub scout books. But little things like respect for older people, wearing a uniform, camping and outdoor cooking, doing KP rather then using paper plates, sleeping in tents rather then the inside of a car, that really upset some parents???

 

SOrry-again I am off the topic. One final thought. We need to improve our image. Stop with the posters of dorking kids (who are probibly not scouts) modeling uniforms doing dorky things (like selling popcorn) You want to get boys back into scouting. Show them camping, hiking, shooting, working on emergency prepardness, boating, and other things that the founders wanted boys to do. We need to offer activites that the boys can not get in school.

 

And we need to go back to OD uniforms too. Sorry, just had to add that.

[SR540Beaver]

Guys, I don't want to speak for Hops, but remember that he is a Scout and not a Scouter. I think his question has more to do with a boy's perspective of Scouting not being cool than an adult view. Yes, we all accept Scouting and wear the funny little uniform with joy. I think the question is why do so many boys see Scouting as uncool and what can change that view.

 

Sadly, I don't think anything would. We are a values based organization. We will always be an easy target. I remember growing up as a Christian getting the same type guff from my peers. As long as you believe in what you are doing, it helps ease the sting of the ribbing you get. Now that I'm 47, I could care less what any naysayer has to say. I figure he is entittled to his stupid opinion.

[BPwannabe@137]

SR540Beaver,

 

Good point and one that I totally overlooked.

 

When I asked several older brother of cubs and aksed why they are not scouts, the number one answer is that they don't do anything interesting. (again, I get bakc to my original statement). Second is uniform. (and yes, the yound men and boys I asked said they would prefer a more rugged looking uniform)Last, like which was previously stated, patriotism and rules are uncool. However, as the Beaver pointed out, we are an organization with ideas and beliefs, and are targeted for that. Don;t you think kids and teenagers in church choir or alterboys are also targeted and made fun of?

 

One of the goals of scouting is to teach young men to stand up for what they believe in and not "follow the crowd". It is very tough today, but no tougher then in the 1960s or the 1930's.

 

Scouting will never reach all youth. Too many will never want to stand against peer pressure and join an orgainzation that has values and a morals. It is ashame, but it is a fact of life.