"Scoutmaster' Title Doomed?

[David CO]

1 minute ago, SSScout said:

Time is relative and judgement and behavior can be changed.... That is what we need to encourage ...    

 

I completely agree.  Parents need to spend time with their kids.  Yes, that should be encouraged.  My comment was about parents spending time with other parents.  

[Troop75Eagle]

2 hours ago, David CO said:

I completely agree.  Parents need to spend time with their kids.  Yes, that should be encouraged.  My comment was about parents spending time with other parents.  

Basically, the answers have the same goal in mind.  Socially, there are changes that are problematic but not insurmountable.  In an example that has an interesting but not squarely applicable idea is what I discovered while in Kenya.  I was really surprised when I was taking selfies with the local kids at a farming community.  One teen girl came up behind me and flung hate arms round me to pose.  It was later explained that this was their habit and those who went to the US had to be admonished  not to do this.  They said that in the local villages, each family looked out for their neighbors families including those without kids.  Anyone suspected of causing trouble with kids, thievery or other crimes of a sinister nature could be driven out of not beaten to death (which wasn’t unheard of).

Community punishment, civil and human rights aside, the idea was that they looked after each other and every persons home was an open welcome place for any and all the kids.  Certainly on a tribal level this is possible.  Farming communities are relatively small and increasingly in survival mode because of climate change there (again, a different topic).  So it’s understandable they could know each other as indeed small town communities in the US often know one another.  To be sure, they have their own hidden problems and I do not paint a rosy picture.  
 

the spirit and idea, however  is a balance between knowing parents who are involved in a joint activity and spending time with kids.  Civil rights and privacy here make that really complex.  Kids being immersed in their alternative social circles in the virtual world double the problem because peers listen and commiserate with each other to the point that it’s hard for parents to compete or have access.  We all know this.  
 

Thinking outside the box and rapport building among interested parties is a major step.  It cuts both ways since a person with bad intentions can be an excellent con artist with a great reputation.  Because the virtual world has really altered social dynamics, parents will have to think more outside the box.  Parents spending time with parents isn’t the sole objective but communication among them regularly can be.  It has often been the case that parents knew the neighborhood kids that came from troubled homes and guided their kids away from too much socialization with them.  Right or wrong, fair or not, the parents were constantly aware of the dangers.  That is the objective

[HICO_Eagle]

Instead of submitting to cancel culture by changing titles, why not take it as an opportunity to teach them proper English and etymology?

I fear there are more educated idiots per capita these days than any time in human history.  People with degrees that still can't seem to construct a logical line of reasoning, who don't want to let facts or history get in the way of how they feel about something.  If we change these titles today, how are these same people (or, God forbid, their children) react when reading Dickens or Doyle when they reference the schoolmaster or headmaster?  Oh no, we'll have to record a new audio track for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" ... guess we'll have to change the old saw, "jack of all trades, _____ of none".

IMO, it's long since time to tell the whiners to grow up.

[qwazse]

8 hours ago, HICO_Eagle said:

... IMO, it's long since time to tell the whiners to grow up.

Although I oppose abandoning the term, denigrating those scouters who would make such a proposal is wholly inappropriate (and unproductive). They may be incorrect, but they are not immature (at least not any more than the rest of us).

[HICO_Eagle]

7 hours ago, qwazse said:

Although I oppose abandoning the term, denigrating those scouters who would make such a proposal is wholly inappropriate (and unproductive). They may be incorrect, but they are not immature (at least not any more than the rest of us).

I'm talking about the cancel culture whiners who are really the ones spawning these kinds of proposals.  Most of them aren't even in Scouting (then again, neither am I anymore) but most of the changes to Scouting that I observed before retiring were coming from outside or from new people who had no background.  Something like changing the term "Scoutmaster" is absolutely symptomatic of outsiders making "suggestions" with an inadequate uninformed understanding of history, etymology, context, etc.

Trying to accommodate these kinds of people is what I consider inappropriate and unproductive.  Give them an inch and they'll demand a mile -- they most definitely ARE immature and all we've done over the decades in trying to accommodate them is hamper the movement and endanger the youth.  I have no problem calling those kinds of activists "whiners".  A Scout is Honest -- and I'd rather be Kind to the youth than the activists.

[MattR]

Speaking of whining, let's remember that nobody has actually proposed changing the scoutmaster title to something else. This thread was started based on some real estate person saying the term master bedroom should not be used. So maybe a hand full of people put up an idea about how to sell houses and this forum produces nine pages of commentary. It might not be whining but maybe making mountains out of mole hills.