Parents of America: If Your Child Isn't a Scout, They're Missing Out

[RememberSchiff]

BSA/PRNnewswire Aug 14, 2024:

New research reveals that post-pandemic parents are worried their kids' childhood is slipping away.

IRVING, Texas, Aug. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- While most of us would like to forget the impact of COVID-19, its effect on parents and children is impossible to ignore. New research shows that post-pandemic parents are worried that their kids' childhood is slipping away. For their part, kids are increasingly focused on things like friendship and the future, being trusted and respected, and being capable of solving problems on their own. Fortunately, Scouting America has been evolving to meet the needs of both groups, easing parent concerns and helping kids thrive.

Research company Human-ology assessed more than 100 human values and emotional priorities of parents ages 19-60 and children ages 6-12 over the course of five years. Unsurprisingly, when COVID-19 hit in 2020, parents were focused on safety and control, especially when asked about their children. By huge margins, parents traded the stated desire of "letting my kids be kids" for "avoiding sickness and disease."

However, in the third quarter of 2020, there was an "aha moment." The delta between these two desires closed, and the opposite is now true. In fact, "letting my kids be kids" ranks 18% higher on parents' priorities lists than it did pre-pandemic while "avoiding sickness and disease" ranks 6% lower. Other priority shifts include:

• Preparing my child for real life (+22% in 2024 vs. 2019)
• Teaching my child to be resilient (+15% in 2024 vs. 2019)
• My child discovering their world (+15% in 2024 vs. 2019)

The global pandemic made parents realize that they will never be able to fully protect their kids from harm, and therefore made them more enthusiastic about equipping their kids with traditional skills more associated with older generations, such as preparedness, resilience and ingenuity, to help their kids lead vibrant, resilient lives.

"Scouting America can be a big part of the solution for these understandable concerns," said Roger A. Krone, president and chief executive officer of Scouting America. "Especially when introduced at a young age, Scouting can help kids develop relevant skills and promote the resilience, critical thinking and leadership their parents seek that are vital for them to become well-rounded individuals, ready for success in today's world."

Similarly, COVID-19 made life chaotic for kids, and as worry took over, childhood took a back seat. Kids traded the stated desire of "just being a kid" for "feeling safe and content in my home," and while "feeling safe and content in my home" remains a priority, "just being a kid" is up 22% from its pandemic low, reflecting kids' desire to grow in a supportive, structured way.

Across the board, kids are increasingly focused on things like competency, friendship and the future, such as:

• Having fun with my friends (+27% increase in three years)
• Being good at something I like to do (+21% increase in three years)
• Being trusted and respected (+14% increase in three years)
• Having the freedom to make my own choices (+9% increase in three years)
• Being capable of doing things and solving problems on my own (+12% increase in three years)

A pandemic that created chaos and a sense of lost control seems to have made kids increasingly interested in having a say in their lives.

"Based on our analysis, there is a growing demand from both parents and kids for opportunities that unlock the full experiences of childhood." said Nico Turk, senior strategist at Human-ology. "Scouting can play a pivotal role in addressing these needs. Their programs provide structure to kids so they can accomplish things they haven't yet imagined."

Scouting America is uniquely positioned to meet the needs of both kids and parents. For parents, it can help their kids navigate a world that can be unkind. For kids, it provides a shot at childhood for a generation who has only known chaos.

Parents who are unfamiliar with – or have misperceptions about – modern Scouting might assume that it's all camping, fishing and hiking. Make no mistake, many Scouts love their boots and tackle, but they also take advantage of Scouting's modern-day skills that range from essentials in self-sufficiency and kindness learned early on in Cub Scouts to advanced skills like rocketry, robotics, coding and combating cyberbullying.

"At Scouting America, we pride ourselves in delivering the skills we know youth seek in fun and exciting ways," says Angie Minett, Scouts BSA Chairperson. "For example, engineering and creativity are taught as early as Cub Scouts with the iconic Pinewood Derby, offering Scouts hands-on problem-solving experience that remains relevant in today's environment. While kids may think they're just building and racing cars, we know they're accomplishing so much more."

As parents navigate the complexities of preparing their children for adulthood, Scouting America stands out as a trusted partner, teaching young people the life skills needed to navigate 2024 and beyond. To learn more, visit www.BeAScout.org.

About Scouting America
Scouting America provides the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be "Prepared. For Life.®"

Scouting America welcomes all of America's youth into its programs. Our goal is to give them fantastic experiences in the outdoors, and elsewhere, where they can grow with us in a safe environment. More than 130 million Americans have been through our programs since our founding, and currently more than 1 million youth are served by 477,000 dedicated adult volunteers in local councils throughout the country.

To learn more about Scouting America's mission, or to sign your child up for Scouting, visit www.BeAScout.org.

SOURCE Boy Scouts of America

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parents-of-america-if-your-child-isnt-a-scout-theyre-missing-out-302222697.html

 

[MattR]

7 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

Make no mistake, many Scouts love their boots and tackle, but they also take advantage of Scouting's modern-day skills that range from essentials in self-sufficiency and kindness learned early on in Cub Scouts to advanced skills like rocketry, robotics, coding and combating cyberbullying.

At Scouting America, we pride ourselves in delivering the skills we know youth seek in fun and exciting ways," says Angie Minett, Scouts BSA Chairperson. "For example, engineering and creativity are taught as early as Cub Scouts with the iconic Pinewood Derby, offering Scouts hands-on problem-solving experience that remains relevant in today's environment. While kids may think they're just building and racing cars, we know they're accomplishing so much more.

That's odd. Whenever I asked older scouts what they enjoyed the most it involved friends and high adventure trips. There were other things they said they got out of it but they lead with friends and HA. Some mentioned outdoor skills like shooting, kayaking, climbing. Eventually they got around to working with younger scouts and teamwork. Nobody ever, once, mentioned coding, rocketry or cyberbullying.

And yet, scouting could solve these problems they mention.

[RememberSchiff]

13 hours ago, MattR said:

That's odd. Whenever I asked older scouts what they enjoyed the most it involved friends and high adventure trips. There were other things they said they got out of it but they lead with friends and HA. Some mentioned outdoor skills like shooting, kayaking, climbing. Eventually they got around to working with younger scouts and teamwork. Nobody ever, once, mentioned coding, rocketry or cyberbullying.

And yet, scouting could solve these problems they mention.

Agreed. IMO, this sales pitch to parents has an embedded justification for the usual parents' followup question "How much does this cost?" Not that they will necessarily get an dollars answer to that question.

My $0.02,

Edited August 16 by RememberSchiff

[Eagledad]

21 hours ago, MattR said:

That's odd. Whenever I asked older scouts what they enjoyed the most it involved friends and high adventure trips. There were other things they said they got out of it but they lead with friends and HA. Some mentioned outdoor skills like shooting, kayaking, climbing. Eventually they got around to working with younger scouts and teamwork. Nobody ever, once, mentioned coding, rocketry or cyberbullying.

And yet, scouting could solve these problems they mention.

Well, I kind of agree. I once polled our 45 scouts who were 14 and older (around 40 percent of the troop), and most of them said being with friends and camping was their motivation for staying in the troop. Only 40 percent said high adventure.

I did observe that many of the older scouts just enjoyed hanging out and taking with their buddies during some of the activities. That bothered some of the adults, but the PLC ran a good program and these scouts actively attended the campouts and summer camp, so I was fine with it. There are worse places where young teenagers could hang out for two hours a week. And they weren't bad examples of scouts, just not the ideal examples of youth leadership at meetings. 

Most troops struggle to get their 15- and older scouts to summer camp, but we always had around 95 percent attend. That was important because a week of patrol method is more effective with experienced older scout role models.

One thing I'm convinced of is that members in a culture of serving and respecting each other grow closer and more inclusive and respectful of each other's differences. When our troop peaked at around 100 scouts, we never had complaints of scout bullying because the scouts nipped that kind of behavior in the bud. Maybe our troop was lucky, but looking back, it was a model example for growing in positive values like the Scout law. It works if that is the goal. 

Barry

[MattR]

On 8/16/2024 at 2:37 PM, Eagledad said:

Well, I kind of agree.

Our difference of opinion is off in the weeds compared to the differences I have with the description above. Whoever talked about coding and bullying as a way to convince anyone to join scouts really doesn't understand the program. If they're talking to kids it should be something along the lines of fun with friends and learning how to enjoy a good challenge. If they're talking to parents it should be something along the lines of "teaching your children to be trustworthy when it hurts, friendly and cheerful when you're having a bad day, courteous to people you're not sure about and brave when you're afraid. Scouting is learning how to enjoy life when it gets tough. Scouting is in the outdoors because that's a great place to learn all these skills. It's not a classroom."

It's not great but it's closer than coding and bullying.

[skeptic]

I wonder why we speak of high adventure as differrnt fom camping.  They are related. even simple overnights.

[InquisitiveScouter]

I often ask Scout leaders what they think "high adventure" means...  I get lots of different answers.

The real answer is, "high adventure" is whatever your Scouts say it is 😜

 

[qwazse]

I talked to several erstwhile scouts at a D-day reenactment today. One (in his Luftwafa uniform) reminisced about World Jamboree and Philmont. He said the latter was extremely difficult, but that made it all the more memorable.

[Eagledad]

19 hours ago, skeptic said:

I wonder why we speak of high adventure as differrnt fom camping.  They are related. even simple overnights.

I agree 100 percent. One reason we changed to a backpacking troop was to get away from the mindset that high adventure started at age 14. We strived to make every campout some kind of adventure. For all the scouts.

Barry 

 

[DuctTape]

17 hours ago, Eagledad said:

I agree 100 percent. One reason we changed to a backpacking troop was to get away from the mindset that high adventure started at age 14. We strived to make every campout some kind of adventure. For all the scouts.

Barry 

 

I would encourage all patrols to take this mindset. Packing for a backpacking trip even if the car is 100 feet away. All gear is packed and single carried  from the cars which are then locked for the weekend. With this as the standard operating procedure, inching away from the vehicle becomes a non-issue. Necxt trip, backpack in a half-mile to that cool stream that was found on the 1st camping trip. Third trip, do the 10 mile loop around the pond setting up camp along the way. When the scouts (and adults) have the routine of packing and single carrying their gear/food in a backpack, the only change from car-camping to everything else is distance.

[RememberSchiff]

On 8/17/2024 at 9:21 PM, InquisitiveScouter said:

I often ask Scout leaders what they think "high adventure" means...  I get lots of different answers.

The real answer is, "high adventure" is whatever your Scouts say it is 😜

 

IMHO, "high adventure" is venturing unconnected into the unknown. Scouts are in charge and on their own. Rare these days.  My $0.02

Edited August 20 by RememberSchiff

[BinTharDunThat]

I’ve been chomping at the bit to respond on this for two days.  This is one of my biggest feedback subjects.  This BSA article is consistent with the challenge we regularly face that BSA does t know what its product is and therefore has no idea how to sell it.

My Eagle Scout, 15yo or so, complains that BSA takes the fun, and the outing, from Scouting.  His troop regards the wilderness survival campout as the ultimate outing.  He’s happy building pioneering projects, or canoeing, or at Philmont.

He’s 100% not pursuing Scouting because “ of Scouting's modern-day skills that range from essentials in self-sufficiency and kindness learned early on in Cub Scouts to advanced skills like rocketry, robotics, coding and combating cyberbullying.”  His old man is happy to endorse the experiential leadership development program, the problem solving elements, and the opportunity to explore vocation and avocation.  He laments that he can’t climb pioneering signal towers, or fire a cannon, or carry a muzzle loading rifle and tomahawk like his dad did in Explorers.  He actually has expressed concern about “what if they make Scouting ‘safe’ and unchallenging.”

hopefully BSA will reassess and learn that it’s the sweet taste of success in the outdoors where leadership comes from the Scouts.

 

[fred8033]

5 hours ago, BinTharDunThat said:

hopefully BSA will reassess and learn that it’s the sweet taste of success in the outdoors where leadership comes from the Scouts.

Agreed.  I was discussing it recently.  The example justifying scouts was that the average age of boundary waters visitors in 1969 was 26.  Now, the average age is 45+.  Youth need scouting to experience the outdoors and to learn the fun and excitement of skills that their parents lack.

[Eagledad]

3 hours ago, fred8033 said:

Agreed.  I was discussing it recently.  The example justifying scouts was that the average age of boundary waters visitors in 1969 was 26.  Now, the average age is 45+.  Youth need scouting to experience the outdoors and to learn the fun and excitement of skills that their parents lack.

It's a problem. Our troop was an adventure program, but we were going against the trend of Nationals push to make advancement the program priority. The troop grew from 15 to 100 scouts in 7 years and we retained more scouts 14 and older scouts than any unit in Oklahoma at that time.

But it wasn't just adventure that attracted scouts, it was a patrol method program where scouts were included in a group that wanted them there. The members of the patrols learned how to work as a team by learning how to accept and support each other through the fun and trials of adventure. They learned how to be true brothers.

Adventures are fun, but they are also physically and mentally demanding. Each member of the team has to learn and practice skills to succeed physically and mentally with the help of the other patrol mates working together as a team. Just the simple activity of preparing meals after a long day in the wilderness can be demanding of tired patrol members. They learn the skill of serving.

That's why adventure is important for scouting. 

Barry

[fred8033]

2 hours ago, Eagledad said:

It's a problem. Our troop was an adventure program, but we were going against the trend of Nationals push to make advancement the program priority. ...

It's not advancement that's the problem.  Kids want to brag.  The problem is shallow covered topics that are not part of the core of scouting.  Advancement should be outdoor, adventure, troop skills. 

• Five shallow covered citizen batches to earn Eagle? ... including citizen of the family 
• Merit badges where the badge is often effectively a joke.  How many scouts have said when asked what they learned?  "I really don't know." or "Nothing."

IMHO ... to earn cycling, the scout should go on a campout where there is a 50+ mile bike ride.  ... to earn hiking, the troop should do a campout with a 10+ miles of hiking (5+ each direction) ... to earn canoeing, canoe in the real world as part of an adventure.  

I'm okay with academic merit badges because someone will always want them.  Fine.  ... BUT ... Scouting advancement should be focused around outdoors, adventure and working together in a troop.  

 

 

Edited August 20 by fred8033