Scout Law Acronym

[Varcuri]

Can someone suggest a good acronym for memorizing the Scout Law (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, king, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent).

 

If you don't know a good acronym pointing me in the direction of good website that might contain this type of information would be great as well.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Fuzzy Bear]

I had never thought about it before.

 

tlhfckoctbcr

 

That is obviously not going to work very well.

 

One might break it into groupings.

 

tlh fck oct bcr

 

Not much better.

 

Since you are trying to learn it or teach it, I will share with you the way I learned it.

 

I joined Boy Scouting in 1960. Prior to this time, there was a requirement that a person had to repeat the Scout Law and memorize the definitions. I got out my brother's old handbook and began reading the Law and the definitions over and over. I did this for several weeks. When I went in to take the test, the memorization of the definitions requirement had been changed to simply explaining the definitions of each one. This was something I had not anticipated in the new handbook, which I had but didn't read. I was relieved but also disappointed. I felt like something important had been taken away but I also had learned something that would help me later on.

 

I struggled in school when it came to memory work. Unlike other students that could remember easily, I would take several times longer to do the same work. Sometimes I was just lazy and didn't have the same motivation/reasons to learn the way I had learned the Scout Law.

 

Jump ahead several years to being a Webelos Leader. I had a diverse group, one that high to low end achievers. I vowed that each Scout would learn the Law. I put up a poster with the 12 points on one wall. Each week a different wall was used for the same poster. The Scouts were allowed to change directions if they wanted or needed help to remember it. After four weeks, the poster was turned 90 degrees to the floor with a different wall each week. Then it was placed upside down for the last four weeks. Each week we talked about the definitions of the Scout Law for a few minutes.

 

One Scout was resistant, so I made a home visit. His parents and his Eagle Scout brother decided to help Greg repeat the Law several times over each day. Greg passed and the entire Den received their Arrow of Light at the same time. Greg was the proudest one there.

 

 

FB

 

 

 

 

 

[ScouterJon]

Not to be picky, but I think you mean a mnemonic (mnemonic (n-mnk)adj. Relating to, assisting, or intended to assist the memory. n. A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering).

 

An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.

 

While an acronym can be a very effective mnemonic, I think there are too many letters in the scout law to form a good acronym.

 

If you come up with a good mnemonics, I'd love to hear it, I've been trying to think of one for some time now. I keep drawing a blank. Good Luck.

 

 

[cajuncody]

Ok, it's not an Acronym and it's not a "Memnoch the devil" or what ever that other word was. ;-) It is a song and a darn cute one too:

 

Trustworthy Tommy was a Scout,

Loyal to his Mother,

Helpful to the folks about and

Friendly to his brothers.

Courteous to a girl he knew,

Kind unto his rabbits

Obedient to his father, too and

Cheerful in his habit.

Thrifty saving for a need

Brave and not a faker

Clean in word and thought and deed and

Reverent to his Maker

 

 

Kristi

[msnowman]

Nephew learned his Scout Law w/ the song Cajun mentioned. He found it very helpful.

 

Good Luck

 

YiS

Michelle

[acco40]

As luck would have it, my first year Webelos den had 12 Scouts. I assigned each a "law." Mark was cheerful. Zach was obedient, etc. To this day I see a face with each law! They easily remembered their name and soon what came before and after. Each meeting they would line up in order and the Scout law would appear.

 

One thing I find interesting is that for Arrow of Light you have t orepeat from memory the Scout Oath and Law. However, to earn the Scout badge you don't have to memorize but "understand and agree to live by" the Scout Oath and Law.

[CalicoPenn]

It's my understanding that acronyms and mnemonics are best used not to help memorize a list of words but to help keep lists of words in a specific order.

 

An example of an acronym usage would be for the color spectrum. The acronym would be roygbiv or Roy G. Biv (Mnemonic Acronym) for Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Indigo, Violet. It doesn't really help one memorize the color names but it sure does help keep one from putting the color Violet before the color Green.

 

An example of a mnemonic would be for keeping the order of zoological (and botanical) classifications: Kings Play Chess On Friday Given Space for Kingom, Phyllum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (anyone who's had Zoology will likely have had to know the exact order for a test). While King can help one memorize the first classification Kingdom, Play certainly doesn't help one memorize the word Phyllum.

 

The strength of most acronyms and mnemonics for memorization is in keeping proper order rather than names. Some word groupings just don't lend themselves well to such mnemonic devices and the Scout Oath is one of them - the reason is it has too many words that start with the same letter - Trustworthy and Thrifty, Courteous, Cheerful and Clean. Another reason could be too many letters altogether.

 

In these instances, a better solution is either to "musicalize" it - how many people learned their ABC's (all 26 letters) by singing the ABC song (and how many of you just had that song pop into your head) or to just go with repetitive vocalization.

 

Most people are afraid of memorization because they don't believe they can do it. A "trick" I used with Webelos was to use flash cards in order then after a couple of weeks, move one card out of order - someone, if not all of them, will notice it's not in the right place - guess what? If they noticed, they've got it memorized - and the next step is to overcome their performance/test anxiety over the Scout Law. It will soon become second nature.

 

Just as an aside, at my summer camp, the Scout Oath was posted along the top of the wall in the dining hall so that people could read from the wall if they chose. Where many Scouts like to add the word Hungry (as a very old joke that everyone thinks is original when they first do/hear it but is older than dirt) between Clean and Reverent at summer camp, our side of the summer camp (our camp had two sides) put the word Exit between Clean and Reverent. Why? Because that's where the dining hall exit sign just happened to hang - on the wall between Clean and Reverent. You could tell an East Camper from a West Camper based on the summer camp version of the Scout Law they repeated - West Campers used Exit, East Campers used Hungry.

 

CalicoPenn

[CubScoutJo]

This isn't a mnemonic device or acronym, but here is a fun game I used to help my Webelos Den learn the order.

 

Write each point of the law on a popsicle stick. Make two sets of these.

 

Put each set at one end of the room or across a field if you are outside. Line up two teams for a relay type event.

 

Take big dice and let one of the boys roll them. Sometimes only rolling one.

 

So, if the number 6 comes up, the scout needs to race down to where the popsicle sticks are and grab the corresponding point of the law. In this case, kind.

 

They do this as a relay and you keep track of who gets back first each time for points. Keep rolling until all points are finished. Sometimes you have to manipulate the dice so that the points of law that are left come up. I do this by only using one die and then either using the low number OR add 6 to the number if points 7-12 are left.

 

The purpose of this game is not so the boys know the number of each point of the law. What it does is that forces the boys to recite the law in their head or aloud during the game to figure it out. Even if it isn't a boys' turn, he will recite it along with the others to help him get it faster.

 

I always kept the popsicle sticks and a small set of dice in my bag of tricks. It is a good filler for between other activities. (but they do tend to like playing with the big dice, cause they like to throw them) This was probably one of their favorite games.

 

Jo(This message has been edited by CubScoutJo)

[mkillgore]

Try this one - in some cases even 2nd letter helps

 

Trevor

Led

His

Friend

Courtney

King

Off

Chasing

The

Brown

Clever

Rabbit

 

[eagle90]

This reminds me of the old Region 7 Canoe Base in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. To teach the 8 points of the safe swim plan, They introduced us to a beautiful girl - MABL LABI

 

M Medical Checks

A Ability Groups

B Buddy System

L Lookouts

 

L Lifeguards

A Adult Supervision

B Bottom Check

I Intelligent Discipline.

 

I remember it to this day, some 40 years later!

 

Dale

[local1400]

The Scout Law and Oath are easy to remember if you repeat them enough. But if you have trouble, record them onto a cassette tape and play it over and over and talk with it until you have memorized it.

[OldGreyEagle]

Personally I like the mnemonic to remember the bones of the wrist, the carpals and the foot, the tarsals

 

or the 12 cranial nerves

[OldGreyEagle]

Personally I like the mnemonic to remember the bones of the wrist, the carpals and the foot, the tarsals or the 12 cranial nerves. as for the scout law, just keep them practicing, after all, in the end, every good boy does fine

[mdutch]

Ok. This is kindof strange that someone revived this thread today, as I came across it on a random google search earlier today.

Anyway, there is a "scout law" computer game out there...http://www.hufsoft.com/bsa51/scoutlaw.html I don't know anyone who has used it, but it can't hurt.

[SequoiaWDL]

My son memorized the Scout Law by repeating it in twos. Day one : trustworthy, loyal. Day two: trustworthy loyal helpful friendly....and so on. In a week he had it memorized. A week later, when proud daddy had him repeat it at the den meeting, of course he had regressed to stage one.