Where has simple "Common Sense" gone?

[skeptic]

Is it just me, or do find ourselves constantly questioning things that when reviewed have simple, "Common Sense", answers? Many of the issues that appear in these forums, and in the media in general, seem to me to fly in the face of logic in many cases.

 

Along with this is the inability or unwillingness to make a decision on our own part based on basic review of material already available on which to base our decision. Why are we so afraid to do what "seems" right based on the guidelines in place. Why are there so many attempts to skew the meanings of straightforward logic?

 

Is it just me, or have many people become too busy, or lazy, to make sincere effort to find answers and solutions to everyday challenges?

 

Skeptical ramblings of a jaded betweener (not sure what I am considered having been born in 1944; not quite the boomer period).

 

Am I simply getting too old to understand?

 

(perhaps should be under politics, but not sure)

[skeptic]

Well, let''s try rewriting the question.

 

Is it just me, or do others wonder why we find ourselves constantly questioning things, that when reviewed, have simple, "Common Sense", answers?

 

Guess I need to either figure out how to edit in this forum, or simply do outside, then cut and paste. Sorry about the poor original entry.

[Venividi]

good question, and probably lots of ways to look at it. I can think of a couple:

 

People are afraid of being wrong. I have noticed this with every SPL - having run on a platform of "I am going to make meetings more fun", and then once elected, typically ask "OK, what do you guys want to do" rather than making his own proposals.

 

What is "logical" depends on perspective. It is wise to consider additional perspectives beyond ones own, and this forum is a good place to ask for them.

 

I think questioning things is a good thing, and apparently so do you, as you posed the question.

[Gunny2862]

Different perspective...I think that it also comes down to peer review.

 

I can ask questions as a new guy to Scouting here without feeling like I''m revealing my lack of experience in Scouting and the supposition that I should know the "Scouting Common Sense"(SCS) answer to my Troop. They know I don''t know - at least the CC does, but they also know I''m trying hard to get up to speed.

Reading the program materials - attending training is great but without having been a Scout and only having been a Scouter for six months before becoming the SM leaves me a huge experiential gap which I am attempting to fill partially by reading the real life questions and various answers in these forums. Where I can get some of the SCS perspective without having fallen afoul of it myself to learn.

 

All together now - "The only stupid question is the one, fill in the blank..."

 

No, not, "that Gunny asked.", but nice try.

 

And the SCS answer isn''t always the same as the Common Sense answer.

[troutmaster]

Venividi;

 

In response to your comment about the SPL. I have been a SM 30 years (some will say that is too long; different subject) and have recently really began to note what appears to be just that, a fear of being wrong. If I don''t try, then I cannot be judged as being wrong, or failing. This is at all levels of leadership, even adult.

 

As a sub teacher for the last nine years as well, I perceive a problem with students not being allowed to learn by trial and error. Parents get all upset if Johnny or Suzie get a "C", even though that is simply average. But average is somehow not acceptable anymore. The once traditional "bell curve" of grading seems to have become more of a straight line at the low end with a steep skew to the top at about an 85 degree angle.

 

It is interesting that the earlier thread about "Wimps" is now making its rounds on Scouts-L. I guess this question and that subject are closely connected.

[scoutldr]

To paraphrase, I remember when "common sense was a common virtue". They don''t teach it in school any more.

 

I once had a discussion with my eldest son when he was despondent over his "mediocre" grades in middle and high school. He was a B-C student. I explained to him that I raised him to be self sufficient and well rounded, and with a modicum of common sense...he was a Varsity athlete, a Scout, active in church, and an all around good person...in fact, his senior year, he was voted "best all around" by his peers. To my knowledge, there were no drugs, booze or tobacco. I told him about the kids I went to school with who had 4.0 averages (that was the best you could get in those days), but couldn''t DO squat outside of the classroom. They knew how to study and do well on tests. That was it. One committed suicide shortly after high school. Another was accepted at all 3 service academies, but in an act of rebellion, enlisted as an E-1 instead. My kid only made it to Star, but at age 28, has his degree and is a partner in his own restaurant (and getting rave reviews), managing a staff of more than 50 people. He has a wisdom beyond his years (and schooling), and that''s what I was shooting for. Nobody really cares now what his GPA was. It''s the results that matter. As my dad (a retired Navy enlisted man) used to tell me..."don''t let all that fancy schooling interfere with your education."

[Eamonn]

Back when I was a Lad, one of my Mother''s favorite put downs was telling me that I didn''t have the sense I was born with.

Common Sense is a strange commodity!

Seems to me that if you become good at something, there comes a time when you lose the understanding that not everyone is as good as you.

I do think at times we are guilty of maybe taking things a little bit too seriously.

While of course matters of safety and the welling being of the kids we serve do have to be taken seriously.

But even this can at times go a little too far.

A while back in these forums we had a Leader who posted that she thought that the SPL at Summer camp should maintain a record of the Scouts BM''s!! I can just imagine that conversation!!

Some people do seem to suffer from doing more silly things than others.

We had a Den Leader who was like this. She would call me then remember that she had turned the dryer on, but forgot to put the clothes in it, half way through our conversation she''d remember. She made the local news one night. She had placed her baby girl who was in a car seat on top of her van and drove off with the baby sill on top of the van!!

I wish I could say that I never had done anything daffy, but not long ago I spent hours "Fixing" this computer after installing a new music program which refused to work, only to find that I''d muted the volume.

One good thing about Scouting is that many of the things we do that might be seen as lacking in common sense do become legends, they are retold around campfires, embellished and laughed about. Not in an unkind way, but retold just because they are funny and make other people laugh.

I really think that a good Scouting program is one where people are allowed to make the odd mistake and while any form of hazing is never good at times if you know who you are dealing with some good natured leg pulling is maybe in order.

Ea.

 

[epalmer84]

I think part of this comes from the media. We see so many things that seem to go against commons sense that we start to question our own innate common sense.

 

Ed