Follow Me Boys

[stevejb]

I remember seeing this movie for the first time when I attended Philmont Training Center in 1984 (on a reel to reel projector), during my third year as scoutmaster. I remember thinking that it was quite an accomplishment for Lem to celebrate 20 years as a scoutmaster, and thinking to myself would I be able to do that? Well, it is now 27 years as the scoutmaster of the same troop I started with. I beat Lem's tenure!

 

:-)

[gcnphkr]

I could be remembering wrong. It has been a few months. I watch it when I have one of those "Why am I doing this?" moments. The first time I saw it was at the PTC and I kept thinking, "They would never let the scouts do that now". I played it for a bunch of first years coming back from camp and they loved it. One scout made a comment and the other scouts all went "Shut up, we are watching this!" They've never done that with any other movie. At the end they wanted to learn the song. I'm going to see if they want to watch it for a campfire on a campout were we have electricity.

[Lem]

It is pretty interesting how Lem used his prior military experiences fighting in WWI towards leading his boys - including the marching song which is a rally to win a fight. The movie also turns into a fantasy about scouts being more prepared for combat than the GI's on maneuvers (taking and holding a bunker and capturing a tank). The bugle calls throughout the film also gave it an aura of F-troop-style military-silly.

 

It is a great film for getting a fella encouraged to be a scouting volunteer- until you sit through an actual training session, as I have, and learn what scouting really is today. Too many darn rules and political correctness for my cup of tea. It seems that Lem had the book to go on occasionally, but that mostly what HE used was his enormous resources of common sense, a lot of parent and community support, a rich benefactor, and his military and musical background. And of course, the sheer power of his upbeat personality.

 

It think the current manifestation of BSA has tried to make itself talent-proof- like much of current education has become teacher-proof. I think scouting scares away the Lems of the world like education scares away the Mr. Chips.

 

Jeff

(This message has been edited by Lem)

[Narraticong]

A lot of what "Lem"'s earlier post says rings very true. For those of us who grew up in Scouting forty years ago, a lot of what we learn in training seems counterproductive to traditional Scouting.

 

As a Scoutmaster, I try to blend the two generations. There are lots of modern guidelines we agree to follow when we sign on as leaders. But there is still much wisdom and knowledge to be gained by reading and using one of the much older versions of the Scoutmasters Handbook, or Patrol Leaders Handbook.

 

I will always be convinced that Green Bar Bill Hillcourt had it just right. Find anything he wrote about Scouting and put whatever you can into your program. You will end up with a happy troop of Scouts who are truly being leaders.

[shortridge]

There's nothing preventing a modern-day Scoutmaster Simmons from using the same tools - common sense, parent and community support, rich benefactor, military/musical background and upbeat personality - that Fred MacMurray's character used.

 

Folks who have a strong libertarian-style streak may be turned off by the way things have evolved since their own youth. But so has everything else.

 

The rules and regs, for all that folks moan and groan about them, give individual units a remarkable degree of latitude to develop a powerful program. That's not to say specific things couldn't be improved, but I find it hard to condemn such "modern" things as YPT, two-deep leadership, Safety Afloat and climbing training.

[red feather]

When I am asking 'Why do I put up with this' I watch this movie. The movie reminds me that one leader can make a difference in the lives of scouts (and other adults).

 

It reminds me that all it takes is a little dedication without expectation of compensation. The compensation is the day to day experience of what the scouts have learned. Which many of them will not realize for many years and with some luck will think back and know what was presented for them for their learning.

 

Forget todays rules about how we have to present scouting and look took what was given to the 'scouts' in this movie and how it impacted their 'lives'. That is what we all do as volunteer scouters and what someday, maybe, we will reap. We just have a differnt enviorment to work in.

 

Take a full troop of Whiteys anyday.

 

yis

red feather

[Bob White]

I sure hope everyone understands that Follow Me Boys is just a Disney movie and has no more relevance to Scouting than Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes has to computer science.

 

It's just a fun movie with a touching story, but it was never a training film for scoutmasters...then or now.

[Gold Winger]

Nah BeeDubya, we all thought that it was a documentary, kinda like an early Michael Moore film.

[BadenP]

True it is not a scoutmaster training film Bob, but to say it has no relevance to scouting is being a bit short sighted. In the days depicted in the movie there was no Guide to Safe Scouting and the myriad of rule books that exsist today, in fact there were no real training for a scoutmaster to attend then except reading the scoutmaster handbook and half the time learning right along with the boys which the film depicts rather well.

 

Yes today we have a total package of books and trainings for every scoutmaster that tells him everything he must do and exactly how to do it without him having to add anything of his own. IMHO, it is this lack of originality and creativity in todays scouting that is killing it. Every adult and child does not fit into the same mold, and believing as National that they do, will continue to lead to shrinking numbers and fewer volunteers.

 

No, Follow Me Boys is not the standard of a well run troop, but it does show how one dedicated scoutmaster using his own gifts changed the lives of so many generation of boys which is very rare to find in todays scouting.

[Bob White]

It is no more rare today then it was back in the 50s.

 

People of outstanding character or few and far between in any organization. If everyone was a Mother Theresa or a Lem then we would not make such a big deal of them when we saw them. If Lems existed in mass quantities in Scouting then they would not have needed to do a fictional story.

 

"Follow Me Boys" was no more about good Scouting or good Scout leadership than "Mr. Scoutmaster" was. It was just a fictionalized story that used the Scouting program as scenery to hang a story on and that's all.

 

This belief that in the 50s Scouting was filled with Lem like Scoutmasters is a fantasy. The thought that Scouting was like the movie is just wrong.

 

As a movie it is very sweet, as an example of Scouting then or now it's pretty bad.

 

The charteristics in Lem that are admirable can be found in any number of fictional characters in hundreds of films and thousands of story books as well as in some real life people in and out of Scouting.

 

Do not expect life to mimic a Disney movie or visa versa.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Eagledad]

>>The thought that Scouting was like the movie is just wrong.

[BadenP]

Yes Bob I know Disney puts fantasy in their movies, like many movies do, to idealize rather than mimic the reality of society or in this case scouting. It may interest you to know that the movie is based on the book God and Country by McKinlay Kantor the story of Troop #1 in Hickory, Ohio, the book starts in the year 1911.

 

To say that scouting is the same today as it always was tells me that you were not a scout in your youth Bob, because if you were you would know that it is not even close. I applaud all scouters who can think outside the box and while following the rules can also use an original and creative methodology to bring the scouting program to their youth.

[perdidochas]

To say that scouting is the same today as it always was tells me that you were not a scout in your youth Bob, because if you were you would know that it is not even close. I applaud all scouters who can think outside the box and while following the rules can also use an original and creative methodology to bring the scouting program to their youth.

 

I guess it's a reflection of the troop I was in, but I think Scouting today is better than it was when I was a youth (late 1970s).

[Bob White]

Well for starters Barry, how about the Scouts assault on the US Army during practice manuvers?

 

You suppose the Army fanatsizes that this movie is about soldiering as much as some scouters fantasize that this is a movie about scoutmastership or troop operations?

 

It's nice that there is a movie about positive adult characteristics that uses Scouting as a story element. But let's not over do its actual relevance to Scouting.

[Eagledad]

>>Well for starters Barry, how about the Scouts assault on the US Army during practice manuvers?