Moral Obligation?

[Eagledad]

>>Right Barry, but probably you would have done that anyway.

[Beavah]

Yah, hmmm....

 

I think sometimes bad habits from professional/employment environments carry over into how we raise kids. Like too much "policy." Also like when passin' on information, only give positives or neutral "facts."

 

I think that's nuts. Children are children, not employees. They need all the caring adults who are involved in their lives to be appropriately informed, so that each adult can contribute to the youth's growth and development without needing to take shots in the dark.

 

I'm with Eagledad, eh? I've never seen anything good come from being coy and not passing on information about a boy, and I've seen many cases where it was helpful.

 

For those who would wait a month... this lad pulled a knife on other kids, if I'm rememberin' the story right. If I were the SM and we had an "incident" with the boy the first month that we could have prevented had we been alert to da potential problem and I find out you withheld that information, I'd be furious.

 

What can yeh do differently if you know about something in advance? A million things! Have additional conversations with the parents or the boy at joining, set some explicit expectations, assign the boy to the patrol with the most alert patrol leader, task an ASM who is good at workin' with that sort of kid to be his "buddy" for the first few months, be more alert to early signs of similar behavior to cut it off before it goes that far, on and on...

 

It's not "professional" to keep a fellow scouter in the dark about a kid's needs. It's mean, to both the scouter and to the boy. Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind.... all of those require us to share whatever we think will be helpful with our colleagues who are continuing scouting work with a lad.

 

Beavah

 

[ScoutMythBuster]

Ok, let's start with a little clarification. The "knife incident" cumilated with the mentioned scout waving his knife ate other scouts in a threatening matter. The father stated it was his son's right to do this. If this was a school situation it would be on a permament record or something. I really hate speculation, and when I give facts I give facts. I left this a little vague because I was told it is how I should do things on the forums.

[red feather]

To be informed is forwarned. Not to pass judgement but to be aware of what may be an issue. Once again as SMs, we are responsible for the welfare of all, repeat all, of the scouts and scouters in our care.

 

Knowledge of an existing condition/situation allows us to be able to observe, repsond, and work with scouts and parents. Not knowing is worse and can lead to another 'life exprience' that can further hurt the scout.

 

The easy scouts are just that, easy. Scouting is really for those that need what scouting can bring to them and maybe change them. Seen that, done that and got the tats and t shirts.

 

As is a common ideam is todays world information is paramount. Same, same with scouting.

 

I would want to be informed and be ready to try to devolop the scout or not. Depends on the sitiuation. Open mind until proven different. A scout is Trustworthy until proven different isn't he?

 

Forget one month, if there was a scout or scouter that was tranfering to another troop because of 'issues' then the SM of the new troop needs to be aware/informed of the reasons. Common curtesy.

 

The troop that I serve will take on all new scouts on a level field, it is up to them at that point. If there is a transfer for issues there is a definent need to know here. How else can proper evaluation be done? New scout same as the old scout? Same same as parents. Gotta know.

 

soap box broken again

 

yis

red feather

[evmori]

The "knife incident" cumilated with the mentioned scout waving his knife ate other scouts in a threatening matter. The father stated it was his son's right to do this.

 

Thanks for the clarification. And dad is totally off base.

[boomerscout]

"The "knife incident" cumilated with the mentioned scout waving his knife ate other scouts in a threatening matter. The father stated it was his son's right to do this."

 

yeah, this changes things a bit. I would tell the other SM right away about both the Scout and the father -- no value judgments, just the complete facts and how others on scene reacted

[eisely]

It sounds like the issue is more with the dad than the boy. Boys do stupid things from time to time. One of our responsibilities is to help the boys understand when they make a mistake and help them to correct that behavior.

 

Dad on the other hand, to borrow a phrase from the general who took the 82d airborne into New Orleans during the Katrina episode, seems "stuck on stupid." Someone needs to have a serious talk with the dad.