Beyond Scoutcraft

[Eagle_23]

What are some skills you would like the scouts in your troops to learn. Beyond scout craft.

 

For me it would be some minor skills like sewing, ironing cloths. Little things that would be good for them to learn or skills they would have to learn eventually.

 

[Nike]

At every Eagle board I have sat on, the boys always wonder why cooking isn't a required merit badge. Small engine and common household repair are also usually enjoyed.

[Eagle92]

Sewing

 

Cooking

 

Critical thinking skills, i.e. when given a situation they can comeup with a solution.

[shortridge]

>> Brainstorming. Lots of young people (and even more adults) don't have the slightest clue how to begin generating ideas without self-censoring or self-correcting. Brainstorming is the process of simply throwing up every idea that pops into your head, no matter how crazy, wild or out of reach. Once all the ideas are exhausted, then the group goes back and ranks or evaluates them. It's incredibly helpful in problem-solving.

 

>> Public speaking. The ability to stand up in front of a group and speak in a professional manner is so critically important in later life.

 

>> Driving. A specific program on defensive driving after they get their licenses, featuring people their age who've been through crashes and now have to deal with the consequences. The current driver's ed regimen clearly isn't enough.

[perdidochas]

Short:

 

We have the lowest crash rate (# of car crashes per 100 million miles driven) that has been recorded since 1960 (when these stats started being compiled). Driver's ed seems to be working.

[Eagledad]

Communication. Our scouts, First Class or higher, take a basic leadership course before they could be on the PLC, and basic communication was one of the primary classes. The class taught simple things like how to politely greet people when answering the phone or making a call. Our troop used the phone tree at least twice a week to communicate to all the scouts, so they got lots of practice. But the main motivation for creating the class was the scouts' inability to communicate clearly and politely when calling a MB Counselor or speaker for meetings.

 

Barry

 

[Jay K]

Communication MB (Eagle required) should cover your Public Speaking idea. There is also a Public Speaking MB. I hve a Scout working on that. He was planning to do a speech at school, and he wanted to borrow my CPR dummy (the "stiff!") He said "Too bad i already have Communication Merit Badge!" I said "Do Public Speaking MB."

Jay (Communication MB Counselor.)

[Jay K]

My Dad, the Scoutmaster, wanted all the Scouts to get Cooking Merit Badge. His Cooking Merit Badge classes were legendary.

He also wanted them to sew their own patches. He wanted them to be able to cook and sew while they were bachelors. (This was in the quaint olden days.) Ahh, my Dad. I wish he was still around to talk to. I do a lot of stuff in my Troop that he did in his troop.

[Stosh]

Beyond???? I have set around the campfire sewing my torn pants, putting a button back on, etc. I have washed my clothes in the field/on a trek. I have dried out my clothes over a fire in the winter. I have cooked outside over an open fire thousands of meals. Since when are any of these things beyond Scoutcraft? It's just that due to the continuing rollback of Scoutcraft skills, they are being left out.

 

I am willing to bet that I use my needle and thread far more often than I do my first aid kit.

 

I can also assure everyone that I use needle and thread far more often than I use lashing skills.

 

Can a scout survive (be prepared for) any and all circumstances on his own in the field for a week? If not, he does not have sufficient Scoutcraft skills.

 

BP set up Scouting under the principles of the military scout of his era. The small patrol of men were to go out and live independently of the supplies of the army for an extended period of time without any support. The soldier needed skill and resourcefulness to accomplish this. If one could not do that, they were not able to be a scout. If that independent leadership/survival-skills process no longer holds true, we need to change the name of the organization to say maybe "Boy Car Campers with Adult Supervision of America."

 

Stosh

[CalicoPenn]

Interesting question - I suppose it depends on what one means by Scoutcraft. I view Scoutcraft as being pretty broad and already including sewing, cooking, communications, public speaking and (prepare for a shudder from Kudu here) leadership. It also includes campcraft and woodcraft which I suspect most people think of when they think Scoutcraft. But then I'm one of those folks who came up through the "failed" program of the 1970's, which I don't see as a failure at all.

 

What I'd like to see more of is problem solving, critical analysis, sustainablity and preparedness - and not just emergency preparedness but teaching the skills that might be needed for long-term survival - how to grow and harvest food for instance. I could even envision this fitting in with a renewed OA - imagine the next time a major earthquake hits an island like Haiti - while the Red Cross type groups rush in to provide emergency care and recovery, large groups of Boy Scouts (as part of the OA) come in to clear land and replant crops.

[Kudu]

English Grammar: I think we are all bored with Scoutcraft.

 

Just because by statute Scoutcraft is one of the three aims of Scouting is no reason to spend more than a new Scout's first week of summer camp on it. Boys need skills they can use in the modern world.

 

The purpose of Scouting should be to make up for the shortcomings of the public schools!

 

In the "Beyond Scoutcraft" tradition of Leadership Development, English grammar should become the Ninth Method of Scouting, replacing office manager success formulas as the content of Wood Badge.

 

Wood Badge has always been about English grammar because Baden-Powell used sentences.

 

And when Scouting's "Mountaintop Experience" becomes the mastery of grammar, your boss will be a whole lot more impressed with your resume than with yet another pop management seminar.

 

After all, we do this for the boys (for their own good, anyway), so Keep it Simple, Make it Fun!

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

http://kudu.net

 

"Scouting is a Game with a Subject and Predicate"

(Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting).

(This message has been edited by kudu)

[shortridge]

perdidochas: Are those crash stats among just young drivers, or among the populations as a whole?

 

I got into a car accident within the first year of getting my license. I know many of my friends did the same - thankfully none with major injuries. One fellow camp staffer spun his car out into the ditch on the camp road.

 

I'm not saying driver's ed isn't working. It clearly has accomplished its goal of making sure most drivers have a good baseline of knowledge and experience. But we should ask ourselves if that baseline is sufficient.

[BDPT00]

Thanks, Kudu!

A post I enjoyed, especially the quote at the end.

BP also spoke of knights and knighthood. I'd like to see some manners. How to greet and address a lady. How to treat your elders. Respecting authority. Questioning authority is fine, but also respect it when appropriate, which is most of the time. Table manners, and when and where to wear and not wear a hat. When to wear a belt and tuck in a shirt, and when it's a good idea to turn a cap backwards or not.

Kudu mentioned shortcomings of public schools. Manners is certainly one of those things (also within families). When teenage boys sit down in a restaurant with their mother or grandmother, they should know the that the hat comes off. Who's ever going to tell them?!

Done ranting for now,

BDPT00

[Tampa Turtle]

Shortridge, I can beat that.

 

I got into an accident the first DAY I had my unrestricted. Misjudged my stopping distance and ran right into the back of a police cruiser.

[JMHawkins]

Seems like problem solving, critical thinking, brainstorming et al ought to be things a Scout needs and learns while being an active Scout. If they're not, it's probably because adults are doing too much - walking (or force-marching) them through advancement, setting up and running too many MB classes, not letting Patrols work, etc. In short, not expecting the Scouts to routinely use critical thinking and problem solving skills. Those are things best learned while doing other stuff. I don't think they're amenable to classrooms or lectures, though adults could model them as part of coaching the Scouts through the program.

 

 

PS: Kudu, obviously the Game of Life is highlighting the importance of grammar with the emphasis on the difference between instructions to "win all you can" and "you can all win." But as to the rest of your post, I think "Keep it simple, make it fun" should have a conjuction rather than a comma for proper grammar. Perhaps a semicolon would work. Either way, I'm afraid you'll have to lose a corner off your Grammarin' Chip. Lose all four and you have to retake Wood Badge.