Old-school skills boys can learn

[fgoodwin]

Old-school skills boys can learn

 

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzMTMmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxODg3MDcmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3

http://tinyurl.com/2b5oqa

 

Sunday, September 2, 2007

By JIM BECKERMAN

STAFF WRITER

 

Do you know how to ...

 

Skim stones? Build a go-cart? Hunt fossils? Make a periscope? Recognize cloud formations? Fish? Fold a paper airplane? Tie a knot? Use a slingshot? Erect a treehouse?

 

If you're male, age 45 or older, chances are the answer is yes. Or was, once.

 

And if you're under 45 ...?

 

Well, maybe you know how to build a Web page.

 

"The Dangerous Book for Boys," by British brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden, created a minor sensation in England last year by suggesting that kids were in danger of losing all the traditional, Tom Sawyerish skills of boyhood in an age of Nintendo.

 

The Americanised -- er, Americanized -- version of their bestseller arrived on these shores this summer, which coincidentally marks the 100th world anniversary of the Boy Scouts. (The book sat at No. 3 recently on The New York Times' non-fiction bestsellers list.

 

The book, aimed at kids and purporting to teach "what every boy needs to know," gives detailed instructions on how to make a bow and arrow, how to play stickball, how to make a spy code, and other arcane sciences of youth -- along with statistics on baseball's "most valuable players," stories of famous explorers, and other things that kids ought to have filed away, somewhere in their craniums.

 

The cultural conversation begun by "Dangerous Book" has raised questions about whether 21st-century kids, computer-savvy though they may be, should be able to change a bicycle tire or recognize poison ivy.

 

It's also shed a new light on groups like the Scouts -- lately tarred as retrograde by progressive parents for some of their social views.

 

Now, to many, the Scouts look more like the flame-keepers for a whole set of childhood skills that could go the way of penny candy and Saturday serials.

 

"I really believe [kids] don't know what they're missing," says Chuck Shotmeyer, assistant scoutmaster with Troop 77 of the Boy Scouts of America in Wyckoff. "And quite frankly, they probably feel they aren't missing anything, because they're into video games with their friends."

 

Do kids today have less real-world know-how than their parents and grandparents?

 

Certainly, alarming statistics about childhood obesity (15 percent of children, according to recent studies) suggest they don't get out as much.

 

But not everybody is blaming the kids, glued to their Gameboys, for the problem.

 

Blaming parents

 

The very title "The Dangerous Book For Boys" points an accusing finger, not at kids, but at their safety-conscious parents -- obsessing over every skinned knee and sprained ankle.

 

"I think parents should let kids be kids," says Mike Hosier, program director at the Boys & Girls Club of Lodi, a branch of the national organization founded in 1906 as The Boys Club of America.

 

"Kids are going to fall, they're going to get dirty, they're going to get into trouble," Hosier says.

 

In an age of bicycle helmets and childproof houses, it's bracing to remember the kind of pastimes that were considered routine for kids, once upon a time. The "Dangerous Book" waxes nostalgic for a day when kids had adventures in the real, rather than the virtual, world.

 

George Boothby, for one, remembers those days.

 

"I enjoyed all the skills I learned," says Boothby, 55, a former scoutmaster for Troop 334 in Montvale, who is still active in the Boy Scouts.

 

Even before he joined the scouts as a kid in Brooklyn, Boothby recalls the kind of projects he and his friends would dream up -- two parts Popular Mechanics and one part "Little Rascals."

 

Building a soapbox racer, for instance.

 

"You had wheels and a board and a box," he says. "You took the wheels from old roller skates, or you attached roller skates to the back of a board. At the time, fruits and vegetables came in wooden boxes. You picked them up at the grocery store."

 

He was about 14 or 15, he recalls, when he and his friends boarded their go-carts and went whizzing down First Street in Brooklyn, from Prospect Park West to Eighth Avenue. All this in traffic-filled streets.

 

More threats to kids today

 

"You had to stop at Eighth Avenue and not cross it, because it was the main thoroughfare," Boothby says. "You had to put on the brakes. Basically, that was using your Keds or PF Flyers and dragging your foot down to stop it."

 

It's a different world now, of course. Very different.

 

Girls are now encouraged to have the same can-do spirit as boys, for one thing ("Dangerous Book" has sparked debate about its possible "gender bias"). And there are more threats, real and imagined -- not just from oncoming traffic, but also child predators, illegal substances, foreign terrorists and lead paint.

 

But worried parents should remember to cut their kids just a little common-sense slack, Hosier says.

 

"A parent should set boundaries," he says. "If you live on a busy street, [they] can only be on this side of the street. Or go to the end of the block. But don't keep the kids inside all day."

 

E-mail: beckerman@northjersey.com

 

--sidebar--

 

What every boy should know

 

Here are some of the essentials, according to Conn and Hal Iggulden, authors of "The Dangerous Book for Boys." Boys should be able to:

 

Skim a stone

Make a tripwire

Create a secret code

Make a go-cart

Know about Gettysburg and the Alamo

Build a treehouse

Know the states of the United States

Fold a paper airplane

Fish

Palm a coin

Wrap a package

[theysawyoucomin']

Wife and I purchased this book for our 13 year old "mini me".

 

The book seems filled with pretty good stuff, BUT(there's always a but in there) I can't help but think of all the well meaning parents who will give their kid the book and not do any activities with them.

Parents that will think they have done their job by giving the book and going back to their self centered lives

 

As a kid my parents didn't teach me half the stuff in the book, I learned it from FRIENDS.

 

The history in the book forget it. Gettysburg, schools don't even come close anymore.

[SctDad]

I got this book this year for my birthday. I am thinking about taking some of the things in it and doing them at our Pack overnighter next month if I can find something that would work. It is a good book. I think it is great and hope they come out with a sequel

[WVCubDad]

Last weekend our Pack had our annual lock-in. In between checking in and dinner we made paper airplanes for a little boy with cancer in Western New York who is trying to get in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most paper airplanes recieved. It's for real, check out the link - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hunterwinship

 

I was really surprised to see how many of them had no idea how to make a basic paper airplane. Some of the older boys knew how and showed off their skills, but in the end as I packed the box to ship them off, I did a little clean-up on many of the planes. Guess we'll keep working on that with them....

 

John

Assistant Cubmaster

Pack 13

Shenandoah Area Council

 

PS - That book is great. For Christmas my daughter got the Daring Book for Girls, but last night she asked if she could borrow her brother's book to read the Shakespeare section!(This message has been edited by WVCubDad)

[Gold Winger]

"Parents that will think they have done their job by giving the book and going back to their self centered lives

 

"As a kid my parents didn't teach me half the stuff in the book, I learned it from FRIENDS."

 

Exactly! So why should the parents do these things with their kids. Let the kids explore and make mistakes on their own.

 

A friend and I built a working (almost reliably) telegraph in the 6th grade. No parental involvement.

 

Tried building a go-kart in the 8th grade but couldn't get the engine to run but we had fun. No parental involvement.

 

Dug caves. Built forts. Designed a submarine (too expensive to build). No parental involvement.

 

KIds can learn and have fun without continuous parental involvement.

[Stosh]

It's rather unfortunate that the younger generation has no idea how to do these older traditions. At the Blue Gold last week, one of the boys was trying to make a paper airplane out of the place mat. He was struggling and I asked him if he needed some assistance from an expert on the subject. The other boys began making airplanes to prove who the real expert was. A wide variety of planes were produced and unfortunate for them my design was from a Asian origami expert and my plane out flew all the rest. The rest of the time was spent in me showing all the boys how to make the perfect paper airplane.

 

Was this in any modern BSA program? Heck no! But we had a ton of fun. I sure am glad I never grew up. Before I left I made the traditional paper swan and put it in the middle of the table. Always leave them begging for more. :^)

 

Same holds true for knots, flags, etc. Anything that was once made by hand and now can't be mass produced or electronic is fair game for a lot of patrol fun.

 

The next challenge? 6 rubber bands, fire them off one at a time accurately with two hands the fastest. Gotta get down in the 2 second category to even come close to making a good challenge. :^)

 

Stosh

[Joni4TA]

"Kids can learn and have fun without continuous parental involvement." AMEN!

 

Something that has gotten the boys fired up about the upcoming "Thaw-o-ree" is that the O/Ais planning it, and they're going to get to make a monkey bridge and use semaphores! And they get to do old-school skill stuff with NO PARENTS hovering!