(Seemingly) Disengaged Youth

[GernBlansten]

TLT? We do JLT bi-annually after elections.

I don't know, we are definitely falling down and failing our scouts somewhere along the line. I come here and hear stories about how great troops are and the boys do everything from planning high adventures to cooking gourmet meals at campouts. The boys in our unit are nowhere near what I hear others have. Perhaps its the water. Perhaps its us. Perhaps my disappoint is misplaced. I should be disappointed in myself and the rest of the scouters in my unit for not providing the expertise in extracting it from them.

 

Example: We (me and 4 other scouters) wanted to make sure our sister Venture crew didn't wither and die out. They only had 3 registered members and were not going to recharter. So we talked it up with the ten 14 and 15 yrlds in two separate troops, even had the council Venture exec come talk to them. They all said, Yeah! That's something we want to do. Well, its been three months and three venture meetings and none have shown up. My own son wouldn't show up if I didn't take him there. I'm done. I tried, but Venturing should be very youth directed and I'm not seeing one of them show the initiative to step up and lead it. I'm sure they'd love it if some adult did all the planning and scheduling. Oh well, we tried. I feel as though we are just banging our heads against the wall.

 

When I was a kid, we made things happen. We didn't wait around for the parents to tell us what to do. If anything, they had to hold us back.

[msnowman]

Nephew had suggested a winter, pre-dawn hike for his Troop that was met with (mostly) positive results.

 

The hike was yesterday, with everybody meeting at the trail head at 0445. 1 boy who had been absent for the last 2 months came, while one of the regular boys stayed home. The SM, ASM and Mrs. SM all went.

 

Nephew said it was hard because of the snow but it was great. "I puked all the way up the mountain!" When asked about the sun rise "that was nice too". He's looking forward to doing it again.

 

He left his PSP home for his hike and didn't miss it (much).

 

YiS

Michelle

[Beavah]

When I was a kid, we made things happen. We didn't wait around for the parents to tell us what to do. If anything, they had to hold us back.

 

Ah, da rose-colored glasses of age, eh? I can still remember walkin' to school 8 miles, uphill in both directions! Congrats go to your parents and teachers, though. They did it right... providin' enough support and ideas and resources for you to do things that you could claim and call your own.

 

That's what we're about, too. Providin' enough support and ideas and resources for kids to do things that they can claim as their own .

 

Continuin' my questions, Gern. TLT ("Troop Leader Training") is just da new name for JLT. Yeh say you do JLT twice a year. What's it look like? One day? Indoors? With those dumb videos from da old JLT coursepack? What do you do for ongoing/OTJ learning for your youth leaders?

 

My intention is to have us folks here be helpful friends to you and GW, eh? To give yeh some new enthusiasm and ideas to try. If what you're doin' now ain't workin', change it! If yeh read into Eagledad's posts or mine or Lisabob's, yeh learn that everybody tries and fails a lot. Usually for years! But they keep lookin' for ideas and tryin' new things, always keepin' the goals in sight.

 

We're all happy to help yeh brainstorm if you're interested. Or if yeh just want a sympathetic ear to gripe to, just tell me to shut up, eh?

 

Beavah

 

[GernBlansten]

Yah dat's da JLT. Indoor one day training with boring videos. By the book, just as the BSA designed it. Personally, I think its a waste of time, but who am I to challenge official BSA training materials.

 

We do have a newly WB'd ASM who is taking on revamping our JLT (TLT or whatever you want to call it today) for his beads. Gonna do a weekend camping trip with the PLC this spring. We'll see how it goes.

 

You are correct on the rose colored glasses of age. I'm becoming my father who was convinced my generation would amount to nothing. Comparing my generation to his, I think he might have been onto something.

[Kudu]

GernBlansten writes:

 

"Maybe we need that special SPL who really is a leader and driven. He isn't in our unit, at least we haven't identified him yet."

 

Old-school Patrol Leaders and SPLs are very rare to begin with, and are not always easy to identify.

 

I was never very good at raising tropical fish either. They are too fussy. Years ago I heard that koi are very tame and live for many years, so I bought a few tiny ones the size of goldfish. Sure enough in no time at all I trained them to eat out of my hand. It was really cool, pet fish that actually allowed you to pet them as they ate!

 

Everything was fine until late one October when a neighbor let me rescue a few more baby koi from his small fountain. As soon as these "wild" outdoor koi joined my indoor pets none of them would eat out of my hand anymore!

 

Talk about peer pressure!

 

A really gifted old-school Patrol Leader or SPL has the same unpredictable effect on a Troop. Once he is recognized by the adults the entire culture changes. I have no idea what these invisible dynamics are any more than I ever understood my fish, but I have noticed a few characteristics common to old-school Patrol Leaders or SPLs.

 

By "old-school" I mean a Patrol Leader who (without much training) can actually organize Patrol Meetings, Patrol Hikes, and Patrol Campouts. By "old-school" I mean an SPL who can file the Tour Permit, collect the permission slips and money for campouts, organize the adult drivers, act as a registered BSA Life Guard, as well as doing the job description stuff like make sure that the Patrol Leaders do their jobs, and be an understanding older brother who knows the troubles of every Scout in the Troop (no matter how irksome).

 

The idea that some boys are natural leaders became politically incorrect in 1972 when "The Scout Way" was dropped as the first Method of Scouting and the invention of the "Leadership Development" Method was added.

 

For obvious reasons some adults no longer recognize natural boy leaders (you won't find any Baden-Powell quotes about hooligan Patrol Leaders in Wood Badge literature) and for reasons unknown to me natural leaders are not always elected by their peers. But once their authority is recognized by adults the koi factor kicks in.

 

Off the top of my head I can think of eight characteristics that are always present in highly gifted old-school Patrol Leaders and SPLs. I'm sure there are eight more.

 

1. Camping: His number one priority.

 

2. Good with His Fists: The koi factor makes it unnecessary to prove in a Scout setting.

 

3. Above Average IQ: Adult-level verbal skills (not to be confused with experience). This may get him into trouble at school, sometimes with great regularity :-/

 

4. Good Heart: Donates time to public service because it is the right thing to do (this is the opposite of service project advancement requirements). Can motivate other Scouts to do the same.

 

5. Love of "Scouty" stuff: Pride in his Scout Shirt, for instance.

 

6. Nobody's Fool: Self-respect (this trumps Scouty stuff and blind obedience to adult nitwits).

 

7. Hero/Anti-Hero: Every sixth-grader knows his name, be he emo or high school football hero. Takes great pleasure in younger Scouts looking up to him and strives to live up to their expectations.

 

8. Actually Likes Leadership Training: I once watched a tiny ten-year-old Patrol Scribe (the younger brother of an old-school Patrol Leader) take formal detailed notes of an entire JLT weekend despite older Scouts laughing at him.

 

Kudu

 

[Kudu]

GernBlansten writes:

 

"Our troop does cool stuff and the boys seem to enjoy it. The coolest stuff is adult organized. Its not what I would like to see, but if we left it up to the youth, they simply wouldn't put it together. Trust me, we tried. We've mentored, we've guided, cajoled, coached, taught. But it never gets done, the older scouts just don't get it or don't care. How many missed deadlines, lost weekends, bad trips until you take the reins back."

 

Don't beat yourself up. Before Baden-Powell adopted the term "Boy Scouts" he tentatively called it "Boy Patrols." The primary activities of B-P's game are Patrol Meetings and Patrol Hikes, not Troop Meetings and Troop campouts.

 

Since the invention of "Leadership Development" in 1972 we no longer train Patrol Leaders how to do that.

 

Indoor Troop meetings and outdoor Troop camping activities are a different matter. B-P's Patrol Leaders in Council sketch out the general outline of what they want to do, but they usually delegate these details to the Scouters. That is why the old books of creative ideas for Troop activities (especially the ones from England) are designed for adults not Patrol Leaders!

 

A "typical transcript" of a Court of Honor (Patrol Leaders in Council) discussing each other's Patrol activities and then delegating the Troop events to the Scouters can be found at:

 

http://inquiry.net/patrol/court_honor/coh_session.htm

 

So what is within reason with a Troop of disengaged youth? Separate the Patrol campsites by 300 feet some day and watch to see if any natural leaders emerge on the edges.

 

Kudu