That being said, I do have one big gripe with the scouting program: WHAT'S UP WITH THE STUPID CHEERS? I can understand young cub scouts being entertained with silly cheers and songs, but once boys get to the teenage years, it just gets awkward. What really concerns me is when I go to a training meeting with other adult leaders and they still insist on doing cheers, yells, and games that were designed for 10 year olds. Sometimes I want to scream "What are you doing? There are no kids here!".
Maybe I just have a bad attitude, but I can't be the only one who feels this way. It's not that I think I'm too cool to do cheers....no wait a minute, yes I do! Some personalities like doing stuff like that, but it just makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and I feel that they were designed to strip away any dignity I might have. I'm a 43 year old guy and I don't enjoy singing about being a teapot, or acting out actions to cute cheers in front of others.
To offset my complaining, I am going to give some practical advice to parents who have boys in scouting. Over the years I have noticed a huge correlation between how involved parents are and how likely a boy is to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. I'd recommend focusing on rank advancements as soon as a boy turns 11 and starts scouting.
With minimal consistent effort, a boy can earn his Eagle by the time he is 13 as long as he stays on top of things. I suggest parents look over their kids scout book with them each week. It only takes 5 minutes but keeps them on track and it makes a huge difference. Once a kid turns 16, it's an uphill battle to finish since they will have so many other priorities competing for their time like dating, driving, school, athletics, etc.
2 comments:
We weren't always a huge proponent of Scouting and in hindsight, we wish we would have done it differently.
And yes, those STUPID scout cheers! GAH!
I was assigned once to work on the Scout committee. The first training I went to was to be three days and it started with the cheers. Then I found out that there was going to be a one day training which would accomplish the same thing with one third of the cheers. I left during intermission, intending to come back to the one-day event. Meanwhile, my attitude must have leaked out because I was released from the assignment before the one-day training. I could have handled the camping and the rank advancements, but the cheers ...
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