Update on Scouting

I had written about Scouting before, though, checking back, it was a very short piece.  But here’s an update.

We’re a scouting family.  Scouting in Germany is fairly small and my husband never had any such involvement as a child, but our first experience with the Boy Scouts was when my husband was co-den leader for a small group of boys out of the international school my oldest son attended while we were there, and he continued as den leader for my middle son once he was old enough.  Now he’s assistant troopmaster for the Boy Scout troop, and, since our youngest is in second grade, he’s got many years of leader-ing ahead of him.

And Scouting is a really good fit for our family.  The troop is out of the church, and most (but not all) of the boys started out at the parrochial school, though some of them transfer to public schools, or to a different Catholic school (Northridge – an all boy’s middle- and high school), at middle school — so for many of the boys, they start out in scouting because their friends are there, and it’s not one of those large troops that recruits from the whole community with promises of multiple outing choices with all the bells and whistles.  But the kids are all “good kids” and form a community of their own, with none of the drama of someone being excluded or mistreated, and, although the campouts and meetings can be a bit chaotic, the expectations are high and the boys are expected to be responsible, or, rather, since they are boys after all, to learn responsibility while, of course, having fun.

This past weekend was scheduled to be a campout — not in tents, but in cabins, mind you.  It was itself rescheduled at the last minute, and then at an even later last-minute, the organizer was told by the facility that they had failed to recognize that it was, guess what, hunting season, and it wasn’t appropriate to have a group of pre-teen boys hiking around what were set to become hunting grounds.  So, since this campout was set to have the traditional Thanksgiving meal, this was, with a couple days’ notice, rescheduled to our (!) home, where we hosted what turned out to be 8 boys and three adult leaders in addition to ourselves, one of whom brought along his turkey deep-fryer.  And it worked out just fine — sure, I’ll have to mop the floor from the dirt they tracked in from some early antics (very glad we don’t have wall-to-wall carpet), but when it became clear that the turkey was delayed, the boys settled into playing board games.  And they were polite and respectful, and I have no complaints.

The other development at the troop is that they’re looking at forming a “Venture Crew,” to retain the high schoolers who tend to disappear until it’s time to advance rank and need to get the sign-off that they have been an “active participant.”

The idea of the Venture Crew is actually pretty interesting — it’s co-ed, and aimed at high schoolers, with the opportunity to continue into the early college years, and it’s really focused on leadership by the kids themselves, rather than the adults scheduling the campouts and activities.  The organizing idea are what are called “adventures,” which can be anything from a bowling night to an extended backpacking trip.  (See here for more on this.)  The BSA national office recently re-worked the awards that the kids can earn, recognizing that virtually none of the participants were earning the old awards, and I think they’re really interesting:  the first level requires a kid to participate in various activities and undertake certain kinds of training (First Aid, CPR, and courses in leadership, time-management, and goal-setting), as well as participate in service projects and complete a “structured personal reflection”; the second level award requires the Venturer to actually plan the activity, as well as other requirements around training, service, and personal growth; and the final level, the Eagle Scout equivalent, requires mentoring a scout in planning an activity, as well as a capstone service project equivalent to the involved service projects of Eagle Scouts.  (Details on these awards are here.)

Are these awards achievable for a typical high schooler?  Will there be significant numbers of Venturers earning these awards and will they have the cachet of “Eagle Scout”?  I don’t know.  But even the description of the awards communicates the nature of the program and the goals it sets out for the sort of young people the program wants to create — individuals who are ready for adult life, rather than, as in the case with many programs for teens, kids who have just done as they’re told and checked boxes to score points on college applications.

I also like the fact that not just girls, but boys who weren’t in Scouts in elementary or middle school, can join a Venture Crew and not be “behind” in rank advancement.  And many Crews have a specific focus — such as exploring a particular career field — but I suspect that if our leaders, and, especially, the boys themselves, are successful at building this program, the “focus” will be a more generic camping and activities-you-need-a-group-for.

So here’s hoping. . .

And do you, readers, have experiences with Scouts (Boy-, Girl-, or other similar activities)?