Tag: youth

Categories
life

An Exciting Change

I have been asked to take on a new responsibility in scouts. Instead of serving in the presidency of our ward young men’s organization I will now be working with the Webelos. For those who are not familiar with the cub scout program, the Webelos are the oldest group among the Cub Scouts. This is a chance for me to help prepare the boys who will be joining the scout program. I definitely like the sound of that as I have seen what a difference good preparation before joining the troop can make for the boys and the troop.

From my own cub scout days I have no clear memories of what we did – just a leather “skin” full of awards that I earned. I remember being in Webelos, but anything I knew about the goals of the program have long since abandoned my memory. The first question I asked myself as I start this is, “what is a webelo?” How did they choose that name? I started doing some searching and learning more about the purposes that I will be trying to accomplish. My excitement has continued to grow the more I have learned.

First, WEBELOS means: “WE‘ll BE LOyal Scouts” – knowing this is one of the requirements of getting the first Cub Scout rank – the Bobcat. Hopefully by the time I start working with these boys they will have been learning the basic attitudes of scouting for a couple of years. Webelos is specifically meant to start bridging the gap between cub scouts and boy scouts. In my searching I have found a great resource for Webelos and the rest of the scouting program.

Categories
life

Challenging

After some of my coworkers asked my opinion on the Fair Tax proposal I was planning to write about that today, but it was not meant to be. (Maybe tomorrow.) Instead I wanted to share an exciting experience from tonight. I conducted two boards of review for boys seeking their life scout rank. As board members we are seeking to steer clear of the conveyor-belt approach – ask a couple of easy questions and say congratulations. One of the scouts obviously preferred the conveyor-belt version and started out trying to mumble his way through the review.

One question we asked was “what is the purpose of scouting?” He eventually buckled down and answered that, among other things, it is to learn to work. I agreed that our goal was to stretch the boys in preparation for life (like the life stretching that has been causing me to barely look at my personal email for the last week while I try to keep up with work). I don’t think either of those boys left their reviews the same as they entered them.

Categories
culture life

Giving All

I have been thinking a lot today about what I am trying to teach my children, and what I would like to teach the young men I work with in scouts. It stems from what I continue to strive for myself, and that is blossoming to full potential. My thoughts led me back to one of my favorite books, Season of Life which introduced me to a program called Building Men & Women for Others that is focused on the same thing I was thinking of.

As I was reading Season of Life today there is a part with a discussion of the Parable of the Talents. This reminded me of a session from BYU Education Week this year that I attended which was all about that same parable. The conclusion in the Season of Life discussion was in the words of Francis “Biff” Poggi:

If a guy has ten [talents] and brings ten every day, that’s pretty good. If you have two and you bring two every day, that’s just as good. (Season of Life pp.52)

The conclusion I took from education week was “The parable of the talents is not about increase, but about effort.” I think it instructive that two very different sources came to exactly the same conclusion. One lesson that I hope to pass on to every young person I might ever influence is that the key to reaching your full potential and being correspondingly happy is to give 100% of your abilities.

Categories
culture life

LDS Scouting Movement

The Boy Scout organization has always been important to me because it had such an impact on my life when I was scout aged. That is why I have been so disappointed in the scout unit I am currently working with where there seems to be so little vision to be found among most of the parents and youth in the unit. Because I was harboring those feelings of frustration I was very excited to read what Scott had to say about Mediocre LDS Scouting. That helped me to see that I was not alone in my frustration and gave me some more perspective on the true nature of the problem.

My father-in-law has been deeply involved in scouting for his entire adult life and is also widely respected in the field of education and training. I was excited when he talked at dinner tonight of a project that he has been asked to work on with the scouts. Apparently the professional scouters in multiple scout councils in northern Utah are also aware of and dissatisfied with the mediocrity that is often perpetuated in local scout units. Once again that gave me hope that this cultural problem of doing too much and doing it poorly – getting all the outward appearance with awards etc. without actually promoting the core values and skills of the program – is not being ignored by the scouting leaders.

Categories
life

Scout Camp

I will be gone to Scout camp for the next week so there will be no posting here. It will be interesting to see what kinds of thoughts are swimming through my mind after a week away from news, work, and modern technology.

Categories
life

Forging Group Identity

After spending the last few days at Youth Conference, I am thinking a lot about finding ways to help a group of a dozen young men into a cohesive group who will work together and feel as if they can/should take care of each other. Any ideas?

Categories
culture life

Curbing Bad Behavior

I was troubled as I read Scott’s post about some of the ridiculous side effects of Zero Tolerance Policies in schools. I thought that served as one more example of thing I would rather not have my kids learn by going to public schools. Luckily for me, my kids have not started school yet and we can be aware of this issue and make decisions accordingly. Little did I think that similar problems would hit closer to home when my workday ended.

After arriving home I learned that two of the boys I work with in scouts were spreading some very malicious and graphic rumors about my next door neighbor – who also happens to be our primary babysitter. If I did not know her I would wonder if the story was entirely accurate. What they said was so hurtful that she wishes she could avoid church, school, and anywhere else that she might run into them.

I have known that one of these two boys has a tendency to pick on people around him but this was worse than I would have expected. The other boy is a bit younger, and was probably following where his friend led. I now wonder what I can or should do about this – besides making sure that the parents of these boys are told. I ask this from the perspective of wanting my neighbor to feel safe in her own neighborhood (not that they were making threats, but emotionally safe) and also what I can do as a scout leader to make sure the boys understand that this behavior is totally inappropriate.

I recognize that there is a certain element of “boys will be boys” to this, but the thing I have come to understand about that phrase is that it is no excuse for bad behavior. What it should mean is that we recognize that young people will make mistakes – that’s part of growing up through our teenage years – and that we should not give up on them when they do stupid things like this. What kind of leadership do we demonstrate if we do not take an active part in condemning their actions and expecting them to do better in the future?