{"id":1523,"date":"2013-08-12T01:43:29","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T05:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2013-08-12T01:43:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T05:43:29","slug":"issue-361-august-12-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2013\/08\/issue-361-august-12-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 361 \u2013 August 12, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

________________________________________
\n\u201cOkay,\u201d I began, \u201cHow many kids are there in a troop of perfect size?\u201d I paused. Then, \u201cOkay, everybody have a number in mind? Good. Now, here\u2019s the answer to \u2018how many kids are in a perfect-sized troop\u2019\u2026 are you ready? It\u2019s\u2026Zero. That\u2019s right: Zero.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Puzzled looks abounded from the hundred and fifty or so veteran Scouters in the main room at this council-wide annual training seminar; among these, a few looks of another sort peppered this audience. I continued. \u201cThe answer\u2019s \u2018zero\u2019 because the young men in that troop are all Scouts. That\u2019s right: They\u2019re Scouts. They\u2019re not \u2018kids\u2019 or \u2018boys\u2019 or anything else; they\u2019re all Scouts.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

While there were a few chuckles and a couple of sheepish grins, largely, the silence was so stony I figured we\u2019d need a jackhammer to crack it. I\u2019d guess only about one in ten weren\u2019t staring stony-faced at me. The grins signaling perhaps a new inkling of self-awareness were few. The vast majority sent a very clear message: They were mightily annoyed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months later, at another, similar event, I proposed that the positions of Cubmaster and Scoutmaster be replaced with a single-minded update: Kidmaster. \u201cAfter all,\u201d I suggested, \u201cisn\u2019t that what we call these youth members? Kids? Or, maybe if they\u2019re a little more fortunate, boys\u201d Once again, some smiles from a few who got the message, but rigid disgruntlement from most.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a third session, I proposed changing \u201cBeAScout.org\u201d to \u201cBeAKid.org\u201d because isn\u2019t that what we call \u2018em? Same result.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now no one likes their nose rubbed in stuff. Not Fido, and certainly not ourselves. But the clear fact we can\u2019t sidestep is this: We\u2019re missing out on using a critical tool of our movement when we overlook the inherent value of the simple term, Scout.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be a Scout is aspirational. It was The Scout who tamed the great wilderness of North America. It was The Scout who mapped this great country. It is The Scout who is the most valuable member of any brigade, because he knows the way ahead. It is BEING a Scout that we want our sons to aspire to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet, in the main, what do we do? We call them kids, or sometimes boys, or\u2014in the case of Venturing\u2014sometimes boys and girls. But it\u2019s the rare one of us that calls these young people whom we serve Scouts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is this? After all, we certainly refer to ourselves as Scouters. So why the reluctance to call those whom we serve Scouts? I\u2019ll confess: I don\u2019t know the answer. Perhaps it\u2019s based on every other aspect of these young people\u2019s lives: In school, sports, and religious pursuits too, they\u2019re always kids. So perhaps we just continue that habit, allowing it to pervade even this movement we\u2019ve volunteered to serve.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we\u2019re a bit on the formal side, we usually accent it this way: \u201cBOY scout.\u201d But, actually, it\u2019s \u201cboy SCOUT.\u201d In other words, we\u2019re not talking about boys who are Scouts; we\u2019re talking about Scouts who, through our youth movement, happen to be boys.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Baden-Powell wrote his first book on this subject, he titled it \u201cAids to Scouting,\u201d and aimed it at men. When he discovered that young people by the hundreds, soon thousands, picked it up and followed its yarns and guidance, he wrote the book that became the movement\u2019s seminal work: \u201cScouting for Boys\u201d\u2014Guidance for men cut down to boy-size, but with the intent of raising the boy to new heights\u2014as Scouts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My own first exposure to Boy Scouting was through the innocently titled American book titled \u201cHandbook For Boys.\u201d But in its very first pages, this book began telling me how, in the deep woods, I\u2019d be able to stalk the deer undetected by it, \u201cBECAUSE YOU\u2019RE A SCOUT.\u201d I\u2019d know how to build a shelter from the elements for myself, \u201cBECAUSE YOU\u2019RE A SCOUT.\u201d I\u2019d know how to build a fire and cook for myself in the wilderness, \u201cBECAUSE YOU\u2019RE A SCOUT.\u201d And then this wondrous book told me that I\u2019d feel good about myself in new ways, \u201cBECAUSE YOU\u2019RE A SCOUT.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can tell you without reservation: I was hooked from page one. Scouting \u201chad me from hello.\u201d And one of the key reasons for this was that \u201cI\u2019D BE SOMETHING! I wouldn\u2019t be merely \u201cdoing\u201d something, or \u201cplaying\u201d at something, or \u201clearning\u201d something (although these were all components of what was about to happen to me). Instead, I was about to BE something: a SCOUT.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So think it over. What do you want for your own son and the sons of your friends? Do you want them to think they\u2019re just \u201ckids in tan-and-khaki\u201d or do you want them to believe\u2014really believe\u2014that they\u2019re something special: They\u2019re SCOUTS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But we already know old habits die hard. Experts in behavior tell us that to break a habit, our best opportunity is to replace it with a new habit. So, what would happen if we made the conscious decision to say \u201cScout\u201d every time we\u2019re tempted to say \u201ckid\u201d? We\u2019d promise ourselves, and then work at it to never again say things like \u201cThe kids are going to Philmont this summer,\u201d or \u201cOur kids are going on a hike this weekend,\u201d or \u201cThree of our kids earned Life rank,\u201d but call them Scouts every single time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guarantee you this: If you start right now, today, calling these future American citizens Scouts, they\u2019ll rise to the aspiration in ways you\u2019ve never seen before\u2014and all for the good. No kidding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Happy Scouting!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy<\/strong><\/em>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you\u2019d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

[No. 360 \u2013 8\/12\/2013 \u2013 Copyright \u00a9 Andy McCommish 2013]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

________________________________________ \u201cOkay,\u201d I began, \u201cHow many kids are there in a troop of perfect size?\u201d I paused. Then, \u201cOkay, everybody have a number in mind? Good. Now, here\u2019s the answer to \u2018how many kids are in a perfect-sized troop\u2019\u2026 are you ready? It\u2019s\u2026Zero. That\u2019s right: Zero.\u201d Puzzled looks abounded from the hundred and fifty or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}