{"id":207,"date":"2006-06-20T10:48:38","date_gmt":"2006-06-20T14:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=207"},"modified":"2011-11-06T10:56:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-06T15:56:17","slug":"issue-7-are-we-really-that-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2006\/06\/issue-7-are-we-really-that-smart\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 79 – Are We Really That Smart"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seminal scene of the classic movie, \u201cAbsence Of Malice,\u201d the chief FBI investigator, played by Wilford Brimley, asks Paul Newman\u2019s character (who\u2019s just wreaked terrible retribution on his false accusers), \u201cAre you really that smart?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe we should ask ourselves that same question\u2026 Are we really that smart? \u2026So smart that we\u2019ve reinvented Scouting to be even better than before?<\/p>\n

Here are just a few of the ideas I\u2019ve heard my fellow Scouters put forth, with the firm conviction that they\u2019re smarter than Ol\u2019 B-P\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrol elections take too long and disappoint too many; we, in our infinite wisdom, are going to appoint all leaders from now on. Matter of fact, we\u2019re going to appoint the Senior Patrol Leader, too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSome boys are advancing too quickly; we\u2019d better slow them down so that they can \u2018appreciate\u2019 their ranks better and be more mature before we advance them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s give written tests for these rank requirements\u2014it\u2019s more fair that way.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf these boys are responsible for electing their leaders, there are some that won\u2019t get elected (never mind why), so the Troop Committee will decide who the leaders will be, so every boy gets a chance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy Den\u2019s parents aren\u2019t working on advancements at home; I\u2019d better start doing advancements in my Den meetings.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTake training? Me? I run a (company\/division\/factory\/business), so I already know how to manage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 24 boys in second grade, and we don\u2019t want \u2018cliques,\u2019 so let\u2019s keep them all together in one Den.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it\u2019s OK for parents to call Merit Badge Counselors to arrange a first appointment; calling a stranger is too scary for these boys.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s have all Merit Badges earned with adults in the Troop, whom the boys already know, so that they\u2019re not intimidated. While we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s have Merit Badge classes<\/span> in our Troop meetings, too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPatrols don\u2019t have to be responsible for their own food, equipment or tents; the Troop\u2019s parents will handle that. We don\u2019t want to over-burden these boys with too many responsibilities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cUniforms? Well, maybe just the shirts. We don\u2019t want the boys to feel uncomfortable or awkward.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be sure every boy in the Den advances at the same time\u2014I don\u2019t want anyone to feel left behind.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEagle at the age of (13, 14, whatever)? No way! They don\u2019t understand the significance until they\u2019re older!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Whenever we get one of these bright ideas about how to \u201cfix\u201d Scouting to \u201cmake it better,\u201d we\u2019re forgetting the Baden-Powell was an educator who first tested his theories, then obtained validation of them, then had them evaluated, and then (and not until then) put them into practice. That\u2019s right, by Golly \u2013 He didn\u2019t just think \u2018em up one day and the very next day we had Scouts!<\/p>\n

Check it out: After about a quarter-century in the British military, in which he spent a bunch of years training his company\u2019s scouts in the skills of the wild\u2014map reading, orienteering, tracking and observing, living off the land, leaving no trace, and a passel of other skills\u2014Light General Baden-Powell retired from the Army, but not for long. He soon discovered that a little book he\u2019d written, called AIDS TO SCOUTING<\/span>, had become a best-seller among British boys<\/em>. They used it to learn new skills and play their youthful games within their small gangs. Intrigued, B-P set about writing another book: SCOUTING FOR BOYS<\/span>. At the same time, and mostly because as a boy and young man he had, himself, been a reluctant student at best, he pondered whether there might be a better way to educate youth than in the regimented, sterile, sometimes stultifying environment of the indoor classroom, which used only the lecture method in the belief that knowledge poured in through the ears would thereupon permeate the brain of those sitting dutifully behind neat, orderly rows of desks. He began by using a skill he\u2019d learned on the South African veld: observing. Youth, he observed, are noisy by nature, active and not passive, tactile and kinetic and not robotic or static, and they felt most comfortable in small groups or gangs of six to eight and not in classes of two dozen or more. He found this true no matter their class or caste. He also observed that youth learned more quickly and more deeply when immersed<\/span> in a \u201cproblem\u201d for which they had been given the necessary tools to solve for themselves, rather than having been \u201ctaught\u201d the solution. He observed that youth can and want to determine their natural leaders for themselves\u2014they need no help in this. Finally, he observed that youth will more readily respect adults who have \u201cdone it\u201d than those who merely \u201ctalk about it\u201d\u2014no matter what \u201cit\u201d is.<\/p>\n

Next, B-P took a hard look at the environment of youth, observing that there were many opportunities available to them, in the form of sports teams that taught teamwork (or at least following the orders of an adult coach), religious classes (the lecture format again, with written or oral tests), various quasi-military groups (once again oriented toward learning how to follow the orders of an unelected adult leader), and so on, plus \u201cfree time\u201d for lethargy or mischief; but there was nothing that infused in youth the interest in or enthusiasm for becoming a self-sufficient, happy, contributing citizen.<\/p>\n

From these observations, coupled with the knowledge that youth by the hundreds (soon, thousands) were ravenously reading every new installment of his SCOUTING FOR BOYS<\/span> series, Baden-Powell devised an entirely new way to educate. Some of the key components of this new method were:<\/p>\n