Wood Badge

Now I don't want to give too much away, but I have to write about my latest Scouting experience.

This past weekend I began my participation in Wood Badge, the penultimate Boy Scout training for leaders.  It focuses on leadership skills and builds onto core beliefs of the Boy Scout program.

It was a transformational experience.  It shows what great leadership is and what functions are necessary to become a great leader.  The activities are very much what Baden-Powell said of Scouting; "Games with a purpose".  We had fun, but also learned at the same time.  And that is what Scouting should be; a game with a purpose.

I truly believe that all Scouters should go through this training sometime in their Scouting career.  The sooner the better in my opinion.  I can already tell that I'm changing for the better and as such my Troop, Pack and my family will benefit from this.

I don't want to reveal too much so I will end it here.  But take my word, go through Wood Badge.  Get trained.  Go back to your unit with this training and give the youth a better program.

Back to Gilwell!

Keeping the outing in Scouting

I am a firm believer in the idea that the out of doors should play an integral part in Scouting.  Back when Scouting was in its infancy, Scouts would venture into the outdoors often and usually to a much greater extent than boys nowadays could dream about.  Of course that’s back when the outdoors were more accessible and in all honesty, more abundant.

Things have changed.  We’ve become more urbanized and as such Scouting has evolved in that direction too.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but we cannot allow outdoor activities and other interactions with nature to fall by the wayside.  I feel that for many troops the outdoors are a mere periphery and not the main focus of Scouting.  I disagree with this approach.

One of the main reasons that most boys join Scouting is to go out into the wild and to experience nature outside of their yard or general neighborhood.  As our society becomes more technology oriented our connections to nature fade.  Scouting has always been a major connector to nature, but it too has started to falter.  Many new merit badges are very urban centered (animation, multi-media, computer aided design, etc.).  Though most merit badges deal with the outdoors or nature, the trend of urban centered merit badges is increasing.

I’ve heard of troops that only go out once a quarter.  I’ve also heard of troops who only “camp” in fully furnished cabins.  My own troop, which was once known as “the camping troop”, has also fallen into the “no outing” category.

This has got to change.  We’ve got to put the outing back into scouting.  We have to give the youth a good, quality outdoors program.

It’s incredible how many places there are to go camping, hiking or otherwise have great Scouting trips.  The first place you should look when searching for decent outing locations is your State Parks.  State Parks tend to have great campsites for reasonable prices and on top of that, they usually have a museum, visitor center or other facility for educational info and events.  So you’re really killing two birds with one stone with State Parks; easy camping facilities and activities to fill in the time between meals and Scout activities.  Be careful, however, you don’t want to fall into relying on State Parks as your sole outing destination.  They are great for beginner campers, but the more seasoned youth will begin to bristle towards these easy locations.

Outings don’t have to be limited to parks.  You can take your Scouts to any number of other destinations or activities.  Civil War re-enactments, military museums (i.e. the USS Alabama), museums, cultural centers, science parks and many other places are great alternatives to just straight camping in the woods.  My Scoutmaster when I was a boy took a small contingent of Scouts to the nuclear power plant at Oak Ridge where the boys were able to earn the Atomic Energy merit badge.  I also remember going to the Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  We earned Space Exploration.  So you see, there are so many things you can do with your troop that may or may not be readily obvious.  It certainly pays to research and see what’s available in your area.

Going on outings not only gives the Scouts a fun experience, but they also given them knowledge and a deeper understanding of our world, be it natural or societal or educational.  While hiking through a Civil War battleground, Scouts can get a better picture of what happened during the war and what the war was about.  This is hard to get from a textbook or movie.  Going to a city council meeting teaches the youth the processes of municipal government and thus a greater understanding of civics and how our cities work.

Life skills are also a major thing to get taught on an outing.  Rope work, proper handling of axes and other tools, cooking, orienteering and other normal Scout skills are best taught in the field, actually building and living in a camp.  You can have the Scouts practices their skills at meetings, but it isn’t until they have to rely on those skills that they actually get ingrained into the young mind and are thus able to be accessed readily.

The long and short of it is that we need to keep kids in the outdoors.  It is an integral part of our organization and we need to keep it alive.  Not only is it a major part of Scouting, it is a primary factor that draws youth to us.  Without it, we’re done.