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.
