Reflections on Becoming a Scoutmaster

 

I'm back!  I hadn't intended to let my blog go this long without any posts, but life got busy.  Work picked up so I have been back doing my day job nearly full time.  I still don't have the guts to just retire and try to live off of investment income. [sigh]  Last September, I got recruited for the position of Scoutmaster for my son's Boy Scout troop which further added to my workload.  I had a lot of concerns before accepting the position about how much time Scoutmastering [if it's not already a verb, I am making it one] would require.  I was worried it was going to be a huge time sink to do the job the way it needs to be done.  If I accepted, I was going to give it my all and not cut corners, shirk my duties, or put in minimal effort.  It turns out, my fears about how much time and effort the role requires were justified.  But... I am enjoying almost every minute of it!  You, my dear readers, are the ones who are paying the price, as all of my wisdumb is now flowing to the scouts rather than this blog.   Now that I have been in the role for a little over a year, I want to take a moment to gather my thoughts on being a Scoutmaster and the scouting program and share them here.  I don't know of any other organization that regularly teaches youth on such a large scale to be thoughtful, capable, productive leaders and citizens.

My Scouting History

I joined Cub Scouts when I was a young boy, and it was a natural fit.  My memories of Cub Scouts are pretty hazy, but I remember the meetings, the uniform, earning patches, and building a pinewood derby car.  I don't remember doing any camping with my pack, so maybe we didn't go camping?  I start remembering more when I progressed into Boy Scouts.  That is where the memorable adventures started.  Backpacking in the Mojave Desert.  Summer camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains learning archery and basket weaving, plus a bonus lesson learning about stinging nettles the hard way.  Camping on the top of a mountain during a freak ice storm.  

And that was all in my first year of Boy Scouts (6th grade) with my troop in California before I moved to Texas.  Our scoutmaster was an old, retired gentleman (I think. At that age anyone over about 25 seemed old to me..) with a love for scouting, who as best I can remember, pretty much ran the show himself.  Dads helped out driving and going on the trips, but the scoutmaster seemed to run the troop entire.  Now that I am a Scoutmaster, I think there's no way he could run a troop by himself, so I'm sure there were others involved behind the scenes that I just didn't pick up on or don't remember as a kid.

My Texas troop operated a bit differently.  Our backpacking was limited to an occasional summer high adventure trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico  (I highly recommend doing a trek there).  Summer camps were a different place every year from Colorado to Oklahoma, to Arkansas.  Most camping trips were car camping out to a parent's ranch or something like a tubing trip down the Guadalupe River.   We occasionally did some community service projects.  Our Scoutmasters were fathers of boys in the troop who would take on the job for a few years until their sons aged out and hand it to the next person.  There were lots of parents involved in running the troop and chaperoning the trips.  

I don't recall a big troop focus on rank advancement, but I was personally super-motivated to rank up.  Putting a checklist of requirements in front of me challenged me in the best way and I got laser focused and driven to check off those boxes.  As a result, I earned Eagle Scout rank by the time I was 14. 

That didn't seem strange to me at the time, but looking back now and seeing where 14 year-olds are today with maturity and responsibility, it doesn't make sense.  Either requirements have gotten harder, kids are mentally maturing later, or I was just an outlier and didn't recognize it.  I sadly don't have my scout book anymore, so I can't go back and see if the requirements have changed significantly.  I could probably do some research and find out, but there's a reason this is called Wisdumb and not Wisdom.  It's possible requirements have gotten harder or more numerous as the scouting organization is always updating and changing requirements.  I do have a paper record of my advancement dates that shows I earned Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class and 1st Class all in my first year with my California troop.  Getting to first class in the first year is a goal we set with the troop I am leading now, but nobody ever seems to make it.  After that there was 10 months to Star, a relatively long delay since we moved, and I changed troops.  It then only took me 7 months to get to Life, a month longer than the minimum time in a position of responsibility required for the rank.  And then it took about a year to complete my Eagle requirements and project.  Laying it out like that makes it seem totally feasible.

My best memories of scouting tend to be the biggest challenges I faced.  Inclement weather.  Strenuous Philmont treks.  Trying to lead a patrol of my peers.  

Note on the images above, the AI Image generator I used could not grasp the concept that herding cats was an impossible task.  Even explicitly telling it to make the cats uncooperative didn't work.  AI cats are apparently much easier to herd than real cats.  Or scouts.  And my memory may be a little hazy, but I'm pretty sure we encountered a sharknado on one of our camping trips.

For good reason, achieving the rank of Eagle is an accomplishment recognized around the world.  Colleges recognize its value when reviewing applications.  Employers recognize its value when recruiting.  Eagle Scout lives on my resume to this day.  While not a guarantee of success, it increases the odds of success more than any other predictor I can think of.  By success, I mean however you personally define it for the particular outcome you are looking for.

Benefits of Scouting

As an adult leading a troop now, the benefits of scouting are even more apparent to me than they were when I was a youth.  So many kids graduate high school with very little in the way of life skills, not to mention any leadership experience whatsoever.  They have never been challenged.  They rarely get out of their comfort zone.  As I like to sum it up, they haven't built much character.  I encourage the scouts in my troop to do hard things.  To challenge themselves.  To build character.  My continual reminders that any difficulties they are facing are character building experiences is a running joke among the scouts in my troop.  They laugh at it, but I see it working.  They learn how to be prepared.  They learn there are consequences for every action and decision, both good and bad.  They learn how to interact and lead other people.  They gain knowledge and learn life skills through the plethora of merit badge offerings.  First aid. Personal Management. Knots. Emergency Preparedness.  They learn how to give back to the community through service.  Selflessness.  They learn how to keep themselves physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.  By the time scouts reach 18, they are well prepared to be young adults in the world and have skills and experiences way beyond those of their peers.

Girls in Scouting

If you had asked me as a youth whether girls should be in Boy Scouts, I'm not sure how I would've answered.  Probably, yes?  Venture scouting was co-ed and Philmont exposed me to co-ed Venture crews going on treks and female Venture scouts on staff, and I thought that was pretty cool.  Now, as a parent of both a son and a daughter, I strongly believe the Boy Scout program should be open to girls and I celebrated when the program was opened up in 2018/2019.  Why should all of those benefits I talk about in the paragraph above be limited to boys only?  In fact, I am a little disappointed Boy Scouts  (now, Scouts BSA and soon to be rebranded as Scouting America to further emphasize it is an organization for all youth, not just boys) did not take things further six years ago when they decided to open the organization to girls.  As it stands now, girls' troops are separate entities and operate as such.  They could be linked to a boys' troop to share a committee, but they run their troops separately.  While this is a huge improvement over excluding girls, I believe there is great benefit to having an option for troops containing both boys and girls.  Youths need to learn how to interact with the opposite sex.  It is great preparation for adulthood and would be a new benefit that could be listed above.  I have heard there is actually a pilot program trying this out.  I know nothing more than that, but I hope it is successful, and Scouting America continues to progress in this direction.

As for the logistics of having mixed troops, Scouting America really has all of the policies in place to handle it already.  Like in Venture scouts.  And in Boy Scout Troops which have been allowed to have female leaders since 1988.  There are common-sense requirements for separate tenting and privacy areas and it works.  Beyond that, as a direct consequence of unfortunate abuse in the past, Scouting America now has an extremely stringent youth protection policy that goes way beyond anything I have ever seen in any other organization, ever.  And it goes beyond policy and background checks- it is now ingrained in the culture of scouting.  Did you know there is no 1-on-1 conversation allowed between adults and scouts?  Even via e-mail or text?  A second adult or parent must always be present or copied.  Everyone knows the policy and everyone must follow it.  I would argue that due to these extreme measures, there is currently no safer organization for youths than a Scout Troop.

The Scout Oath and Law

The Scout Oath:  On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

The Scout Law: A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

From the time a scout joins a Cub Scout pack, the Scout Oath and Law are recited regularly at every meeting.  As a scout, this always seemed kind of cultish to me, but I didn't question it.  Reflecting back with the wisdumb I've added as I age, I see why they get repeated and drilled into your head.  These ideals (presumably all good, but more on that in the next paragraph) end up always in your subconscious guiding your decisions whether you know it or not.  They are the ideals of scouting.  They paint the Norman Rockwell picture in your head of what a scout should be.  I can't say whether I would be as cognizant of keeping myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight without scouting, but I think the program definitely deserves some credit.

Is the oath and law perfect?  In my opinion, no.  The duty to God part, in particular seems antiquated to me and should be removed or revised to be optional (officially optional as opposed to the de facto optional that many people treat it as).  At this point in time, Scouting in the US kind of dances around the issue and accepts any form of spiritualism as satisfying this requirement.  This officially allows Buddhists and members of other religions that don't believe in a God per se to meet the requirements.  The only remaining discrimination is towards atheists.   Some in the organization seem to pride themselves on saying you can't be a scout if you are an atheist.  It isn't a good look for Scouting America and is my single biggest disappointment with the official program.  They are kidding themselves if they think there has never been an atheist Eagle Scout.  Note that even Lord Baden Powell (the founder of Boy Scouts) recognized the duty to God could not be applied everywhere and approved language change in some countries that instead either referred to a higher power or removed references to God all together.  While he personally believed that a duty to God was critical to instill in an upstanding scout, he recognized that this was true in his place in the world and was progressive enough to realize this could not apply everywhere.  I like to think that were he still alive today, his views would have continued to evolve with the times and we would not be stuck with a recalcitrant national organization that is afraid to change a tenet of the oath like it is one of the ten commandments carved in stone.  (The irony of that simile is fully intended!)  Thankfully the oath and law did not say 'boys only' or we would probably not have progressed to where we are today with allowing girls into the organization.  I am hopeful in the future that the wording is revised to be more inclusive of all beliefs and non-beliefs.  For now, I council my non-religious scouts on how to meet the spirituality requirements through a reverence for nature or humanity or something else that can be interpreted as a belief.

Then there is the Scout Law.  A few of the tenets seem a little outdated to me, though not as egregiously as the duty to God.  I think "Loyal" can be problematic, for example.  In some cases, loyalty is good and something to aspire to.  In other cases, loyalty could require you to do something at odds with the Scout Oath or other parts of the Scout Law.  Presumably, if you are following all of the Scout Law, you should never be in a situation where loyalty is demanded to something that is not, say, morally straight, but I don't know.  People can probably come up with lots of examples where this is the case.  "Obedient" has a similar duality that I have a problem with.  Often, obedience is a worthy trait, but not all the time.  A good scout must recognize when obedience is appropriate and when it is not.   I won't train scouts to be blindly obedient.   They must learn to recognize when a law/request/demand is justified and proper and when it isn't.  "Reverent" can be a problem, depending on how you interpret the word.  Often in scouting, reverent is intended only as reverence to God.  The definition and root of "reverent" means to stand in awe of.  While this could be God, I think it is perfectly fine to be "reverent" towards, nature, science, humanity or whatever else you are in awe of and prefer this broader definition for scouting.  The remainder of the Scout Law is less controversial, in my opinion, though I have been in some thoughtful discussions with scouts who have argued why some of them are of questionable value.

I think it is important to note that the Oath and Law are guides.  We all fail to live up to some of the points at times.  And that is OK.  It is recognizing that we have room for improvement, for doing better, and striving to do our best that creates the lifelong value.

I also want to mention the scout motto: Be Prepared.  I don't think I can overemphasize how important these two words are.  Take them to heart.  Live by them.  This concept is the ethos of Scouting.

The Rewards of Scoutmastering

Despite this volunteer position requiring so much of my time, I am finding it more rewarding than I expected.  I feel a sense of obligation to attend as many of the Troop trips and events as possible but almost none of them feel like a burden.  I enjoy the camping, backpacking, biking and boating.  I enjoy most community service, particularly the Eagle Scout projects I get to help out on.  I even find I enjoy the fundraisers we do, though that could be because our particular fundraisers don't involve door to door selling or asking people for donations.  There is also the reward of challenging the scouts and seeing them rise up to the challenge and succeed.  Seeing them learn to be good citizens and leaders and grow into well balanced, well prepared young adults is very satisfying.  There are times where I think it is too much, usually when I have been tied up for several weekends in a row and have day after day of various meetings in the evenings.  I need a break for a few days to recharge.  

I often wonder if I will end up like my first scoutmaster from California, a career scoutmaster who continued to do the job long after his own children had aged out of the program, or if I will be more like my Texas scoutmasters who step aside once their kids graduate.  It's too early to tell.  I certainly wouldn't want to stand in the way of anyone else who wanted a shot at this job.  I would be perfectly satisfied to be an assistant scoutmaster instead.  That role has all the same rewards but with less official responsibility.