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Boy Scouts of America

Yancy Street Gang Sep 13 2005 12:11 PM

Anyone have any opinions or experiences, positive or negative, with the Boy Scouts of America? I have my own, and I'd like to hear from people who can reinforce or contradict what I'm thinking. They did a recruiting drive at my third-grade son's school yesterday, and he's interested, so I'm looking to find out more.

Johnny Dickshot Sep 13 2005 12:22 PM

The best part of Boy Scouts was cutting out the headlines from the "Scouts In Action" cartoons in BOY'S LIFE magazine and pasting them on my closet door. THE TRUCK RAN OVER HIS MOTHER HE LOST CONTROL OF THE CHAINSAW SPLASHED WITH SCALDING WATER I thought that was funny. I topped out as a 2nd class Scout (a notch above Tenderfoot). My troop sucked.

Edgy DC Sep 13 2005 12:29 PM Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Sep 13 2005 12:36 PM

Almost two years and I never made it to tenderfoot. I wasn't an advancer. They didn't give merit badges for Happy Days viewing. I acknowledge that I did come to respect the nerds who eventually made it to eagle, and helped them with their community projects, but it wasn't for me. Apart from excluding gays (actually it's not really apart, but that's not my point), BSA does ask scouts to pledge reverence, respectful of a non-demoninational deity. It's not like I ever ever was asked to pray with my group as a scout (or it ever came up, as I recall), though that would have been fun, as we met in the Hebrew school and we non-Jews were a decided minority. But you, as a non-believer (forgive me if I have that wrong), have to take into account that they may be compelling your son toward a belief different from your own, if ambiguous. They're are alternative camping/wilderness/citizenship organizations for boys. But if you want to avail yourself of one, you may want to talk to your kid's friends' folks to see if a handful would like to switch to the alternascouts together.

sharpie Sep 13 2005 12:30 PM

My son wasn't interested but my friend's kid is in it and he (my friend) is uncomfortable with the Christian emphasis that surrounds it (at least that troop).

Edgy DC Sep 13 2005 12:38 PM

Boy's Life kept trying to convince me that Steve Garvey was mostest. I couldn't buy it.

KC Sep 13 2005 12:50 PM

I have very positive scouting memories. I grew up in a single parent home and would never have been exposed the camping and hiking that we did if it wasn't for scouts. I was also very fortunate to go to Philmont with a group of scouts from West Point which was an adventure of a lifetime for a teenager. Of course, as an adult, I realize these experiences never wouldn't have hap- pened if it weren't for two extraordinary individuals. The first, of course, was our scoutmaster - who sacrificed countless hours and dozens and dozens of weekends taking us places and putting up with us. He also took us for a week or two to Camp Read for a good four or five summers in a row. The other is the gentleman who gave up his three weeks of summer vacation to pack a bunch of kids who mostly didn't know each other in a bus to New Mexico. I recently found out that he did that like twenty years in a row. I lucked out, and I'm still friends with some of my scouting buds, and we still talk about it from time to time thirty years later.

holychicken Sep 13 2005 12:51 PM

I went to one meeting with a friend of mine. They made us make Christmas wreaths. Slave labor, if you ask me.

Yancy Street Gang Sep 13 2005 01:05 PM

]Edgy DC wrote: But you, as a non-believer (forgive me if I have that wrong), have to take into account that they may be compelling your son toward a belief different from your own, if ambiguous. No, you don't have that wrong, and it is one of my concerns. The gay thing concerns me too. From what I've been reading online, the Scouts teach that homosexuality is an immoral lifestyle choice. (I get this from [url=http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-699.ZO.html]Rehnquist's opinion[/url] in Boy Scouts vs. Dale. I would assume that any child who takes such teaching to heart, and then grows to have gay leanings, may have an even more difficult time coming to terms with himself. Even for straight kids, though, it's a message of intolerance that I don't agree with. I think much of what the Scouts teach is probably worthwhile. But as I said, I do have my concerns.

seawolf17 Sep 13 2005 01:13 PM

Yancy made my point exactly. FWIW, I made it all the way through Cub Scouts -- even winning our local Pinewood Derby one year -- but quit before joining the Boy Scouts. No thanks. There are plenty of other ways to teach morality. That said, it's hard to explain that to a third-grader whose friends are all joining.

KC Sep 13 2005 01:58 PM

If there was any meat grinder morality tinkering going on, I wasn't aware of it, and I was a very precocious youth. My experiences are probably prettty out- standing compared to most, I'm glad my Mom let me just go and do what we wanted to when it came to scouts.

ScarletKnight41 Sep 13 2005 01:59 PM

We've been doing Cub Scouts. My older son was in it prior to the Supreme Court decision about gay members. I probably wouldn't have signed up the boys had that decision come first, but not signing a kid up is different from pulling him out of something. But that decision gives me a lot of mixed feelings about Boy Scouts, and I'm not entirely comfortable with it as a result. That said, my older son did Cub Scouts and achieved his Arrow of Light. For a variety of reasons unrelated to scouting (his learning disability, his homework load, his trumpet, his Bar Mitzvah preparations), we decided not to have him do Boy Scouts. However, if he is still interested in scouting when he gets to high school, our police department has an Explorers post, and so far my son is interested in joining that. MK is a Webelos 1 scout this year. He enjoys it. He's in a small den with his best friend. I had been the den leader for two years, but now that they're up to Webelos, complete with camping, etc., I've handed the den over to D-Dad (he was also our older son's Webelos den leader). I think that MK enjoys it, although I'm not 100% sure whether he's doing it because he likes it or because he wants to please his dad. Probably a little of both, with inertia thrown in. We live in a very mixed community. Yes, our pack meetings are in a Presbyterian church, but I really don't feel that there's any undue Christian pressure (and believe me, I'm very sensitive to that kind of thing). Our little den has 2 Catholics, a Hindu and a Jew. I've always made it a point with the boys to discuss how the main point of every major religion is to do the right thing, and there is no issue in this pack (or the other pack in town) with respect to individual religious practices. MK is going to earn his Aleph Emblem this year, and the other boys will earn their religion emblems as well. A lot comes down to the adult leadership. We actually switched packs a year ago, because the assistant packmaster (who is known around here as Bitchface) was a Type A personality who just couldn't understand that scouting wasn't every family's first and only priority. We're now in a pack that is much more laid back, and that works better for us. The factors that you need to consider include - 1) Does your son want to do it? 2) What other committments does he have? 3) Are the adult leaders rigid or flexible about things? 4) Are there social or religious agendas within this individual pack that are problematic for you. Let us know what you decide. P.S. MK is selling Cub Scout popcorn starting October 8. cooby's already buying some from him (thanks cooby!)

KC Sep 13 2005 02:23 PM

Stop me if you've heard this one; a catholic, a jew and a hindu cub scout were roasting marshmallows over an adult supervised camp fire when the the hindu says ....

SI Metman Sep 13 2005 03:04 PM

Made it all the way to the top. Had my Eagle Scout court of honor about 5 years ago after starting out as a bobcat (2nd grade). Definately a lot of fun memories of it from my childhood, but I was in a small troop with guys who were/became my close friends, plus we had great leadership from our fathers. If he's interested Yancy then let him in, but also be ready to get involved yourself. I dragged my father on many camping trips where he was the guy who sat in a folding chair with his battery powered headphones reading the morning paper. He actually enjoyed himself most of the time too.

Frayed Knot Sep 13 2005 03:40 PM

I was in for a while - about a million years ago - and don't remember a thing about religion ever being brought up even once. I mostly liked the camping parts ... by my last year we were sneaking in some beer.

MFS62 Sep 14 2005 06:06 PM

I was never a scout. Amd since I had no sons, it never became an issue. But here's Tom Lehrer's song based on the Boy Scouts' motto: Be Prepared Be prepared! That's the Boy Scouts' marching song, Be prepared! As through life you march along. Be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well. Don't write naughty words on walls if you can't spell. Be prepared! To hide that pack of cigarettes. Don't make book if you cannot cover bets. Keep those reefers hidden where you're sure that they will not be found, And be careful not to smoke them when the scoutmaster's around, For he only will insist that they be shared, be prepared! Be prepared! That's the Boy Scouts' solemn creed, Be prepared! And be clean in word and deed. Don't solicit for your sister, that's not nice, Unless you get a good percentage of her price. Be prepared! And be careful not to do Your good deeds when there's no one watching you. If you're looking for adventure of a new and different kind, And you come across a Girl Scout who is similarly inclined, Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared. Be prepared!