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When thinking about Eagle Scout advancement …

.. we ought to ask “what is an Eagle Scout?” rather than “who deserves to be an Eagle Scout?”

The answer to the question “who deserves to be an Eagle Scout?” is easy; any Scout who completes the requirements.

That’s it. No more and no less.

There’s no Eagle-plus, and no Eagle minus, only Eagle.

When you understand that Eagle Scout Advancement becomes less stressful.

None of the 55,494 Eagle badges handed out last year went to a Scout because they deserved it, but because they earned it.

Nobody becomes and Eagle Scout because they deserve it, it’s not the Nobel or the Pulitzer prize handed out to a few deserving winners. You don’t win Eagle Scout, you advance towards it. When a Scout fulfills all of the requirements and passes a duly constituted board of review they receive the award.

It was not my job to decide who deserves the badge, only to recognize they have completed the requirements.

The 55,494 Scouts who earned their Eagle last year did not do precisely the same quality or quantity of work. They were not all equally meritorious. Each had individual limitations and talents. Each had parents and worked with Scouters whose involvement and skill were all over the map.

A healthy percentage of them left a lot of work until the last few months of their seventeenth year.

When we present a Scout with an Eagle badge we recognize two things – achievement and potential. We are telling a Scout that what you have achieved is a strong indication you have potential to embody the ideals the award represents.

Podcast Notes

BSA FAQ on girls in Scout Troops 

I am a Sasquatch music from last week’s podcast

Bobwhite Blather Spring Advancement Updates

Spring Advancement News Newsletter from the National Advancement Team

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Working with older Scouts between the ages of 14-18 …

… is both challenging and rewarding. What interests keep them involved? Simply turning up the ‘wow’ factor doesn’t do much to keep them engaged, because they are looking for much more than fun. Respecting and understanding what older Scouts need takes patient observation and an open dialogue. 

Our expectations of older Scouts are often very different than what they are looking for. Older Scouts continue to need direction, but they want independence. They strive to win our trust and confidence while they develop decision making skills. They need us to be responsible, caring, and fair adults. Their interest in Scouting is still strong, but it is different than younger Scouts. Scouting can be a refuge from some of the expectations and pressures that push and pull on young people at this age.

When Scouters act like bosses, drill sergeants, or teachers older Scouts walk away. When Scouters join their journey towards responsible adulthood they will remain involved.  If we remain accepting and optimistic we’ll see the contributions they are making to their family, their community, and their fellow Scouts

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Email questions!

I’ll answer email questions concerning patrols and planning in this week’s podcast. I think what most of us want is patrols with long storied histories, stable membership, and high functioning Scouts.

It’s my suspicion these kinds of patrols only exist in the pages of handbook.

I had a dog eared copy the 1940’s era Patrol Leader’s Handbook as a kid. It’s illustrated with line drawings and cartoons of a bunch of cheery fellows doing great things in an orderly fashion. It depicts an idealized patrol that never was.

I chased that idealized patrol for a long time. None of my patrols reached that state of idealized perfection although I had even had a glimpse of it now and then. Eventually I learned to encourage my patrols without chasing an idealized version of something that never actually existed.

Another listener asks about patrols and planning when it comes to independent patrol camping trips. they want to know if I would consider limiting options for this sort of thing a usurpation of Scout leadership. I don’t have any argument with defining the choices. We play a specific game on a specific field of play and this limits our choices, you may say it lends focus to our activities.

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Scouting discipline is constructive… 

… because it builds character through applying the Scout oath and law. When we think of discipline we often think of  systems of rules and punishments. These things are more familiar to our Scouts than open-ended situation where they follow principles. Asking them to judge themselves rather than issuing judgments may be something new. They will catch the spirit of this, but it takes a little time, and a consistent message.

We don’t need rules and regulations when it comes to discipline, and we don’t want them. Scouts find all kinds of ways around rules and regulations. It’s not as easy to find a way around your own conscience. Rules and regulations are imposed impersonally, the Scout Oath and Law are adopted personally.

Constructive discipline is defined by the Scout oath and law. Scouts learn we are woking with living principles rather than words we repeat dryly during ceremonies.

How do we apply constructive discipline, require accountability and promote responsibility? My answer is twofold – be an adult and be kind.

When problems arise my best practical advice is working things out by asking lots and lots of questions and helping the Scout understand the implications of his actions. In almost every case the Scout will work things out with very little prompting.

Compassion and kindness are not weakness, they are a strong influence in our lives, and at the heart of applying constructive discipline.

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Why is Scouting designed around youth leadership?

Most Scouters think a youth led troop is the brass ring of Scouting. What exactly do we mean when we talk about youth leadership?

There’s much confusion and misunderstanding of this than nearly any other aspect of Scouting. Our perspective is often narrowly focused on things that aren’t all that important. 

If you’ve been following this series you won’t be surprised when I say engaging youth in leadership is a very simple, direct and uncomplicated thing to describe, and it’s actually very simple to do. Like most simple things it is also endless complex when you start to work with it. Somewhere I mentioned Scouting is like a game of golf or fly fishing. You can learn how to do either in a few hours, and spend the rest of your life perfecting your technique.

Our main goal as Scouters is not creating leaders. The main aim is developing character by applying the patrol method. If we focus on building leaders we miss the point. If we build character we can’t help but build leaders.

Youth leadership is not simply a cadre of Scouts sitting around a paper-filled table making plans. Young people lead themselves all the time, it comes quite naturally to them. You may not see this leadership if you don’t look for it, but it’s there.

We need to learn to recognize that leadership, and build on it, so Scouts have the satisfaction and character building experience of leading their own troop.

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

How does Scout advancement achieve the main aim of Scouting?

Todays talk about advancement continues our foundations series. I’ve written extensively in detail about many aspects of Scout advancement, but this is different. In this podcast I ask how Scout advancement fits into the overall game of Scouting.

You’ll hear me read from Baden-Powell’s Aids to Scoutmastership –

If once we make Scouting into a formal scheme of serious instruction in efficiency, we miss the whole point and value of Scout training, and we trench on the work of the schools without the trained experts for carrying it out. We want to get all our boys along through cheery self-development from within and not through the imposition of formal instruction from without.

But the object of the Badge System in Scouting is also to give the Scoutmaster an instrument by which he can stimulate keenness on the part of every and any boy to take up hobbies that can be helpful in forming his character or developing his skill.

“Cheery self development” is all about building character, but if we aren’t specific in our aims Scout advancement can become anything but cheery.

Podcast Notes

Baden-Powell’s thoughts on advancement “Proficiency Badges”

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

What’s the difference between Patrol system and Patrol method?

I have never found any actual difference between those terms in Scouting literature, but I will share acouple of thoughts to differentiate between patrol system and patrol method in a way you may find helpful.

Over the next three podcasts we’ll continue our foundations series by examining three main things about Scouting: Patrol System, Advancement, and Youth leadership. Scouters spend the most time working with these three key pieces of the game.

We first want to ask why are they a part of Scouting, how they function, and define our role is in making them happen.

This week we’ll talk about the patrol system. Be sure to read John Thurman’s story in linked below in the podcast notes.

They formed a Patrol and they started to train themselves, using the book Scouting for Boys as the only guide, but they found, as Patrols have always found, that there were many things they did not know, many things they could not find out and many things they could not do without the help of some adult, and so the practice grew of a number of Patrols getting together, forming a Troop, and usually finding their own Scoutmaster.

John Thurman

Podcast Notes

John Thurman’s Patrol Story in Why We have Scoutmasters

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Some aspects of the Scouting game look like flaws…

… but they are features we must not alter. Games restrict or constrain play through rules, the laws of physics, or human limitations and Scouting is no exception.

We Scouters often expend  lot of effort trying to fix things that don’t need to be fixed, or smooth over things that are intentionally challenging.

When you get to know the game, the dynamics, and understand the field of play things become clearer and you become a better coach. The Scouting game is complex, fascinating, and multi-layered but anyone can play. In this podcast I’ll bring together the information I’ve shared over the past three podcasts and explain exactly how simple it is. Spoiler alert – it has something to do with going camping.

Scouting is a game for boys, under the leadership of boys, in which elder brothers can give their younger brothers healthy environment and encourage them to healthy activities such as will help them to develop Citizenship.

Scouting is not an abstruse or difficult science: rather it is a jolly game if you take it in the right light.

Baden-Powell

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Thinking of Scouts as players …

… fills out the analogy of Scouting as a game. Players volunteer to participate in the game. The most important volunteers in Scouting have more power and influence than the highest official. Without their participation, Scouting would come to a complete halt. They bring endless energy, resources, and real transformational power to their role. They are the only volunteers we simply cannot afford to lose.

Scouts make a voluntary decision to participate and we Scouters have our positions only to serve the interests and goals of the Scouts. These simple things constitute the framework of Scouting, and they are all that is truly important. The rest is window dressing, it’s nice to have, but not essential to achieving the goal of the game.

Our work is maintaining a safe, secure environment for all this to work. We maintain focus, and work with one Scout at a time.

Podcast Notes

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good

Thinking of Scouters as coaches …

… can help us understand our role in the game. These are just analogies – we aren’t actually coaches, and Scouting isn’t actually a game.  Analogies are not exact copies, they only resemble what they represent. What a Scouter does may be similar to coaching, but Scouters hold an unique role in a young person’s life. We are part parent, part coach, part counsellor, part mentor, and part friend.

In this second installment of our fundamentals of Scouting series I’ll talk about our role, and the deceptively simple skills we need to master.  I may be able to explain observation, dialogue, discovery, and responsive application in a few minutes, but they take a lifetime to master.

Scouters as coaches apply these skills to an endlessly recursive process to facilitate the game of Scouting. Our game is not competitive, our game does not end in a zero-sum win or loss. Our game helping individual human beings to shape and define their lives.

Scouting is fascinating, fun, and sometimes frustrating work; but it is well worth our time.

Podcast Notes

Frank Maynard’s Blog Bobwhite Blather

Happy Wanderer Opening Music

Get my book The Scouting Journey

Get my book So Far So Good