#10 - Barriers to Scouts

Alex, my 7 year old, was excited to hear that they would be offering Cub Scouts through school this year. They tried to get organized in February, but between some miscommunication and two snow days, they couldn't make that happen. The week before Spring Break, they were able to meet the parents and get started. Alex paid the $15 registration fee from his own allowance savings. They day before Spring Break, he got his Bobcat scout award, which he gets for learning the Cub Scout Promise, Motto, Law of the Pack, Salute, Handshake, Principles and the like. Now he is working to complete the requirements for his Tiger Cub badge. My concern is that now in April, they won't have enough time to complete all of the requirements. Several of the items are family experiences. Some are field trips which will take some planning. Some are den activities. Becky and I are dedicated to helping this work however we can. Alex and I have a Dad and Lad Campout at the local Boy Scout campground coming up in a few weeks. That should be a fun introduction for him.

I chose this as one of my 101 items because helping him acheive Wolf Scout (the step after this one) will be good for him. Also, it will be good for me. I have been anti-Scouts for several years and I need to get over it. Overall I believe it is a good organization with good goals that helps boys grow in many different directions. Two things soured me against it. I am opposed to violations of civil rights, and as an organization, they are discriminatory against gay people. It comes from a foundation in religious principles (though Scouts are not primarily a religious organization) and a conservative reaction against pedophiles. Pedophilia is not about sex or sexuality any more than rape is. Both are about abuses of power and control and both are done by people from both sexual orientations. Though as a father, I understand the impulse to protect your children from threats, real and perceived. I believe I can participate in Scouts without condoning civil rights abuses by the organization.

The other reason was much more personal. As a kid, I went through the Cub Scout program and graduated to the Boy Scouts with dreams of making Eagle Scout. I was in a program through my church, but for reasons I still don't understand, they had to disband. I had made Second Class rank by then and was working toward my First Class badge. There were other Scout troops in our town and I visited one at a nearby school (not my own). I didn't know any of the kids there, but I shared Scouts in common with them and thought that would help me fit in. I was wrong. I went on a weekend camping trip with them, but the patrol leader (one of the older boys) needed to make sure the new kid knew where he was in the pecking order. I had been one of the older kids in my old troop and I was the oldest brother at home. I guess I didn't understand my place and it led to what I thought was an otherwise harmless water fight using water buckets. I outsmarted the older kid and soaked him right in the face, which must have been humiliating. He got the other kids to help him tie me upside-down in a tree at the edge of camp by my feet. My head touched the ground and they came by every few minutes and poured water on it. This was all with the troop leader, the adult in camp, sitting nearby and watching. When they finally let me down after what felt like a couple of hours, I had been broken. I didn't cause any more trouble. When I got home I told my parents I wasn't going back and that I didn't want to look for a new troop. I felt betrayed, not just by the punk, but also by the troop leader - who in my eyes represented the entire organization. If this organization could foster leaders who would let that happen to me, then I completely misunderstood the principles upon which it was based.

Of course, I didn't misunderstand the Scout prinicples; they did. Now I know that these people were the problem, not the organization. I will strive to make sure that this doesn't happen to Alex (or Aaron if he decides to join Scouts someday). Scouts are a good way for Alex to channel his energies, so I won't let my bad experience get in his way.