Boy Scouts, Yesterday and Today

Since John and Becky are still out-of-town in Paris, they asked me to pick up their youngest son, Sam, from football practice and take him to his Boy Scout meeting. In addition, I was asked to sit in on a Boy Scout Parent's Meeting and take notes for John and Becky.

In my younger days (way back in the 1940's) I was quite active in the Boy Scouts in Northern Indiana. I advanced through the ranks to Eagle Scout, was a Scout Leader, and worked full-time at the Summer Boy Scout Camp for two years teaching swimming, life saving, and canoeing. I was deeply involved in Scouting.

Back then, our troop always struggled to keep 20 boys active usually with only one Scout Leader. We frequently went on hikes or camp outs with only 8-10 boys . . . most of the time with only one adult leader and sometimes without any adult leader for part of the camp out. Parents were seldom involved, especially Moms.

I was quite surprised at how much Scouting has changed in the past 60 years . . . or even since my boys were in Scouting in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Sam's troop, year after year, has 80-100 boys participating along with 8-10 adult leaders and 30-40 parents . . . both Dads and Moms! They will only go on a camp out if each patrol (5-8 boys) has at least two adults camping with them. Otherwise the camp out is cancelled.

On the surface, having so much adult participation and interaction with the boys sounds great. But it's really to avoid any one-on-one situation, i.e. one adult with one boy. They require at least two adults to be everywhere at all times for all occasions, whether it be a hike, going to the mess hall, a training class, or a trip to the latrine in the middle of the night. Although I fully understand their rationale, as there are a lot of "weirdos" around, I thought, "What a sad commentary on today's society!".

What a difference in "Boy Scouts, Yesterday and Today". How did we ever make it through childhood and adolescence years ago?