Scouting
There continue to be lots of debates about the direction of scouting.
Some important ideas to keep in mind. It was not until 2003 that scouting required background checks on volunteers. It was not until 2008 that this was required of pre-2003 volunteers.
Two-deep leadership requirements evidently in some troops mean they always bring 3 adult leaders on camp outs. I think a bigger threat to scouting is the culture of fear we live in. Some people think it is beyond the pale that my daughter lets my grandson walk out the door, down the hall, go down the elevator, and come out the front door of the apartment to me when I am waiting in the car. He is 5, almost six. When I was his age I walked home from the bus stop a quarter mile to my house all by myself.
As crime rates have declined over the last 30 years the level at which parents micro-manage their children has increased. This means that letting scouts hike off on their own is frowned upon, meaning more close supervision, and making two-deep leadership tougher.
I think a structural problen for boy scouts is that scouting has been for the last five decades tailored best to the structures of suburban America. With the decline of active fathering in the inner cities the structures to support scouting are often not there. My branch in Detroit does a young men's program but cannot be said reasonably to do scouting.
However even my reliatively large suburban ward would often struggle to implement scouting. With the rise in a transient population, especially fueled by longer and more complex trainings for doctors, often having them move multiple times, wards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find it hard to sustain in the long run scouting as intended.
In many ways scouting is facing a decline because running a national organization with a clear brand while accompading local variations is just plain becoming harder. Americans have moved from in the 1950s being a people who accepted one unified visions, with little variation, to a people who more expect a wide range of options.
The first big question not asked enough is weather it makes sense for people of a wide variety of views to unify into one scouting organization. The logical answer is probably no. It is probably a better answer to our national feelings to have organizations like Trail Life USA compete in a marketplace for potential.
That said, some of the rhetoric on scouting just ignores reality. I have seen some compare sports coaching to scouting. Considering the huge number of cases of male coaches abusing female athletes much of this rhetoric ignores there is a problem. However the other big issue is that scouting involves long, isolated overnight trips.
On the other hand I have in some places seen both attacks on scouts having uniforms on the one hand and scouts not wearing uniforms enough.
There are also indications that the number of Catholic parishes sponsoring scout troops is on the decline. However it is hard to figure how much of scoutings loss is from individual troops disappearing and how much is from less members in troops that remain.
Some important ideas to keep in mind. It was not until 2003 that scouting required background checks on volunteers. It was not until 2008 that this was required of pre-2003 volunteers.
Two-deep leadership requirements evidently in some troops mean they always bring 3 adult leaders on camp outs. I think a bigger threat to scouting is the culture of fear we live in. Some people think it is beyond the pale that my daughter lets my grandson walk out the door, down the hall, go down the elevator, and come out the front door of the apartment to me when I am waiting in the car. He is 5, almost six. When I was his age I walked home from the bus stop a quarter mile to my house all by myself.
As crime rates have declined over the last 30 years the level at which parents micro-manage their children has increased. This means that letting scouts hike off on their own is frowned upon, meaning more close supervision, and making two-deep leadership tougher.
I think a structural problen for boy scouts is that scouting has been for the last five decades tailored best to the structures of suburban America. With the decline of active fathering in the inner cities the structures to support scouting are often not there. My branch in Detroit does a young men's program but cannot be said reasonably to do scouting.
However even my reliatively large suburban ward would often struggle to implement scouting. With the rise in a transient population, especially fueled by longer and more complex trainings for doctors, often having them move multiple times, wards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find it hard to sustain in the long run scouting as intended.
In many ways scouting is facing a decline because running a national organization with a clear brand while accompading local variations is just plain becoming harder. Americans have moved from in the 1950s being a people who accepted one unified visions, with little variation, to a people who more expect a wide range of options.
The first big question not asked enough is weather it makes sense for people of a wide variety of views to unify into one scouting organization. The logical answer is probably no. It is probably a better answer to our national feelings to have organizations like Trail Life USA compete in a marketplace for potential.
That said, some of the rhetoric on scouting just ignores reality. I have seen some compare sports coaching to scouting. Considering the huge number of cases of male coaches abusing female athletes much of this rhetoric ignores there is a problem. However the other big issue is that scouting involves long, isolated overnight trips.
On the other hand I have in some places seen both attacks on scouts having uniforms on the one hand and scouts not wearing uniforms enough.
There are also indications that the number of Catholic parishes sponsoring scout troops is on the decline. However it is hard to figure how much of scoutings loss is from individual troops disappearing and how much is from less members in troops that remain.
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