Cultivating Scouting

There is too much "management science" in Scouting. We should stop trying to manage programs, scouts, patrols and troops. One can no more manage these things than one can manage plants.

Scoutmastership is much more akin to gardening than management. Gardeners prepare the ground, plant the seed and the plants do the rest. Keep the weeds away, make sure there is plenty of water and sunshine and you can't fail.

If I don't stake my tomato plants they will fall over and sprawl around on the ground. If I trim and tend them they grow into productive plants. I cannot make them grow. I don't need to 'make' them grow they do that by themselves.

Like a Scoutmaster a gardener is more an observer than a participant. Both must understand how to collaborate with rather than resist the powerful forces at work.

Comments

[Steve B]

Interesting way to look at it. I have to agree.

Steve B
Scoutmaster, Troop 68, CMC
http://melrosetroop68.org/blog.html