Scoutmaster

Study Shows Nature Walks Alleiviate ADHD Symptoms

This article from the New Your Times reports that children with ADHD benefited from short walks in natural settings. I wonder if there are even greater benefits to a weekend in the woods?

A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child’s concentration skills. The researchers evaluated 17 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who all took part in three 20-minute walks in a park, a residential neighborhood and a downtown area.

After each walk, the children were given a standard test... The study found that children were able to focus better after the “green” walks compared to walks in other settings.

Although the study is small, the data support several earlier studies suggesting that natural settings influence psychological health. In 2004, a survey of parents of 450 children found that “green” outdoor activities reduced A.D.H.D. symptoms more than activities in other settings.

Despite the small size, the study is important because it involves an objective test of attention and doesn’t rely on children’s or parents’ impressions. During the walks, all of the children were unmedicated — participants who normally took medications to control their A.D.H.D. symptoms stayed off the drugs on the days of the walks.

The researchers found that a “dose of nature” worked as well or better than a dose of medication on the child’s ability to concentrate.

The Why Behind The How Part Two

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

   Albert Einstein

What is our measure of success as Scoutmasters?

The metrics of attendance, advancement and the size of the roster may be indicative of success but are not the real aim of our work. If we make boosting the numbers our focus we miss the target.

Are our Scouts working towards Einstein's most important motive? Are they discovering and developing capabilities and interests that make them valuable members of the community?

Einstein's test of success is not easily quantified. Seeing it requires an alertness to the motivations that drive the actions of the Scouts. If we keep them focused on the elemental goals of Scouting, the why behind the how, the metrics will follow.

Mike Rowe Offers a Potential Eagle Scout His Eagle Perspective

Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe is an Eagle Scout. Here is an exchange of letters posted to his blog

 Mike,
I'm not sure where I heard that you are an Eagle Scout, which brings me to my question. Could you PLEASE take a moment & post to my 13 year old son Kelby & encourage him to finish scouting (& anything else that will help with this?) Reason I'm asking is that he only lacks 1 1/2 - 2 years in reaching Eagle, but some of his buddies have got him to thinking scouting isn't cool at his age. Thanks much, Gary

Kelby,

Your Dad asked me to drop you a line and say something inspirational that might persuade you to dig down deep and find the determination to make the rank of Eagle Scout. It's a reasonable request, from a father who obviously wants to see his son succeed. But here’s the thing - The Eagle Award is not really meant for people who need to be dragged across the finish line. It’s meant for a select few, and I have no idea if you have the guts to see it through.

Statistically, I suspect you do not. Only one out of a hundred Scouts make Eagle, so if you fail, there will be lots of other people with whom you can share excuses. Quitting now might disappoint your Dad, but I doubt that he or anyone else will be overly surprised. Anytime 99 out of 100 people do the same thing, it’s not exactly a shock.

I’m not trying to be cute with a bunch of reverse psychology. When I was 15, there was nothing that anyone could have said to me that would have inspired me to do something I didn't want to do, especially a stranger with a TV show. So I’m not going to assume you’re any different, or pretend that I have some influence or insight that you haven’t already heard from a dozen other people who actually know and care about you. I’ll just tell you straight up, that doing something extraordinary can be very lonely, and most people simply aren’t cut out for it.
Being an Eagle Scout requires you to be different than most everyone around you, and being different is really, really hard. That’s why the award is called “an accomplishment.”

Personally, and for whatever it’s worth, the best decisions I've made in my own life, are those decisions that put me on the outside of being cool. Singing in the Opera, working in home shopping, staring in the school play when the entire football team laughed at me, and especially earning my Eagle, were all choices that required sacrifice, hard work, and delayed gratification. I have no idea if you possess those qualities, or even envy them. But I can tell you for certain, that NOT getting your Eagle, will be one of the easiest things you’ve ever done.

Anyway, I have no idea if you would prefer an easy life of predictability and mediocrity, or if have the passion to follow the road less traveled. Only you get to decide that.

Good Luck,

Mike

The Pith of Sense and Pride of Worth

In 1785, just a year before his death at age 37, Robert Burns enshrined 'the pith of sense and pride of work' above wealth or aristocratic birth in his poem A Man's a Man for all That.

Burns knew the privations of poverty from the earliest age yet became a legendary poet and favorite son of Scotland. He deftly strips away the affectations of rank and declares; "The honest man, though ever so poor, Is king of men for all that.

 Burns' simple adage 'a man's a man' proclaims that, under any superficial differences, we are linked together by the common bonds of humanity. History teaches the profit of concentrating on this most basic connections and the great loss when we do not.

Scouting points us in the same direction. One learns the true values of others when they learn their own value. We can achieve without lessening others; goodwill, brotherhood and our very selves are refreshed in sharing, in giving.

Scouts reach for Burn's aspiration:

That sense and worth over all the earth
Shall have the first place and all that!
For all that, and all that
It is coming yet for all that,
That man to man the world over
Shall brothers be for all that.

Full text of the poem after the break

Yes We Can

As I have noted before politics and Scouting don't mix. Political campaigns can test our patience and bruise our spirits. We can be disappointed or thrilled with the ultimate outcome but whatever befalls over the next four years we all Americans. 

I post an excerpt from President Elect Obama's concession speech given after his defeat in the New Hampshire primaries January 8, 2008 because it puts into words what I feel when I pledge my duty to my country. 

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change...

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

And ...  as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggest; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
What I See in Lincoln's Eyes
Tolerance
Country First

Country First

Senator John McCain ended his presidential campaign with words  befitting the bravery, loyalty and heroism that shaped him as an invaluable American patriot. Here are some excerpts I find especially inspiring

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him... on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognise that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Let there be no reason now ... Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth...

...Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. 

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that...

... Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant... tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
What I See in Lincoln's Eyes
Tolerance
Yes We Can

Schurz on 'The True Americanism'

 What is the rule of honor to be observed by a power so strongly and so advantageously situated as this Republic is? Of course I do not expect it meekly to pocket real insults if they should be offered to it. But, surely, it should not, as our boyish jingoes wish it to do, swagger about among the nations of the world, with a chip on its shoulder, shaking its fist in everybody’s face. Of course, it should not tamely submit to real encroachments upon its rights. But, surely, it should not, whenever its own notions of right or interest collide with the notions of others, fall into hysterics and act as if it really feared for its own security and its very independence.

As a true gentleman, conscious of his strength and his dignity, it should be slow to take offense. In its dealings with other nations it should have scrupulous regard, not only for their rights, but also for their self-respect. With all its latent resources for war, it should be the great peace power of the world. It should never forget what a proud privilege and what an inestimable blessing it is not to need and not to have big armies or navies to support. It should seek to influence mankind, not by heavy artillery, but by good example and wise counsel. It should see its highest glory, not in battles won, but in wars prevented. It should be so invariably just and fair, so trustworthy, so good tempered, so conciliatory, that other nations would instinctively turn to it as their mutual friend and the natural adjuster of their differences, thus making it the greatest preserver of the world’s peace.

This is not a mere idealistic fancy. It is the natural position of this great republic among the nations of the earth. It is its noblest vocation, and it will be a glorious day for the United States when the good sense and the self-respect of the American people see in this their “manifest destiny.” It all rests upon peace. Is not this peace with honor? There has, of late, been much loose speech about “Americanism.” Is not this good Americanism? It is surely today the Americanism of those who love their country most. And I fervently hope that it will be and ever remain the Americanism of our children and our children’s children.

– Carl Schurz, “The True Americanism,” speech delivered on Jan. 2, 1896 in: Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 5, p. 258 (F. Bancroft ed. 1913)

Carl Schurz launched his political career at the side of his mentor, Abraham Lincoln, served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War, stood for office as a Republican candidate in Wisconsin, Illinois and finally became U.S. senator from Missouri. He served as a diplomat and as secretary of the interior.

From an article in Harpers Magazine The picture is Allies Day (May 1917) by Childe Hassam,

Schurz's vision of Americanism is based on the projection of individual civility embodied in the Scout Oath and law. Civility values the courage to maintain ones ideals while respecting those of others, to seek comity and cooperation based on common goals while maintaining the dignity of individual independance. Civility does not ignore our differences but recognises the strength these differences can lend to a common cause.

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
Ideas and Ideals
Thinking Patriotism

The Guy In The Glass

"The Guy in the Glass" was first published in the American Magazine in 1934 in answer to a readers question to the Editor: "Why he should be honest". The Wimbrow family has a website that discusses the origin of the poem and it's proper original wording. Over the years it has become a popular Scoutmaster's minute.

The Guy in the Glass
Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf*,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgment upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

*Pelf is an Old English word for money or wealth regarded with contempt or acquired by reprehensible means.

What I See in Lincoln's Eyes

In 2005, before he was a candidate for president, I read this piece by Senator Barack Obama published What I See in Lincoln's Eyes in Time magazine:

My favorite portrait of Lincoln comes from the end of his life. In it, Lincoln's face is as finely lined as a pressed flower. He appears frail, almost broken; his eyes, averted from the camera's lens, seem to contain a heartbreaking melancholy, as if he sees before him what the nation had so recently endured ...

... In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat--in all this, he reminded me not just of my own struggles. He also reminded me of a larger, fundamental element of American life--the enduring belief that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams.

For what it's worth - please don't try to draw me into a political discussion on this blog - save it for another time and place.

Now

Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.- Pema Chodron

Pema Chodron is a leading exponent of teachings on meditation and how they apply to everyday life. She is widely known for her charming and down-to-earth interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism for Western audiences. Pema is the resident teacher at Gampo Abbey, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan monastery for Westerners.