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.

Reading Requirements and Policies

Our nationwide movement of some 2.8 million youth and 1.3 million adult participants is defined by written policies and procedures. Individual understanding, subject to an individual point of view, can lead to some misinterpretations if we do not read these policies and procedures with an open mind.

As an example look at these requirements:

Scout Badge
7. Understand and agree to live by the Scout Oath or Promise, Scout Law, motto, and slogan, and the Outdoor Code.

Tenderfoot Rank
7. Repeat from memory and explain in your own words the Scout Oath, Law, motto, and slogan.

A newly minted Scout needs to understand and agree to live by the basic tenets of Scouting while a Scout challenging the Tenderfoot Rank must repeat them from memory and explain them in his own words.

How many of us have required a new Scout to have the Scout Oath and Law memorized? I know that I used to before I carefully read the requirement. Comparing the two requirements reveals the simple progression from understand and agree to live by, to repeat from memory and explain.

Truth be told I thought the Scout Badge requirement should be more difficult and I read the Scout Badge requirement with this mindset. Any young man should be able to become a Scout without having to jump through too many hoops and then progress towards more challenging activities.

After this 'discovery' I started reading requirements and policies with renewed care. I was especially conscious of things that challenged my preconceptions. The next step was aligning our program to what was actually being said instead of what I imagined was correct.

We had a Troop 'tradition' of having boys memorize the Scout Oath and Law before we signed off on their Scout Badge. Now what is wrong with that? Why not have a higher standard? Is it that big a deal?  If we were going to pick and choose what policies and requirements to adhere to and those we could alter what we would have is a program that would be built on suppositions and traditions rather than Scouting.

I suspect this is how many Scout Troops end up with a set of practices that have taken them off the rails. A  couple of degrees deviation on a compass bearing accumulates into missing the target by miles over time and distance. Traditions become so ingrained (and beloved) that they take on the aura of official policy. Often they are simply dead wrong.

"Official BSA Policy" requires careful reading. These policies exist not as guidelines but as directions. There is something in the American spirit that suspects and resists policies, procedures and manuals. We tend to view them as limiting and restrictive, assaults on our own intelligence and judgment. We'd be better off viewing them as a map that directs us towards a goal. The most direct path with the fewest dangers and difficulties, the best roads with the finest views is inherently restrictive of all other paths.

Uniforming and the placement of insignia is a often misunderstood and provides a good example of the misapplication of 'official policy'. I know that many Troops require a Scout appearing before a Board of Review to wear a 'full class A uniform" and refuse him if he does not. Sounds Kosher, right? Nothing wrong with that, uniforms are a good thing and it is after all "official BSA policy", right?

Nope.

First there is no language anywhere that requires a Scout even have a uniform. Uniforms are encouraged but not required. Go ahead and look, they aren't required anywhere. Second there is no description of 'classes' of uniform to be found anywhere in official literature. Thirdly no Board of Review can refuse to advance a Scout because he is not in Uniform.

Now we encourage our Scouts to get and wear a Scout Uniform but it all happens with positive rather than negative reinforcement. We appeal to the youth leadership to inspect and reward good uniforming after we get them to buy into why this is a good idea. But we don't demand and we don't punish. The result is that almost all of our Scouts wear their uniform almost all of the time. When they don't it is for a good reason.

Over time as we have become aware of traditions and practices that need alignment we bring them around to 'true north'. Some die a quick painless death, others linger far too long screaming and kicking all the while. The end result is concentrating on the actual, rather than the perceived, goals and challenges of Scouting that have proven so effective over the past century.

A Little Misdirection

Scouts need a lot of latitude to operate independently and make decisions on their own. Scoutmasters have oversight and must, on occasion, engage in subtle course correction.

I am no Jedi Master but I do think of this classic exchange when encouraging my Scouts to abandon a misdirected course of action. Non-violent, unobtrusive and slyly powerful it reflects the tone and attitude that one sometimes needs to redirect focus. Hand gestures are optional.

Reacting, Rules and Resolutions

Scoutmasters tend to respond to problems by instituting rules or policies.

Rules must be enforced to have effect so Scoutmasters become enforcers.

In working with Scout-aged boys one quickly discovers that there are very few rules that do not have legitimate exceptions, so Scoutmasters  become judges.

As the matrix of rules and policies grow Scoutmasters may find that most of their time is spent in making, enforcing and interpreting them.

The real job of the Scoutmaster is to seek resolution to difficulties rather than reacting to them with rule making. The process of resolution begins with a concern that is expressed in a question that is answered by action.

When a concern arises the Scoutmaster should form a question for his youth leadership;
"It has come to my attention that a few Scouts showed up for our last outing without the proper gear. How do you suggest we avoid this in the future?"

Most Scouts will jump on such an open-ended question with great energy and discuss a plan of action. That they own the resulting plan of action increases the likelihood that it will have the desired effect.

"Bill" - Looking Back at a Great Scoutmaster

Here is a great tribute to a fine Scoutmaster from one of his former Scouts from b.Andy at AskAndy bearing the simple title "Bill"

April 1953, a brand-new Boy Scout, I walked for the first time into a troop meeting.  I’d been a Cub Scout, earned my Webelos Badge (Arrow of Light, it’s called today), and had just turned 11 years old.  I was taller than most boys my age, and more shy than most. Painfully shy, a characteristic that wouldn’t leave me for several more years.

The smallish downstairs room of the church across the street from Hudson County Park in North Bergen, New Jersey, was filled and busy with Scouts doing things Scouts do.  Some were to one side, taking instruction in knot-tying from an older Scout in a solid dark green uniform (a member of the Explorer post of the same number as the troop, I later learned).  Others were huddled in planning, in their patrol Corners.  The Scout who seemed most in charge—the Senior Patrol Leader—was checking his watch and conferring with several other obviously senior Scouts.  It was happily noisy, but not a din.  And, to my consternation, and I’m sure my father’s, too, for he was with me that evening, there were no adults in sight!

Where are the leaders? my dad and I silently asked one another.  Surely, some adult must be in charge, just like the Cubmaster and Den Mothers in my former pack?  But the only person who seemed to be in charge was this Scout—the Senior Patrol Leader.

He raised the Scout sign.  The Patrol Leaders were first to spot this; they fell silent, returned the sign, and I saw them nudge other Scouts near them, so that within the briefest of moments, the whole roomful of Scouts was silently raising the sign.  I wondered how this happened, having become inured to the inevitable shout, “Sign’s up!” in my former pack.  But it seemed pretty cool, so I did the same.

The Scout in charge came right over to me.  “Hi, I’m Charlie, Senior Patrol Leader.  And who might you be…?  “Uh, I’m Andy, and I just graduated from my pack, and…Uh…well…” I stammered.  “Oh, OK!” he said, “Then you want to have a talk with Bill!”

“Bill?” I wondered?  Which Scout is he?

Charlie introduced himself to my father, just as he’d done with me, and directed us both to a little L-shaped corner of the room, where there was a small desk and a few chairs.  “Bill,” Charlie announced, “I’d like to introduce Andy here to you… Andy’s a new Scout.  And this gentleman is his Dad.”

From behind the desk he rose, a big man, and came around it.  Bending down just a little, he extended his left hand, grinned, and said, “Hi, Andy. I’m Bill, and I’ll be your Scoutmaster if think you’d like to join Troop 5.”

“Bill”?  I’d never in my life called any man or woman by their first name!  Everyone else was Mister This or Missus That or Uncle Whozis or Aunt So-and-so.  Teachers were Mister and Miss.  My Pastor was…Pastor.  The cop on the beat was Officer.  Even the local grocer and his wife were Mister and Mizz.  And any man or woman whose name I didn’t know right off was still Sir or Ma’am.  Always.  And you’d dare not better biff up!

Bill?  Can I really call a grown man like him Bill?  Well, yes I could, because every Scout in the troop called him Bill.

Wilfred C. Bohling was born three years before Baden-Powell published his first “Scouting for Boys” book—1904—in upstate New York, Clinton County, where his family owned a farm.  But he was an engineer by profession, and beginning in 1930 lived in North Bergen, New Jersey.  Troop 5, chartered in 1916, was reputed to be the first troop in what was then the North Hudson Council (some 90 years later, it’s a part of the Northern New Jersey Council).

When I first met him, Bill was 53 and had already been Troop 5’s Scoutmaster for well over two decades.  In 1966, when the troop celebrated its 50^th Anniversary, Bill was still deeply connected with the troop.  He was, after all, one of the troop’s earliest Eagle Scouts.

Bill was a large, but not overstuffed, man.  He had a large head, and equally large teeth, and showed every one when he laughed, which was often. Kind and kindly to all Scouts, never gruff or overbearing, always praising and in search of the good in all of us Scouts, he had our admiration, respect, and deep affection.  Without ever asking for it.  He was the only man, at that time in my young life, with whom I could talk without stammering.

Flash forward 50 years.  I’ve just joined a new council.  Meeting lots of new Scouters.  One in particular stood out: A “Scouter’s Scouter,” if you will. A true gentleman, and a guy who “got it” on what Scouting’s all about. About 15 years older than me.  We struck up a conversation, reminiscing about how we’d each been Scouts in a model troop, that was Scout-run, Scout-planned, and with lots of Scouting stuff to do.  We talked about how we almost never missed a meeting, simply because they were fun and we learned stuff.  We talked about our patrols, and I mentioned that I still had my original patrol flag—the one my Scoutmaster presented to me when I was elected Patrol Leader.  We talked about our Scoutmaster, about how he was always there, on every hike and camp-out, every summer camp, and always the kind of man we looked up to and wanted to be like when we grew up.  Then we each asked: What was your Scoutmaster’s name?  Bill, we both said, simultaneously.  Yes, we’d both been in the same Troop 5… 15 years apart. And Bill was Scoutmaster to us both.

Is there a moral to this?  You bet.  And you already know exactly what it is, because you “get it,” too!

The Four Roles of Mentors

Mentoring often goes on unnoticed in Scouting because it is so integral to the process. Here is a succinct look at four elements of mentoring. I find these particularly helpful in balancing my approach to working with our Scouts.

Recognition. “I don’t know of any test or software program that can make the kinds of subtle, personal distinctions that differentiate an interest from a burning passion. A mentor who has already found the Element in a particular discipline can do precisely that. Mentors recognize the spark of interest or delight and can help an individual drill down to the specific components of the discipline that match that individual’s capacity and passion.”

Encouragement. “Mentors lead us to believe that we can achieve something that seemed improbable or impossible to us before we met them.”

Facilitating. “Mentors can help lead us toward our Element by offering us advice and techniques, paving the way for us, and even allowing us to falter a bit while standing by to help us recover and learn from our mistakes.”

Stretching. “Effective mentors push us past what we see as our limits. Much as they don’t allow us to succumb to self-doubt, the also prevent us from doing less with our lives than we can.”

From
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson,
available at Amazon

Age-Appropriate Guidelines Chart

What Scouts may do, at what age they can do it and just how much they can be expected to do has been a fertile subject for discussion, conjecture and urban legend in Scouting. Judging the suitability of an activity and which Scouts can appropriately participate is an important skill for Scoutmasters.

This page on the BSA website explains how to determine what activities are appropriate for different ages of Scouts.

Here are some tests that prove valuable for any activity:

• Matches the training and experience of participants.
• The group has the ability to successfully complete the activity.
• Complies with the policies and procedures in the Guide to Safe Scouting - No. 34416C.
• Supports or is in harmony with Scouting values.
• Adds to the life experiences, knowledge, or abilities of participants.
• The unit or group receives training appropriate to the activity.

Compare the goals of the different stages of Scouting:

• Cub Scouting  activity is parent/youth- or family-oriented, conducted with adult supervision and  is discovery-based.
• Boy Scouting activities are led by youth,  are patrol- or troop-oriented,  meet standards and advancement requirements, are experience-based.
• Venturing/Varsity Scouting activities are led by youth who set and meet their own challenges, are socially based with coed participation.

To properly judge the suitability of activities adult leaders must have a complete understanding of the demands of the activity and/or seek assistance from experts in the skills, gear and temperament required. They should also be familiar with the conditions they are likely to encounter.

A good example from my experience is backpacking. I won't take younger Scouts on a backpacking trip where I haven't hiked the trial first. Although one can gauge difficulty fairly well from maps and trail descriptions the real test is actually hiking the trail. Older Scouts with some experience are up to the task of covering unknown ground but younger Scouts out for their first backpacking experience are not.

While some snippets of policy are embodied in the chart (i.e. Cub Scouts do not canoe on moving water) the word 'guidelines' title of the document indicates that the chart is not an absolute expression of policy rules:

Because of the varying development rates among youth, these activity guidelines are flexible and should not be perceived as requirements or rules. They address the mainstream of youth abilities while allowing for exceptions for Scouting units and groups based on the consideration and judgment of unit, district, and council committees and boards.

Another helpful bit of information:

 Older Boy Scouts should be at least 13 years of age by January 1 of the year they participate.
 

I think the word 'should' instead of 'must' in this statement indicates that there is some latitude. Although many activities (Jamborees, High Adventure Bases and some local programs) strictly require a certain birth date unit based activities can judge the appropriateness of an individual Scout's participation based on ability in concert with age and expand the birthday window by a month or two either way

 

Download ageguides.pdf (254.2K)

The Why Behind the How Part One

Recently Andy at Ask Andy wrote:

I've for years felt strongly that, in all training, we spend too much time on "how to" and vastly too little time on WHY. I believe, further, that the arbitrary drifting from the "model troop" and "model patrol" (yup, "model pack," too) is a consequence of our failing to tell the new people we train WHY we do things in Scouting the way we do. '

Scouting isn't very logical unless you know the why. Why have patrols, why wear uniforms, why go camping why have an advancement program? We don't do these things for efficiency or comfort. These things aren't established to provide adults with bothersome paperwork or the opportunity to lord it over a group of boys.

Scouting is a discipline, a game, an avocation, a craft that invites us to join in for purposeful fun. Good Scoutmastership demands a steady focus on the why:

• Character
• Leadership
• Achievement
• Outdoors
• Community Service

All of our work should aim at a balanced realization of these goals. If our policies, practices and procedures aren't advancing us towards the realization of these five things they must be changed.

Human nature tends towards the security of habit; the maintenance of systems as we find them. But systems and habits tend to entropy unless they are constantly reexamined in the light of their founding principles.

Less is More

A well-formed question is more valuable than a lecture.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Less gear, lighter pack; easier going.

Small words - powerful meanings:
    Thanks!
    Good job!
    Why?
    What?
    Where?
    Who?
    How?
    It's possible!
    Go for it!
    You can!

The Most Important Vote in Scouting

Is it the Senior Patrol Leader Election, the Order of the Arrow election or the Eagle Board of review? All important to be sure but none more important than the sound of footsteps.

Scouts vote with their feet.

Scouts will stampede towards a terrific program presented by an active Troop with strong youth leadership. Likewise they will shuffle away in defeat if a Troop does not provide what they are looking for.

An alert Scoutmaster listens for either sound.