Scoutmaster

Last Minute Eagles

CA Scouter comments:

It would be interesting to hear your reflections on Scouts putting off Eagle til they're 17.5 years old and then trying to get their project and missing merit badges done in the small amount of time left. ... in a perfect world, the SM has been counseling boys not to let it get to this point, but as you say, Scout aged boys do a lot of things they shouldn't. Any reflections on this particular situation would be of value.

I hope this helps:

As you note Scout aged boys are still growing, even at 17 and a half. I have to laugh because I have two last-minute last minute lulus working hard on their projects right now. I do find this peculiarly provoking because I am a bit of a last minute lulu myself. I get a lot less upset about this now than I used to.

Over the years I have developed what I think is an effective way helping Scouts conceptualize what it is going to take for them to become Eagles, especially the element of time. We diagram a time line that begins with their Life Scoutmasters conference and ends with their eighteenth birthday. We factor in involvement in school, church, sport, merit badges,  and the average time to conceive, lead and complete a project. When they see the time line they have (at least for a while) a pretty good concept about what they need to do. I always tell them that they will complicate things tenfold if they wait, that they should have a plan and get things moving right away.

Very few of them have ever taken my advice.

I really don't think this will ever really change or that it is a new trend - I'll bet the first Eagle Scout was almost late getting a signature or something.

After two or three late season Eagle Scouts most Scoutmasters set out to fix the 'problem'. They dream up rules and regulations, policies and procedures designed to make the Scoutmaster's life easier. Despite all this some Scouts will still get a late start.

I figure that this is not a problem that can be fixed or regulated any more than the hundred other excesses and deficits that mark the life of any developing human being or ourselves as adults. When we sign on as Scoutmasters we accept that we are working with what Plato called "the most unmanageable of all the animals".  We can't protect them from the consequences of their actions, nor do we want to.

Part of the intensive learning process in achieving Eagle is developing an appreciation for planning and timing. I haven't ever done anything extraordinary to help my last minute lulus, they have to figure things out just like any other Eagle Candidate (only faster).

Whether a Scout starts working on Eagle in earnest with two years or two months left to go the most important thing is that they actually started.

Floyd Starr (founder of Starr Commonwealth, the first residential treatment center for 'juvenile delinquents') is famous for saying "There is no such thing as a bad boy". I agree but, from time to time, some of them can be a real pain in the butt.

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama - part 3

So far we have determined that needless drama can be caused when a Scoutmaster seeks to impose his ideal vision of an Eagle Scout on the advancement process. In addition we have discovered Baden Powell founded Scouting on the idea that it would offer Scouts a way to challenge themselves towards achievement on an individual basis rather than against an ideal standard.

As a rule of thumb if there is no numerical metric applied to a requirement it is improper and against policy to create one.

So how in the world can a Scoutmaster evaluate Scouts fairly? If Scouts challenged themselves against an internalized standard then it is our task to learn how each Scout evaluates their individual performance. That's why we have Scoutmaster's conferences rather than Scoutmaster reviews. Conferring is an exchange of information, a discussion, a series of questions designed to establish a common understanding.

During conferences for ranks that require leadership tenure I ask plenty of questions about the Scouts experience with the leadership position:

• What was your most and least successful moment as a leader?
• What would you change about the way you did the job?
• How do you evaluate your performance, did you fulfill this requirement?

If I have an issue with the Scout's performance and I haven't discussed this with him before the Scoutmaster's conference I consider that I am not doing my job. If I have had an ongoing discussion and the Scout hasn't made any effort to address the issue we'll discuss it further and try to find out what the real problem is.

Responsible Scoutmasters have an ongoing dialog with their Scouts that is marked by encouragement rather than fault finding. They address and resolve concerns and don't let become major problems.

Adolescence can be one long infuriating power struggle. Our work demands that we try to understand the process and not react out of anger. We especially do not want to turn a Scoutmaster's conference into a passive-aggressive, sanctimonious exercise of supposed power.

Scout aged boys do a lot of things they shouldn't and don't do a lot of things they should. Our role is to work with them, not against them, to recognize achievement and effort and downplay failure. We accomplish this by helping our Scouts develop personal goals, overcome difficulty, deal with disappointment and meet the challenges they define for themselves.

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama
Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama part 2

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama part 2

Scoutmasters need to understand what makes Scouting different from everything else - why young men and women have been Scouts all over the world for the past century.

Scouting's founder Baden-Powell envisioned a movement that would give everyone the opportunity to challenge and achievement based not on a single standard of performance but on a highly individualized, internalized standard. (Read Baden-Powell's thoughts on this here).

If we can encourage Scouts to define, internalize and follow an internal standard of acheivement we will have given them an set of skills that will immeasurably enrich their lives and communities.

Like many Scoutmasters I was initially frustrated by the lack of measurable metrics in Scouting. Just what is Scout Spirit? What percentage of meetings or camp outs must a Scout attend to be considered active? How does one measure the effectiveness of someone's leadership?

Metrics are missing for a good reason; every Scout and every Scout's circumstances in life are different. Scouts who are academically talented and Scouts who are poor students, from affluent families, from poor families all become Eagle Scouts. There are no class-a or class-b Eagle Scouts.

So one particularly common source of Eagle Scout drama is eliminated when Scoutmasters understand and embrace the concept of individual effort evaluated by an individualized standard. Can't you use this individualized standard to justify bad behavior, poor performance and indifference? How does a Scoutmaster hold Scouts accountable if everyone is going to advance anyway?

The answer is actually very simple, it should be part of every Scoutmaster conference and I'll write about it in my next post.

See also:

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama

During my tenure as Scoutmaster I have worked with 50 Scouts who have earned the rank of Eagle. Becoming an Eagle Scout is beset by difficulties and so should it be, it is supposed to be challenging. Unfortunately these normal difficulties are often compounded by totally unnecessary complications that we'll call drama.

All too often this drama is caused  by the Scoutmaster.

Somehow there are a number of Scoutmasters who act like that they are the gatekeepers for the advancement system (especially the rank of Eagle) when they are supposed to be coaches, guides and mentors. Some Scoutmasters develop the idea that their personal standard of acheivement is all important.They wield the Scoutmaster's conference like a weapon making it a pronouncement of their often capricious judgment.

Now this all sounds pretty dramatic because it really is dramatic. Scouts and families take a huge emotional hit whose shock waves extend to other Scouts and their families.

Narratives of these dramas unfold as if they had been scripted; a Scout, having completed their Eagle project, six months of leadership tenure, 21 merit badges and six previous Scoutmaster Conferences sits down with his Scoutmaster who ambushes him with one of two (and often both) pronouncements that he has not met the 'active' requirement or has failed to show Scout Spirit. Sometimes the Scoutmaster may set the Scout a task to appease the Scoutmaster, sometimes the Scoutmaster just slams the gate closed.

Why does this happen over and over again? (Trust me, it does, I get emails.) Usually because the Scoutmaster either lacks an understanding of the advancement system and/or is just generally frustrated with is Scouts.

What do I mean 'just generally frustrated with his Scouts'?. The best explanation I have is drawn from personal experience. Most of us Scoutmasters develop an idealized concept of what an Eagle Scout should be and it becomes a standard by which we judge our Scouts. This idealized standard supplants the advancement process and results in a great deal of frustration.

It took me some years to understand that no Scout would measure up to the idealized standard I had developed. Upholding my idealized yet non-existent Eagle Scout was doing a lot more harm than good. The antidote to this dilemma was an understanding of what Scouting really is all about and what makes it different from every other field of endeavor - something that I'll explore further in tomorrow's post.

Quotes from Scouting Founder Robert Baden-Powell

Over a century volumes of guidance has been offered to Scoutmasters yet none is so effective as that of the founder of the worldwide Scouting movement Robert Baden-Powell

A boy carries out suggestions more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.

A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens.

Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

See things from the boy's point of view.

Success in training the boy depends largely on the Scoutmaster's own personal example.

The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.

The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.

The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.

The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

Trust should be the basis for all our moral training.

We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.

When you want a thing done, 'Don't do it yourself' is a good motto for Scoutmasters.

The most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct.

In Scouting, a boy is encouraged to educate himself instead of being instructed.

Loyalty is a feature in a boy's character that inspires boundless hope.

The good turn will educate the boy out of the groove of selfishness.

The Scoutmaster guides the boy in the spirit of another brother.

A Rambling Wreck, A Hot Mess, A Joy to Behold

One would rarely call my Troop a well oiled machine or a model of efficiency. That's the principle reason I love it so.

A dear friend who was a very successful artist worked out of a studio that was best described as a hot mess. Not just typically messy - we are talking breathtaking disorder. Even so he produced art of penetrating simplicity and beauty.

There's a point during any Troop meeting or outing when I look around and see the same breathtaking disorder. From my perspective youth leaders are slacking off, adults are interfering, Scouts are blandly disinterested - it's all a few seconds from falling apart, spinning out of control.

In these moments I imagine my artist friend laboring over a painting. Water everywhere, pooling on the tabletop, on the paper, big globs of color, brushes flying, splashing - an impossible mess. He taught me, though, that what seemed like a mess was actually the process of creation. That there were forces at work that one could not and should not seek to control. Art came out of working within the maelstrom, in understanding and cooperating with it, not in controlling it.

So it goes for Scouting. The Scoutmaster's job is to set things in motion, to encourage, exhort and inspire and then let things work. When I see as messy and disorganized is experienced by my Scouts as orderly and enriching. It's just a trick of perspective.

Now I know that throwing some lumber, glue and shellac in a cement mixer is not going to produce a Chippendale chair (okay, theoretically it could but let's not waste our time trying). I am not recommending that we promote disorder or look on it cavalierly but rather that we recognize what looks like a 'hot mess" to us may be the vital maelstrom of creation.

Experience teaches there are times when we need to step in and times we should not. This finds no better expression in the well-known prayer attributed to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:

"... to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."

Amok Time

Scoutmasters see a lot of adolescent angst in our role as Scouters and parents. We need all the help we can get

You may recall the episode of the original Star Trek series entitled 'Amok Time'. It occurs to me that the story line has interesting parallels to how boys experience adolescence.

Spock's behavior has become irrational and inexplicably emotional. He reveals to Captain Kirk that he must return to Vulcan and initially refuses to explain why.

Spock defies the Captain who ultimately extracts an explanation from Mr.Spock:

You humans have no conception. It strips our minds from us. It brings a madness which rips away ... our veneer of civilization.

Spock has entered into a transformational, chaotic state and must return to Vulcan to resolve it if he is to return to normal. Spock understands he is acting irrationally but his helplessness to control his emotions makes it all the more difficult for him.

Spock's friends and comrades try to come to his aid offering understanding and help but he refuses them telling them to 'leave me alone' and crushes an innocent telecom unt in his anger.

As it turns out Spock and Kirk are forced into a battle to the death which Spock appears to win.

But, as only television can, the story resolves itself when Kirk turns out to be alive as a result of Doctor McCoy's cleverness.

Adolescence can turn boys into illogical, emotional powder kegs. They may turn viciously on their friends and family when their instincts are stronger than their ability to reason. They may know exactly what is happening and still be unable to stop it.

Adolescence is an allegorical life-and-death struggle to enter adulthood by trying to kill those things and people that represent childhood. If we weather these storms and accept our role in the drama the end is almost always the same. Once our boys have entered adulthood we magically come back to life as their friends again.

The entire episode of Amok Time is available to view online here. Anyone living with an adolescent boy will instantly recognize Spock's attitude and tortured demeanor. Adolescence is serious business. An we can better understand it will help us all survive.

Behavior, Discipline, Consequences

How does one control a group of Scout-aged boys?

Boys are known as experts in mischief, subterfuge and misdirection. Physically they lack the gray matter required to make mature decisions. Rationality often looses out to the influence of hormones.  They cannot calculate or analyze risk reliably.

They will foolishly sacrifice a lot to gain a little approval from their peers. Admirers of conformity and worshipers of non-conformity they struggle to learn just who they really are by trying all kinds of things. Their sometimes coarse behavior is punctuated by moments of extraordinary sensitivity. 

Is the only answer iron handed constant vigilance? Why would anyone risk their tranquility on so high a probability of misbehavior and mayhem?

Because, given the instability of those things that influence their behavior, they are very predictable. Scout aged boys are fiercely loyal and possess a strong sense of fairness. Inwardly they appreciate boundaries even if they complain and resist outwardly. They respect consistency, deplore lecturers, have a lawyerly approach to rules and regulations and value honesty.

Scoutmasters who put themselves in the role of controlling and policing the behavior of his Scouts directly they have already lost the battle. This responsibility one for the Scouts. I am not suggesting that we should be indifferent or permissive. We must familiarize the Scouts responsible for leading their Troop with prescribing and maintaining standards of discipline and behavior. 

Scouting has given us these standards in the Scout Oath and Law. Scouts understand these standards. They will need help in understanding how to enforce them if we are to avoid cruelty reminiscent of the Lord of the Flies. They need an example of compassion, empathy and understanding. They need to be shown that discipline and authority is not a club to beat people with but an opportunity to be helpful; to minimize shortcomings and celebrate achievements.

This sort of discipline does not rely on punishment but on positive reinforcement. Although Scouts will do some truly outrageous things they must be understood in the context of their age. We have to understand that difficult behavior is not directed at us personally and respond with fairness and kindness.

Once established this kind of positive peer pressure tends to perpetuate itself. New Scouts will understand the way things work very quickly and will go on to become leaders within the same system.

The Best Leaders

As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate.
...When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!'
To lead the people , walk behind them.

- Lao Tzu

Every good leader looks for a chance to delegate authority in important matters. A real leader delegates as many important matters as he can because that creates a climate in which people grow.

A Scoutmaster must value the decisions and autonomy of youth leaders and maintain the proper balance of advice and control between youth and adult leadership. Stand at the back of the room and watch the scouts lead, let them do it themselves. Advise, mentor and guide them afterwords. Delegate work that is whole and important. If it works they get the reward, if it doesn't you divert as much of the blame from them to yourself as possible. The next time they will do better.

Once they own the authority, the responsibility and the credit and you wonder why you are even there you have succeeded as a Scoutmaster.

That's assault, not leadership

You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.

Dwight Eisenhower