It's About Learning

I was talking with our Cubmaster, evaluating our most recent Pack Meeting. She observed, "The flag ceremony every month seems like the first time we've ever done it."

I had to point out that for the boy leading the ceremony, chances are it is the first time he had done it. Of course, that does not make her observations or suggestions to help less valid, but it is important to remember that the point of the boys doing these things is for them to learn.

This is the reason we make the distinction between "advancement" as a method and "personal achievement" as a goal. We have had several well-meaning parents in our pack retro-actively decide their boys had earned awards. They went through the list of belt loops and pins or Webelos Activity Badges and checked things off for the last year, "Oh, he did this and this and this..." then turned it in all at once. Now those boys have some nice awards to wear (actually, many of them are graduating Webelos, so they are not even going to wear the things), but did they get anything else out of it? They advanced, but they did not achieve. They did not learn from the experience (and I hate to think how this is going to translate into expectations in Boy Scouts).

This is why our Advancement Chair has coined the phrase, "Awards are earned intentionally, not accidentally."

In a recent post, the Volun-told Scouter pointed out:

When done right, Scouting is disorganized, messy and inefficient, because it is the Boys’ program. Adults are the facilitators, not the planners; their place is in the background as guides rather than directing from the front. Many adults find this to be anathema to their disposition – adults want efficiency, high levels of organization, etcetera.  But their idea of success differs greatly from the boys'.

Again, the goal here is for the boys to learn, not to have perfect organization. In Boy Scouting, leaders and parents are there to keep things safe and make suggestions. When the adults do too much, it robs the boys of the opportunity to learn.

How much the boys do on their own may come in small steps with guidance, but I think that at every point in the trail, whether you are doing a craft with Wolves or pointing Varsity Scouts toward their Eagles, you need to carefully consider how much "help" to give. Remind yourself that the point is for them to learn, not to get it done or for it to be perfect. Ask yourself whether that goal will be best accomplished by you stepping in to steer a little or by you stepping back and letting them figure things out themselves.

Adult Recognition

I have to admit this was one of my early motivators as a scout leader. I think I have mentioned that I have three brothers and was always a little jealous of their scouting experiences. I thought it was cool when I found out that as an adult I could earn a few patches for my scout uniform.

In fact, I did not buy a uniform until close to the end of my second time being a den leader (I put it off that time because I was pregnant when called). Yet, I had saved my "Trained" and "Quality Unit" patches from the first unit I was in three years earlier, just in case I ever did buy a uniform, and now I wear them both proudly. It's a near miracle I was able to keep track of them so long.

Earning patches is certainly not the most pure reason to be a good leader, but it can help motivate someone who needs a push in the right direction. They are also a nice recognition for someone who just is a good leader. For those of us in between those two points, the square knots can act as a guide for ways to "magnify your calling" and do a little better.

The last one is where I am at right now. When I was asked to help out as a Pack Trainer, I was not exactly sure what that entailed. After all, everyone can get their training online now. What I have been doing could be a whole post by itself (I can see now why it's a good idea for every pack to have a Pack Trainer), but one thing I have been using as a guide is the little card of requirements for the Pack Trainer square knot. It lets me know what kinds of things I can be doing to give my pack the best.

So what are the square knots? Just about every position in scouting has at least one you can earn. Each award has a tenure requirement, which cannot overlap another (for example, if you were a Den Leader and wanted to earn both the Den Leader knot and the Cub Scouter knot, you would need to spend at least three years in your position). However, I believe the tenure does not have to be continuous, so if you spent a year here and a year there, that would be okay, as long as you met the other requirements. There are training requirements, which usually involve completing basic training and attending either University of Scouting or Roundtables. Then there are the performance requirements, which are the ones that let you know ways you can improve what you are doing. For some of the knots you need to complete all of the performance requirements. For some, you only need to complete a certain number.

You can read about the different knots here. You can also download the progress cards here.

If you were a scout as a boy, you may also wear knots for certain awards you earned. If you earned the Arrow of Light, Eagle or the religious award (this can be either as a Cub Scout or a Boy Scout) there are knots you can wear on your uniform representing each of those.

There is also a religious knot you can earn as an adult. You can see the requirements for the LDS knot here. Cards for this knot (there is also a medal that can be given with it) can be obtained from the Distribution Center (sometimes) or the LDS-BSA. Your bishop should provide a card for you, but occasionally a Scouter may want to take the initiative of procuring his own card. The tenure for this award can overlap your other awards. Interpretation of the award is up to your bishop. So if something seems vague (for example, you may wonder whether the three years serving in primary or young men need to all be in the same ward) you should ask your bishop. It's up to him to decide.

Once earned, the knots are to be worn centered, directly above the left pocket of your uniform (you can see this in the insignia guide and uniform inspection sheets). After three knots, you start a new row above the first (I saw Scouters in Omaha with multiple rows of knots). If you want to get things just right, the side of the knot with the loop on top is supposed to point to the right. There is no set order, but traditionally the knot that means the most to you is placed furthest right.

Good Scouters work hard and recognition is important. This is one way to recognize them. Bishops and Committee Chairs, I encourage you not only to encourage your leaders to earn knots, but to also find other ways to recognize and support them. Strong Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs will strengthen your whole ward, and that is worth some thank yous.

Scouting and Agency

I'd like to share with you a blog post by an LDS Varsity Team Coach that illustrates the frustration a leader can feel in watching a youth not live up to his full potential: Why Won't He Just Earn His Eagle?

As leaders, teachers and parents, we try to help those under our stewardship succeed in any way we can. In the end, though, our charges have their agency, and we cannot force them to succeed. Nor should we. As the author of the article puts it, "At some point this boy must become responsible for his Scouting career."

One thing we have tried to emphasize recently with the boys we teach in Primary is that Satan's plan would not have allowed us to learn and grow. We need to learn and grow if we are ever to become like our Father in Heaven. Part of that process (a large part) is making mistakes.

It is the same with Scouting. Rank advancements and awards are not the purpose of Scouting any more than "getting through" is the purpose of earth life. Advancement is one of the methods of Scouting, a means to an end, not the end itself. (Here's a great blog post about that by another LDS scout blogger.)

Scouting is about creating leaders. The boys start as Wolves with a very defined path, but even then there are some choices they make themselves, the biggest choice being to do the work given to them. As the program progresses, they are given more and more freedom in their path. By the end, each boy should be directing his own path. A Scout who has had his hand held every step of the way, has been pushed through the program, or has had requirements signed off that he did not fully complete, just for the sake of getting through, has been short-changed. A very small percentage of Scouts become Eagle Scouts. That is why it means so much.

This may be one of the most difficult parts of being a leader. I cannot imagine the pain our Heavenly Father must feel watching His children make poor choices, and knowing that only a few will make it back to Him. Why did He let us come here, knowing so few would make it back? Because it is the only way we could ever become what we were meant to be.

Why do Mormons...?

Every so often I get in a conversation with a "traditional" (non-LDS) scouter and they often have a question or comment on how the Church conducts the scouting program. I'm afraid that most often, it's a (well-earned) criticism and it bums me out that the church's scout programs often have a bad reputation. This morning I got in a conversation with a fellow at our local scout shop. (OK, it's really just a tiny corner of a clothing store; they're just kind enough to also supply scout supplies). We were commiserating about the difficulties getting volunteers to help out with pack and District activities. I mentioned that I've been doing our local day camp for the last couple years and he grinned and said he'd done it four four years in Reno. He said something like, "No offense, but it's really hard to get the LDS packs to supply volunteers." I had to agree that it's often really difficult to get LDS volunteers. He offered several suggestions, but unfortunately, they wouldn't really work in our situation.

I think sometimes, in the Church, we tend to think that unless we have been called, we don't have to help out. Cub Scouts is treated as drop off child care and Boy Scouts as something to be studiously avoided. In addition to the Cub Scout program being the basis for preparing a boy to be a priesthood holder and preparing him for his mission, it is a program to train parents. Parents should learn early on (hopefully someone will take them aside when their oldest son turns eight and explain the Cub Scout program to them and what is expected of them) that they are an integral part of their son's scouting experience. Whether he succeeds or fails will be highly dependent on how well they lead him. The scouting program is also good for parents. How much easier is it for the parents of a young man that has been an active scout to send him on a mission than the parents whose son has never been away from home in his life? At least the scout's parents know he can survive a weekend in the wild and that he probably won't starve to death in his first few weeks in the field. (He might only be able to prepare a very limited menu of burned food and may be in danger of burning down his apartment, but at least he won't starve).

Sometimes my conversations with traditional scouters come around to how we as LDS groups tend to pencil whip the boys through the program. (To be clear, pencil whipping is when a requirement is signed off but the boy hasn't really fulfilled it or met the objective. This cheets both the boy and the leader). I generally have to agree that it does happen. A year or so ago, our District Eagle Scout Project coordinator passed away and the people that took it over were aghast at some of the projects he'd approved. I don't know if he was LDS or not, but it does seem that we put such a high focus on getting the Eagle that sometimes we lose track of the importance of the boy earning his advancements. The guidelines for being a merit badge counselor are pretty specific that the counselor can't change the requirements. Of course, there are occasionally rare instances where it is appropriate to fit the requirements to the individual's abilities, but it shouldn't happen very often. I've seen whole groups signed off when collectively the group barely passed the minimum requirements, let alone each individual. (One traditional scouter told me after last year's Day Camp that a number of LDS groups had given belt loops for the activities we'd done at Day Camp, even though we'd only superficially covered the requirements. The intent was to get them started and they could finish off the requirements at home or at Den Meeting). It's important to remember that a boy having a shirt full of decorations is far less important than his having the knowledge he gains from learning and doing on his own and his knowing he didn't slide by. Neither the scout nor his leaders can claim to be trustworthy when awards are given and not earned.

One big reason these kinds of conversations really burn me up is that the Scouting program is also supposed to provide missionary opportunities. Generally we tend to think that these opportunities are limited to the boys we might bring into the program (less-active or non-members). I'd guess in reality we make just as big of an impression on their parents and other scout leaders. Some of these people are really the salt of the earth, but because of the examples they see in our leaders and parents, they'll never desire to join the church.

I attended Naval Science Institute in the summer of 1998. In the first few weeks we identified some areas we thought the service was lacking in leadership. We agreed that our small group wasn't likely to make huge changes, but our motto was "Change Your 10%". We agreed that wherever we went, each of us would do our best to improve the 10% we had influence over. In the years since 1998, I've had other conversations that make me not-so-proud to be an LDS scouter. All I can do is agree that we [LDS scouters] should be doing things the right way, try to lead by example and change my 10%.