Scouting is a set of training wheels for young men figuring out how to live, one that grows along with them as they travel a path just figuring out how to be. Scouting has lots of great attributes, and different boys need different parts of it in different amounts and in different ways at different times. That’s the great part of why Scouting’s wide developmental pool is always open. It’s rewarding to be part of something so broadly beneficial.
In elementary school, we all knew or could point out one or two appreciably weird kids in our class. Generally, that was the limit of our experience at the time. Now, as an adult, I can say with full confidence all boys everywhere are weird in one way or another, if not several, and many of the most promising are the most so. Over the past 20 years I’ve done nine tours of duty as a city park and rec coach, and I’ve worked with Cub Scouts and still work with Boy Scouts. It’s clear various awkwardnesses, weirdnesses and oddities are part of who we all are.
The weird kids who stood out to us in our elementary days were weird only because their particular blessings of awkwardness were different from our own, not that they were necessarily more profound. Those of us who were garden variety weird naturally banded in confederacy against individuals who’d drawn a more exotic strain of the same. Scouting is a proven path through that for boys in every element, and on both sides of the exclusion line.
Quite a number of boys have excellent interpersonal skills. They look you in the eye when they’re talking to you, offer a firm and practiced handshake, make small talk with natural ease and get along well or at least well enough with anyone whose cooperation they might need. This is an ability that will serve them well throughout their lives.
Quite a number of boys are conscientious about getting their chores, assignments and paperwork done. They take pride in keeping their studies moving forward just on the impetus of whatever leadership or direction is supplied. This is a discipline that will serve them well throughout their lives.
Quite a number of boys voluntarily put down their handheld sadness, envy and anxiety machines from time to time and take an active interest in the world around them. They draw energy from the spark of ignition supplied freely and continuously from a natural world that is an endless source of curiosity and investigation. And you know what this tendency will do.
Quite a number of boys have developed one or two of these traits at home or on their own. What Scouting does better than anything else is make sure its acolytes come away with a working library of all three. Each Scout hones his best traits and develops those he may lack at his own pace. Teamwork helps each Scout grow and, at the same time, no one is waiting on anyone for his own opportunity to succeed. Scouting is the scaffolding superstructure within which a boy’s leadership may mature. It’s the sort of path that produces the best. This route grows leaders who bring more to the role than mere magnetic charm. They bring a balanced grip on life, the better to understand and lead.
Maturing means figuring out how to deal with all the facets of our personalities and, ideally, how to use them to our advantage. It’s a process that happens on its own schedule, typically between the ages of 11 and 18. That’s the who and the when. Scouting is the ideal where, how and why.
Kevin Tate is a freelance writer. Email [email protected].
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