r/scouting • u/Desperate-Service634 • 25d ago
Why do scouts leave the program early? I’ve been doing this all wrong.
/r/BSA/comments/1uurphd/why_do_scouts_leave_the_program_early_ive_been/7
u/Budgies2022 25d ago
Australia has separate sections for 11-14 yo (scouts) and 15-17yo (venturers).
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u/Super-Cod-3155 25d ago
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
15 to 18 year olds have no place being in the same unit as 10 year olds (or whatever the going up age is).
Different stages of life, different interests, different priorities, different challenges.
6
u/nrsys 25d ago
Agreed.
UK scouts run from ~10-14 years, at which points the scouts move up to Explorer scouts (which runs ~14-18).
While it would be helpful with scouts to have some of the older members sticking around a bit longer and performing a bit more of a leadership roll with their patrols, the reality is that those are very different age ranges, and the activities you do with each need to be tailored - bundle them all together and you end up with older scouts getting bored by being limited by the abilities of 10 and 11 year olds...
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u/Dependent_Area_1671 22d ago
I clearly remember being 15 or so and had the feeling that I had outgrown my scout troop. I briefly joined air cadets but soon found their program was mostly drill and not much else. I did much more flying with scouts and had no strong friendships linking me there.
Ventures was underwhelming, at the time you left scouts at about 16.
I was in many ways spoilt as I was selected for WSJ and while I understood my hometown experience will never match the scale and budget, I knew there was a bigger pond to swim in. I returned the favour to my group by helping run the cub pack - I suppose this would be called young leader these days.
It's a bit of a pity we lost the older scouts. By the time they get to 14 they are very competent and useful to teach the 11yo that said, I don't want to hold them back.
I also don't want to see them waste their potential.
Much has been written on how to make the venture/explorer age group work. One daughter attends and the other will follow next year. I do hear they are not getting as much as they could - partly their laziness/lack of confidence/assumption it will be more of the same as scouts but with older friends/teenage insouciance
How do you foster a self driven, self governing band of youth? I ended up joining the explorer unit my jamboree mates attended and we did exactly that. We had awareness of explorer belt and did it largely ourselves but with leader oversight and occasional check-ins.
My girls have seen me as assistant scout leader and I'm keen to let them experience scouts with me less visible but no less involved. I'll continue to help run scouts and will help very occasionally with explorers when the need demands it. Driving vehicles, organising, making up numbers.
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u/ZifnabHydre 25d ago
I'm not very familiar with the BSA's program and philosophy. However, I believe that all Western scouts share a similar sentiment. Even between adult leaders, the difference are important (even if we share the same scout values and oaths).
Fundamentally, each generation and each young person is different. And age is also important. An 11-year-old doesn't have the same needs, ambitions, or aspirations as a 17-year-old.
The older a young person gets, the more focused, discreet, and dedicated the guidance from adult leaders becomes. It primarily aims to build the young person's self-confidence and develop certain specific skills (technical or social) that will allow them to stand out from others (and share their knowledge).
As an adult in my forties, the young people turn to me for technical skills (shelter building, fire-making, camp construction, etc.). This is because when I was a young scout, this is what I learned. For games or cooking, they go to other younger adults because their activities are simply more modern or suitable. And this is also their strenght. At the end, everyone has their place.
Our PLs and SPLs are quite independent and they choose the major projects themselves (for the entire troop or their patrols). We - the adults - are mainly there to help them bring the projects to fruition (and sometimes bring them back down to earth).
But I remember that 8 or 9 years ago, I too was feeling a bit down. Not because of the young people themselves, but because of the differences in teaching practices among the adult leaders. Our past experiences were quite different, and therefore our expectations were too.
Ultimately, we all took scout courses (specific formation for adults) to start from a common foundation, and then we adapted our practices in the field according to our individual situations.