The value proposition for the scouting program and how it compares to other programs
Transcript:
Today there are lots of things for young boys and now girls to do, sports, academics, friends, computers, gaming all these things are fighting for a young person’s time.
And the question invariably comes up, Why Scouting?
Scouting is unique.
Starting with the cub scouting program parents and kids can do things together outside the norm and in ways you can only experience in scouting. Anyone can go to a museum, but only special groups like scouts can do sleepovers in a museum with specially crafted programs geared towards learning and discovery.
Any family can go to a baseball game, but only scouting type groups can be part of the action on the field. I remember my cub scouting years fondly where a mass of scouts from our pack and other packs would stand on the field around the fourth of july, unfurling a huge flag with other scouts, service men and players in front of a packed house.
Cubs and boy scouting participate in service projects, celebrations, parades and activities that go beyond the confines of academic and sports programs.
As a scout you get to experience things outside of a normal day to day. As cubs they are introduced to camping as they mature into the boy scouting program they learn life skills that can take them through their entire lives.
They learn how to cook, they learn how to shop, they learn how to do on their own and they learn how to be leaders.
All of this in the context of a safe and structured program that has been around for over 100 years.
Baseball, soccer and football will teach them skills. Athletic, organizational, team building skills, but scouts will learn to be self reliant through a series of learned skills over the course of the program.
Eventually these kids grow up, and they all hopefully go on to successful lives, but looking back at my own experiences with my sons who went through the program bring up memories of baseball games with them on the field, overnights on battleships, trips to museums and art galleries, destination trips to Washington, New York, Boston and Philadephia and simple camaraderie over a campfire.
I would be hard pressed to think that without scouting we as a family would have experienced even a small part of this without the program.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this all about scouting’s value proposition.
