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I did scouts from Tiger to Eagle, including Philmont twice and national jamboree 1997. It was a good experience. I had a very small troop in a rural area, with maybe a dozen active people total in the boy scout troop. It got me to go places and have interactions I otherwise would not have experienced. As someone else mentioned earlier, I liked OA a lot because it was much more independent from the adult leaders, and we would go to our summer camp to work on repairs or just hang out. But yeah, looking back on it, the appropriation of native culture is very bad. Also right after I aged out was when BSA started being very anti-gay. I understand that has changed now and scouts is gender inclusive? I live in Switzerland now, and my kids do Pfadi, which is the Swiss affiliate of scouting. It is mixed gender, with levels based solely on age. They spend 3 hours a week in the woods going through a semester long story the leaders create, with costumes, games, and skills. Much less paramilitary, no badges or patches, and good, 2-week long camps in the summer. You her kids go stay in a big vacation house together, older kids go tent camping. The group is solely youth-led. There is an adult to be the treasurer (which just does the bookkeeping, not the spending decisions), and another to sign off on bylaws and hold an annual meeting for legal purposes and to provide guidance for the leaders on formalities they have to follow, but basically the kids are kicked out at 18, at which point they can become leaders. The leaders age out at 26, and the oldest are put in charge of the kids 4-6, with the younger leaders handling the older kids and just a very few, older leaders handling the oldest kids, who mostly manage themselves. I think it is a much better system, as the kids really connect with their leaders and see them as cool, because if you are 10 and get to hang out with some 18 year olds every weekend who want you to have fun in the woods, what's not to like? Better than like, someone's dad every Monday evening in a church basement, which was my experience.
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Jun 15, 2023 11:04
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 11:35 |
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