Adult Association

Mentoring Youth

For our Scouts to get anything from Scouting, they have to be shown the right way to do things. Someone has to teach them how to build a fire, set up a tent, tie a square knot, and all the other things a Scout needs to know. Along the way, that someone is also teaching them to be Scouts. It happens subtly, without a great deal of fanfare.

When all of the aims and methods are balanced properly, it will most often be a fellow Scout who does all of this. Perhaps the Troop Guide will teach him how to tie knots. The Quartermaster might teach him how to set up a tent. His Patrol Leader may teach him how to build a fire. And perhaps it will be the Senior Patrol Leader who teaches him to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc. This is the ideal in Scouting.

We need not ask who taught those older Scouts, because it's supposed to be the boys who were older Scouts before them - and so on ad infinitum. The one person each and every one of those Scouts had, though, as an example to follow, was the adult who served as Scoutmaster. That's the method of adult association.

But the method is much more than the Scoutmaster. It's the committee members who serve on the Boards of Review. The representative from the chartering organization who makes Scouting possible; the merit badge counselor; all of them have a part to play in this method. The adult guides to help the youth find their way.

More Than An Example

Throughout his career as a Scout, a boy gets to know these adults, and learns to talk to them. He learns what they expect of him, what he should expect from himself, and in a very subtle way, he learns how to be an adult from them. He learns how to interact with adults, not to be afraid or scornful of them.

Through all of this interaction with adults, the Scout learns a lot more than how to deal with other people. He learns how to be an adult. The Scoutmaster sits down with him and helps him learn how to plan his advancement, set goals, and achieve the next rank. He takes that lesson and applies it to his job in the troop. When that succeeds, he sees the benefit of planning and setting goals, and uses that knowledge in his life. He begins planning for the future, setting goals outside of Scouting, and working to achieve those goals.

The merit badge counselors he meets teach him more than a set of skills. They teach him to investigate the world around him, and find out more about what interests him. He learns those lessons and applies them to the big decisions he has to make. He gains more confidence in deciding what his career will be, deciding what steps he will take toward that career, and weighing the different influences on those decisions.

In short, we're not just teaching Scouts how to be Scouts and do Scout things. We're teaching them how to be an adult in the adult world. We can't do that properly if we're disinterested, looking to just have fun, or act as if our example and attitudes have no effect.

Teach Them For Life

In some Scouting units today there is a severe lack of adult guidance. That does not mean there is a lack of adults - just that there is no guidance from them. Even in a troop where a Scout can hardly turn around without bumping into an adult, there can be a lack of guidance.

The adult in Scouting is a teacher, but he doesn't teach. She's a coach, but she doesn't control. Our job is to guide the Scouts toward discovering things for themselves. We don't teach a Scout how to build a fire, we show him the right way to do it, and then let him do it. Many adults seem to forget that once in a while. Instead of helping the Scout discover how to build a fire, we take charge and build the fire. Instead of helping the Scout learn to lead, we take the reins from him and do it ourselves.

That's not the sort of adult association Scouting is supposed to have. When we do those sorts of things it sets a bad example - telling the Scout we don't trust him enough to let him do it himself. It's a lesson he learns all too quickly. We end up with Scouts who seem to not want to learn, won't take the initiative, or simply lounge around waiting for an adult to tell him what to do.

It's also a lesson a Scout can take with him into adulthood. He begins to expect someone else to do the things he's asked to do. He doesn't take charge of his life, preferring to wait until someone comes along and takes charge of it for him. Remember, the adult is the compass of Scouting. He or she not only points the right direction, but guides us on our trek by the example he or she sets. If we can't trust our compass it's all too easy to get lost.