I think NAMBLA has something to do with it. North American Man Boy Love Association what a creepy organization.

the_don on March 21, 2007 at 11:40 am

My father in law is/was a leader….I look forward to his comments. I have 2 young boys and wouldn’t mind them learning some good ole time basics wih scouts & grandpa, but …..?

akak on March 21, 2007 at 12:05 pm

He is Attention Deficit AD and was supposed to be on medication…so his father said.

mrbill on March 21, 2007 at 12:30 pm

Debbie,
I have to agree. I noticed this watering down when I was in girl scouts. I think something I question is why did a report mention that he stayed behind to *sleep in* and so did one adult? I’m not accusing that adult of trying to do something bad but it doesn’t make sense in this day in age that a man puts himself in a position where he could be accused of something inappropriate. This is the boy scouts..they leaders should know better. Unless he was sick, he really should have been made to stay with the other boys…..this is just common sense.

Highrise on March 21, 2007 at 12:48 pm

ADD can’t be blamed for this.

Highrise on March 21, 2007 at 12:49 pm

I don’t recall Canteen Boy ever getting lost in the woods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canteen_Boy
A.D.D. – A pathetic excuse for caudling an agitated, narcisistic behavior.

Yiddish Steel on March 21, 2007 at 1:44 pm

It is clear to see Debbie has not camped in a heavly wooded camp area. The scout did not follow the buddy system. The scout leader did not keep a close watch of the scouts. Had the scout follow the buddy system and the leaders kept a close watch on the scouts the scout would not have gotten lost.
Scouting is not dumbing down its teaching.

Peter on March 21, 2007 at 6:13 pm

A few comments and replies are a bit far afield and apparently not based on knowledge. THat being said:
Having been a Scoutmaster and participated with two sons (one earned the rank of Eagle) I can see MANY problems with this recent “lost” Scout.
First, this Scout supposedly earned the rank of FIRST CLASS! If that is so he either forgot every lesson taught or never REALLY learned lessons about being “lost” in the woods. All ranks leading to FIRST CLASS even build on lessons (about survival in the woods) starting with SCOUT and TENDERFOOT. Take this Scout’s rank back until he LEARNS the material. His adult leaders did not assure that he EARNED the rank and the Board of Review (again adults) failed to see that he EARNED his rank.
Second, if he “was a FIRST CLASS SCOUT he should have been on enough camping trips to get “being homesick” out of his system or exposed so that leadership knew the problem. It should not have been his first camping trip away from home (the media did not say it was)
Third, if he was there and didn’t want to be then he was not honest with himself, his parents, or the adult leaders. THAT is not being TRUSTWORTHY. If he was being pressured into going on the camping trip then someone should step forward and aplogize. A Scout is suppposed to have learned the Boy Scout Law and what it means. It starts with a “Scout is Trustworthy” this Scout showed multiple times he was NOT Trustworthy.
The media has conveniently lost sight of the fact that this scout is the real problem. He did not know what to do AND SHOULD HAVE. His troop leadership failed by promoting him without his being PREPARED. I also suspect the parents also have some burden in this. A lot of people abdicated their responsibity and rescue teams had to make sacrifices.
The Scout Motto is “Be Prepared.” This Scout IS NOT!

gazelder on March 21, 2007 at 10:02 pm

Hi Debbie,
I must disagree. There are good scout troops and bad scout troops, but the material in the Boy Scout handbook is about teaching a young man to be self-sufficient, a friend to nature, a leader, a good citizen and in the end, a good man. I am afraid the generalization about “The Scouts are not so much about camping, anymore, and a lot more about PC activities that make young male minds mushy ” is patently untrue. The boy in question is 12, is in his first year as a boy scout, and needs to be cut a little slack for making a rookie mistake. He nearly paid for it with his life.
His leadership screwed up. There should never be only one boy and one leader, and the boy’s patrol leader (another scout) should have motivated the boy to get up off his butt.
As for being more PC than practical, I suggest that folks look into becoming a merit badge counselor and point the scouts towards doing useful and challenging badges, and leave the easy and PC ones for those who can’t hack it. Rather than attack the organization, join it and change it from within.
That said, I’m thankful the boy is alive (there have been more than a few scout tragedies in the last few years).
However, I do frequently enjoy your column, and I’m glad you are keeping an eye on the creeping Muslim / liberal destruction of American values. This is not one of them.
Charles

Charles Harvey on March 21, 2007 at 10:06 pm

Just another comment: the troop I’m affiliated with ( as the Chartered Rep) is heavily into camping, and therefore heavily into “woodsmanship”. Maybe we are more fortunate than other troops, but we have several qualified (Highly trained) adult leaders, and many skilled merit badge counsellors.
Gazelder and Charles Harvey said it well.

Codekeyguy on March 22, 2007 at 9:38 pm

There was a book written about the boy scouts by Hans Ziggler titled “Get Off My Honoor” about the struggles the boy scouts face and discrimination by some govenment bodies because of the ruling allowing them to disallow gay leaders. The book does have a chapter about the girl scouts and the girl scouts sadly have been destroyed by the women’s movement. Christian mothers started their own girl scouts called American Heritage Girls due to the realization that the girl scouts were too far gone. The girl scouts allow girls go to planned parenthood and teach them to hate boys by filing lawsuits if schools have more male sport teams then female sport team. There website and the pledge women now say is for a “women just to be true to her own feelings” and her own body. Not to care about her country or act properly as a women. They have taken out g-d from the pledge and being clean. Lesbians are acceptable or even honored by girl scouts. The Christian group above more resembles a female version of the boy scouts. The boy scouts I’m sure has some problems with individual troups and I’m sure there is a fight between different groups of what the boy scouts should be but they still demand basic morals from the boys. The girl scouts do not and at this point is doing tremendous harm to innocent young girls. You can check the web sites out for both the boy scouts, the girl scouts, and the American Heritage Girls to see for yourself what the girl scouts really stand for today and what the Boy Scouts and American Heritage Girls stand for.

adam6275 on March 24, 2007 at 10:28 pm