From: stank@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (Stan Krieger)
Subject: Re: Respect
Organization: Summit NJ
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 23:41:56 GMT

Travis Lauricella writes:
>I've got a question/problem, and I'm tossing it out to this group in hopes
>of coming up with a solution.
>
>.... Lately, it seems that the
>scouts have been showing less and less respect to both adult leaders and
>their fellow scouts.
>
>For example, two weeks ago a scout was acting up during the opening flag
>ceremony at our troop meeting.  He intentionally let the American flag drag
>on the floor at one point, and at another point, "accidentally" poked the 
>tip of the pole into the low ceiling......
>
>Numerous times, scouts are talking or wandering around the meeting room when
>another scout is (supposedly) giving a demonstration to the troop.  When
>asked to give the leader respect and to sit and listen (told either by the 
>SPL or myself) they will, briefly, but return to their goofing off within
>minutes.
>
>They seem to treat ceremonies (flag, vespers) with little respect, and treat
>speakers with even less.
>
> .....
>
>I have talked to the boys as a group about this topic a few times in recent
>months, and last spring took up an entire meeting on the subject.  It works
>as a temporary fix, but within a few weeks the lack of respect is back.
>
>How do I get a room full of teenage boys to sit still and listen for 20
>minutes, and, more importantly, how do I teach them the importance of
>respect for their leaders.......

Sometimes, as we're seeing now, the problem is with just a bad group.
We have one grade in our Troop that, even as they were moving up in
the local elementary school, was tagged as a bad class.  When they
started the 6th grade, we saw what we were warned about.

Disrespect for the flag is a clear violation of the Scout Spirit
requirement, and we will hold back advancement.  Also, what I've done
in cases of clear violations of the Scout Oath or Law, is to make
the boy write a 200 word (i.e., one page) essay on the point that
he violated;  I had to do this twice.  Also, I don't reprimand
the boys; I ask them, point blank, what is going on, what were they
possibly thinking when they did what they did, and how did they not
realize that such behavior is totally unacceptable?  In short, I
make them think.  I will also discuss the Oath and Law with them, 
so that they recognize that their behavior is in violation.

If attention and behavior are the issue, what we may do when
the boys are sitting in a circle is to have the ASPL's stand behind
them, and when they see disruption, just tap the boy on the shoulder
and motion to behave himself.

Also, one of the things I see, primarily among the younger boys,
is that a few of them are trying to establish a pecking order and
become ringleaders.  I don't mind it if it's the boy who's gung-ho
on Scouting, but if it's the one trying to attract attention by
encouraging others to break the rules, we got a problem.  The
trick is to separate him and try to make him realize that he's
violating the Oath and Law.

Another thing I see too, again among the younger boys, is that
some boys just, as a matter of principle, will refuse to obey
boy leaders.  These are the same boys who, for example, won't
obey the Safety Patrol at school.  In one of the last BofR's
that boys ran, before we cut over to adults for all ranks, they
refused to move a boy to 2nd Class because he never carried his
fair share of the load at campouts.  (Following the "making
him think" idea, what I did at his 1st Class BofR about 4
months later was to pose the following-  after I explained that
1st Class meant he had learned Scout skills and values and
that we could be called upon to be a leader, I posed the question,
"Suppose, due to absences, you end up being the acting Patrol Leader,
and a boy whom you ask to collect firewood comes back 2 hours later
with one twig", what would you do?  He made the connection pretty
quickly and complained that sometimes he felt that the workload
was not being evenly distributed.)

Finally, I don't know if the age of the Troop leaders might be
an issue.  Our Troop is 100% run by fathers, which means 95% of
the adult leaders are over 40 (except for the 18 year old high
school seniors who we make ASM's until they go to college), and
thus the boy/adult line is clearly drawn.
-- 
Stan Krieger                 All opinions, advice, or suggestions, even
UNIX System Laboratories     if related to my employment, are my own.
Summit, NJ
smk@usl.com
Newsgroups: rec.scouting