From: wizzard@wam.umd.edu (The Wizzard)
Subject: Re: Respect
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 04:28:37 GMT

In article <1992Oct15.030114.5311@u.washington.edu> medic@hardy.u.washington.edu (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.
>
>I am the 21-year-old Scoutmaster of a troop of about 15 scouts in Tacoma, WA.
>I have been in the troop for the last 10 years.  Lately, it seems that the
>scouts have been showing less and less respect to both adult leaders and
>their fellow scouts.
>
Wow! 21 years old and a SM.  I am 22 and would not have the guts to become SM.

>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.  He was reprimanded by an Assistant
>Scoutmaster, privately, but seemed to brush off the comments.
>
What our troop does when a scout misbehaves during the opening is to redo the
opening ceremony until it is done correctly (Showing respect, being quiet,
properly carrying the flag, etc.).  Since we have been doing this, the 
frequency of these incidents has gone down.

>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.
>
One possibility is that they do not see you as the scoutmaster because you
are young.  Another possibility is that the programs are not interesting.
I only have a couple of suggestions.  One is to have people outside your
troop come in to do a program once a month.  Another possibility is to give
the scout's parent(s) a call to vcome pick up his/her son from the meeting.
Other than these suggestions, I do not know what to say.

>They seem to treat ceremonies (flag, vespers) with little respect, and treat
>speakers with even less.
>
Redo the ceremonies until you are satisfied.  They will soon get bored and
do the ceremony properly (hopefully, anyway.  It works in our troop.)

>I have been to BSLBT and have sent most of my junior leaders to Bushmaster
>(a week-long junior leader training course).  The PLC plans every meeting
>and was instrumental in planning our camping schedule for the upcoming
>year.  Adult participation is strong, but mainly in the background.  The
>boys recently elected a new SPL, who has a less forceful personality than 
>the previous one (a large age difference is a big part of this), but the 
>disrespectfulness was present during the old SPL's term as well.
>
>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.  (Uniforming has not really been a problem, as the
>boys, except for one, tend to wear their uniforms to every meeting.)
>
>Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  (And if you can figure out how to
>get this one last scout to wear his uniform, that would be helpful, too.  Peer
>pressure hasn't seemed to work.)
>
Send him home with his parent(s) if he does not come to the meeting with his
complete uniform.

I hope this helps!

Signed,
  Shawn Scoles
  Eagle Class of 1988
  ASM of troop 299, Hyattsville, MD


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