Are there any minorities, cool, sporty boys in Boy Scouts or Scouts?

[Anonymous]

Sports… the issue starts cropping up in middle school when scouts typically camp one weekend a month. Kids that are specializing in a sport have a difficult time — typically they cannot miss any of their sport, which means they are barely active in scouts and it becomes difficult to advance. However, if it is a traditional school team or rec sports (NOT TRAVEL) that only lasts for one season each year with a few pre-season workouts, it’s not an issue as missing a few campouts is not a big deal.
My boys had no issues - summer swim, rec soccer in MS; wrestling/swimming in HS and tennis in HS. They would prioritize what was most important. In season, sports usually came out on top. But the sports they choose did not have events every single weekend of the season, so they could still be fairly active.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son was in scouts and completed his eagle rank. His troop was primarily white, but I think that varies from troop to troop. I know there's one troop in South Arlington that's associated with a Filipino church and virtually everyone is Filipino.

As for sporty kids, it is harder to be involved in scouts and do a sport with a big time commitment. I would ask the scoutmaster what their policy is on kids missing meetings for sports. Some will be more accommodating than others. My son plays a HS sport and it was hard to fit in scouts, especially things like getting 20 camping nights to get the camping MB or doing the leadership positions that are required for rank advancement. My son took on leadership positions and tried to get in all his camping nights during his sport's offseason. In his troop I would say that only about 25% of the kids were high school athletes. It does tend to be more popular among kids who don't participate in sports.

Both my sons are Eagle Scouts and I agree. Most scoutmasters allow flexibility with sports. A few are rigid and don’t like making accommodations for sports and make scouts choose - which usually results in the child quitting scouts. My sons’ scoutmaster was happy to have them participate in scouting in whatever way they could - even if it meant showing up to meeting still on there sport attire covered in mud or showing up late to a campout.
That said… 20 nights camping is actually really easy to do. One summer camp (6 nights) and 7 weekend campouts. My youngest completed that within his first year of scouts. Spread out over middle school - that’s only 2-3 campouts a year. Or if they go all the way through high school, it’s just one weekend campout a year.
For those that want to earn Eagle, I recommend encouraging the scout to focus on it during middle school before other things compete for their time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typically, the racial composition reflects the area the troop is in. Also, I'd never refer to a nonwhite child as a "minority." Its such an old skool term. In my county white people are the ethnic minority so it wouldn't even make sense.

My area is 25% East Asian/Indian and we don’t see any Asian or Indian Scouts.

[Anonymous]

DS plays on 2 Varsity teams in HS and is an Eagle Scout- thankfully he had most of his requirements finished before he hit high school. He also loves everything outdoorsy so it was a good fit for him.

[Anonymous]

The cool kids are secret scouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was in scouts and completed his eagle rank. His troop was primarily white, but I think that varies from troop to troop. I know there's one troop in South Arlington that's associated with a Filipino church and virtually everyone is Filipino.

As for sporty kids, it is harder to be involved in scouts and do a sport with a big time commitment. I would ask the scoutmaster what their policy is on kids missing meetings for sports. Some will be more accommodating than others. My son plays a HS sport and it was hard to fit in scouts, especially things like getting 20 camping nights to get the camping MB or doing the leadership positions that are required for rank advancement. My son took on leadership positions and tried to get in all his camping nights during his sport's offseason. In his troop I would say that only about 25% of the kids were high school athletes. It does tend to be more popular among kids who don't participate in sports.

Both my sons are Eagle Scouts and I agree. Most scoutmasters allow flexibility with sports. A few are rigid and don’t like making accommodations for sports and make scouts choose - which usually results in the child quitting scouts. My sons’ scoutmaster was happy to have them participate in scouting in whatever way they could - even if it meant showing up to meeting still on there sport attire covered in mud or showing up late to a campout.
That said… 20 nights camping is actually really easy to do. One summer camp (6 nights) and 7 weekend campouts. My youngest completed that within his first year of scouts. Spread out over middle school - that’s only 2-3 campouts a year. Or if they go all the way through high school, it’s just one weekend campout a year.
For those that want to earn Eagle, I recommend encouraging the scout to focus on it during middle school before other things compete for their time.

This is really true about focusing on it in middle school. DS started at the end of seventh grade. Neither DH or I had any experience with scouts, and I thought that as long as he went to the meetings and campouts and he and DH volunteered for things that he would kind of naturally rank up.

It took me a year to realize that you have to a bunch of stuff on your own and use the meetings to get that stuff signed off. He and I worked to get him up to first class now at the end of ninth grade, but it’s going to be a challenge for him to get to Eagle. He just has a lot of other stuff going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS plays on 2 Varsity teams in HS and is an Eagle Scout- thankfully he had most of his requirements finished before he hit high school. He also loves everything outdoorsy so it was a good fit for him.

Same here,but 6 day/ week baseball doesn't allow much scouting involvement now (life scout working on Eagle).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are teaching your kids to stay away from kids who aren't sufficiently "cool," please don't enroll in Scouts. It has an inclusive ethos and that attitude wouldn't be welcome.

THIS. This right here.

+2

[Anonymous]

My son’s troop is mostly white but still several minorities and plenty of HS boys who play big team sports. They are a great group of kids who are learning responsibility, leadership, project management, and community service. And they spend lots of time outdoors. It’s fantastic.

I don’t know whether any of them are “cool” and I don’t care. My kid loves it and it’s healthy for him.

[Anonymous]

What’s interesting is that while I was progressing through scouts I saw the troop for what it was. Some cool some capable and some on the spectrum. But the diverse group taught us how to work together and create a successful dynamic outside of our parents direction. We got rained on. We got cold. We built fires and most of us made rank with ~50-70% making Eagle at some point late in HS.

I have boys in Scouts. We enjoy the adventures. I’m trying to recreate some of the better parts of what I remember.

And you wanna know what happened to those cool kids who weren’t in scouts? They ain’t so cool now that they have homes that need fixing. Crafts that need crafting and problems that need solutions.

Some of my best friends in the Fraternity & college were Eagle Scouts. Extremely capable men who have gone on to own businesses, build wealth and generally maintain a moral compass that lands them high into their professional arenas.

[Anonymous]

Lots of pedos still in Boy Scouts?

[Anonymous]

No more than in sports or cool groups whatever that means. Wherever there are groups of men and children this will always be a possible issue but scouts have plenty of protections now. All communication and activities must have a minimum of two adults involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of pedos still in Boy Scouts?

I’m sure. They are wherever kids gather.

[Anonymous]

My sporty boys are scouts. And in our troop (not local to DC) there are also a lot of different skin colors which I agree isn’t typical of scouting. They’re still mostly conservative families though - really well raised, nice kids. You should visit a few troops to see how you like the kids before joining. We have some families who travel past a couple of other troops to come to our troop because they like it better (including white kids FWIW).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of pedos still in Boy Scouts?

I’m sure. They are wherever kids gather.

It’s a different culture these days. Lots of awareness about safety for kids in that way. I feel much safer about scouts than any other activity they do. Soccer training for example has the kids alone with the coach sometimes but that’s not allowed to happen in scouts.