Comments on: Learning For Life

By: Ruben

Ruben — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:46:07 +0000

Technically these kids are Explorers, not Boy Scouts. Explorers has been replaced by the Venturing program, and now Explorers are under the Exploring for Life program, which is affiliated with the BSA. Think of them now as “cousins” instead of brothers to the Boy Scouts.
This is not the only kind of Exploring post. As career prep groups, they are hosted by various agencies. For example, one Exporer post will be hosted by a police dept, another a hospital, another a fire dept, etc. Would anybody gripe that these kids learn the ends and outs of being a fireman? Or EMT work? Why is it that they are looked upon suspiciously for learing about police work? Only a fraction of explorer posts are connected with police depts anyway. Labeling these kids as a SWAT team is hardly accurate.
The author shows his true colors when he says, “In short, it is something of a paramilitary version of Jr. ROTC which populates many high schools and reduces citizenship and patriotism to the model of military life.” No, military life is not for everybody, but me thinks that these kids have probably learned more about citizenship & patriotism in their short lives than, well, there’s no need to start throwing insults. SOunds like this author finds serving our country to be somehow less patriotic than writing papers.

By: jtffomBC

jtffomBC — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:07:22 +0000

Insidious, is how I would describe this program.

By: David H Brooks

David H Brooks — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:18:17 +0000

This is a really interesting posting. It feels good to see that the boy scouts are trained so wonderfully.

By: Lucaites

Lucaites — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:49:46 +0000

Marc: I don’t take this critique of Explorers (or Boy Scouts) lightly. I agree that the organization has positive value (though the “morally straight” clause in the law and the way in which it is interpreted is always a problem for me). And I agree that kids have always played war games (I know I did) …but maybe that’s part of the problem. And when the state gets involved in organizing it (and the Times was quite clear that the FBI, Border Patrol, and Homeland Secuirty … as well as local law enforcement agencies) had a hand in this … well, that’s something else altogether … don’t you think?
As to harms, this quote from the Times article was a bit troubling:
“Cathy Noriega, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.
“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.””

By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:31:56 +0000

When I first saw these pictures I was truly stunned! Let’s leave military and police training to those organizations! And let’s leave being a Boy Scout to being a boy growing up in a society that isn’t lead by terror but by being “morally straight”.

By: Marc

Marc — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:10:51 +0000

As long as the instruction in these scout troops is well-supervised and follows the Scout Motto, I see no problem with teaching young people to be protectors and enforcers.
SCOUT MOTTO
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
see Scout Law here: http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-503a.aspx
The opportunity for children to develop towards excessively militant ideologies certainly exists in organizations like this, but we must not presume that well-supervised training focused towards law enforcement and military service must have negative results. I would be more concerned with violent video games than training that teaches children to differentiate victims from terrorists or educates them regarding the constitutional limits of police power. While the NY Times article seemed somewhat negative about the trend, they didn’t produce any examples where the programs had negative effects or any sort of scandal had resulted.
Children (largely boys, though I was happy to see girls included too) have always played wargames. There is nothing new here.

By: Sion Touhig

Sion Touhig — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:34:40 +0000

‘Blut und Ehre’