BSA 100

This past weekend, we spent the weekend camping with 5000+ of our closest friends, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts is one of our country's great institutions, and its 100th birthday is a big deal. In the coming weeks, I plan to blog on the importance of the Boy Scouts' core values, but, for today, I thought that I would give my general impression of the Boy Scouts, and why all for of my children (yes, the girls, too) are part of the BSA.

The Boy Scouts do a remarkable job of taking boys and turning them into men; and when I say men, I mean young men that mothers would be proud of - young men that you would be proud to have date, or even marry your daughters. I remember, years ago, attending a dinner where young men from our area who had achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the past year were being honored. As each of them were coming forward to receive their award, I noticed that these were not your average 16, 17 and 18 year old boys. I didn't know the young men, but just by three way they carried themselves - their posture, their air of confidence -you can tell that they were a cut above the typical teenage boy. My girls are in high school now, and I can attest to the fact that those young Eagle Scouts were much closer to the type of boy I would like my girls to bring home with them than 90% of the boys I see going into their high school.

I am often asked why it is that I insist that my children are involved in scouting. There are many, many, reasons.there is the fact that the values of the Boy Scouts largely coincide with my own, and are values I want to instill in my children. There is the fact that my children, as is the case with many children in this generation, don't spend nearly enough time outdoors. The number one reason, however, is this: The older our children get, the less influence we, as parents, have on them, and the more influence their friends have. Having my children involved in scouts allows me to help them pick their friends.

A lot has been made, in the last decade or so, of things that the Boy Scouts don't believe - associations that they choose not to make. In fact, it is my belief that far too much has been made of this. If the Boy Scouts were producing young men who were biased on the basis of condition, color or creed, it would be fair to criticize then for the associations that they choose not to make. The fact of the matter is that they do not. Although tolerance is not mentioned in the scout oath, law, motto, slogan or code, it must be being taught somewhere, because scouts, as a rule, are a tolerant bunch. That being the case, would be better served by focusing on the values that the scouts do teach, rather than emphasizing things that they do not.