Were any of you in the Boy Scouts?

azdfgdfg wrote:

I am having a discussion with my wife about boys being or not being nerds if they are/were in the boy scouts.

A lot are pretty nerdy. But by the time you get to Eagle Scouts they're a little less nerdy and just more outdoorsy or they just stuck around to get their Eagle rank. Like 10%of them are cool, 20% are alright, and 70% are nerds

source: I'm an Eagle Scout who thought most of his troop was pretty nerdy

vxcvcxvsd dsv wrote:

azdfgdfg wrote:

I am having a discussion with my wife about boys being or not being nerds if they are/were in the boy scouts.

A lot are pretty nerdy. But by the time you get to Eagle Scouts they're a little less nerdy and just more outdoorsy or they just stuck around to get their Eagle rank. Like 10%of them are cool, 20% are alright, and 70% are nerds

source: I'm an Eagle Scout who thought most of his troop was pretty nerdy

Another Eagle Scout here, and I have to agree. They need a "Socializing with Others" merit badge.

I'm also an Eagle Scout. "Nerdy" or not (and most distance runners ARE), it was a great experience. Even 40 years later I'm proud of that accomplishment.

I went to a pretty serious "militaristic" troop so not too many nerds. Being a boy scout is however nerdy and dorky so none of us talked about it outside of boy scouts. I did learn a lot of fantastic outdoor and social skills. And am still surprised that people are impressed with my Eagle.

Eagle scout is to rich white boy as Shift Captain at Mickey D's is to poor black kid.

I was a cub scout. If you wanted to be ridiculed for the entirety of jr high and high school, then you advanced to a boy scout.

Wow, I'm surprised and disappointed that few people here have anything positive to say about their experiences in the Boy Scouts. I was a little embarrassed when I was in the Scouts, because it did have a nerdy reputation and I cared what people thought when I was a teenager. But as soon as I got that Eagle Scout, I was proud of what I had accomplished, and was no longer embarrassed if it came up in conversation. It took me a lot of work, I learned some interesting skills, I traveled to a few cool places, my Eagle project contributed to the community, developed good habits, and learned the sense of discipline needed to accomplish a long-term goal.

My troop was a little tame, the kids were not very tough, we did not do the most adventurous things. But there are millions of Boy Scouts and they have their high adventure camps, so I went to those and met some interesting. I keep in contact with some of the guys that I met through those. Unforgettable experiences. I honestly believe that Eagle Scouts are some of the finest people I have met in this country. More often than not, you can rely on an Eagle Scout to get the job done with anything.

The Scout Law is not a bad way to structure your life: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Call it what you will, but I admire a person that can live by those things.

Also, wussy boys, if you want to accomplish anything in this life, there will always be people lined up to ridicule you. Learn to deal with it.

Also an Eagle scout. Yes, most scouts are nerds. A lot of parents make their home schooled kid with no social skills join. The adult leadership has a big part in this. Most are parents that just want their kid out of the house. They don't care about teaching leadership, good habits, how to be a better person,etc... My troop had a bunch of old guys that had been scout masters for decades that kept us in line. Most scouts 15+ are decent.

All that said I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything. I was involved in cub scouts and boy scouts from 5-18. I had great adventures and camping trips I'll remember for the rest of my life. I think every male kid should try scouting.

Made it to Second Class. I was a rock star! Learned how to play poker and light farts at scout camp, i.e. valuable life skills.

azdfgdfg wrote:

I am having a discussion with my wife about boys being or not being nerds if they are/were in the boy scouts.

Have you had a discussion with your boys about whether they want to be involved in scouting? That seems like the most important consideration. Regardless of what other kids their age think, it's a good experience, but if they're not into it then not so much.

I was in scouts until late high school. I never really liked it, but kept at it because it was sort of expected in my family. Fast forward a bunch of years, and I put my son in cub scouts. When I was in it myself, I didn't see just how much brainwashing is inherent in all the "citizenship" stuff. It seemed to me to be just programming kids to defend all our country does and to prepare the next lemmings to go off to war. Not quite the Hitler Youth, but not so far off it either.

my son is now a webelos and we are debating staying with it. my wife was a den mother and the nerd aspect turned us off. not to mention, they are all so fat. we are the only parents in shape, i mean even kinda.

i had to lead an Activities badge recently. there were like 9 boys, 1 little sister and 7 parents or so.

none of the boys could do a pull up, and only 1 parent could do one. (yep, that one is me, i did 10, and yes, 10 is poor, but i'm a distance runner, moving on).

i had the kids run a single 400. it was hilarious. all 10 lined up and took off. 6 went all out for 50 feet then died. my son started second to last and slowly worked them down one by one until he nearly caught the kid in first. if it was a 450 he would have had him. 2 kids DNF'ed and walked thru the infield. One kid came in sobbing (it was hilarious), one collapsed in lane 1.

we are debating the move to boy scouts. we like the idea of more outdoor time but it comes with a lot of busy work/crafting/citizenship/fund raising/etc. all fine stuff but we seem to get outdoors a lot more as a family vs. with the scouts. Also, we have found the level of outdoor is ok at best. we are doing more fun stuff (skiing, rock climbing, trail running, backpacking) than all the boys can. If you have to water all your activities down to the lowest common denominator, they come out pretty lame.

The thing about Boy Scouts is it is all about your troop.

Growing up my troop was small and the parents involved were pretty bad. Their kids were not much better but they certainly were not nerdy. Eventually, I ended up running with two of the kids who were in the troop I left. One made Eagle and one day on a run he explained what it had taken to clean up the troop.

Essentially they put the bad eggs into one patrol, and started holding only one Troop meeting a month. The other patrol met every week, camped out every month and went to camp in the summer as a patrol. When the parent leading the poor patrol decided to run for Mayor, the other patrol disbanded.

Now with my son's troop, they are a little more nerdy. We live in the suburbs rather than the northern sticks where I grew up so everything is more nerdy. On the other hand, they seem to be much more into backpacking whereas when I was a kid we lost all the potential backpackers to hunting or the woodsman team at our HS.

That must have been the lamest activity day ever.

it wasn't so much an activity day but steps in a badge they have to do. it lists they have to do pushups, situps, pullups, run a 400, vertical jump, etc. we measure it once, then 30 days later measure it again to show improvement with the theory they are working it over those 30 days. they could also choose a mile bike ride or some distance swim instead of the 400 but i can't bring bikes for 10 kids and its fall so no swim. the kids had fun, mostly. it is starting to get cold here so just getting out at night is a win.

thanks for the support though.

vivalarepublica wrote:

W A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Call it what you will, but I admire a person that can live by those things.

I had a puppy like that.

The outdoor skills and self reliance skills are great. The cult like militarization and religious aspects not so much. I was a Cub Scout and Webelos den leader-then was an assistant with the boy scout troop. Getting kids out and learning how to camp is great for them. The "citizenship" badges are no more than brainwashing for young republicans. I'm pretty conservative-but I was a flaming hippie compared to all but one of the other leaders. It's all about the troop-It should be fun and outdoor focused. Also, look for leaders who have kids in the troop. 65 year olds whose kids graduated from scouts 20 years ago should not still be running a scout troop. I don't think so much for molestation reasons-though there is that possibility-but because as often as not, they've got some strange agendas about shaping the future of other people's kids. I met a lot of really nice people as a scout leader-but I also met a lot of nuts. If your kid joins, be involved at least as an assistant leader to temper the influence of the nuts. Also, look for a troop where the "patrols" are age based. It's bad news when 16 year olds are bossing around 11 year olds.

Overall, I think it's a positive experience for kids until they turn about 14 or 15-then I think it's time to turn the page.

I was an Eagle Scout (barely squeaked by with one month to spare), and really am glad I stuck with it through high school. I went to Sea Base and Philmont which were highlights and had some great weekend camping trips. I live in Colorado now and credit BSA with providing me the skills to impress girls on camping trips.

Like a few posters have mentioned, it's all about the troop. Mine was fairly large at about 50 kids. Probably 25 showed up on a regular basis. With a troop that size, there are definitely a lot of nerds, but you can get some pretty cool guys as well.