Scouting, Volume 61, Number 3, March-April 1973 Page: 59
92, W1-W32, [16] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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HERE COME THE
BY KEN WELLS
It was just a year ago that Norton
Clapp, President of the Boy
Scouts of America, invited the read-
ers of Scouting to express their
opinions about "the most important
skills and values that boys should
be learning now to prepare them-
selves for the 1980's" and to tell
the organization "what you believe
to be the principal problems that
will face the Boy Scouts of America
during the 1980's."
More than 1,400 of you did just
that. Some of you were brief, but
many of you wrote at great length
out of your deep conviction about
Scouting. The same questions were
posed to a nationwide panel of edu-
cators, and nearly one hundred of
them responded.
You told us to stick with it, to
cling to the values of the code of
Scouting while living with the real-
ities of the 1980's. Every reply was
studied and your replies were
tabulated with care. The knowledge
gained has been transmitted to the
national Executive Board and to the
responsible national committees as
guidance for them.
From the standpoint of a true
statistical survey, those of you who
responded were not representative
of all Scouters. We expected that,
since this was a tear-out magazine
questionnaire. It does not diminish
the importance of what you said,
but it does caution us to remember
that the results cannot be treated as
a "scientific sample."
Nearly 40 percent of all who re-
plied were Cubmasters, Scoutmas-
ters or Explorer Advisors and their
assistants and associates. Nine out
of ten were men. You tended to be
middle aged, well-educated and en-
gaged in upper-level occupations.
For the most part you lived in small
cities or suburbia and you had me-
dium to long tenure as Scouters.
We value your responses and,
through this article, extend our
thanks to you.
We have here a tiny sampling of
the nearly 10,000 specific ideas
stated in your responses.
What you said about skills and
values for the 1980's. You saw the
need for continued and increased
emphasis on basic moral and
ethical values. Many of you saw
these values as being well-expressed
in the Scout Oath and Law and you
urged us not to lose sight of their
importance. You went further than
merely mentioning the Scout Oath
and Law and talked about the need
to help boys develop a deep sense
of commitment to these values.
Specifically, you talked about cit-
izenship and the fulfillment of re-
sponsible roles in society.
They will need, desperately,
something in which they may
place unshakable faith. Man does
not function well over extended
periods without relating to forces
beyond his understanding. Regard-
less of the form, nomenclature,
cultural backgrounds, etc., these
young people will need some in-
ner strength to meet the critical
situations that will almost cer-
tainly face them.
We need to continue, through
Scouting, and through all organi-
zations and institutions that work
with youth, to emphasize a proper
code for living, based on solid
principles and ideals.
You talked about the need for
boys to develop skills and values in
the broad area of interpersonal re-
lations. Some of you seemed to feel
that Scouting could do this still
better in order to prepare youth
for the changing and more complex
society that you see in the future.
You often coupled this with the
need for greater emphasis on de-
veloping the specific skills of lead-
ership to meet the challenge of
change.
America is undergoing rapid
change. Trite as this statement is,
it needs to be repeated to empha-
size the fact that the familiar soci-
etal environment and structure is
no longer applicable. Skills which
must be learned are interpersonal
in nature. Skills leading to an un-
derstanding of American history
as a multicultural event creating
a multicultural society and the de-
mands which this makes upon the
nation's citizens to understand
and respect the various cultures,
including their differing value sys-
tems, must be emphasized.
I feel that the Boy Scouts of
America must fill the void by
teaching skills in such areas as
how to get along with other peo-
ple and how to survive in a group.
Many of you talked about the
need to help boys to become self-
sufficient in order to live effectively
in the future. Particularly, you
stressed the need for independent
thinking and skills in problem
solving, even for problems that may
not yet be visible.
With the accelerating change
and the development of new
knowledge, all citizens must in-
creasingly learn how to learn.
Problem solving, reaching deci-
sions on the basis of careful con-
sideration of evidence, and select-
ing essential knowledge from the
profusion of new knowledge—all
are indispensable skills to this
process.
Some of you saw the need for
Scouting to address itself, even
more than it has, to the problems
of the environment and helping
boys learn how to understand and
cope with it. You often coupled this
with the need to develop meaning-
ful skills for the effective use of
leisure time.
I feel that nothing could be
more important for the Scouting
program than to seek very strong
ways to re- (Continued on page 64)
59
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 61, Number 3, March-April 1973, periodical, March 1973; New Brunswick, NJ. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353622/m1/91/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.