Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972 Page: 7
68, [20] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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(Far left) John Larson, director of
leadership development, (left) Jack C.
Keeton, director of Scouting Division.
Both saw the new junior leader train-
ing in action. Patrol Leader Mark Kly-
pas (above right), Dickinson, Tex.,
directs the patrol while Leadership
Corpsman Boh Hagen (above left) of
Salem, Ore., stands by for observation.
didn't answer any questions the
Scouts asked. Or if he did answer,
he said, "I don't know."
Scout spirit plummeted. The
Scouts had come from councils all
over the country. Before leaving
home they had agreed to learn all
they could about leadership and
Scoutcraft skills and, furthermore,
they expected to return to their dis-
tricts and councils and help train
other Scouts. Primed as they were
for a little excitement and adven-
ture, those first few hours were a
drag. More than a few wished they
had never come to Philmont.
During this period of time there
were hurdles: meals needed to be
prepared, someone had to cook,
and someone had to wash the
dishes. Although the Scouts did not
realize it, the first stage of the
training had begun. Deliberately the
patrols had been formed and put
into leaderless positions. Deliber-
ately the guys in the red berets had
been instructed not to give answers.
Deliberately the Scouts had been
permitted to struggle without an}'-
one telling them what to do. In
other words, from the start of the
training the Scouts were entrusted
with as much of the operation as
they could handle.
It's important for the reader to
understand now that throughout
the entire training period the staff
would not exercise heavy-handed
control. It was necessary, more so
in the beginning than later, to feed
certain information or knowledge
to the Scouts. The Scouts were en-
couraged to use this knowledge to
develop skill in planning their pa-
trol's activities and in making de-
cisions that would affect the patrol.
Naturally, there were mistakes.
But the planning, the decision-
making and the mistakes all con-
tributed to each individual's skill
and to his attitude toward himself,
the patrol and to the training ex-
perience.
With this quick explanation of the
staff's role, let's jump to the supper
of the first day. Once chow was
eaten and dishes washed, the fel-
lows in the red berets—they were
identified as members of the troop's
Leadership Corps, and the Scouts
called them LC's—sat down to talk
with the patrols about the leader-
less situation they had found them-
selves in earlier. What did the
Scouts want to do about it? Invari-
ably the response was "We want to
elect a patrol leader" or "We think
we need a patrol leader."
"This [response] was quite sig-
nificant," John Larson, the National
Council's director of leadership de-
velopment, explained to me, "be-
cause leadership always has been
imposed on this age group. They
assume it's going to be there and
take it for granted. So, by giving
them this opportunity to be leader-
less we have exposed them to what
it's like to be without a leader."
And, he might have added, the
stage was set for the junior leader
training to shift into high gear.
Once a patrol makes up its mind
that it needs a patrol leader, the
LC curiously turns the members
away from conducting an immedi-
ate election. ^
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972, periodical, January 1972; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353658/m1/11/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.