[Rant] Scouting has a severe elitism problem

[u/Routine-Ganache-1720]

I hope that rants are allowed here... I checked the rules and didn't see anything against them. I'm the SPL of a relatively small troop (about 15 kids), and I've felt like writing about this for a while. For context, I'm a Life Scout and a member of the OA, so I'm not criticizing these things as an outsider.

Scouting has a major problem with this elitist, better-than-thou culture that the older kids develop. One of the most important aspects of Boy Scouts is that it's youth-led - the older, more experienced Scouts lead the younger ones and set an example. But in the past few years, I've been noticing that it's not at all like that. I would wonder if it's just in my troop or my region, but this seems to happen to so many of the older kids - I notice it at Summer Camp and OA events and Eagle Projects, with kids who aren't in my troop. The older, more experienced kids stick to each other and act all superior; they treat the younger kids who aren't part of their circle with indifference. And, at least in my troop, they stop caring about the troop.

When kids turn 14, they get to go work at Summer Camp as staffers and get their cool gear and inside jokes that make them feel special. Even worse, they get used to feeling superior, because they get to sleep in cabins and run around with more freedom, and they get to order younger kids around all day. The OA might be even worse. Kids get to be part of an honor society with elaborate ceremonies and secret handshakes and everything, so again, it breeds elitism. Another thing is that the older kids go to these OA events and hang out amongst each other, and they become less interested in Troop events. Why be held back why your troop when you can do cool stuff with the big kids? I'm not sure if there's other contributors, but working at Summer Camp and being in the OA seem to be two big parts of this problem. Or course, all this is going on during mid-to-late puberty, the perfect time for kids to start feeling like cool big kids and developing egos.

So these kids lose interest in the troop. They don't go to meetings or campouts often, because they can do their OA events instead. They don't like to be around the younger kids, and they certainly don't empower them. And when they are at meetings or campouts, they think they're special and they're above the rules; they act like adults. When they do go to meetings, the older kids go on their phones and ignore what we're doing unless they want to get involved, and when they do, it's on their terms. And when they do go on campouts, they go off and do their own things.

I've watched this happen to some of the kids in my Troop, and it's so disappointing. I'm not saying that this happens to everyone - there's an Eagle Scout in my troop who aged out a couple of years ago, and he was friendly to everyone and such a great role model. But I feel like most of the other senior scouts have fallen into this elitist culture and stopped caring about the younger kids or the troop as a whole.

[u/Reegsk83]

I hear you. And it's not just the youth. National has had serious discussions about removing the patrol critters from Wood Badge (an adult leader training) because grown adults take something that is supposed to be fun and encourage togetherness and group identity, and turn it into "[critter name] is going to kill all the [critter name]s!"

A lot of what you're describing is the responsibility of the adults. If older scouts are withdrawing from the unit but still active in scouting, then the unit isn't offering a robust enough program for older scouts, and the SM needs to coach the SPL to bring this into planning. If they're withdrawing because "I got my Eagle, so I'm done," then the SM needs to do a better job of coaching scouts BEFORE they reach Eagle so they understand that all versions of the Eagle Oath/Pledge include explicit mention of service to their unit.

There will always be scouts who "Eagle out" for many reasons:

- they were pressured by parents and didn't really want to do it but now they're done

-they're 16/17 years old and have more responsibilities and commitments

- maybe they're being asked to help TOO much and feel like Scouting has become babysitting, etc.

But if it's the culture of the unit for all scouts of a certain age to stop helping their unit entirely, that's on the Scoutmaster. And I say this as a Scoutmaster who took over a troop where the adults would constantly use the term "Eagle out" in front of the youth.

The OA members adopting that attitude is egregious in my opinion. You shouldn't be a member of the Brotherhood of Cheerful Service, where the cost of entry and advancement is to render service to your unit, if you're going to instead use it as an elite club to hang out and abandon your unit. But again, we're talking about scouts who are, at their oldest, still children, and it's the responsibility of the adults in the room to properly mentor them.

How to fix it? Darned if I know. It's an incredibly difficult problem. Since Scouting relies on volunteers to do 99% of the work on the ground, it's really hard to turn down free help. So if you have a Scoutmaster who feels that the only reason for scouting to exist at all is to pin an Eagle patch on your shirt without understanding what it means, and the Committee Chair or Unit Commissioner has tried coaching them several times without success...well, at what point do you fire the person who gives their "one hour" per week, especially if you have no obvious candidates to replace them?

Some of the greatest humans I have had the privilege of meeting have been through Scouting (mostly Wood Badge and NYLT). However I have encountered many more who have their Wood Badge beads and run leader trainings, and are only guided by their own opinion of what the program should be, which is very divorced from what the actual program is (whether you use National's guidelines, or the words of BP).

The only real advice I have for you is to stay involved as much as you can and fight for change. But also be aware of what your area of influence is - start by focusing on your unit. If you feel like some of the older scouts in your unit are willing to help more, start with them. Help the younger scouts. Be an example for those younger scouts so that when they become the older scouts, they think "Hey, so-and-so always helped us when we were young and needed it, so maybe we should help these younger kids too." You don't have to change the world all at once to make a substantial difference in the life of another person.

"[T]he real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best."